Today my WordPress.org account was disabled unexpectedly. I did not request that and I have received no communications with reasoning ahead of time or at the time of that being disabled (like most people who were deactivated on Slack or .org disabled).
This puts the @pods project at risk on .org since we've used the security best-practice of having release confirmations enabled on the Pods plugins on .org since they added that feature. To confirm a release, you must log into .org
This was an attack not just on me but also on the Pods project as it means we can't do releases. I have suspected this could happen since the WPE team was locked out of .org so I've already gotten consent from a long time Pods contributor for them to take over the .org listing.
Now that I have been locked out of .org officially, I made a formal request to transfer ownership of the Pods plugins into their control so that we can continue our normal release processes.
Nothing is safe here, unsure if his account will be locked or if Pods will be closed.
And now my WordPress.org Slack account has been deactivated, assuming that was part of the syncing of .org disabled accounts to deactivating WP Slack accounts. But still, that truly made the cut deeper and more official in my eyes.
OK so here's what happened today:
1. Someone on the plugins team saw Pods was transferred from a banned account (mine).
https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/transferring-your-plugin-to-a-new-owner/
2. 10:59AM today - The Pods plugin itself was taken away from Jory (long time Pods contributor who I requested it transferred to) pending getting this approval (after the fact).
3. Matt or whoever decides it's actually fine.
4. 2:15PM today - Plugin is transferred back to Jory
What if Jory wasn't "approved"? Does the plugin go to a MM loyalist? (EDIT: There's a process later in the thread)
How was Jory deemed "OK"?
ALSO: I've received this about the reason my .org account was disabled and my Slack account deactivated:
"From our notes, I see that there were multiple infringements against the WordPress .org guidelines or Code of Conduct. I unfortunately do not have the specifics for these"
This is wild to me, I still do not have any citable reasons why I have been removed from .org
I have resorted to using Twitter again to give more transparency about the situation and to publicly ask Matt what is going on.
This is wild to me, I still do not have any citable reasons why I have been removed from .org @photomatt Why did you disable my account? I would really like to know. I certainly did not clown π€‘ around and find out on .org Slack announcements like the others.
What happens when your account is blocked on .org but you are also a plugin owner:
* Your plugin may be closed outright
* Your plugin may be transferred to community (ACF >> SCF)
* Your plugin may be adopted by another user (but not in ACF's case)
If I knew that I would have to go before Matt/WP project leadership who would withhold ownership / manually approve, I would have transferred before Matt ever blocked my account. I was already preparing to do that at the time of the block, because I knew Matt was a wildcard.
My account has been unbanned and I'm successfully able to log into .org and the .org Slack.
Matt seemed to confirm that I was banned on .org because he thought I was exiting WP and abandoning my plugins.
We know this to not be true: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/10/13/fields-api-team-seeking-new-leadership/#comment-47225
At least I'm back.
I will not be transferring ownership of the Pods plugins back into my account at this time. I no longer trust that my account will remain activated and that normal procedures will be followed in the future. They will remain in the safe and capable care of one of our contributors.
@skc still weird for him to manually go out of his way to do that.
It's not like others have actually said prior to last month that they were leaving and have had plugins abandoned, but others are unable to continue development on them.
@skc I saw that comment thread randomly while reading the make blog and holy moly, it seems like you got banned because you didnβt refute his hostile shitpost comment precisely enough! You didnβt accept his offer either, of course. The bar is very high here, to say no to his ridiculousness without yourself descending into toxicity.
Glad youβre able to log in again! Your particular situation was making me very angry if Iβm honest.
@skc, multiple infringements; no specifics. :: eyeroll ::
without specifics your account should be reinstated, the burden is on them.
"I unfortunately do not have the specifics for these"
"You've broken rules, but I can't tell you which ones. All glory to the hypnotoad."
@skc what a mess, Matt just wants to watch the #WordPress world burn and blame his actions on market competitors. He's simply a jerk and a bully chasing profit. He could have kept all this between Automattic and WP Engine but decided to tear apart hard working, largely neutral, dot org contributors because it suits him.
He's openly challenging people to fork the project if they don't agree with him. This isn't leadership. https://wordpress.org/news/2024/10/spoon/
This unilateral action is insane and it will put careers and livelihoods at risk. We rely on WordPress for income and his public attitude hinders our ability to keep using WordPress in places like higher education where organizations value access to update plugins without interference. You know it's literally why the GPL was created.
I apologize for the thread hijack. I needed to vent.
@josephdickson I don't disagree at all about the consequences of Matt's actions. However I do believe he is acting for what he thinks are good reasons. I think it is unfair to claim it is about him being greedy.
The issue he is trying to solve actually makes sense. He wants to stop a company purely running for profit, and not giving back.
However, his solution to the problem is incredibly misguided. He does all the wrong things and is hurting the community in a big way.
@gigantos, I should have provided clarification of "profit chasing." I reacted to the 8% of WPE's revenue that's floated around. To me it sounds like that cash would go into Automattic's pocket.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/15/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-drama-explained/
@josephdickson yes, it is. But they would have used a significant amount of that on more development. He also gave them the option to contribute instead of paying.
If you listen to the talk he gave at WordCamp when he revealed his beef with WP Engine and Silver Lake, it is clear that he thinks they are stealing from the community.
Basically his argument appears to be that if the WP Engine customers had gone to any other provider, a bigger share of their payment would have gone back into WordPress.
With that said, his solution to the problem appears to be the worst possible way of handling it. He somehow managed to make the world think Silver Lake (a pure for profit organization) are the good guys in a case about open source.
@gigantos unfortunately, WordPress doesn't have a sustainable model to pay for continuous repository hosting and core development. The problem, Matt chose to force new rules on one company, its clients, employees, and past affiliates.
WordPress might need to introduce an enterprise service agreement required of ALL hosting providers to access dot org resources and trademarks. Perhaps similar to companies like Red Hat who charge for enterprise services. While Rocky Linux is available for free.
@josephdickson definitely, the trademark solution is not a great one as it requires closed door deals.
I think the goal is for this thing to be that, not sure it is working out: https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/
@gigantos There's nothing in the GPL that restricts charging for services. However, it should be applied equally, fairly, with a lot of advance notice to the entire community.
It could have been as simple as, [insert date] the WordPress Foundation now requires all hosting and management companies to agree to these new terms and services for access to dot org services, branding and trademarks. And sell that as a service WP Engine and everyone else.
@skc @pods Scott, thereβs a filter you can add so primary branch will update from GitHub via Git Updater.
https://git-updater.com/knowledge-base/wordpress-org-directory/
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