It's a new year, but the drama in the WordPress community continues. AutomaticallyThe company that runs WordPress.com said it will reduce its support for the open source project that serves as the backbone of most of Automattic's products and ensures WordPress' longevity.
Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg also joined. A WP engine kerfuffle As an open-source and community project, we have been supporting WordPress since September last year
iIn a Blog postThe company said it would reduce the number of committed hours. Five For the Future program To match rival hosting provider WP Engine's support in terms of weekly hours.
“As part of this reset, Automattic will match commitments made to volunteer with WP Engine and other players in the ecosystem, or work approximately 45 hours per week qualifying under the Five For the Future program, the company alone. These hours will likely go toward security and critical updates,” Automattic said in its latest blog post.
The company added that it will redirect resources to the ongoing legal battle against WP Engine.
Mullenweg at an event last year WP Engine called “WordPress from Cancer”; Private equity firm Silver Lake owns a large stake in the company, pointing to a lack of support from hosting providers to support sustainable growth. In a new blog post, Automattic reiterated this point.
“WP Engine's historically thin contributions highlight an imbalance that must be addressed for the health of WordPress. We believe in fairness and shared responsibility and hope this move will encourage greater participation across all organizations benefiting from WordPress,” said Automattic.
Automattic is here to help. 2,560 hours per week, according to Five for The Future's dashboard. This number is significantly less than the 3,900 hours per week the company provided in September. It is not clear whether this is due to the reduction. The company's head count is declining. or changing general strategy.
In a new blog post from the company, members of the “community” at WordPress.com, Pressable WVPIP Arguably noted that they are considering working on commercial products like Jetpack and WooCommerce. So engineers will focus on building those products instead of supporting WordPress core. Automattic is also under pressure to perform better from a financial standpoint. In December, BlackRock It reduced its investment in Automattic by 10%. — This is not the first sign. Generally, the investment company values its investment by more than 50 percent.
The new directive regarding community project contributions is not the only decision related to WordPress.org. Earlier this week, Thijs Buijs, WordPress core contributor and head of the sustainability team, has decided to step down as a representative. Sustainability team Focused on the lifespan of WordPress. social economic and environmental aspects.
According to a Slack screenshot posted on Reddit, Buijs disagrees with Mullenweg's approach to improving WordPress. In response, Mullenweg canceled the sustainability Slack channel, saying, “Today, I realized we have a sustainability team.” Remarkably, Mullenweg began. The idea of this channel during an event in 2022.
Mullenweg's approach to the legal battle with WP Engine has drawn calls for a different kind of leadership in the WordPress world. Last month, Joost de Valk, creator of Yoast, a popular WordPress SEO tool; Plans to take a “federal” approach to the WordPress repository have been revealed. For decentralizing assets like plugins and themes.
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