Marketing Junto - When WordPress Goes To War

At the annual WordCamp US conference in Portland Oregon, Automattic CEO and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg waged, what many are calling, nuclear war on a hosting provider — WP Engine.

At the time, and it's gotten a lot messier since , Matt, who is essentially the head of the open source WordPress.org project as well, said at the Q&A (more like a keynote), that WP Engine's private equity owners, Silver Lake Partners, don't contribute enough to the open source platform, but still takes tons of benefit and resources out of the project for commercial gain.

Since then, WP Engine has sent Matt, Automattic, and the WordPress Foundation, cease and desist letter. And guess what, Matt et. al sent WP Engine one right back.

Now everyone is going to court. WP Engine/Silver Lake Partners are pretty tight lipped. But Matt hasn't been at all. Though he has since stopped posting on the official Make WordPress Slack, he has been quite talkative in the Post Status (a WordPress community group) Slack channel. He's continually defending his actions, saying they are altruistic and for the betterment of the WordPress project.

I fail to understand how is declaring war on a host, and a sponsor of WordCamp US 2024, altruistic?

It gets even "better!"

Matt has, since he has keys to the WordPress.org blog and systems, allegedly and unilaterally, changed the Foundation's Trademark usage page to call out WP Engine's use of the untrademarked "WP."

A screenshot of where WPE is called out. Taken 9/28/2024

Allegedly, it appears Matt, unilaterally, used his WordPress Foundation powers to block all of WP Engine users from the Plugin Repository, though from 9/28 until yesterday, 10/1, Matt reopened the repository to let updates flow.

Regardless, shutting it off in the first place is a major escalation and a major security risk. It's also a blackeye to the project as a whole, in my opinion.

I'm sure I'm missing something. In fact, I know I am. Information is coming out every freaking minute. This really isn't hyperbole, it's free flowing right now.

Matt Medeiros and Erik Karkovak over at The WP Minute Blog/Podcast have a "Here's What We Know" post documenting the saga as it unfolds.

Some users have even a call for a general strike against Automattic-products. This action has been spearheaded by WordPress power user Zack Katz. He posted this on Mastodon:

Look, this isn't one sided, at all. Matt Mullenweg isn't innocent, clearly. But I'm don't think WP Engine/Silver Lake Partners is either. WPE charges for things that other hosts provide for free.

According to Matt Mullenweg, WPE is using what Automattic/Matt provide to the community for free without contibuting back monetarily and barely with person-hours.

Hopefully this wraps up soon with minimal damage to the overall project.

This video of the livestream that WP Minute put out is a must watch. Matt Mullenweg came on for a few minutes as well.

WordPress is bigger than Matt Mullenweg. It's strong! I'm being hard on Matt because of how he went about this, not necessarily him actually taking the action.

So What Do Marketers & Companies Need To Do, Besides Wait This 💩 Storm Out?

First off, if you're hosting at WP Engine, there are workarounds being developed to allow you to update your site easily and securely.

If you're not on WP Engine, which I might add none of my clients are, you're safe. But keep an eye on this battle.

Though, in the end, it might be a phoenix rising from the nuclear ashes. Let's hope we avoid that.

Am I leaving WordPress.org? Am I moving my clients away from WordPress? No. I believe in the project and the community. But I do think we need new leadership.

Are you affected by this "WordPress/WP Engine War" and want to talk about it? Reach out to me on Signal (PhillyCodeHound.08). If you want talk anonymously we can do that too.

Note: The irony isn't lost on me that I'm writing about WordPress and the "War" on the Ghost CMS. Not one bit.

There will be a abbreviated newsletter with links and other fun stuff on Wednesday the usual time.

Until then! Keep rocking it!

-Seth

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