#wordpress foundation

[sladewatkins]

matt mullenweg & the wordpress "drama"

hey listen,

i don't like wading into heated discussions. i usually try to say something before it blows up, or after. but considering i use wordpress and tumblr, both of which are currently under the control of matt mullenweg, i do feel like speaking on it is a big deal. however, it's also quite literally my job to be impartial. so, you're not going to get many opinions here. i apologize if that's not your thing -- but i have a really big point here that you might not necessarily expect, so please bear with me!

alright. obviously @photomatt has been pissing a lot of people off online. that's a fact. so, i want to focus on a couple key things i've been seeing online and try and bring this down to a simpler level.

yes, the WordPress Foundation granted Automattic a non-revocable license that covers the commercial side of its trademarks. Automattic explained this in a recent blog post. we'll see how folks respond to that, but the basic TLDR is this: Automattic holds commercial rights, Foundation holds the trademarks and non-commercial rights, so there's technically two owners. that might still be confusing--but that's what was said. don't shoot the messenger.

yes, it does appear that matt may have a conflict-of-interest by sitting on the board at the Foundation, being the CEO of Automattic (who was granted non-revocable commercial rights, which we talked about earlier), and fully owning WordPress.org personally. that last one is perhaps particularly egregious to many online, but could also be a legacy thing that just hasn't been dealt with.

what do i think he should do? i don't know. once again, i want to be crystal clear that i'm staying neutral on the issues at hand. we'll stick to facts here on this blog. i don't know anyone at Automattic otherwise i'd sit down with Matt myself and try and clear this up for the rest of the internet. for now, i'll settle for a Tumblr post:

until everything resolves, we frankly do not have all of the information to make an educated determination. thus, we cannot jump to conclusions. to do so is dangerous and leads to misinformation spreading like a wildfire across the internet. let's avoid that, hey?

and finally, to close: i don't want to be that guy but... PLEASE remember when it comes to something you're passionate about, constructive criticism is always the correct path. attack IDEAS, not people. mental health is a very important thing to remember when engaging with social media in general. i'm not asking you to drop your feelings, i'm asking you to consider other people's feelings when you go to write in that text box. let's be more considerate with how we use our words. i know what it's like to be on the receiving end of what seems like endless hate... NOBODY deserves that.

okay. i really need to sleep and then pack a bunch of boxes. (long story, might share it later.) if anything else happens with the WP stuff, send it my way so i don't miss it...or just drop me an email and say hi. doesn't matter, you can hit me at slade@sladewatkins.com as always.

hope this helped some of y'all. i tried to be as impartial as possible and not inject any feelings into this. good night, folks.

[hosenseo1]

I will create high quality white hat profile creation backlinks

SEO Expert and Backlinks Creator

Hello there! I'm Hosen ali, your go-to digital marketing expert dedicated to helping businesses like yours thrive in the online landscape. With a passion for strategic marketing and a knack for staying ahead of industry trends, I bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. I will expert in all types of digital marketing service. Like,On page SEO,Off page SEO,Creatin profile backlinks ,Facebook Ads,wordpress website customization,and other. Looking forward to being your digital partner on this exciting journey  Boost Your SEO with High-Quality Profile Backlinks

Want to enhance your website's visibility and improve search engine rankings? I offer manually created, high-quality profile backlinks from trusted platforms that help strengthen your online presence and drive organic traffic.

What Youll Get:

Dofollow backlinks from reputable sources

Natural, white-hat SEO practices

Increased domain authority and search engine rankings

A detailed report with all links

Perfect For:

Website owners

Bloggers

E-commerce businesses

Local businesses

Why settle for low-quality links? Let me help you build a strong foundation for long-term SEO success.

Order now and take your website to the next level!

Feel free to customize it further to match your specific services or style! 

SEO

Profile backlinks 

Backlink analysis

On-page SEO

Canva design

WordPress

Business reports

Lead generation

Facebook ads

Off-page SEO

[iamrhyme]

hallziespoetrycorner: Poetry with a passion. Poetry for all occasions.™

Visit the link 🔗on this poem( www.mrhallziesblogs.com)

and share the link and poems featured on hallziespoetrycorner across all social media platforms. Like ❤️ the poems when you visit the site and comment 🗨️ on the poems when you visit the site.

