WordPress, the open source project creating and maintaining the software used on millions of websites, is in distress.
There’s an ongoing dispute between one of our founders and his company on one side and a hosting company that has been in the WordPress ecosystem for 14 years on the other side. Both sides claiming to fight for the future of WordPress. Meanwhile, irreparable damage is being done.
What’s going on?
If you want to know more about the enfolding drama, quite some articles have been written, though many are a long read already (and at the moment it is extremely hard for anyone to have all the facts).
TechCrunch did a quite good effort to try to explain it:
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
Or watch the meme-like summary video Fireship made (it’s actually quite a quick summary, dd 11 Oct 2024)
The WordPress ecosystem has lost its mind… (YouTube link, 7m05s)
Damages being done
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), damage is being done. Trademark pages are being updated, infrastructure is being cut off, maintainers are being denied access, accounts from long-time contributors are being blocked, plugins being hijacked.
It’s getting worse each day, more and more people are being thrown out of the communication channels of the Project.
A huge majority of the active WordPress Community is de facto gagged. When you speak up, you risk being thrown out of the project you’re working on. You may risk the reputation of your project or your employer. This leads to self-censorship. This crosses a line.
WordPress needs your help
While the project’s mission is to “democratize publishing“, contributors are being thrown out for asking honest questions. The self-censorship it brings, hinders us fighting for our future ourselves. That’s why we need help from outside.
We need help from outside our bubble
We need help from the broader web communities to regain a joint-future.
WordPress, the project, still has a lot of work to do to be/stay the powerful partner within the #OpenWeb. There’s so much work to be done. Even a company like Automattic cannot do this alone, therefore we cannot allow WordPress to become just another product. We need its full strength. We need the whole ecosystem reunited.
We need a true governance structure to restore trust and continue the work.
Demand WordPress to be better. To be its best.
Help WordPress1 survive
Join us in our appeal for a way out of the current WordPress ecosystem drama. Let us know you see us.
(ps, if you do not really like WordPress, no problem! Still, you can help and show your support for the bigger Open Web picture. WordPress is quite a big FOSS project and we need to continuously be better. A strong, responsible and sustainable WordPress will benefit quite some people, organisations, companies and governments worldwide)
- The WordPress open source project ↩︎