WordPress Must Win

Join +200 and Sign our letter

WordPress1 Must Win

A Plea for Unity:
Safeguarding the Future of WordPress

This is an open letter to appeal to divert all energy being wasted in fights towards co-creating a fully independent, transparent, and strong WordPress Foundation v2.

Let’s invest in an independent guardian angel so fights like this can’t hurt the FOSS project and it’s community as a whole.

We invite all WordPress Workers, users, business owners and investors to sign this letter (publicly or anonymously).

We kindly ask FOSS invested fellow workers and businesses to sign as a token of support. FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software) is not just software, it’s the people.

Read on,
read the TLDR; version instead,
or pause and dream of what may be.

An Open Letter from within the community

Fight For FOSS

Currently, the WordPress ecosystem is being hit. Two major companies are engaging in a potentially long and costly legal fight.

Both parties engaged claim to fight for the sustainability of the WordPress Project2 3 4 5. The fight is claimed to be fought for us all, for the sustainability of our FOSS project.

Though none of us can possibly have full insight on what’s actually going on behind corporate curtains (things may be true, things may not). Trademark pages are being updated6 7, infrastructure is being cut off8 9, maintainers are being denied access10, accounts from long-time contributors are being blocked.

We can only wonder what will be next when titans fight. We sigh, knowing no one will truly win, knowing WordPress and FOSS will lose. We can not simply let this continue without trying to divert the clash.

Please stop the infighting.
Why throw money at legal battles instead of investing it in the WordPress Project?

What if they both would put the money that is now going to be spent on lawyers into open source contributions instead…? I think the problem would be largely solved.

A long-time WordPress contributor

The clash of Titans hurts all

The fight between two Titans hurts all of us who reside withing the WordPress ecosystem. It will hurt FOSS (free and open-source software) worldwide in the long run:

  • huge amounts of money and energy is being spend and will be spend on the legal fight(s) and mitigating the consequences,
  • all users, contributors, businesses and investors are harmed by or risk to be harmed by the fight of two,
  • contributors start to doubt; further development, contributions and projects may and probably will be stalled due to too many doubts about the future,
  • changing the known rules of the game during the game without any heads up causes well-behaving contributors and business to worry about their FOSS citizenship,
  • the ecosystem is merely a bystander, though it is/risks being weaponized; opinions are being formed based on fragmentary information, sides are being chosen, we will lose however this unfolds,
  • when a FOSS project as big as WordPress is under scrutiny, non-FOSS will (re)gain the trust FOSS might lose.

It hurts. Both hearts and businesses. Both new and long-time contributors. After all, WordPress would have never become as huge as it is now without the full ecosystem around it, starting from the first plugin released, up to a myriad of players each solving problems other players may encounter while building with or on the WordPress software.

We’re all WordPress

The whole ecosystem surrounding the software. Matt, Automattic, WPEngine and the rest of us. We do not need to choose sides. We do not want to choose sides. We can stop hurting WordPress.

We do want to tackle the Maker-Taker problem that exists within our project, the problem seemingly at the heart of the current legal dispute.

We do have a ‘Five for the Future’ project11. Though the legal battle exposes a core problem. We do not have a transparent and distributed governance model that can act as a neutral guardian angel of the future of our FOSS project.

“We must set a higher standard to ensure WordPress is here for the next 100 years.”

Matt Mullenweg

Let’s secure our futures

To regain trust and start the future of our WordPress open source project, we need a fully independent, transparent, and strong WordPress Foundation v2. To be a true and independent guardian angel for the whole of the WordPress ecosystem.

The fight about non-FOSS arguments can and probably will continue. We ask the fight between two corporations about the future of our FOSS project to end as soon as possible. We ask Matt, Automattic and WPEngine to do what we normally do, work together, with all of us.

To 100% FOSS marketshare and beyond!

A WordPress Foundation v2

A working group can be set up to discuss the how and the what together with a group of longstanding and trustworthy contributors, consisting of other invested companies, independent long-serving contributors and council from outside of the WordPress ecosystem.

Pivoting the current governance model towards being more transparent and distributed seems quite daunting. It would need a very broad spectrum of support, quite some (international) legal skills and funding.

