Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic and co-founder of WordPress, has recently deactivated the accounts of several members of the WordPress.org community. According to Mullenweg, two of these members were allegedly planning to create a new fork of the WordPress project. The report comes via TechCrunch.
This controversy traces back to September when Mullenweg criticized WP Engine, a commercial WordPress hosting company, accusing it of profiting without contributing to the project. The situation escalated further when WP Engine lost access to critical WordPress resources, eventually leading to legal disputes.
Prominent voices within the community have shared their perspectives on the matter. Joost de Valk, creator of the popular SEO tool Yoast and former Marketing and Communication Lead at the WordPress Foundation, recently published a vision for a “new era of WordPress,” advocating for a “federated and independent repository.”
Similarly, Karim Marucchi, CEO of Crowd Favorite, echoed similar sentiments. WP Engine has indicated its willingness to provide corporate support for such initiatives.
While Mullenweg has expressed support for the concept of forking, he sarcastically suggested the fork could be named “JakPress.”
In response to the deactivation of accounts belonging to Joost and Marucchi, who reportedly contribute 10 hours per week to the WordPress project, Mullenweg remarked, “This will help them focus on realizing their plans.”
Additionally, accounts belonging to C. Reid, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen have also been deactivated. Reid had recently founded the WP Community Collective, a nonprofit organization designed to serve as a neutral collaboration platform for the WordPress and open-source ecosystem.
Although the deactivation of accounts means these individuals can no longer contribute through WordPress.org, the code on GitHub remains open and accessible to anyone.
Mullenweg stated, “The beauty of open source is that you can work without permission. If their new project succeeds, we might even integrate it into WordPress.” Source: TechCrunch
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