November 24, 2011 You just have to love something named “Jetpack” right? I’m a bit pissed off that Automattic managed to nab that particular name within the WordPress community, it could just as well have been a kick-ass WordPress theme throttling blogging to the next level. Now I have scapped all those ideas, and I blame Automattic and Jetpack for robbing the community of this!
Or maybe not, maybe I’m just doing the usual ramble to kick off yet another column. But this one’s different, and not only because it lacks both references to cats and single malt, but also because it directly connects to the previous one. Last week I questioned whether the Akismet plugin should be packaged with WordPress since it essentially is a marketing tool for Automattic’s spam-crunching service bearing the same name. In short, I don’t think so, but you should obviously read the whole thing, and then check out the comments with some insightful thoughts.
The Jetpack package is a bunch of plugins used on WordPress.com (and unless something changed recently you still need a WordPress.com account to use the Jetpack package), something that obviously means it is quality stuff. It’s a great package, and although there are stand-alone options as well, just installing the Jetpack package is convenient.
I think Akismet could be part of this package. In fact, that would be a nice solution to the weird situation with the Akismet plugin and the WordPress package. After all, I’m sure Jetpack is gaining traction and with Akismet in it, it would be even more turbocharged plugin goodness deluxe.
So there you have it folks, the solution to last week’s problem! I’m such a one-stop solution, it almost scares me.
As does a column without any real controversy nor unrelated YouTube videos. I’ll end with the latter, so here’s a video on how you can integrate an iPad into a snowboard.
Awesome image courtesy of Pascal (CC)
The question is, would Automattic do it? The standalone version of Akismet requires you to sign up for an [Akismet] account. There is a chance that the user will donate some money or a paid plan. The Jetpack Akismet should use the WP.com API key, with no need for the user to visit Akismet.com at all.
Oh please god no!
Jetpack causes enough problems conflicting with other plugins as it is!
What’s wrong with individual plugins? This is just another attempt by Automattic to tighten their grip on WordPress.org by locking people in to their own services.
By installing Jetpack you’re just adding yourself to Automattic’s mailing list so they can sell you more shit.
I think this is tiny problem for WPMU DEV, because of its niche – Multisites. And when we are talking about WP Multisites I will prefer to have all those WPMU DEV plugins instead of Jetpack without any doubt.
What does this Jetpack package including, does it help with seo`ing the website? what does it do exactly, also I heard rumors that they use your mailing list to sell their products.