Visit the virtual online bookstore on Poetizer.com and purchase The Black Card. Purchase The Black Card. The Black Card is more than just poetry. The Black care is a poetic manifesto-a lyrical tribute to the regality, resilience,and the richness of the Black experience. Purchase The Black Card today or get your black card revoked!

[curryvillain]

.@LilaIke Gives Back To Christiana In Back To School Treat

It’s that time of year when the yutes are gearing up for their return to the classroom. Many have been prepared with essentials since the early part of Summer, but what about those who haven’t checked off anything off of their lists? Thanks to a number of organizations, celebrities/public figures, and businesspersons, parents have been breathing a sigh of relief through back to school events all…

[zozotheme]

Do you want to reach your Nonprofit Organization to the next level?

Without any delay buy Our #Charety - Charity and Donation WordPress Theme. The theme is the best choice for any charity, non-profit, NGO, donation, foundation, or fundraising website.

Read More ► https://1.envato.market/6bqXJm

We provide high-quality SEO-friendly website themes and templates with 100% responsive design.

Explore it ► https://zozothemes.com/

[stevishabitat]

Some quotes:

The WordPress Foundation claims its reason for existence is ”to ensure free access, in perpetuity, to the software projects we support.” It’s quite obvious the man who helms the foundation, who authors the news, and who holds pretty much all the cards when it comes to WordPress, isn’t interested in any ideals but his own.

Regardless of how it all shakes out, though: this only reinforces my stance that Matt’s power must be severely curtailed. Matt’s intent to use the monopolistic powers at his disposal to absorb and neutralize his business’s only real threat and competition, all over a sudden extortive rules change, is perhaps the most striking sign yet that far too much power is concentrated in his unfit hands (even if said power does eventually turn out to be less than he seems to think it is). Yet again, Matt comes off just like a mafia boss. “Nice business you’ve got there. Looks like it’s really feeling the squeeze lately. Sure would be a shame if that bad stuff kept happening, huh? You’d stand to lose an awful lot. But maybe we could reach some kind of an agreement…?” If Matt’s lawyers really aren’t telling him not to say stuff like this, you’d expect him to at least have the self-awareness to realize how it comes off. …Actually, I take it back. I wouldn’t expect that from him. Not anymore

i really wish the Matt Mullenweg Meltdown was easier to follow and explain because his public career suicide is extremely funny and i think i only understand about 1/4th of it fully

[tinystepsforward]

autocrattic (more matt shenanigans, not tumblr this time)

I am almost definitely not the right person for this writeup, but I'm closer than most people on here, so here goes! This is all open-source tech drama, and I take my time laying out the context, but the short version is: Matt tried to extort another company, who immediately posted receipts, and now he's refusing to log off again. The long version is... long.

If you don't need software context, scroll down/find the "ok tony that's enough. tell me what's actually happening" heading, or just go read the pink sections. Or look at this PDF.

the background

So. Matt's original Good Idea was starting WordPress with fellow developer Mike Little in 2003, which is free and open-source software (FOSS) that was originally just for blogging, but now powers lots of websites that do other things. In particular, Automattic acquired WooCommerce a long time ago, which is free online store software you can run on WordPress.

FOSS is... interesting. It's a world that ultimately is powered by people who believe deeply that information and resources should be free, but often have massive blind spots (for example, Wikipedia's consistently had issues with bias, since no amount of "anyone can edit" will overcome systemic bias in terms of who has time to edit or is not going to be driven away by the existing contributor culture). As with anything else that people spend thousands of hours doing online, there's drama. As with anything else that's technically free but can be monetized, there are:

Heaps of companies and solo developers who profit off WordPress themes, plugins, hosting, and other services;

Conflicts between volunteer contributors and for-profit contributors;

Annoying founders who get way too much credit for everything the project has become.

the WordPress ecosystem

A project as heavily used as WordPress (some double-digit percentage of the Internet uses WP. I refuse to believe it's the 43% that Matt claims it is, but it's a pretty large chunk) can't survive just on the spare hours of volunteers, especially in an increasingly monetised world where its users demand functional software, are less and less tech or FOSS literate, and its contributors have no fucking time to build things for that userbase.

