Search Engine Journal: WordPress Jubilee Of Forgiveness Continues. “Last week, WordPress declared a ‘jubilee’ and is unblocking all community members who were previously blocked. The official WordPress X (formerly Twitter) account posted a reminder that the unblocking is still ongoing.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/02/search-engine-journal-wordpress-jubilee-of-forgiveness-continues/
Luke Harris says ‘No more WordPress’ — https://nuclearbits.com/luke-harris-says-no-more-wordpress/
Luke Harris, writing on his blog:
After 14 years I’m out. All of the WordPress sites I managed have been converted to static sites or Kirby. The expensive Cloudways server has been shut down. GeneratePress, GenerateBlocks, Akismet, and ManageWP cancelled. WordPress dot com accounts deleted. Feels good.
It’s really sad to see such experienced Wordpress supporters go away from the platform, […]
Luke Harris, writing on his blog: After 14 years I’m out. All of the WordPress sites I managed have been converted to static sites or Kirby. The expensive Cloudways server has been shut down. GeneratePress, GenerateBlocks, Akismet, and ManageWP cancelled. WordPress dot com accounts deleted. Feels good. It's really sad…
How Will the Recent WordPress Drama Impact Open-Source Software?
In case you missed it, the #WordPressDrama is a giant hoohaa where it seems the founder of WordPress has gone off the deep end burning everything down around him. All that really has happened is the guy has had a series of tantrums and is now facing lawsuits resulting from his actions.
There are far better summaries of the WordPress drama by WPBeginner and The Verge if you want all the hot gossip. This behaviour has not been without consequences. This is why I invited CEOs, business founders, and other experts to help me answer how the drama with WordPress will impact open-source software.
These are the replies I received.
Decentralization Is the Future of Open Source
As CTO of a platform serving 100K+ users, the recent WordPress drama taught me a crucial lesson: decentralization is the future of open source. While maintaining our WordPress-based products, we’ve already shifted our new projects to a federation-based development model where no single entity has complete control.
Build governance protocols before they’re needed. We now require a 75% consensus from our core contributor community for major architectural changes, preventing the exact situation WordPress faced. The WordPress drama isn’t about updates or testing-it’s a wake-up call that open source needs democratic governance as much as it needs open code.
Jessica Shee, Tech Editor & Marketing Manager, M3datarecovery.com
Redefine Innovation and Community Cohesion
I think the #WordPressDrama will force open-source projects to redefine the intersection between innovation and community cohesion. As I’ve witnessed, incidents like these illustrate how easily trust gets damaged when contributors aren’t treated well. It will probably push open-source communities to formalize decision-making, such as contributor councils or weighted voting.
These frameworks guarantee that key decisions are made by the masses and not the few, which would help avoid conflict and strengthen feelings of ownership. This would, I believe, lead to a higher adoption rate for releases and enhancements because both developers and users feel more engaged in the direction of the project.
Most open-source projects are heavily based on volunteers and thus cannot scale as effectively. This drama, I believe, will drive more initiatives to do hybrid funding, with a mix of community and paid services or sponsorships. This would provide predictable resource usage for important releases without sacrificing the open-source community feel.
Anders Bill, Cofounder/CPO, Superfiliate
Balance Between Commercial and Open-Source Ethos
The #WordPressDrama highlights the ongoing tensions between commercial interests and the open-source ethos, which could fundamentally reshape the future of open-source software. As WordPress continues to evolve, the increasing corporate influence might push the platform toward more closed systems, challenging the community-driven ideals that initially made open-source software so successful. At Software House, we see this as an opportunity for developers and companies to innovate in a way that emphasizes transparency and collaboration, ensuring that the spirit of open-source remains intact despite external pressures.
However, this also presents a chance for the broader open-source community to reflect on its sustainability. If more proprietary elements are introduced into core platforms like WordPress, other open-source projects may need to adopt new business models to remain viable without compromising their values. As we look ahead, businesses and developers will need to be proactive in preserving open-source principles while adapting to the evolving landscape. The future of open-source could depend on finding a balance between innovation, community involvement, and financial sustainability.
Shehar Yar, CEO, Software House
Offer Diverse CMS Solutions
At Maplin.com, we’ve been closely watching the WordPress situation since many of our tech-savvy customers use it for their online stores and blogs. Just yesterday, I had a long chat with our development team about possibly offering more diverse CMS solutions in our business services package, especially seeing how this drama has made some of our clients nervous about relying too heavily on one platform. I think this whole situation will actually lead to more innovation in the open-source space, with smaller players getting more attention and potentially better funding.
