I’m So Glad I Left WordPress When I Did
Posted on December 4, 2024 by Aywren
Though this is the first time I’ve written about the whole fiasco happening with WordPress, I’ve been very tempted to post about it several times as I’ve watched this trainwreck unfold month after month. As much as I’ve talked about my feelings on what WordPress.com did to make me leave years ago, that all appears to have been a glimmer in the eye of Matt Mullenweg. What’s going on now is far larger.
There’s just too much going on to recap here, so I’ll point you to some resources:
- A huge dispute between WordPress and WP Engine kicked this off – leading to WP Engine being banned from using WordPress.org resources (Note: WP.org is supposed to be open source… … …)
- This has escalated into a full-on legal battle between the two, which is still ongoing.
- In the meantime, WordPress is yoiking other developer’s plugins from their repository and repurposing it however they want. (Note: This did not belong to them…)
- This has led to a loss of trust - shattering the open-source community, and driving other plugin developers to remove their plugins from the official repository. Most recently, the dev of BuddyPress has completely pulled out. They’re not the first.
The basic takeaway from this is that for years, we’ve all been under the fragile illusion that self-hosting a WordPress site meant you were using an open source CMS that was safe from the reaches of the meddling of companies in your website. It has come to light during this fiasco that this not the case.
Sure, you can install and use WordPress on for free, but the truth is, Mr. Mullenweg apparently has power over who can access the resources hosted on WordPress.org. These resources include important elements such as themes and especially plugins. If he decided your WP site was the new enemy, he could completely sever your blog from these resources, and who knows what else.
Some of these plugins are the livelihood of the devs who created them. The fact that WP can just take what they want and republish those plugins however they want – paid work that does not belong to them – has been a shocking wake-up call to the people who have put their time and efforts to build up the community around WP as a whole.
What’s worse, this whole scenario has really showcased the power trip (I can’t find any other word for it) that Mr. Mullenweg is riding when it comes to dishing out his vengeance against anyone who crosses him. Honestly, his actions have felt suspiciously like what we’ve seen with Elon Musk and his chokehold on Twitter.
All this to say, I’m so thankful that I pulled out of WordPress.com as a host for my sites years ago. If I hadn’t then, I would be doing so now. Even my impression of WordPress.org’s self-hosting (which I have used and did view positively) is now sullied – I don’t feel what is happening here is representative of what open source software should be.
While I’ve mostly moved away from Tumblr over time – which is also owned by Automattic – I’m somewhat invested there on my FFXIV RP account, mostly because I’ve built up a pretty sizable FFXIV community on Tumblr. Because I’m the soul admin there, and I don’t want to pass this on just yet – nor do I want to disappoint those who are starting to make connections there – I can’t turn my back on Tumblr right now.
Despite this, I do feel like Tumblr engagement is slumping, especially as BlueSky is starting to take off. We’ll see where all of this leads, however.
Have you kept up with the situation with WordPress? What are your thoughts?