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 ostensibly represents open-source principles with what appears to be a heavy-handed power play. Even those who typically view WP Engine as the deep-pocketed behemoth in contrast to the seemingly (but not really) scrappier WordPress side find themselves questioning the ethics of this move.

Weaponizing open source code registries is something we simply cannot allow to form precedence. They must remain neutral territory. Little Switzerlands in a world of constant commercial skirmishes.

Imagine this happening on npm? Imagine Meta getting into a legal dispute with Microsoft (the owners of GitHub, who in turn own npm), and Microsoft responding by directing GitHub to ban all Meta employees from accessing their repositories. And then Microsoft just takes over the official React repository, pointing it to their own Super React fork. This is the kind of crazy we’re talking about.

David Heinemeier Hansson

I worked at Automattic for 5 years with some of the smartest & kindest people I’ve ever met – many I still consider friends But this latest action from @photomatt is so dirty & underhanded I’m ashamed I ever worked there I would have taken the offer to leave 100%.

Ian Nuttall

Unreal. This is a hostile takeover and it cannot stand. The hostile takeover of the Advanced Custom Fields plugin, hurts developers trust and is now hurting WordPress as a whole: https://coenjacobs.com/blog/hostile-takeover-advanced-custom-fields-plugin-hurts-developers-trust/

Coen Jacobs