Ollie Marshall, CEO, Maplin
Contribute More to Open-Source Communities
The saga is stirring up some big questions about the future of open-source software and how companies should contribute to the communities they benefit from. It’s basically about the tension between staying true to open-source values and dealing with the realities of businesses making money off those platforms without giving much back. This isn’t just a WordPress thing, it’s a wake-up call for how open-source projects are run and how they can stay sustainable.
It’s clear that companies using open-source tools need to do more than just take; they need to contribute in meaningful ways, whether that’s code, funding, or support. At the same time, these communities need better rules and systems to keep things fair and balanced. Honestly, it’s a tough but necessary conversation, and it might push the whole open-source world to step up and figure out how to handle these relationships better. If anything, it’s proof that the open-source ecosystem is evolving, and hopefully for the better.
Inge Von Aulock, Founder & COO, Penfriend
Over to you
I am extremely grateful for the time this post’s contributors took to give me answers. I think they offer a lot of hope that this is neither the end of WordPress nor of Open Source as a whole.
Now I would love to hear what you think. How will this drama shape the future of WordPress and Open Source projects?
Syndicated to:#experts #OpenSource #theFuture #WordPress #WordPressDrama #TechNews
"Because let’s face it folks, if I wanted to spend my Saturdays having frothing-at-the-mouth paranoia thrown at me by an semi-incontinent substance addict with mutually obsessive mother issues, I’d have stayed married."
Heather Burns turns Matt Mullenweg into a smoldering heap of ashes.
https://heatherburns.tech/2025/01/12/another-day-of-stochastic-harassment-for-old-times-sake/
I’ve mostly stayed quiet about the WordPress drama, and I was starting to see Matt Mullenweg’s point that wp engine should contribute more to the project. However, the way he’s handled the situation, especially his recent response, raises serious concerns about the future of WordPress.
#wordpress #opensource #webdevelopment #techcommunity #wordpressdrama
I created a bluesky account this morning purely so I could conveniently follow a thread about the #wordpressdrama courtroom action. I don't plan on posting there though.
Here's a good reason to not be reliant on privately-owned platforms and how you don't own your account, your followers, or any of it: https://www.404media.co/xs-objection-to-the-onion-buying-infowars-is-a-reminder-you-do-not-own-your-social-media-accounts/
WordPress vs. WP Engine Feud: Should You Move Your Site Away from WP Engine?
Dissecting the WordPress and WP Engine Drama and Making an Argument for Ditching the Latter
#WPDrama #WordPressvWPEngine #WPvWPE #WordPress #WPEngine #WordPressDrama #Tech #Technology #CMS #ManiaTech #ManiaDevelopers
I'm looking for CMS recommendations, including possibly a headless CMS with a statically built site (I'm actually leaning in that direction).
In the past, I would normally just use #WordPress, but with the latest #WordPressDrama, I'm honestly concerned about its future.
The project I'm working on is for my Church. It's not for a single congregation, though. It's a regional thing serving ten congregations across the South Houston, Texas region. Not a huge amount of traffic, but not inconsequential.
Here are some basic requirements. I need it to support multiple users, with role based access. I need some amount of extensibility, as I plan to build out more features over time, including notifications of new content being pushed out to various destinations (SMS, mobile push, etc.). I haven't discussed with the church leaders what the budget is, but I imagine minimizing costs would also be a need. Localization will also be a concern. Seven of the congregations are English-speaking, two are Spanish, and one is Mandarin. So being able to have some content available in all three languages would be beneficial.
Any customization will be built by me, so, a language I'm familiar with, or can reasonably easily learn would be good. So, PHP, go, or node are the best options.
The site will host a few different things. It will serve as a directory of resources for folks with various needs. It will also serve as a hub for announcements.
Right now, I'm looking at a Directus headless CMS, hosted probably on AWS or DigitalOcean, and probably an Eleventy generated site, probably hosted on Netlify or Vercel. But, I'm certainly not married to the idea. And I still haven't completely ruled out just using WordPress, or perhaps even ClassicPress.
It's been so long since I've set up a content-driven site (aside from my own personal sites, which just use hugo), that I'm not sure what the best options are nowadays. Suggestions for hosting are also appreciated.
#WebDevelopment #AskFedi #AskFediverse #AskMastodon #BoostsWelcome #PleaseBoost
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