This will cost money and legal aid, but having an independent and transparent entity as an independent guardian angel of the Project will most certainly boost contributions and serve as an entity to safeguard the co-existence of all companies within the ecosystem and is therefore needed for the future health of a Project as big as WordPress.

Five for the Future, step one

The WordPress Foundation v2 is needed because, among others :

  • Five for the Future can not be transparent and/or enforced without the Project having a proper and distributed governance model
  • the whole of the Project’s infrastructure and all Project-related accounts may not depend on one single business or person,
  • the WordPress Project may never risk to (be perceived to) favour a single business’ needs and should safeguard a fair coexistence of involved open source businesses,
  • the health of the WordPress Project may not (risk to) depend on one single business or person,
  • anyone willing to contribute financially must be able to do so while financial transparency will be guaranteed,

A fully independent, transparent, strong and true mothership for the whole WordPress ecosystem is the only way forward.

Start the Future

Co-sign this letter to divert all energy being wasted in or because of fights towards co-creating a fully independent, transparent, and strong WordPress Foundation v2.

Let’s invest in an independent guardian angel so fights like this wouldn’t hurt the FOSS project and it’s community as a whole.

We invite all WordPress Workers, users, business owners and investors to sign this letter (publicly or anonymously).

We kindly ask FOSS invested fellow workers and businesses to sign as a token of support. FOSS is not just software, it’s the people.

Co-sign our appeal

We will only publish your name/nickname, and byline (when given).
Please do consider signing anonymously whenever you’re involved in the legal dispute directly or indirectly or signing could cause harm for you or any of your projects in any way.

Will be published. May be anonymously, preferably not, but we get it.
Will be published. Required when signing anonymously. As specific or vague as you see fit.
Will not be published, no verification needed. This is only yet another open letter.
Keep me informed
I sign from within / outside the WordPress ecosystem
Consent
Signatures will be added manually, sorry for the delay.
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Epilogue

Final words: Why is this important for you?

Of course, we can return to business as usual. But all contributors, business or users who know a casualty of the current fight or have experienced collateral damage themselves will not simply forget this #WPDrama episode is happening/happened.

Why invest time, money and/or energy in an unstable economy? Why choose a publishing platform that’s in the end of it’s cycle?

People have already left, this is not the first governance crisis WordPress faces. Attempts have been made to fix it, but now we may have two major corporations backing the attempt.

This is not a coup, this is about restoring trust, now and for the future of all. For the WordPress Project we love and some of us depend on to flourish, once again.

We simply cannot want to return to business as usual. When the next crisis comes, we will not be able to say we didn’t see it coming.

“One can fork core,
one cannot simply fork an ecosystem”

source forgotten (sorry!)

Signed by

200+ WordPress contributors, users and concerned FOSS bystanders. Consider co-signing the letter and support our quest for a sustainable future for the WordPress open source project.

Note: signatures will be added manually, sorry for the delay.