Matt runs Automattic, which is a privately-traded, for-profit company. The free software is run by the WordPress Foundation, which is technically completely separate (wordpress.org). The main products Automattic offers are WordPress-related: WordPress.com, a host which was designed to be beginner-friendly; Jetpack, a suite of plugins which extend WordPress in a whole bunch of ways that may or may not make sense as one big product; WooCommerce, which I've already mentioned. There's also WordPress VIP, which is the fancy bespoke five-digit-plus option for enterprise customers. And there's Tumblr, if Matt ever succeeds in putting it on WordPress. (Every Tumblr or WordPress dev I know thinks that's fucking ridiculous and impossible. Automattic's hiring for it anyway.)

Automattic devotes a chunk of its employees toward developing Core, which is what people in the WordPress space call WordPress.org, the free software. This is part of an initiative called Five for the Future — 5% of your company's profits off WordPress should go back into making the project better. Many other companies don't do this.

There are lots of other companies in the space. GoDaddy, for example, barely gives back in any way (and also sucks). WP Engine is the company this drama is about. They don't really contribute to Core. They offer relatively expensive WordPress hosting, as well as providing a series of other WordPress-related products like LocalWP (local site development software), Advanced Custom Fields (the easiest way to set up advanced taxonomies and other fields when making new types of posts. If you don't know what this means don't worry about it), etc.

Anyway. Lots of strong personalities. Lots of for-profit companies. Lots of them getting invested in, or bought by, private equity firms.

Matt being Matt, tech being tech

As was said repeatedly when Matt was flipping out about Tumblr, all of the stuff happening at Automattic is pretty normal tech company behaviour. Shit gets worse. People get less for their money. WordPress.com used to be a really good place for people starting out with a website who didn't need "real" WordPress — for $48 a year on the Personal plan, you had really limited features (no plugins or other customisable extensions), but you had a simple website with good SEO that was pretty secure, relatively easy to use, and 24-hour access to Happiness Engineers (HEs for short. Bad job title. This was my job) who could walk you through everything no matter how bad at tech you were. Then Personal plan users got moved from chat to emails only. Emails started being responded to by contractors who didn't know as much as HEs did and certainly didn't get paid half as well. Then came AI, and the mandate for HEs to try to upsell everyone things they didn't necessarily need. (This is the point at which I quit.)

But as was said then as well, most tech CEOs don't publicly get into this kind of shitfight with their users. They're horrid tyrants, but they don't do it this publicly.

ok tony that's enough. tell me what's actually happening

WordCamp US, one of the biggest WordPress industry events of the year, is the backdrop for all this. It just finished.

There are.... a lot of posts by Matt across multiple platforms because, as always, he can't log off. But here's the broad strokes.

Sep 17

Matt publishes a wanky blog post about companies that profit off open source without giving back. It targets a specific company, WP Engine.

Compare the Five For the Future pages from Automattic and WP Engine, two companies that are roughly the same size with revenue in the ballpark of half a billion. These pledges are just a proxy and aren’t perfectly accurate, but as I write this, Automattic has 3,786 hours per week (not even counting me!), and WP Engine has 47 hours. WP Engine has good people, some of whom are listed on that page, but the company is controlled by Silver Lake, a private equity firm with $102 billion in assets under management. Silver Lake doesn’t give a dang about your Open Source ideals. It just wants a return on capital. So it’s at this point that I ask everyone in the WordPress community to vote with your wallet. Who are you giving your money to? Someone who’s going to nourish the ecosystem, or someone who’s going to frack every bit of value out of it until it withers?

(It's worth noting here that Automattic is funded in part by BlackRock, who Wikipedia calls "the world's largest asset manager".)

Sep 20 (WCUS final day)

WP Engine puts out a blog post detailing their contributions to WordPress.

Matt devotes his keynote/closing speech to slamming WP Engine.

He also implies people inside WP Engine are sending him information.

