Well don't I feel stupid

Alt Ctrl Org Draws 200+ for Open Discussion on WordPress, Free Software, and Governance The Alt Ctrl Org side event, held alongside WordCamp Europe 2025 in Basel, was initially envisioned as an informal meetup and a safe space for free expression and discussion about the open web.

Alt Ctrl Org Draws 200+ for Open Discussion on WordPress, Free Software, and Governance

Matt: "Joost and Karim should go away and use open source to build a fork of WordPress with their ideals around governance."

Joost & Karim: **Build something in 6 months that match their ideas of governance**

Matt: "OMFG they built something in SECRET".

#WCEU

Looking for somebody to sponsor in WordPress? Rian Rietveld is looking for sponsorship to work on Accessibility documentation, and we need her! rianrietveld.com/2025/05/19/w... #WordPress #a11y

dora with binoculars

dina with binoculars

dora with a map

dina with a map

Ever since I was reminded that Isabela Merced was also Dora the Explorer, I haven't been able to unsee it. #TheLastOfUs

Good point about the typing. I worked on a small WP core ticket to disallow bullets (as in bullet lists) in slugs. Turned out there are half a dozen of those in unicode, barely distinguishable from each other.

WP uses a rather short denylist of characters that are not allowed in post slugs. This surprised me because this means that pretty much all unicode emoji are allowed.

Older applications that use non-unicode character encoding may have trouble displaying/using this url, I guess.

Geen woorden maar dadels! 👍

😬

Look, let's agree to disagree? The court case is going to be interesting.

I'm sorry, but that is just simply not true. The trademark protects the name and logo. Not the software, and certainly not its settings.

Every WP install uses different settings. No two wp-config files are the same, and user preferences differ greatly. This would mean everyone is in violation.

Je smart birdfeeder meenemen naar je midweek Veluwe is wel een aanrader

I'm convinced that's not true. Hosting on your own infrastructure does not constitute distribution as the GPL is concerned. And wp-config is expressly intended to be modified.

Which plugin are you talking about btw?

I don't think WP Engine is modifying WordPress core files? A simple mu-plugin will suffice to limit revisions and such.

But also, there's a major difference since they're hosting, not distributing.

Anyway, IANAL. But I have lost a lot of faith in Matt.

Let’s be clear: Karim and I asked for and proposed change inside the #WordPress project.

*We* did not talk about a fork.

Aligning Automattic’s Sponsored Contributions to WordPress Automattic has always been deeply committed to the success of WordPress, dedicating significant resources and talent to its development for almost two decades. However, we’ve observed an imbalance …

Wow. 😑

Why is a8c matching who they perceive to be the worst in the space?

Why is “community” in quotes?

I continue to be really disappointed in Matt’s decisions, rhetoric, and stubbornness.

This post has the opposite effect it’s intending I think.

automattic.com/2025/01/09/a...

Asked & answered.

Gold Banner on Red Background: Stop Forcing A.I. into Fucking EVERYTHING! Nobody Asked For It; Everyone Hates It

Stop Forcing A.I. into Fucking EVERYTHING!

WordPress Contributors and Community Leaders Call for Governance Reform in Rare Open Letter A group of WordPress contributors, including long-time core committers and community leaders, has issued a rare call for changes to the governance of the open-source project. The group is urging…

WordPress Contributors and Community Leaders Call for Governance Reform in Rare Open Letter

WordPress, and what should be on its roadmap I was reading Hendrik Luehrsen’s excellent post “WordPress isn’t WordPress anymore“, and I decided I had to write more about this. I recently spoke at WordCamp NL about “The missing features of WordPr...

It's clear that #WordPress is at a crossroads, whether we want it to be or not. As a result, it's good to talk about what it is, and what it should do, so, I wrote a post about that:

joost.blog/wordpress-ro...

WordPress CEO Rage Quits Community Slack After Court Injunction Automattic is ordered to undo several of the actions of its CEO Matt Mullenweg in its ongoing legal battle with WP Engine. “It's hard to imagine wanting to continue to working on WordPress after this,...

Mullenweg is such a little man-baby

WordPress CEO Rage Quits Community Slack After Court Injunction

www.404media.co/wordpress-wp...

Does anyone know when the #Automattic vs #WPEngine injunction proceedings will... proceed?

The dueling orders are available, but I found the judge's calendar online and it does not mention the case at all?

No idea how these things work. Getting mild #WPDrama withdrawal symptoms 😉.

#WordPress

Ha. Thanks to how browsers suggest sites from your history, all I have to type into the address bar to open Bluesky is 'bs'. Fair.

Talked to a lot of people #WCNL about the current #WPDrama situation, and absolutely nobody agreed with Matt's actions towards WP Engine.

WordPress is not at war with WP Engine, Matt is.

Liesbeth smiling with her badge

I'm strategically starting with Bluesky at #WCNL! So help me find others here and talk to me in the next two days. My aim at any WordCamp is to make lots of new friends!

Good morning, The Hague. Off to #WCNL in a bit. Looking forward to seeing my #WordPress friends.

Oh sure, but in this case the agenda is just wrong. Everything WP Engine is doing is explicitly allowed by the GPL. And the "trademark violation" is them doing exactly what all WP hosts do.

So either sue everyone, or accept that contributions are optional.

But that would only be bad for WP Engine? I'd hope their plugins would get forked in that scenario, but there are plenty of other hosting options?

Matt's actions on the other hand have eroded trust, and are truly harming WordPress.

I'm not convinced WP Engine is actually a threat. Matt argued that venture capital usually means that prices will go up, and quality down. So that should fix itself, eventually.

If he really wants to conserve WordPress itself, he should set up proper, democratic governance.