Responding to DHH’s thoughtful critique “Open source royalty and mad kings,” Matt published (and swiftly deleted ) a post attacking DHH’s character. He claimed DHH’s “toxic personality and inability to scale teams” led to others capturing the value of his inventions.
This ad hominem response to DHH’s measured criticism suggests Matt’s actions are remaining consistently erratic. But does the post’s deletion hint at a possible moment of self-awareness?
DHH’s response:
Maybe I’m supposed to get mad at this, but instead I just get sad. Mullenweg clearly sees it as a failure to create much more value in the world than what you capture, and maybe that’s the root of our differences. I see that as a proud achievement.
I’m thrilled that Shopify came to be worth damn near $100 billion using Rails. I wouldn’t want to trade Basecamp for Atlassian (or any other company!). And to me it’s beautiful to inspire others without needing them to pay you a cut! Different strokes, I guess!
So I’ll reaffirm my wish that WordPress finds a way out of this mess. And Matt too. Even Automattic. I don’t think people are irredeemable, and I know how stressful it can be to be under siege. But you have to stop digging to get out of a hole.
DHH
The general tone of responses online seems to be summed up by this:
But this appears to be a first attempt at trying to understand what might be behind the meltdown:
with the main gist being:
Matt is likely needing to raise money, but can’t at a valuation that doesn’t materially weaken his ownership and/or control. He’s fighting to try and get revenue from anywhere to avoid this. Even manufacturing BS to attack WPEngine.
We’re going to continue to see founders appearing to be batshit crazy, when the original sin was likely raising at an absurd multiple, and not seeing how that can really screw a business down the track.
John-Daniel Trask
And now a core contributor is stepping down (credit: Mullenweg.wtf)
I am no longer contributing to WordPress as things stand.
Scott Kingsley Clark, Fields API Team Leader
