Anal Dash's blog looks terrible and is almost unreadable. Seriously, bold, italic text?!?

Who do you trust your money with?

The guy who has kept his code open source
or
The guy who took open source, closed it, and told folks to pay up

I guess it depends on what you're really going after.

I've dealt with them both and with both blogging platforms and it really has to be said that while Dash is a helluva lot more personable (see above), Mullenweg is probably smarter. Also, Wordpress just works better.

"The guy who took open source, closed it, and told folks to pay up."

Presuming you're trying to talk about MT there, you should understand that this is a false, though persistent, assumption. MT was never open source before the end of last year. And both Automattic and Six Apart have some code that is open source and some that is closed source. Call me, uh, more personable than smart, but I think it's more honest that we acknowledge and explain that distinction than to pretend to be a "100% open source company" (whatever that is) when it's not true.

@anildash: By the way, my first comment was a serious question. Why is your blog text bold and italic, completely against what usability studies say to do? I actually had to force myself to read it, but would never go back.

@anildash: Now, now, don't get testy. I was hardly calling you dumb.

I'm not seeing any evidence that the responsible journalists behind Valleywag actually contacted Müllenweg to ask how much he earned from the VC funding, if anything. The closest thing you have to a source is two steps removed from the actual deal.

Hence, calling Müllenweg "filthy rich" is unsupported by any attested facts.

@anildash: what part of Wordpress is not open source?

@joeclark Fact checking is against the Gawker Media deontology. And entirely boring too.

@Sunnduwn - I think that is a question better asked of Automattic. Anil, and certainly not Six Apart, has never been briefed, nor has anyone for that matter been presented with an accounting of what is open and closed source at Automattic.

Not that they have to of course. But if you want to know, then you should ask them.

The problem is that MT sucks. A lot. And WP does not.

In response to the Valleywag author:

Last I checked, if one private company raises more capital than another, that isn't necessarily a good thing. All that does is dilute ownership.

I also believe that Six Apart sold off LJ late last year and likely capitalized their business nicely. They were not required to give up any equity.

Now all that said, $20 mil definitely works for me!

@Joe Clark: For the record, Valleywag approves of being filthy rich. And being dirty and desperate.

@Sunnduwn - that question I think is best asked of Automattic, who has yet to provide a full accounting of what is and is not open source.

Although one could make the point that it doesn't really matter, which would be very reasonable. But for a company that often capitalizes and exploits its leadership in the open source community, not to mention simply being open and transparent, perhaps demystifying the true differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com is something more people would like to know.

Seriously, you guys use MT (yeah, not "officially") and have a long standing relationship with the MT group. I'd say this is pretty ridiculous journalism.

Matt has never been concerned about making money. Just years ago he was making only hundreds of dollars off of Wordpress.

I'm siding with Matt on this one. For good reason, he's been fighting the good fight since the beginning, NOT trying to make money since day one, like Six Apart.

@p0wnc3: And Presidential candidates really just want to help people and don't care about prestige and power.

What shiny, happy utopia do you live in?

@byrnereese, I responded here:

[ma.tt]

If I had twenty million dollars, I'd be so pissed!

Meanwhile, something you clearly don't approve of, Owen, is accuracy.