Matt Mullenweg posted a small explanation of the direction of Wordpress 2.0, namely it’s bundling with Akismet, after a concerned author at The Blog Herald questioned this decision.

I think the decision to bundle Akismet with Wordpress 2.0 is abolutely fantastic, Akismet is a great product with a lenient user license. As Matt pointed out, most everyone that uses Akismet obtains it freely, just by registering for a Wordpress.com account and obtaining the API key.

The beauty behind this tactic, and I don’t fault Matt and the rest of the Wordpress gang at all for this, is that it is a powerful introduction to a extremely valuable tool. So, for the few within the blogosphere that actually meet the definition of “Problogger,” already have experience with this tool, know it’s capabilities, and are comfortable in paying the required license fee to use it.

Excellent marketting by the Wordpress crew, for an excellent piece of software that should have been included in Wordpress distributions since it’s development. Akismet has worked wonders for myself and I know it’s done the same for many of you.