  • Stephanie O’Hanley, WordCamp volunteer, do_action hackathon participant, micro sponsor, website builder/developer, Meetup attendee
  • filiwp, WordPress Meetup Organizer
  • Gentian Collaku, Dev at iO
  • Zack Katz, WordCamp organizer, WordCamp speaker, core contributor, and plugin business owner
  • Shelby
  • Jeroen, WordCamp & Meetup organiser, long time contributor
  • Bego Mario Garde, German Support-Team
  • Paul van Buuren, Independent WordPress developer & accessibility consultant
  • Jason Parker, concerned FOSS bystander
  • Daan van den Bergh
  • Tim
  • Tara Claeys, Hosted Hallway Chats podcast, was a Washington DC organizer
  • Vickita, WP developer and supporter since 2005
  • Jason Clark, Digital Agency Owner, VIA Studio / eResources
  • Andrew Boardman, Creative Director
  • Dave Loodts, WordCamp (2x) & Meetup (+90) co-organizer, translator, support 
  • Elena Brescacin, I’m @talksina on WordPress and github, my badges are WordCamp speaker, translation contributor, core contributor.
  • Alex Sirota, Plugin developer, WordPress Toronto Organizer, Governance Wonk
  • Daniel Hardy, Site Developer and User
  • Rosanne van Staalduinen, Co-founder Buro Staal, Co-Lead WordCamp Netherlands 2022, 2023, Organiser WordCamp Rotterdam 2018,2019
  • Alvaro, Open source and transparency advocate, 13yrs WordCamp co-org, trainer, translator, designer
  • Veerle, Independent web worker, meetup and local WordCamp organiser since 2014
  • a WordPress Developer/Designer
  • Jason Tucker, Former WordPress Podcaster, Former Meetup Host, Former WordCamp Organizing Contributor, IT Director
  • Kees van Loon, Owner of NLMD digital 
  • Giuseppe G.
  • Tim Nolte, WordPress Developer at Forum One, Core Contributor, WordCamp Organizer & Speaker, Plugin Maintainer, WP Meetup Organizer
  • Matt, Full Stack Developer, using WordPress for 18+ years
  • Rian Rietveld, Web accesibility specialist
  • Peter Müller, Author of books and video courses
  • Werner Huysmans
  • Nahdie ter Haar
  • Uwe Trenkner, Administrator of several self-hosted WordPress instances, including https://www.solarserver.de
  • Frank, plugin & performance tinkerer
  • Luc Princen, WP Agency owner. WordCamp Organiser, core & docs contributor, plugin builder
  • Karen, Personal blogger and FOSS enthusiast
  • Erik Joling, Website creator at Ejoweb, Meetup organiser, WordCamp speaker
  • Marinus Klasen, WordPress (plugin) developer @ mklasen.com
  • Rob, User, small self hosted websites.
  • Gerard van Enk, (Plugin) Developer, Open Source enthusiastic for 25+ years
  • eXpl0jd (verified)
  • Koen Huybrechts, Owner @ monocode, meetup and WordCamp organiser 
  • Joren
  • C., Developer, Meetup Organizer, Core Contributor, WordCamp Volunteer, WordCamp Speaker
  • Jennifer
  • Adrian Roselli, WordCamp Europe repeat speaker, occasional resource to accessibility team, closed caption funder on some of Matt’s talks
  • onepict, Former user, has clients using WordPress, Community Manager for the Librecast Project
  • Richard, Meetup & WordCamp Netherlands organizer + .org support forum mod.
  • Arūnas Liuiza, Core Contributor, Plugin developer, Meetup co-organizer, 10x WordCamp Speaker, Co-Editor for Lithuanian translation
  • Angelika Reisiger, Deutsches Support-Team (Ex-Redaktions-Lead auf de.w.org)
  • Jos Klever, Technical maintenance and support for 10 years
  • Koby, Site maintainer
  • Philip John, 20-year WordPress dev, former Automattician
  • Paula, Dev and user of WP sites for over 10 years, small business
  • Chris Reynolds, Developer Advocate at Pantheon, WordCamp organizer, plugin and ecosystem engineer
  • Tim, Dev from Germany
  • Claudio, WordCamp Organiser, Meetup Organiser, Plugin Developer, Translation Editor
  • Bram Esposito, WordPress freelancer