For the people sending me stuff from inside companies, please do not do it on your work device. Use a personal phone, Signal with disappearing messages, etc. I have a bunch of journalists happy to connect you with as well. #wcus — Twitter I know private equity and investors can be brutal (read the book Barbarians at the Gate). Please let me know if any employee faces firing or retaliation for speaking up about their company's participation (or lack thereof) in WordPress. We'll make sure it's a big public deal and that you get support. — Tumblr

Matt also puts out an offer live at WordCamp US:

“If anyone of you gets in trouble for speaking up in favor of WordPress and/or open source, reach out to me. I’ll do my best to help you find a new job.” — source tweet, RTed by Matt

He also puts up a poll asking the community if WP Engine should be allowed back at WordCamps.

Sep 21

Matt writes a blog post on the WordPress.org blog (the official project blog!): WP Engine is not WordPress.

He opens this blog post by claiming his mom was confused and thought WP Engine was official.

The blog post goes on about how WP Engine disabled post revisions (which is a pretty normal thing to do when you need to free up some resources), therefore being not "real" WordPress. (As I said earlier, WordPress.com disables most features for Personal and Premium plans. Or whatever those plans are called, they've been renamed like 12 times in the last few years. But that's a different complaint.)

Sep 22: More bullshit on Twitter. Matt makes a Reddit post on r/Wordpress about WP Engine that promptly gets deleted. Writeups start to come out:

Search Engine Journal: WordPress Co-Founder Mullenweg Sparks Backlash

TechCrunch: Matt Mullenweg calls WP Engine a ‘cancer to WordPress’ and urges community to switch providers

Sep 23 onward

Okay, time zones mean I can't effectively sequence the rest of this.

Matt defends himself on Reddit, casually mentioning that WP Engine is now suing him.

Also here's a decent writeup from someone involved with the community that may be of interest.

WP Engine drops the full PDF of their cease and desist, which includes screenshots of Matt apparently threatening them via text.

Twitter link | Direct PDF link

This PDF includes some truly fucked texts where Matt appears to be trying to get WP Engine to pay him money unless they want him to tell his audience at WCUS that they're evil.

Matt, after saying he's been sued and can't talk about it, hosts a Twitter Space and talks about it for a couple hours.

He also continues to post on Reddit, Twitter, and on the Core contributor Slack.

Here's a comment where he says WP Engine could have avoided this by paying Automattic 8% of their revenue.

Another, 20 hours ago, where he says he's being downvoted by "trolls, probably WPE employees"

At some point, Matt updates the WordPress Foundation trademark policy. I am 90% sure this was him — it's not legalese and makes no fucking sense to single out WP Engine.

Old text: The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks and you are free to use it in any way you see fit. New text: The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.

Sep 25: Automattic puts up their own legal response.

anyway this fucking sucks

This is bigger than anything Matt's done before. I'm so worried about my friends who're still there. The internal ramifications have... been not great so far, including that Matt's naturally being extra gung-ho about "you're either for me or against me and if you're against me then don't bother working your two weeks".

Despite everything, I like WordPress. (If you dig into this, you'll see plenty of people commenting about blocks or Gutenberg or React other things they hate. Unlike many of the old FOSSheads, I actually also think Gutenberg/the block editor was a good idea, even if it was poorly implemented.)

I think that the original mission — to make it so anyone can spin up a website that's easy enough to use and blog with — is a good thing. I think, despite all the ways being part of FOSS communities since my early teens has led to all kinds of racist, homophobic and sexual harm for me and for many other people, that free and open-source software is important.

So many people were already burning out of the project. Matt has been doing this for so long that those with long memories can recite all the ways he's wrecked shit back a decade or more. Most of us are exhausted and need to make money to live. The world is worse than it ever was.

Social media sucks worse and worse, and this was a world in which people missed old webrings, old blogs, RSS readers, the world where you curated your own whimsical, unpaid corner of the Internet. I started actually actively using my own WordPress blog this year, and I've really enjoyed it.

And people don't want to deal with any of this.

