I’ve been a happy, occasional WordPress user since 2008 – this blog is hosted by Automattic – I pay them money even though there are cheaper ways to host a low-volume WP site. I’ve even had the pleasure of meeting Matt Mullenweg a couple of times over the years. I’ve seen WordPress the product and community grow to the point where it’s become the de-facto content management system for the modern web – powering 478 million site – 43% of the web.
The WordPress community has recently been thrust into the spotlight due to a public disagreement between the two major players: Automattic, led by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, and WP Engine, a popular WordPress hosting provider.
At the heart of the dispute are questions about contributions to the WordPress ecosystem, trademark usage, and the balance between commercial interests and open-source principles. Automattic has raised concerns about WP Engine’s level of contribution to WordPress development, while WP Engine maintains that its contributions are substantial and in line with industry norms.
The situation has escalated to legal actions, with both parties sending cease-and-desist letters and WP Engine filing a lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg. This conflict has led to technical disruptions, internal restructuring at Automattic (Matt offered employees a decent severance package to leave if they disagreed with his position), and broader discussions about governance in the WordPress community.
As the dispute unfolds, it highlights the complex relationships within open-source ecosystems, where commercial entities both benefit from and contribute to shared resources. The outcome of this situation may have far-reaching implications for how open-source projects, particularly WordPress, navigate the balance between community collaboration and commercial interests in the future.
For the record – I don’t like open source freeloading – especially when it’s large well funded organizations doing the exploitation. Open Source collaboration depends on a certain degree of fairness – contributors take out more than they put in and it’s a fine balance that’s easily disrupted should someone decide to not give at all.
That said – I think Matt Mullenweg / Automattic could and should have handled this much better. If you are the dominant force in a community (as Automattic is in the WordPress community) and can’t defend yourself from freeloaders – you are doing something very wrong. If you control the code – there are thousands of tweaks you can make to the release model, cadence, APIs, to advantage you and disadvantage others. We lived this every day at Red Hat – it can be done without cease and desist notices, laying off employees who disagree with you and fracturing the community.
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