Matt Mullenweg & Automattic/WordPress vs WP Engine

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skunt said:
Matt gets a fucking nosebleed during another softball interview today and just keeps on trucking (or doesn't notice?)
https://youtu.be/WU3sd1kDFLg?t=1221 preservetube
If it wasn't obvious by now, this man is unwell.
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Wild. And yeah, he doesn't even seem to realize it. The interviewer doesn't acknowledge it either.
The YT commenters think drugs are to blame:
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Some tweets about the recent drama:
https://x.com/wp_acf/status/1845169499064107049 [Archive]
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We have been made aware that the Advanced Custom Fields plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress dot org.
A plugin under active development has never been unilaterally and forcibly taken away from its creator without consent in the 21 year history of WordPress.
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This essential community promise has been violated, and we ask everyone to consider the ethics of such an action, and the new precedent that has been set.
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Some reactions to the whole Wordpress drama (just in general):
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@skunt, I think you should write up a relatively brief (& easy to understand) overview and post it in Community Happenings. This is a pretty interesting drama that deserves more attention.
 
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Ruby on rails founder tweets again and for the first time, WP Engine founder acknowledges what's going on with a retweet.
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ACF tweet at their userbase, nothing nobody wouldn't have expected.
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matt is absolutely unrelenting in that it's him versus them. gotta admire the dedication tbh. he doesn't mention of course, that ~10% of "the best PHP developers in the world" left his company over his decision making over the last few weeks.
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the wordpress subreddit is up in arms demanding Otto, an automattic employee, step down as subreddit moderator (archive).
the mods hit back with limiting ALL discussion about this drama to the megathreads and stating no moderators will be removed, followed by a lock (archive).

meanwhile, it's been found that otto has been a little naughty and was treading close to making threats in a comment a week ago? (archive)
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edit; a rascal has registered securecustomfields.com and redirected it to advancedcustomfields.com. This doesn't look to be of WP Engines doing as the registrar is different. Amusing nonetheless.

theverge has released an article on the plugin takeover (archive) but it's lazy and dogshit.
more wordpress core contributors are leaving https://github.com/sc0ttkclark/wordpress-fields-api/commit/0bd85ee6933fd04a8591da3efcd2a75dbd47826f
 
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He’s always been a complete piece of shit. But he cozied up to the right tech bloggers 20 years ago, which got him in good with VCs.

I hope his ex-gf Glenda Bautista from the early days of WP comes out and tells the world what he did to her. The shit I saw him inflict upon her in public was bad enough, so I can only imagine what she suffered behind closed doors.

Edit: She’s Glenda Bautista-Baker now. Content farms think she’s Dave Bautista’s ex-wife, but that bitch is 20 years older.
 
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Matt also authorized the cancellation of WP accounts that wrote mean blog posts about his rich friends.

I’m so glad he opened these floodgates. Matt has TONS of fucking skeletons he should be focused on hiding. This shit is just getting started.
 
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Thanks for putting this thread together. But I have a minor correction:
skunt said:
The founder of Ruby also wrote an article (archive).
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skunt said:
Ruby founder tweets again and for the first time, WP Engine founder acknowledges what's going on with a retweet.
View attachment 6515013
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DHH is not the creator of the programming language Ruby, he created the Ruby-based web application framework Ruby on Rails. This is like calling Matt the creator of PHP. Admittedly it's a common mistake, as Rails is probably the most widely-known and used thing made in Ruby.
 
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Temperance XIV said:
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"You know, I'm something of a developer myself"

If Matt decides to go full Samson and intentionally break as much of Wordpress as possible, how much destruction could it potentially do to the wider Internet?

An insane tech CEO or an Open Source founder is nothing new. But usually there are contingencies and limits on their power that can limit the possible damage.

But in this case, all these companies and customers and plugins are all so reliant on each other. With a lunatic at the centre of it, who has encouraged everyone who disagrees with him to quit.

Tampering with WooCommerce alone could fuck with so many people who wouldn't even realise what was going on. Automattic would eat a massive lawsuit if that happened, but he might not care.
 
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Nate Dingus said:
Tampering with WooCommerce alone could fuck with so many people who wouldn't even realise what was going on. Automattic would eat a massive lawsuit if that happened, but he might not care.
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The fact that he just appropriated ACF like that suggests Matt has little concept or care for what the consequences of his actions might be.

Reminder: This guy also claims to be all about “social justice,” railing against “colonialism” and other lunatic bullshit he imagines. But he’s happy to be an open thief and fuck with the livelihoods of everyone who relies on WP Engine for their income.
 
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skunt said:
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In this sole instance I have to agree with him, literally who is that?

Guy seems like a major narcissist, possibly with a side of drug problems. Love seeing people like this crack their nose open falling on the cold concrete, I'll have to keep tabs.
 
WTBOnlineFather said:
In this sole instance I have to agree with him, literally who is that?
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She’s clearly someone who has been a user and possibly a champion of his product. And he responded to her like the Grade A asshole he is. Literally no one who sees that will walk away with confidence in Automattic or WP.

From a business comms perspective, the shitty judgment on display from Mullenweg is astonishing. This is some “Let’s crash the company!” acting out.
 
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John Andrews Stan said:
She’s clearly someone who has been a user and possibly a champion of his product. And he responded to her like the Grade A asshole he is. Literally no one who sees that will walk away with confidence in Automattic or WP.

From a business comms perspective, the shitty judgment on display from Mullenweg is astonishing. This is some “Let’s crash the company!” acting out.
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I'm not defending him or anything but I've never seen someone get so demolished by a simple "Sorry, who are you?" before. She's baiting the narc by posting a receipt after paying money to WPE and seems genuinely surprised to see him returning the bants lol.
 
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WTBOnlineFather said:
I'm not defending him or anything but I've never seen someone get so demolished by a simple "Sorry, who are you?" before. She's baiting the narc by posting a receipt after paying money to WPE and seems genuinely surprised to see him returning the bants lol.
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You don't find it weird that a corporate twitter account is responding to a "nobody" that pinged nobody? It's not like they're providing support, it's just snark. Realistically, it should be lauded because companies throwing shade would be funny, but that's not how it works for corporations on social media unless you're some kind of meme company like wendys or that seafood place that trolls vegans. "People" expect professionalism and some kind of stability, this is just pointless bad optics that only serves to harm the brand & community.


WP Fusion developers issue a cease and desist to automattic as automattic are using the WP Fusion plugin to drive sales on wordpress.com.....sound familiar? (archive). Will be curious to see if other plugin developers follow suit.

Ruby on rails man made another post (archive).

Someone made this wpmustwin.com - (archive). I didn't read it fully but it's co-signed by a bunch of people seemingly involved with wordpress and former automattic employees. Sidenote, I believe this site is automatically updating the homepage with the usernames of people that sign, so behave. Or don't, I'm not your dad.
 
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Nate Dingus said:
If Matt decides to go full Samson and intentionally break as much of Wordpress as possible, how much destruction could it potentially do to the wider Internet?
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He could in theory take down a significant percentage of websites (but probably not a significant portion of traffic) by using Wordpress auto update to blow itself up. Most small time Wordpress users are told to enable auto updates of plugins and code and that could certainly be abused.

But it would be a blip and someone would make sure a fork was created and people would transition to it, but thousands of unmaintained sites would die and never return.
 
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