Why would someone downvote this? Do you think it is okay for the WordPress team to create insecure software? Do you doubt that there were many other languages, other than PHP, available in 2003?
You are being downvoted because you are blaming PHP for problems created by Wordpress. This has absolutely nothing to do with PHP and everything to do with running untrusted code, which many other people have pointed out.
No, you misread me. I say "Some of these problems are inherent to PHP" but I'm pretty clear that the responsibility for WordPress rests with the team that creates WordPress, regardless of what language they chose. If they chose Python or Ruby or Java or ASP, they would still have the same responsibility. I linked to a conversation between Matt Mullenweg and Sam Ruby in which Mullenweg tries to blame certain flaws on PHP. I then quote Sam Ruby's reply, which I like a great deal:
"Yes, you can argue that they brought this upon themselves; but it is worth noting that at this point you are along for the ride. When I’m in similar circumstances, I tend to consider the karma implications of cursing the driver."
No, its never my problem if people misread me. This isn't a game. If I said something that was true, and you misread it, then you are the one who is losing something, or missing something. Not me. I still have whatever truth or insight I may (or may not) have started with. Whether you now have it or not is something that effects you, but it does not effect me.
All the same, I'm happy to explain myself at greater length, and I've made some attempt to do so in this thread.
Still, you raise an interesting issue. It is rare to see anyone on Hacker New write "I'm not sure I understood you, could you please clarify what you wrote?" What is more common is to downvote a comment. A request for clarity might advance the conversation, whereas a downvote tends to bury a conversation. Among friends who trust each other, the more common reaction would be "Could you clarify that?" So downvoting becomes, in some sense, a measure of the distrust on HN, or, at least, a measure of the maximum level of good faith we are willing to extend to one another when reading one another.
The thing that surprises me is that the tendency to bury a conversation is so strong, as opposed to the desire to extend a conversation.
