WordPress founder and CEO goes off the rails again, WordPress contributor accounts disabled over alleged fork plans
by
There has been a development in the case of WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg's public criticism of WP Engine, a commercial hosting service built on WordPress. Mullenweg has reportedly suspended the accounts of key members of the WordPress community who discussed the feasibility of an independent repository for WordPress.
Joost/Karim Fork – WordPress News
https://wordpress.org/news/2025/01/jkpress/
Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress contributor accounts over alleged fork plans | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/11/matt-mullenweg-deactivates-wordpress-accounts-of-contributors-planning-a-fork/
WordPress is an open source content management system. It is said that more than 40% of websites are built using WordPress, and many commercial hosting services using WordPress have also been developed.
One such commercial hosting service is WP Engine, which Mullenweg publicly criticized in the first place.
In September 2024, speaking at the WordPress event 'WordCamp US 2024,' Mullenweg compared his company Automattic with WP Engine, saying, 'Despite both companies' pledges to support the sustainable growth of WordPress, WP Engine's contributions have been minimal.' Specifically, Automattic spends 3,900 hours a week on WordPress, while WP Engine spends only 40 hours, and both companies have made nearly $500 million in revenue, but there is a clear difference in the amount of investment they make in WordPress. He sharply criticized WP Engine as 'the cancer of WordPress.'
In addition to the difference in investment costs, Mullenweg pointed out that WP Engine has disabled important WordPress functions in pursuit of profits, and that WP Engine is misleading people into thinking that it is an official WordPress service. He sent a cease and desist letter to WP Engine through Automattic, requesting them to cease and desist from using the WordPress trademark.
WordPress developer Automattic sends cease and desist letter to WP Engine for use of WordPress trademark - GIGAZINE
In addition, Mullenweg announced that he would block WP Engine's access to WordPress. 'Companies that make a lot of money from open source projects should give back, and if they don't, they shouldn't use the trademark,' he said, showing his intention to completely block WP Engine.
It is also reported that behind the scenes, Automattic and WP Engine were negotiating a license agreement. According to Automattic, negotiations had been ongoing since around February 2023 on a contract that included clauses such as 'WP Engine will pay Automattic 8% of its monthly revenue or allocate employee salaries equivalent to 8% of its monthly revenue to WordPress core development,' but the deal has not been finalized even after more than a year, and there has been no response from WP Engine. It is believed that Mullenweg was frustrated by WP Engine's response and criticized it at the event.
WordPress developer Automattic reveals it was demanding 8% of revenue as a license fee from WP Engine - GIGAZINE
WP Engine responded by suing Automattic and Mullenweg, alleging that the demand for trademark royalties constituted extortion, defamation, unfair competition, and other legal violations. It also filed a petition in court seeking restoration of access to WordPress. The latter claim was granted on December 10, 2024, and a preliminary injunction was issued to restore WP Engine's access.
In response to this series of events, Mullenweg said, 'WordPress.org, the WordPress development project, will be on indefinite leave. ' He also announced that Automattic's contribution hours would be limited from 3,900 hours a week to about 45 hours a week to 'match WP Engine's contributions to WordPress.' He also published a sarcastic message saying, 'Thanks to WP Engine's rich lawyers, we have no choice but to provide our labor and services to WP Engine for free.'
In addition, Marenweg is closing the 'Sustainability Team' that was set up by WordPress community members. The Sustainability Team was led by Thijs Buijs, who left WordPress in protest against Marenweg's words and actions. Marenweg said, 'I learned about the team's existence today (when Buijs left). I appreciate his efforts. Given the team's accomplishments and return on investment to date, this is a good time to formally disband it. We need to take this opportunity to consider whether there is really any sustainability value in talking about climate impacts, or whether we should focus on optimizing code to improve performance.'
And then there was Joost de Mullenweg, who discussed the feasibility of a 'new WordPress' or a 'repo independent of WordPress.'
We have announced that we have suspended the WordPress accounts of Valk (Joost) and Karim Marucchi (Karim).
Joost is the former marketing and communications leader for the WordPress Foundation, and the developer of Yoast, an SEO tool specialized for WordPress. Karim is the CEO of Crowd Favorite, a corporate web consulting company. The two are reportedly working on building a website that hosts themes and plugins independent of WordPress, but Mullenweg said, 'It seems that WP Engine has said it will support them,' and told WP Engine to 'do it yourself.' Mullenweg said, 'I and other contributors are doing our best to maintain WordPress without any support,' emphasizing once again that WP Engine has not contributed enough to WordPress.
It seems that some developers are leaving WordPress in resentment over the fact that the policies of the large WordPress community are decided solely by Mr. Mullenweg and his series of actions.
Engineer with over 14 years of experience in WordPress development announces departure, 'A cult has formed around Automattic' - GIGAZINE
Related Posts:
in Posted by log1p_kr