Matt Mullenweg deactivates the accounts of several WordPress.org members, some of whom have been leading a push to create a new fork of the open-source project
The affected WordPress.org members lose access to the project accounts through which they participate, while organizers of a proposed fork face an immediate coordination setback.
Mullenweg and the WordPress.org leadership gain tighter short-term control over official community participation as the fork effort is contested.
Second-order effects
Fork supporters may shift discussion, code coordination, and contributor recruitment to channels outside WordPress.org, making the split more operationally separate from the official project.
Plugin makers, hosts, and agencies dependent on WordPress.org may reassess how much their distribution and community access relies on a single project-controlled venue.
Third-order effects
If disputes repeatedly translate into account-level exclusion, open-source governance can become a competitive differentiator: communities may value forks not only for code changes but for alternative control structures.
The episode sharpens the longstanding tension between open code and centralized stewardship of the services around it; whether a fork gains durable support will depend on contributors and ecosystem participants moving beyond protest.
The trend: Open-source projects are increasingly being tested on whether centralized control of community and distribution infrastructure can coexist with credible contributor independence.
Matt Mullenweg just deactivated the WordPress .org accounts of @joost.blog, Karim Mariachi and @sereedmedia.bsky.social for trying to build more sustainable governance and economy where Matt himself failed. Absurdly, he also de — deactivated Heather Burns and my accounts wordp…
Matt Mullenweg has deactivated WordPress org accounts of contributors planning to fork the open-source project. — This escalates tensions between Mullenweg and WP Engine, a company profiting from WordPress, which he deems unfair and has led to months of conflict and public back…
In this post, @photomatt (falsely) suggests that Joost and Karim's plans involve forking #WordPress. — I feel that this is his way of signaling that that must be what it is, because any plans to change the current setup “in place” are unimaginable to him. It has to be somethin…
So @photomatt - I saw the post by @automattic. I'm ready to lead the next releases. I am sure plenty of people and companies are willing to help me and we've got plenty of ideas on what we should be doing. #WordPress
We appreciate @jdevalk and @karimmarucchi thoughtful call for constructive conversation, change and evolved leadership within the WordPress community. Moments of disruption challenge all of us to reflect and to act. WordPress's success as the most widely used CMS is not the
Woke up to a phone full of pings that @photomatt has...publicly announced he's deactivated an account I haven't logged into since February 2020, for an OSS project I haven't been involved with since then, and am not involved with now. Must have been a bad batch from his dealer. […
some of y'all may never learn and everyone that took too long to learn should not be volunteering for any roles where you got to use your noggin https://wordpress.org/...
Don't recall @jdevalk's thread saying they were forking to lead a release. I don't think volunteering is the right idea either given there are people in line to lead, but banning his, @karimmarucchi and @sereedmedia from .org is a terrible reaction. https://wordpress.org/...
@jdevalk ... Before leading any major release of WordPress, please start with leading a minor one @jdevalk. Then, apply to be Triage Lead or Coordination Lead Deputy for a major release. These are the steps everyone in our community should follow before claiming to run « the next…
More important and valued names banned. Patchstack blocked as Event Sponsor. Can Matt stop being a kid who has had his candy taken away? This is sick! 🤮 🤬 https://wordpress.org/...
“When I see what people create with WordPress, some days I feel like I'm grinding pigment for Leonardo da Vinci or a slitting a quill for Beethoven.” Sounds like somebody has been hitting the shake weight extra hard 🤦♂️ https://wordpress.org/... #WordPress [image]
Well, I wasn't expecting my ban to come with an official announcement! I'm bummed, but honestly kinda flattered! Tho @jdevalk and @karimmarucchi got whole paragraphs of speculation about their plans! What do y'all suppose he thinks I'm up to?? https://wordpress.org/...
In politics, people with new ideas need to convince voters before they can start working on their program. In Open Source Software it's the opposite, you can start by doing the work, then convince users. Joost/Karim Fork https://wordpress.org/... via @WordPress