Author: Cypher

  • 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…

  • One response suggests an alternative governance structure for WP: Some think that this could be WP’s “MovableType moment”: You cannot simply decide that someone owes you money because they become successful. Shame on you. Darth Geoff New term just landed:…

  • The tech community is in a stir following Matt and Automattic’s forcible takeover of the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin from WP Engine. Reactions range from disbelief to concern, with many struggling to reconcile their support for the party that…

  • In a plot twist worthy of a tech thriller, Matt Mullenweg and Automattic have pulled off a digital sleight of hand that’s left the WordPress community slack-jawed. The target? None other than the beloved Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin. It…

    12 Oct 2024: ACF takeover
  • Today, users who logged on to the WP.org website were surprised by new additions to the login screen. By the end of the day these changes had settled to looking like this: WP users and contributors have rightfully requested to…

  • Automattic demanding 8% of WP Engine’s revenues because they’re not ‘giving back enough’ to WordPress is a wanton violation of general open source ideals and the specifics of the GPL license. I suspect Automattic wants to have their cake and…

  • WP Engine has now filed a lawsuit against Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, alleging a series of actions that seem at odds with the open-source ethos of WordPress. The complaint claims that Mullenweg demanded tens of millions of dollars…

  • Following their clients’ block from the WordPress directory for plugin and theme updates, WP Engine announces they have enabled a solution for their clients.

  • WordPress.org has lifted its ban on hosting provider WP Engine until October 1, after putting a block on it earlier this week. The block prevented several sites from updating their plug-ins and themes and exposing them to potential security risk.…

  • In a (perhaps un-)surprising turn of events, Matt as escalated his dispute with hosting provider WP Engine, accusing the company of trademark violations. This marks a significant intensification of the conflict that began just days ago when Mullenweg referred to…

  • The WordPress drama went up another notch on Wednesday after WordPress.org, the open source web-hosting software, banned hosting provider WP Engine from accessing its resources.

  • Matt publishes a link to the cease & desist against WP Engine: Automattic Inc. and WooCommerce, Inc., through their legal representatives, are demanding that WP Engine cease all unauthorized use of their trademarks (WORDPRESS, WOOCOMMERCE, and WOO). They insist that…

  • WPE appeared to be quiet in Matt’s attacks on them, but in a (probably expected) judo move they have now leveled some serious accusations against Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg. It seems the WordPress co-founder has stirred up a…

  • WordPress is a content management system, and the content is sacred. Every change you make to every page, every post, is tracked in a revision system, just like the Wikipedia. This means if you make a mistake, you can always undo it. It…

  • Since our founding in 2010, WP Engine has been deeply dedicated to advancing the use and adoption of WordPress through innovation, investment, and active community involvement. 

  • In a blog post on Matt’s site he makes the following claims agains WP Engine: In short, Matt frames the company as a profit-driven entity that benefits from, but doesn’t sufficiently support, the WordPress ecosystem.