The WordPress Community: A Tale of Forks, Factions, and Future Visions
In a surprising move, Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator, Matt Mullenweg, deactivated several WordPress.org accounts. These accounts belonged to community members who were advocating for a new direction—a potential fork—of the WordPress open-source project. This decision sparked a wave of reactions within the community.
The recent tensions began in September when Mullenweg publicly criticized WP Engine, a hosting company that thrives on WordPress, for benefiting without giving back. This conflict escalated when WP Engine filed a lawsuit after being banned from accessing crucial WordPress resources. A court later ordered WordPress to restore this access.
“The beauty of open source is they can take all of the GPL code in WordPress and ship their vision. You don’t need permission, you can just do things.” – Matt Mullenweg
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Voices for Change
Amidst the turmoil, influential figures within the WordPress community like Joost de Valk and Karim Marucchi have stepped up. De Valk, known for creating Yoast SEO, published a vision for a “new WordPress era,” hinting at federated and independent repositories. Marucchi supported these ideas in a separate blog post.
- Joost de Valk: Former marketing lead for the WordPress Foundation.
- Karim Marucchi: CEO of Crowd Favorite.
A New Path Forward?
Mullenweg expressed support for the concept of a new WordPress fork—a process where contributors create a separate version of an open-source project. Automattic recently announced it would scale back its contributions to match WP Engine’s efforts.
This move prompted de Valk to suggest leading the next WordPress release, with Marucchi’s team poised to assist. Together, they contribute around ten hours weekly to various aspects of the project.
“I strongly encourage anyone who wants to try different leadership models or align with WP Engine to join up with their new effort.” – Matt Mullenweg
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A Wave of Deactivations
Mullenweg also deactivated accounts of Sé Reed, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen. Reed leads the WP Community Collective, aiming to provide neutral collaboration space within the broader open-source ecosystem.
“Why is he targeting Heather and me? Because we started talking about the need for proper governance…back in 2017.” – Morten Rand-Hendriksen
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The Future of Open Source Innovation
Despite these challenges, Mullenweg humorously suggested any new fork could be named “JKPress,” underscoring open source’s ability to foster innovation through free-flowing ideas and code.
The unfolding dynamics within the WordPress community highlight the power—and sometimes tension—of open-source collaboration. As these events play out, they reflect both challenges and opportunities inherent in collective innovation.
