Matt Mullenweg Deactivates WordPress Accounts Over Fork Plans
Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg has taken the controversial step of deactivating the accounts of several members of the WordPress.org community. This move affects those who are at the forefront of proposing a new fork of the WordPress project.
The tension within the community stems from longstanding governance issues, amplified notably in September. Mullenweg sparked controversy by criticizing WP Engine, a prominent WordPress-focused hosting company, accusing it of benefitting without reciprocation. The conflict escalated with WP Engine's subsequent legal actions after being banned from accessing key WordPress resources, which a court later ordered to be reinstated.
Within this backdrop, influential community figures have emerged advocating a shift. Joost de Valk, famed for creating the WordPress SEO tool Yoast and a former WordPress Foundation leader, shared his vision for a federated WordPress future, hinting at potential forks. Likewise, Karim Marucchi, CEO of Crowd Favorite, supported these notions in a public blog post.
Meanwhile, WP Engine has signaled its readiness to support such an initiative if required.
Despite the turmoil, Mullenweg has expressed public support for the concept of a WordPress fork, emphasizing the open-source benefits of such a venture. A fork, in the open-source lexicon, allows developers to take project code and evolve it independently, potentially merging back into the original project later.
Community Division Deepens
This week, Automattic announced a reduction in its contribution to the WordPress core project, paralleling WP Engine's input measured in work hours. This prompted de Valk to declare his readiness to spearhead future WordPress releases, with Marucchi also confirming his team’s preparedness for the task.
Both de Valk and Marucchi together contribute approximately 10 hours weekly to the WordPress project's open-source efforts. In a tone marked by sarcasm, Mullenweg declared the deactivation of their WordPress.org accounts to "give their independent effort the push it needs to get off the ground."
Further, Mullenweg announced the deactivation of accounts belonging to Sè Reed, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen, with minimal justification provided. Reed is notable as the president and CEO of the newly incorporated WP Community Collective, intended as a neutral platform for open-source collaboration.
Heather Burns, a past contributor, expressed shock over her deactivation on social media, noting her disengagement since 2020. Additionally, Morten Rand-Hendriksen suggested that their exclusion stemmed from previous challenges to WordPress governance, dating back to 2017.
"Why is he [Mullenweg] targeting Heather and me? Because we began discussing proper governance, accountability, and policy needs in 2017, and apparently, he still harbors a grudge," Rand-Hendriksen claimed.
The deactivation of a WordPress.org account essentially limits user contributions to both the core project and any affiliated plugins or themes. However, given GitHub's hosting, project forking remains accessible.
With a hint of irony, Mullenweg proposed naming any new fork "JKPress" and suggested a joint summit next year. "Joost and Karim have robust and intriguing ideas, and I am genuinely interested in observing their results," Mullenweg stated. He championed the open-source ethos, allowing developers to innovate freely. "If they craft something remarkable, we might even merge it back into WordPress," he concluded.