Worried About WordPress

Monopolies are useful… until they’re not.

There are three reasons I keep going back to WordPress for many of my clients:

• Extensibility: The 20-year-old ecosystem can provide all the functions my clients could ever want through plugins
• Ownership: Because you house your website on your own server, there’s never a question of who owns your content. And you can pick up all the files and move to another server.
• The core platform is free, although premium plugins and builder overlays can add up in costs.

Every other, readily available, mainstream website builder system must be kept on their company servers where their functionality is often clumsy and their Terms and Services could change at any time.

• Webflow
• Squarespace
• Shopify
• WiX
• Weebly
• WordPress.com

WordPress Core is open-source, and was founded by and is led by Matt Mullenweg through the non-profit, WordPress Foundation. Unfortunately, Matt is also the founder and CEO of AutoMATTic, a multi-billion dollar company.

Until recently, Matt has been considered a ‘nice guy’ who sincerely believed WordPress.org’s mission “Democratize Publishing”. I have admired Matt and even written about it in the past.

Recently, I was shocked by actions Matt has taken that seem to be way out of character. He is currently in a trademark trial with WP-Engine, but what is really shocking is the weaponization of his power to block them, and anyone who objects to his tactics, from the open-source WordPress platform, plugin repository and discussion forums. TechCrunch has written comprehensively about the situation.

The volunteer, open-source community has conveyed their concerns to Matt, with some practical solutions, to no avail so far. Perhaps he is burnt out and has lost his way. Or perhaps he has fallen prey to Billionaire Syndrome, a condition of empathizing with the super rich instead of regular people.

Currently, Matt turned off several WordPress dot org services for the holidays, and made the threat,

“I hope to find the time, energy, and money to reopen all of this sometime in the new year.”

~Matt Mullenweg, WordPress.org

I, like so many others, are hoping Matt has a revelation over the holiday break about the conflicts and pain his dual role is causing.

I don’t know how this will impact the WordPress sites I’ve built. I’m keeping my eyes and ears open to developments.

Originally published in CLGolden Website Services, Dec 22, 2024