Since 2008, Off on a Tangent has utilized the WordPress open-source content management system (CMS). WordPress began when Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little created a fork of a predecessor called b2/cafelog. Mullenweg is now the CEO of Automattic, the company that owns WordPress.com and contributes to the open source WordPress CMS. He is also the director of the WordPress Foundation.
In the parlance of the open-source software world, Mullenweg is WordPress’s BDFL: the “Benevolent Dictator for Life.”
WordPress is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2, an open-source license that allows users to modify and re-distribute the system with relatively few limitations. The software is free (in the monetary and philosophical senses), but Mullenweg’s organizations own the WordPress trademarks, including the name and logo, and run the WordPress.com services that the open-source CMS uses for installing updates, plugins, and themes.
In 2024, Mullenweg accused the WP Engine hosting company—which sells hosted WordPress packages—of violating WordPress trademarks and being insufficiently supportive of the open-source project. It is true that WP Engine has leaned on the WordPress trademarks to sell its services, but I see no evidence of intentional, meaningful violations. Hosting companies—whether or not they have paid for a trademark license—are allowed to say they are using WordPress. And, until very recently, Mullenweg’s organizations did not object to companies and projects using “WP” in their name.
It is a good practice for companies to contribute back to the open source software projects they use, but they are not obligated to do so. Users of WordPress have to comply with it’s license. That’s all.
If Mullenweg wanted to impose greater restrictions on how the software was used and what contributions were expected in return, he could have built the platform under a different license. If Mullenweg wanted to restrict how the WordPress name and logo was used—and who could put “WP” in their name—he could have asserted that a long time ago. He didn’t. Now he’s trying to change the rules of the game because he doesn’t like one of the players.
When WP Engine didn’t give in, Mullenweg arbitrarily blocked WordPress.com services for all WP Engine customers. Any user of WordPress, no matter where the system was hosted, was encouraged to use WordPress.com’s upgrade services, plugin repository, and theme repository. And then, for customers on one particular hosting provider, those services suddenly stopped working. Of course Mullenweg’s organizations have a right to provide—or not provide—services to whoever they want . . . but this was an egregious violation of the ‘unwritten contract’ between Mullenweg and the WordPress user community.
When some influential WordPress users called for clear rules and more community-based management structure, he locked their WordPress.com and WordPress.org accounts and wished them luck. He also arbitrarily seized the WordPress.com plugin repository’s version of a plugin that was built and maintained by WP Engine. Who’s to say my website’s access to the WordPress.com services won’t get pulled next if Mullenweg doesn’t like what I’m saying here? So much for a system that’s supposedly meant to “democratize publishing” and give everybody “the freedom to build[,] the freedom to change[, and] the freedom to share.”
In response to these developments:
- I have disabled certain WordPress features to ensure that WordPress.com and Automattic cannot deploy any unauthorized code to this website.
- I am investigating migration options—including WordPress forks and other content management systems—for future versions of this website.
- Until further notice, I will not donate to WordPress, link to WordPress, or mention WordPress except to the least extent required by the GNU General Public License, version 2. Previous references in the About pages now refer to an unnamed “open-source publishing platform.”
- I will not consider resuming support for WordPress until Mullenweg establishes a neutral, stable, grown-up leadership structure for the WordPress open source project.
Adopted February 22, 2025