  • Connor Bär, Senior Frontend Engineer at SumUp
  • Kit C, WordPress User since the beginning
  • Alexander Trecartin, Past WordCamp sponsor
  • Koen VdW, Solution Architect, WordCamp + Meetup Co-organiser and occasional contributor
  • Craig Berry, Dev at Red Tally
  • Karissa Skirmont, WP Biz Owner for over 18 years, Former WordCamp Organizer/WP Meetup Organizer for 8 years, WordCamp Speaker
  • Annette Schwindt, Building Websites with WP since 2007 and helping others to learn how to use it
  • Saadia, 18+ year contributor, core, plugins, community, and more
  • anonymous, long time contributor scared of Matt
  • emilushi, Meetup Organizer, WordCamp Europe Organizer
  • Deadpool76, Meetup and WordCamp organizer, GTE
  • Jose Cuono
  • Nikola Dimitrijevic
  • Takis Bouyouris, WordCamp and meetup organiser, plugin developer, translator
  • Mark Parnell, plugin developer, core contributor, WordCamp organiser
  • Daniel Duris, regular WP user, occasional WP developer, past Wordcamp speaker
  • Joshua A. C. Newman
  • Rosita, Developer
  • Tamara Rice, freelance WordPress developer, WordCamp speaker
  • Carsten Bach, Freelancer, Plugin & Theme developer
  • Namith Jawahar, Plugin Dev, Core Contributor, Wordcamp Speaker and WordPress Developer since V2.2
  • Helen Chong, WordPress developer
  • Ruellen, Développeur chez Créatonit
  • lime360, contributed to forgejo’s (https://forgejo.org/) ukrainan translation
  • Eva, Freelance web designer
  • Sjoerd, WordPress user from the very beginning, polyglot, organiser of multiple WordCamps, Global Lead WCEU2023, meet-up speaker
  • guiloviu, WordPress user
  • Jeroen Smeets, WordPress developer
  • Douwe Zijlstra, Hosting specialist, Meetup organizer, WordCamp speaker
  • Ramon Fincken, WP lover since 2009, WP Core developer, Multiple WordCamp sponsor, Meetup speaker/sponsor, Sustainability team member, ..
  • Giovanni Invernizzi, WordCamp and MeetUp co-organizer
  • Javier Casares, WordPress.org Hosting Team co-Rep / Advanced Administration Handbook co-Lead
  • Jamie Blomerus, Dev at WCAG Networks, WordPress.org Core and Test Team contributor, and Plugin maintainer
  • Colin Stewart / costdev, WordPress Core Committer, Component Maintainer, Security Team member, and plugin author
  • Theo Gkitsos, WordCamp and meetup organiser, plugin developer, Polyglot, contributor
  • Paul Wong-Gibbs, BuddyPress Lead Developer
  • Richard Rogers, Dev at Do Good
  • Keith Devon, Developer, meetup organiser, speaker, podcaster
  • Anttoni Niemenmaa, Entrepreneur, Project Manager, Developer, WordCamp Finland organizer
  • Gerben, Agency owner
  • Ajay Malik, Founder of SiteSkyline.com and also Developer of many wordpress plugins
  • Chris Hu, Full Stack Developer, using WordPress for 10+ years
  • Anneke Sinnema, Front-end developer
  • @juandesant@santander-vela.net, JAO Development Systems Engineer and blogger at WordPress.com hosted Santander-Vela.net
  • Bowe Frankema, Co-Founder GetDollie.com, WordCamp Speaker, Local workshop/meetup organiser
  • bpmore, WP in higher ed
  • Joris
  • Urano Dev, Plugin Developer
  • Brock Caldwell
  • Timo Couckuyt, Founder & Senior WordPress Developer at dev+
  • Monique, WordPressionista in exile
  • WordPressLover, Core Dev, GPTE, Photos contributor, WordCamp Speaker…
  • Frank Neumann-Staude, WP since 2010, Meetup orgs, WordCamp orga (retreat, nuremberg, wurzburg), polyglott, core contrib, plugins, tvteam(de)
  • Anonymous penguin, WordCamp organizer, speaker and sponsor
  • Stijn De Mulder, WordPress Developer and enthousiast
  • Justin Wells
  • Aaron Meder, WordPress Developer at Soda Studios and Personal Blog
  • Andy Rudorfer, Meetup Organizer & Speaker, Theme Developer, Websites with WordPress since 2007
  • Sven Wagener, Meetup & WordCamp Organizer, Speaker and Developer
