I’ve been a voice of reason concerning the recent kerfuffle in the WordPress world, but I have to be honest – it’s getting a bit silly, in my opinion. I’m used to seeing corporate interests do battle legally, or in the press, or both – it’s unfortunate but not uncommon. I’ve read gossip magazines, and watched “reality” shows and teen dramas, and I know how that all works, too. What I’d rather not see is what appears to be some combination of these two worlds clashing in a space where I have business interests. The way Matt Mullenweg has been behaving over the past several weeks has been, in my opinion, almost more akin to the behavior of a jealous character in a romcom than that of a professional.
I’ve long been a proponent of open source software and WordPress, specifically – as I’ve stated in previous blog posts and discussed with clients and on my social media. While I haven’t contributed much in the way of code, I’ve contributed documentation, money, and made referrals and suggestions to many clients and employers over my decades-long career in tech that help the open source community grow. As such, I consider myself part of the open source community, even if a small part. With that in mind, I find it outright offensive that I have to tick a box denying any affiliation with WP Engine in order to log in at the WordPress.org site. As of this writing, anyone logging in at wordpress.org “to contribute to WordPress, get help in the support forum, or rate and review themes and plugins” is presented with a sort of disclaimer statement and checkbox saying “I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way, financially or otherwise.”
My website and those of several of my clients are hosted on WP Engine. I’ve personally recommended WP Engine to many – I even have a WP Engine drinking glass that I got from an account rep back when I was part of migrating Etsy’s WordPress installation(s) there many years ago (full disclosure: I am no longer employed or affiliated with Etsy, and cannot speak to their current blog infrastructure.) Does that mean I’m “affiliated” with WP Engine? I certainly don’t speak on behalf of them in any official capacity and am not a spokesperson or employee. I’m engaged in legal agreements as far as any customer of any hosting provider is, i.e., I’ve agreed to pay them in exchange for their services. Is that a financial affiliation? One of the key benefits of open source software, in my experience, has been the Freedom of the matter. Not so much the aspect of “free as in no-financial cost,” rather, “free as in unencumbered by corporate interests.”
I’ve gladly paid for “Free” software in the past, in the form of linux distributions on physical media (yes, that used to be a thing!), merchandise like t-shirts and stickers, and even direct donations to projects. I’ve never done that because I had to. I was never made to sign a legal agreement, or coerced in any way. There was no guilt involved, no blame assigned to me for “taking and not giving” that led me to contribute in the ways I have, and I’ve always understood that it’s not a requirement. Those who want to contribute can, and those who don’t want to aren’t ostracized. It’s not “part of the deal,” it’s not “quid pro quo.” Open source is open for all – at least that’s how I’ve always believed it. Even the WordPress Foundation about page mentions furthering a mission of “Open Source, GPL software.”
If you’re not familiar, the GPL is a software license, one of the first – if not the first, open source licenses to exist. In its preamble it states “The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program–to make sure it remains free software for all its users. We, the Free Software Foundation, use the GNU General Public License for most of our software…” Note that even the so-called Free Software Foundation itself doesn’t claim to use the GPL license for all of their software, and it’s noted very plainly that freedom to share and change all versions of a program are specific intents of the license itself.
There’s no “check this box to promise you’re not affiliated with this or that company,” that would be preposterous. I can’t speak for the WordPress community at large, but I am quite sure that many contributors to WordPress via code or otherwise don’t agree with the way Matt has been behaving. Asking people to denounce some company or organization when they log in is, frankly, petty, maybe even childish. At the very least it seems to me more emotional than intellectual, and it causes me to question Matt’s leadership capabilities. My opinion is just that – and while I stand by it, I’m not here to tell you that my opinion should be yours. As for myself, I’m feeling the urge to start withdrawing from the WordPress name and software. Not in a frantic rush to dump the CMS and migrate to another project or product, but definitely exploring other alternatives (which, by the way, are numerous!)