The thing is, Matt's right about one thing: capital is ruining free open-source software. What he's wrong about is everything else: the idea that WordPress.com isn't enshittifying (or confusing) at a much higher rate than WP Engine, the idea that WP Engine or Silver Lake are the only big players in the field, the notion that he's part of the solution and not part of the problem.

But he's started a battle where there are no winners but the lawyers who get paid to duke it out, and all the volunteers who've survived this long in an ecosystem increasingly dominated by big money are giving up and leaving.

Anyway if you got this far, consider donating to someone on gazafunds.com. It'll take much less time than reading this did.

[specialagentartemis]

thinking more about @thetransfemininereview's Trans Microlibrary Project.

It's a good idea, an important idea. TBH microlibrary preservation projects seem like a good idea in general. My mom used to warn me about internet safety, “The internet is written in ink”—that once you put something on the Internet, you can never fully remove it. But the tragic problem is, that’s only true of the stuff you don’t want spreading—the stuff you actually want to preserve is so ephemeral it can disappear without a trace, and you can never get it back again. Jamie Berrout's work is an eternal preservation difficulty this way. A few years ago, a Metal Gear fanfiction author on Livejornal I loved deleted her LJ account and all her foundational Metal Gear fanfic was just—gone. I go and reread some important blog posts about asexual history and link rot has already set in. The Internet Archive did something phenomenally stupid and as a result faces a credible threat to its continued existence.  Personal offline archives of internet-native work seem more important now than ever.

I believe wholeheartedly in the Trans Microlibrary Project and I certainly have PDF copies of several trans books that it is hard-to-impossible to get anymore (Jamie Berrout’s work, primarily, but also one of Xemiyulu Tapepechul’s poetry chapbooks) and other indie trans fiction that who knows how long the content hosters will allow in this skittish political climate (Gillian Ybabez’s flash fiction and various works by the Trans Women Writers’ Collective/River Furnace), so I’m thinking about buying a handful of flash drives and making my own personal preservation projects:

Contribute to the decentralized Trans Microlibrary Project as described in this post (and this will be an inspiration to read M. Kirin’s book Memory Leak, which a recent review piqued my interest in. Itch.io is a very under-recommended venue for indie queer books!) I'm particularly interested in sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and related genre fiction.

An Ace & Aro archive—so much of the important ace writing is on blogs and in zines, and with Matt Mullenwig beefing with Wordpress, I don’t know how stable Wordpress-based blogs will continue to be. Thinking about trying to download PDF copies of the entire Asexual Agenda. I also have several self-pub ace and aro books that are… at best okay tbh. But worth preserving as well. 

Fanfiction. Wanting to have the stuff I like on hand and safe—not even from government censorship or hosting problems necessarily but from all the things that inspire people to delete their fics and their accounts and their blogs. I’ve been burned by Athena Crikey deleting her LJ after years of inactivity and I don’t want to lose so much work I’ve enjoyed over the years.

More projects than that would probably prevent me from doing anything at all lol. But this offline preservation work of internet material is something I have a renewed interest in actually doing.

What do you think is worth preserving?

[hexpositive]

Hex Positive, Ep. 052 - Mercury's In The Microwave with Alisha Abdelilah of Soul Riot LLC

Now available on your favorite listening app!

The pod gets cosmic as Alisha Abdelilah of Soul Riot LLC joins the chat to talk about her approach to astrology - a refreshingly down-to-earth attitude that focuses on personal gifts and self-improvement, rather than the nebulous woo-speak of pop horoscopes. This month, we’re blaming it ALL on the retrograde!

Follow Soul Riot on Instagram or sign up for classes and readings with Alisha!

Further Reading and Resources

Donate to the American Red Cross to aid with ongoing California wildfire relief efforts and help support the American Veterinary Medical Foundation's ⁠Southern California Disaster Relief efforts to help provide emergency care to animals injured or displaced by the fires.

Visit the Willow Wings Witch Shop on Shopify and check out this month’s featured items and Upcoming Events. Make sure you also visit the Redbubble page for even more cool merch!

Check my ⁠⁠Wordpress⁠⁠ for full show notes, as well as show notes for past episodes and information on upcoming events. You can find me as @BreeNicGarran on Instagram and WordPress, or as @breelandwalker on tumblr. For more information on how to support the show and get access to early releases and extra content, visit my ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠.