  • margheweb, Meetup Organiser, WordCamp Organiser & Speaker, NOT sponsored contributor at Training, Polyglots & Community Team
  • Pieter, WP user & fan since 2004
  • Konstantinos Botonakis, @botonakis
  • Andrew (LinuxJedi) Hutchings, Chief Contributions Officer, MariaDB Foundation
  • Lord Matt (aka Matthew Brown), Professional PHP dev and user of WordPress for a lot of projects
  • kvantomme, Concerned FOSS bystander (Drupal)
  • Stefan Kremer (stk_jj), Hibernating Contributor
  • Márcio
  • Nick Stoukas, WordPress Developer
  • Irèn Nooren, Visual Designer / WordCamp Volunteer / WordPress fan
  • Tanner Moushey, Owner at Mission Lab, WP Core Contributor, Plugin Author (ChurchPlugins), WordCamp Speaker / Volunteer
  • Joe Hills, Freelance WordPress developer
  • Kostas Vrouvas, WordCamp and Meetup Organiser, Plugin Developer, General Translation Editor
  • Alex Standiford, WordPress Contributor, Developer
  • Edi Septriyanto, Maintainer of LEMPer Stack, self-managed WordPress platform
  • David Olsen, DevOps / Infrastructure
  • Nick Stoukas, WordPress Developer
  • Olivier Gorzalka, CTO @ AmphiBee
  • Loïc Hall, Senior Developer @ Amphibee
  • glgeorgiou
  • Yvette, Former WordCamp organizer contributor and teamrep
  • Prusa, Core contributor, A8C employee
  • Mathias Munk, WordPress Developer
  • Ivan Barreda Prades, WordPress Freelance, Meetup Organitzer, Plugin developer, WPTV contributor, Tranlation contributor, Plugin Contributor
  • Denis Dumont, Dev at Amphibee
  • Grégoire Noyelle, Dev and trainer since 2006. Meetup and local WordCamp organiser since 2013 (Paris)
  • Jer Clarke, WordCamp organizer alum, non-profit dev using WP since 2005
  • Tom Hermans, meetup & WordCamp speaker / co-organizer
  • Arne Turpyn, WordPress designer-developer
  • Dave Barr (barrd), WP Dev at multiple agencies, Meetup Organiser, WordCamp Bristol volunteer
  • Erwin van Amersfoort, WP Agency owner / developer
  • Olivier Gobet, WP lover since 2005, WordCamp co-organizer / volunteer / speaker
  • Ylli Pylla, Developer
  • Kris
  • toineenzo, Polyglot
  • Kira, Agency Owner, Meetup Organizer
  • Erik Visser
  • Clément, Developer @ AmphiBee
  • Carlos Rodríguez
  • Tej, WP developer and supporter since 2007 | WPBuds
  • pirotess
  • Rodrigo Peñalba
  • Roy Tanck, WordPress veteran, core contributor, plugin developer, translator, photo team member, etc, etc…
  • Amber Weinberg, Lead Dev at Studio Simpatico, 15+ years of WP dev experience
  • msb, Long-time user, independent developer
  • A Channelle
  • Ryan Waterbury
  • Bruno, Dev at Marketing Agency
  • Kat Moros, Developer
  • Andrea “Bruno” Brunato, Frontend Developer
  • Paul, WordPress Developer, FLOSS Enthusiast
  • Marijn Tijhuis, Fat Pixel
  • Z.
  • Bernard Zijlstra, WordPress Agency Owner, CISO, WordPress Hosting
  • Shrey, WordPress Enthusiast and Supporter
  • Carolina Koehn, Team member at contao.org
  • David Beentjes, Agency co-owner at Unloc
  • Ross Johnson, WordCamp organizer and speaker, author and publisher of free plugins in the repo
  • Evan Hildreth (oddEvan), WordPress user and developer since 2005
  • David Sinclair
  • Martin Orton, WordPress Developer at Martin Orton Design
  • Egzon
  • a_word_presser, Core contributor, plugin dev, WP CLI contributor
  • Joseph Dickson, Higher Education Communications Specialist and WordPress Contributor
  • Anonymous (for fear of Matt’s wrath), Owner of an agency that supports 800+ independent WordPress sites and businesses
  • Bradvin, Plugin Developer
  • Marco Di Bella, Dev, WordPress.org Translation Contributor
  • Chris Jenkins, 15 year plugin and theme developer, agency owner (government and healthcare sector), WordCamp speaker
  • Scott Kingsley Clark, Core contributor, WordCamp organizer, WordCamp speaker, Plugin developer
