Weekly WordPress News: Automattic Buys Thesis.com for $100k

So, the news that stood out for me this week is that apparently last year Automattic outbid Chris Pearson ( who DIY themes and created the Thesis theme ) for the domain name Thesis.com which now redirects to ThemeShaper.com, an Automattic property. They paid $100k for the domain in an auction, outbidding Chris in the process. They have just had an appeal for domain cyber squatting overturned, in which Chris tried to get hold of the domain. Matt Mullenweg and Chris Pearson had a falling out a while ago over whether the theme had to be GPL, it eventually changed to a split GPL license.

I don’t know about you but this seems very petty to me, I cant understand why you would bother spending a hundred thousand dollars just to get one over on someone ? Or do you think they had a legitimate reason to buy this domain ?

WordPress News and Articles

• ThemeFuse Competition: Win x5 Licenses for Any WordPress Themes – Win some great ThemeFuse themes in our latest competition.
• An Honest Post About the WordPress Community – Siobhan considers the great points about our community.
• Thesis.com Purchased For $100K By Parent Co. Of WordPress – I find this very strange that Automattic would spend $100k for thesis.com
• Acquisition terms you may see when considering an offer. – Joshua Strebel points out some of the finer points in the finances of acquisitions.
• Launching Apollo: Behind the Scenes of Our Data-Driven Redesign – Interesting look behind the scenes of the WooCommerce redesign.
• Stack Exchange Blog Ditches WordPress for Jekyll – Apparently WordPress is “very buggy, difficult to log in to, not very performant”

Tutorials and How-Tos

• The Beginners Guide to Easy Digital Downloads: Basic Introduction – Start of a new series looking at EDD.
• Build a Custom WordPress User Flow — Part 1: Replace the Login Page – Replace the WordPress login system with front-end version.
• The Beginners Guide to WooCommerce: Checkout Settings – WooCommerce advice for beginners.
• How To Translate a WordPress Theme (step by step guide) – How to use Poedit to translate your themes.
• When and How to Sell Ads on Your WordPress Site – A guide to adverts on your site.
• How to Add a Video Background to Your WordPress Site in 4 Easy Steps – Video bg tutorial

Resources & Freebies

• The WPLift Roundup of the Best Free WordPress Themes July 2015 – Our monthly roundup of all the best free themes.
• Create Attractive, Responsive Pricing Grids in WordPress with the Go Pricing Plugin – Great plugin for creating Pricing grids.
• Introducing Analytify For eCommerce: WooCommerce Add on – Looks like a solid add-on for WooCommerce.