There is a so much to say about Joomla but a huge discussion on Post Status over recent open source issues (see Open Source Support Crisis and More Open Source) is completely misunderstanding Joomla.

What about the Joomla official marketplace precipitated its downfall? Are the factors/environment analogous to WordPress?

Tbh, I’m not really sure how having a paid marketplace solves the issue of thankless open source contributors. Firstly because not all contributors have plugins/themes, some just want to contribute to core and be incentivised for doing so. Secondly, not every theme/plugin owner wants to run a business. Thirdly, it discourages tinkering which I think is essential to a healthy ecosystem.

Lesley Sim

Lesley also has a great thread on Twitter about the topic overall, but the Joomla comment really caught me off guard, as well as a comment from Matt Mullenweg, “I’m also haunted by what happened to the Joomla community when they created an official marketplace, seemed like the beginning of the end for them.”

Joomla has never had an app marketplace, it has had and continues to have an Extensions Directory (same as the WordPress Plugin Directory). You can’t buy anything directly through Open Source Matters/Joomla in the directory, you can of course purchase premium extensions directly from the developer, just like WordPress.

If memory servers, way back when, there were some slight philosophical differences in interpreting GPL per project but those where intra-project issues and obviously neither has an app store.

I don’t think an open source sponsored app store is the solution to the crisis. We need to directly support good projects and developers by contributing directly to their livelihoods. That means hiring, that means direct sponsorship, that means being engaged in the communities.