  • Felix Norton, 12 year WordPress focused agency owner, Woww
  • Mike Johnston, WordPress enthusiast, freelance web developer, WCEU organizer, meetup participant and speaker
  • Kevin Padan Hayes, Small business and not-for-profit website builder,. WordPress since 2006.
  • Michael Sherry
  • MattFM, Long-term WP user
  • kappesante
  • Davide Vecchini, WordPress enthusiast since 2005, dev & founder @ Studio Azione (Italy)
  • Kevin Padan Hayes, Small business and not-for-profit website builder, WordPress since 2006.
  • Anonymously (for now), Meet up speaker, WordCamp Speaker & Volunteer
  • Dareth NHANG // DZGND.studio, using WP since 2012, Contribute to Core, Polyglots and Sustainability
  • Anon for now, Occasional core contributor
  • Antoine S., Web dev. Current mentee core contributor in cohort#3
  • Loïc Antignac, cat’s doorman, WP developer for 11 years, contributor to translation, documentation, core, and plugin developer
  • Bill Hodgson, Digital marketer and website creator
  • Seth Goldstein, Volunteer and Digital Marketer and WordPress fan
  • Amanda Carson, Former WordPress accessibility team member, WordPress user for 19 years
  • Curtis McHale, WordCamp Speaker and full stack developer
  • Anonymous, 20Y WP veteran. Themes+Plugins. WP core contributor.
  • Wendie, WordCamp enthusiast and WordPress user
  • Freelancer, 10+ Years in WordPress
  • Kristin
  • Jamie, Developer
  • Lisa Smith, Micro-agency owner, site designer and user, local meetup co-organizer, WC & WCUS attendee (many)
  • Ian
  • Jurriaan Koops, WordCamp/Meetup sponsor, agency owner, plugin business owner
  • David E. Smith, WCUS organizing team 2019-2024, WP user since 2009
  • Simon, WordPress agency founder, WordPress user since 2007
  • Felicia María Betancourt, Fullstack dev at Firefly Web Services
  • Kirk Johnston
  • Neil Batchelor, @nbwpuk on WP / Meetup Organiser
  • Daniel Finch, Founder at FinchillaNET
  • Zião Dionísio
  • Jacob Batchelor
  • Anna S., Digital Marketing Agency Founder/Owner
  • Rob P, WordPress developer, agency owner, meetup organizer
  • Skye, WordPress Host and Developer
  • Daniel Schutzsmith, WordCamp Organizer, Meetup Organizer, Core Contributor, Pattern Author
  • Vale
  • Chris Fagard
  • Marty M, 20 years running a primarily WP focused web agency
  • Joseph, WordPress Developer and Site Manager
  • Patricia BT, Meetup and WordCamp organiser, Community Team contributor
  • Richard Korthuis, WordPress Backend Developer / Plugin developer
  • Remon, WordPress enthusiast and developer of websites based on WP
  • Lydia
  • Nora, WordPress dev
  • David Rychlý, Web developer, WP translator
  • Your (nick)name here? Your byline here? Sign

Footnotes & Linkroll

A lot has been said and written during the current conflict within the WordPress community. And will be. Even lengthy legal documents are flying around.

This appeal has some references to things being said, written or done. We will try to list most of the references:

  1. The WordPress open source project ↩︎
  2. WordCamp US & Ecosystem Thinking ↩︎
  3. WPEngine is not WordPress ↩︎
  4. Tweet WPEngine: “WP Engine has no choice but to pursue these claims to protect its people, agency partners, customers, and the broader WordPress community” ↩︎
  5. Tweet WPEngine: … We remain steadfastly committed to supporting WP Engine customers, users, and the entire WordPress community. ↩︎
  6. WordPress Foundation Trademark Policy (web archive, dd sept 24th 2024) ↩︎
  7. WordPress Foundation Trademark Policy (live, modified sept 24th 2024) ↩︎
  8. WP Engine is banned from WordPress.org ↩︎
  9. WP Engine Incident Page: Plugin and Theme Update Restrictions ↩︎
  10. Impact of WPEngine’s Ban on ACF Plugin ↩︎
  11. Five for the Future ↩︎

And some other maybe relevant links:

Co-sign our appeal