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Is Matt Mullenweg defending WordPress or sabotaging it?

(torment-nexus.mathewingram.com)
154 points davidandgoliath | 6 comments | 17 Oct 24 18:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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runjake ◴[17 Oct 24 20:28 UTC] No.41873436[source]▶
One important people to keep in mind as they read this post, the linked Google Doc, and tweets from the past day where a bunch of people are receiving unsolicited DMs[1] from Automattic with grammar that matches Matt's:

- Matt, under various guises, is shifting blame to different entities that are effectively himself.

- Automattic is Matt. Matt is the CEO of Automattic.

- The WordPress Foundation is, effectively, Matt.

- The problem is Matt. Maybe he's right about WP Engine, but the way he has and continues to handle everything has been disastrous.

1. https://x.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1846448485979107824

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segasaturn ◴[17 Oct 24 20:56 UTC] No.41873712[source]▶
Matt has a history of doing this. There was a similar blowup at Tumblr (owned by Automattic) earlier this year [1] where Matt did the same thing, DM'ing users criticizing him and even tweeting out the private handles of the user he was beefing with.

1: https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/22/tumblr-ceo-publicly-spars-...

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1. richbell ◴[17 Oct 24 21:20 UTC] No.41873929[source]▶
> and even tweeting out the private handles of the user he was beefing with.

While I think Matt's current behaviour is abhorrent, my understanding is the linked article buries the lede a bit.

The user claimed they were banned due to bigotry and that Tumblr was lying about them having NSFW content. Things continued to escalate until Matt shared a list of their NSFW accounts.

https://www.threads.net/@samhenrigold/post/DAuTTaEtm_7

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2. markdown ◴[17 Oct 24 21:40 UTC] No.41874105[source]▶
Good on him for doing so.
3. segasaturn ◴[17 Oct 24 21:47 UTC] No.41874154[source]▶
The accounts were empty and didn't have any NSFW content on them. The only explicit thing was the usernames of the accounts, which doesn't violate any rules. Posting the user's private account names was just meant to smear them as a sex-pervert.
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4. richbell ◴[17 Oct 24 22:17 UTC] No.41874361[source]▶
> The accounts were empty and didn't have any NSFW content on them.

Was this confirmed by Tumblr staff?

And if the accounts were empty then what's the harm?

> ...was just meant to smear them as a sex-pervert.

The user voluntarily made several accounts with extremely vulgar and sexual names, ostensibly for NSFW purposes. If merely sharing the names is enough to "smear them as a sex pervert", I don't think that's Matt's fault.

Especially considering the post was in response to the user inciting harassment against Tumblr staff.

5. jeltz ◴[17 Oct 24 23:00 UTC] No.41874670[source]▶
Why does a CEO even get involved in something like that? No matter who is in the right?
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6. richbell ◴[18 Oct 24 00:21 UTC] No.41875183[source]▶
I mean, we're aren't talking about him and Automattic because he's a good CEO or person.

There's plenty of reasons to dislike Matt without stirring up petty drama that's exaggerated or misleading.