WordPress Drama Unfolding Live – Mary Hubbard Announced as New Executive Director of WordPress.org Amid Ongoing Drama

What we know so far about Matt Mullenweg’s issues with WP Engine, the WordPress hosting provider’s response, and our personal take on the whole messy situation.

On Friday evening, September 20, WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg took to the stage for a hotly anticipated Q&A session at WordCamp US, the biggest WordPress community gathering in North America. 

Typically, Mullenweg’s annual keynote address serves as a kind of year-in-review, reflecting on the progress and success within the open-source WordPress project and looking ahead to future plans. 

This year, however, the biggest news coming out of the Q&A at WordCamp US was the controversy surrounding Matt’s comments about WP Engine, calling the company ‘a cancer to WordPress.’

Read on for a full recap of the story so far along with our stance as proud members of the WordPress Community. 

Who is Matt Mullenweg and What Did He Do?

Matt Mullenweg is the original co-founder (along with Mike Little) of the free, open-source Content Management System (CSS) software, WordPress which powers almost half of all websites on the Internet.

Mullenweg is also the CEO of Automattic, a for-profit venture that owns the managed WordPress solution, WordPress.com, well-known WordPress plugins such as WooCommerce and Jetpack, and WordPress hosting company, Pressable. 

A staunch advocate for open source, Mullenweg fired his first shots in a blog he posted on Wednesday, evening, WordCamp US & Ecosystem Thinking on his own personal blog.

After briefly praising the WordCamp Contributor Day, the post quickly descended into a tirade against both Facebook parent company, Meta, Microsoft, and WP Engine, the latter of which is a rival to Automattic-owned hosting companies like Pressable and WPVIP).

Here’s what went down: 

Mullenweg vs. WP Engine – Timeline of Events

*Note: There’s a lot happening in the WordPress community around the #WPDRAMA. Apologies if we miss any bit along the way!

Analysis and Opinion: Our Take on the Mullenweg / WP Engine Controversy

The ongoing rivalry between Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine is certainly an unfortunate one. 

On the one hand, Mullenweg raises valuable points about those who have benefited from WordPress the most contributing their fair share to protecting and developing its future. 

To call WordPress a game-changer may be an understatement. 

From plugin and theme creation to WordPress development services, and even news and resource blog like ours, countless businesses and careers have been launched around WordPress.

That’s not to mention the countless small businesses and solopreneurs spanning all different industries and niches who enjoy success thanks -at least in part- to their WordPress website. 

So, this is truly something that’s worth all of us looking after, and those who are in a privileged position to contribute to its preservation and evolution should certainly take that responsibility seriously. 

On the other hand, this only serves to stoke the fires of a debate about a possible conflict of interest.

Last year, Automattic cloned the WordPress.org plugin directory and published it on WordPress.com. As a result, plugin pages for the paid-for .com version of WordPress ranked hire than their open-source .org counterparts. 

The move sparked conversations about whether Mullenweg’s commercial interests were at odds with his non-profit leadership role, conversations which are still ongoing and -to some extent- perhaps distracting from all of the positive things going on with the WordPress platform right now. 

What Does This Mean for WordPress-Based Companies?

Speaking of conversations worth having, we’re curious how the accusations of trademark violations will affect other businesses for whom WordPress is an integral part of their service.

WP Engine are far from the only company relying on the WP initials and promoting themselves as a company that provides solutions for WordPress users. 

From conversion optimization tools like WP Optimize and WP Rocket to theme developers Kadence WP, and even our own blog, WPLift, those initials are widely used in relation to WordPress and, according to WordPress Foundation guidelines, that seems to be OK as long as it doesn’t create market confusion. 

If the trademark violation challenge is successful, will this impact the way other WordPress hosting, development, and publishing companies brand their work?

Mullenweg vs. WP Engine Steals the Spotlight From WordCamp US 2024

At this point, the Mullenweg / WP Engine saga certainly raises more questions than it answers, and we’re sure we haven’t heard the last from either side. 

For now though, our key takeaway from all this, is that it’s a sad story to have to report on. 

Imagine attending WordCamp, gaining tremendous value from the presentations and opportunity to network, and looking forward to wrapping the whole thing up with an inspiring talk from ‘Mr. WordPress’ himself, only to find yourself sitting front row for a drama that nobody other than Mullenweg wanted. 

It’s not just that it’s a disappointing way to end the conference. It’s pretty much the only thing anybody is talking about from WordCamp 2024, stealing the spotlight away from the many volunteers, speakers, vendors, and sponsors who worked so hard to make the event a success.

What’s more, it also steals the spotlight away from WordPress itself. When the talk of the town centers around the co-founder launching a public attack on a commercial competitor, it distracts from those useful, forward-thinking conversations about how truly great WordPress is, and how much better it can be. 

Don’t worry though. While we felt compelled to comment on this weekend’s big story, it’s far from the only thing we’ll talk about. 

Here at WPLift, we love WordPress. So we’ll still be here celebrating and supporting the creators, developers, and end-users who make the WordPress community so special.