Proud member of the ⁠⁠Nerd and Tie Podcast Network⁠⁠.

MUSIC CREDITS

Intro & Outro – “Spellbound” & “Miri’s Magic Dance” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[mynihongolessons]

Unlocking Advanced Japanese Learning: My Go-To Resources and Techniques for Self-Learning

As a Japanese teacher and lifelong learner, my journey with the language never ceases. Progressing in Japanese as a self learner or adult learner requires not only dedication but also the right resources. While textbooks are invaluable for building foundational grammar and vocabulary, finding suitable materials becomes more challenging as you advance. However, this doesn’t mean opportunities are…

[hosenseo1]

I will create high quality white hat profile creation backlinks

SEO Expert and Backlinks Creator

Hello there! I'm Hosen ali, your go-to digital marketing expert dedicated to helping businesses like yours thrive in the online landscape. With a passion for strategic marketing and a knack for staying ahead of industry trends, I bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. I will expert in all types of digital marketing service. Like,On page SEO,Off page SEO,Creatin profile backlinks ,Facebook Ads,wordpress website customization,and other. Looking forward to being your digital partner on this exciting journey  Boost Your SEO with High-Quality Profile Backlinks

Want to enhance your website's visibility and improve search engine rankings? I offer manually created, high-quality profile backlinks from trusted platforms that help strengthen your online presence and drive organic traffic.

What Youll Get:

Dofollow backlinks from reputable sources

Natural, white-hat SEO practices

Increased domain authority and search engine rankings

A detailed report with all links

Perfect For:

Website owners

Bloggers

E-commerce businesses

Local businesses

Why settle for low-quality links? Let me help you build a strong foundation for long-term SEO success.

Order now and take your website to the next level!

Feel free to customize it further to match your specific services or style! 

SEO

Profile backlinks 

Backlink analysis

On-page SEO

Canva design

WordPress

Business reports

Lead generation

Facebook ads

Off-page SEO

[iamrhyme]

The Black Card is a poetic manifesto-a lyrical tribute to the regality, resilience,and richness of the Black experience.With bold versus that cut deep and imagery that soars,The Black Card reclaims dignity, demands respect,and honors the legacy of a people who have turned struggle into strength and culture into power.

More than poetry, this is a declaration: Black is royal,Black is unstoppable.

Black is everything.

Visit the virtual online bookstore on Poetizer.com and Purchase The Black Card.

Purchase The Black Card today or get your black card revoked!

[jscalzi]

Take a Seat at the Stillwater Prairie Preserve

A couple miles from our house is the Stillwater Prairie Preserve, a 300+ acre park that represents what this area would look like in a (more or less) pristine state of affairs. Krissy and Charlie go there just about every day to walk its trails and get exercise and enjoy being in nature. So it would make sense that we would donate (via the Scalzi Family Foundation) to support the…

[mysimsloveaffair]

I listen with as much interest as Tami as Dad talks about the family that passed before us. Of course, I remember my Grand-Peri. But I never met my great-grandparents, Alida and Quincy Jr.

Tambara: Did they live in ancient times, like kings and queens?

Kai: Not quite that far back. But just like kings and queens, they laid the foundation for where you and I are right now. My grandmother Alida grew up in foster care** because her parents weren’t around to take care of her. But an incredible lady named Mama Nadine made sure she grew up with love. Then, when she was a young adult, she married my grandfather. After that, my mother was born, me, your father, and you! And then you grow up and have children, the legacy will continue.

Tambara: I want my picture on the wall, too!

Kai: It will be one day—but not for a very long time.

**Link takes you to my WordPress website

[zozotheme]

Do you want to reach your Nonprofit Organization to the next level?

Without any delay buy Our #Charety - Charity and Donation WordPress Theme. The theme is the best choice for any charity, non-profit, NGO, donation, foundation, or fundraising website.

► https://1.envato.market/6bqXJm

We provide high-quality SEO-friendly website themes and templates with 100% responsive design.

Explore it ► https://zozothemes.com/