WordPress the supply chain is currently dependent on wordpress.org. The community is working to route around this by decentralising distribution - see efforts such as AspirePress.
WordPress the software development project is dependent on wordpress.org, and there is no way to route around this unless Matt agrees to give up his DFL position or a fork is created.
WordPress the brand is being tarnished, mostly by Matt’s actions. wpdrama creates a riskier environment when assessing whether to use it as a CMS.
WordPress the community is being denigrated and diminished. Again, I think only a change in governance can resolve that.
The one thing I’ve learned from all this drama is that all of the separated components of “WordPress”, from the .com to the .org and from the code to the hosting, were mostly superficial. Mullenweg appears to be equally in control of all of them and throws his weight around wherever it suits his agenda.
I know Matt hangs around these parts and at no turn have I seen him engage in curious conversation.
Basically what I have seen is emotional outbursts and crusading against the windmills.
I don't have any stake in this drama since I haven't used WordPress for something like 13 years, buy to me this feels like crab bucket mentality, going after Mullenweg because he feels like a target that could actually be taken down as opposed to people like Zuck/Page/Brin/Nadella/etc who are truly untouchable. The level of vitriol just seems unreasonably high for something that isn't really that big of a deal.
I cannot understand how he is the guy in charge of all of this.
There is no viable way to separate without forking the project and using a different name. Mullenweg is already trying to make like difficult for anyone he suspects might be thinking about forking, so anyone leading a fork has to assume that Mullenweg is going to make their life hell. He’s not afraid of dumping money into lawsuits to crush people, so forking WP is a scary proposition.
Besides an org like that that would do it for ideological reasons, the only other party would be some large org that is deeply invested in the WP ecosystem. I imagine there is some ecomm giant that's probably got 8 or 9 figures sunk into WP, for them it would be worthwhile to fork as it would likely be cheaper than migrating to another solution, but that's a hard maybe because you would need the right org with the right set of priorities to take on something like this.
All of this is just pure speculation, if I'm being honest I find it unlikely that either scenario plays out in the real world.
Counting income + assets - liabilities - expenses:
Mozilla ~142.7 million https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/200...
Linux Foundation ~136 million https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/460...
Apache has ~4.25 million based on https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/470...
FSF - 902k if I did the math right on this (ouch) https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/428...
Not sure I'd trust FSF to steward a project. Apache could but it feels like they're almost a graveyard.
Also not sure I'd want Linux to control it based on the latest Chrome/Google dealings.
Not a huge fan of Mozilla, but it's somewhat in their wheelhouse, at least.
What else is there for tech non-profits and dev stewardship of something like this?
Drupal community to benefit here tremendously. As well as consultant work to migrate away from WP
“Why did you do this thing?”
“Sir, you told us to.”
“Don’t argue with me. You’re fired”
"Hire great engineers that have sustainability in their bones"
Actual implementation by the grifters : Hire other grifters with Sustainability in their resume, whose only job is to act as gatekeepers with psuedo-science garbage and make this team as big as the Engineering Team.
It's perfectly fine for the leader to look at the implementation and say "what's this fucking bullshit and cut everything".
These concepts are of course completely alien to leader/rich-hating HN
https://anderegg.ca/2025/01/11/wordpress-is-in-trouble