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Is Matt Mullenweg defending WordPress or sabotaging it?

(torment-nexus.mathewingram.com)
154 points davidandgoliath | 5 comments | 17 Oct 24 18:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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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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zeruch ◴[17 Oct 24 20:48 UTC] No.41873619[source]▶
"Maybe he's right about WP Engine, but the way he has and continues to handle everything has been disastrous."

This is the best single line distillation of the current lunacy. I mean with every passing day, it all becomes more and more unhinged, and I see no good outcome in the long term. The overall damage to the ecosystem I think begins it's death spiral now.

It's a boon for competitors I suppose, but that's about it.

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1. legitster ◴[17 Oct 24 21:50 UTC] No.41874169[source]▶
I think revealed in this is that Matt has no understanding of the Wordpress userbase, and bizarre unpopular features like Gravitar and Gutenberg now make more sense in hindsight.

ACF was one of the most important enterprise plugins in the ecosystem when they hijacked it. They essentially did a supply chain attack on the top WordPress users and expected there to be no repercussions.

He was also apparently upset that WP Engine was not pushing Jetpack, Automattic's own thoroughly mediocre service package that they try upselling to every WordPress user.

So I get the impression Matt is really, really, really out of touch with his own userbase, and he still sees the primary feature of WordPress as a blogging platform.

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2. ValentineC ◴[17 Oct 24 22:25 UTC] No.41874423[source]▶
> I think revealed in this is that Matt has no understanding of the Wordpress userbase

Ironically, ever since past data of "active installs" was removed from the plugin directory [1], Matt is, as sole owner of WordPress dot org [2], the only person in the world with unfettered access to plugin usage trends.

[1] https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6511

[2] https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/4/24262232/matt-mullenweg-w...

3. bigiain ◴[18 Oct 24 00:06 UTC] No.41875097[source]▶
Shit, I'd forgotten that Gravitar is Matt's.

Just deleted my Gravitar profile/account, which required me to delete my Wordpress.com account too.

4. bigiain ◴[18 Oct 24 00:11 UTC] No.41875132[source]▶
> Matt is really, really, really out of touch with his own userbase.

I think Matt probably has some idea of a "user base" for which he's "fighting the good fight". But it doesn't include _me_. Or any of the place IO work at's clients who're running WP for their website. Or the ACF plugin developers, or any of the other developers publishing themes or plugins on wordpress.org who must be thinking "WF actual F" about now.

As I commented elsewhere:

So far as I can tell, when Matt talks about "the WordPress Community", he means:

  - Matt
  - the people who didn't quit Automattic last week
  - _maybe_ the WP core developers who don't work at Automattic, so long as they keep their criticisms to themselves
And the community of people who _use_ WordPress to run their websites, and the people who help them to do that, and the 3rd party plugin and theme developers who make WP work for so many different kinds of websites - can all go and get fucked.
5. gman83 ◴[18 Oct 24 14:55 UTC] No.41880014[source]▶
Gravitar isn't such a terrible idea, just look at how successful something like Linktree is. The problem with Matt's ventures in general is that they're half-assed. Wordpress.com sucks compared to Wix.com. Gutenberg sucks compared to Webflow, etc. Even WordPress sucks as a CMS which is why people even needed stuff like ACF in the first place. Like why in 2024 any CMS wouldn't have that functionality baked in makes no sense to me, unless as you say you just think of it as a blogging platform like it's 2004.