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Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress accounts of contributors planning a fork

(techcrunch.com)
465 points impish9208 | 1 comments | 11 Jan 25 18:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.217s | source
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rmccue ◴[11 Jan 25 23:44 UTC] No.42669910[source]▶
This isn’t unexpected; I’ve been deactivated on Slack since very early in this dispute, and later banned from the issue tracker as well. I’ve been contributing for 20 years to the project, am a committer, and built several large parts of WordPress including the REST API.

Matt is banning anyone who speaks out at all, even when they agree with points he’s made. A large group of contributors felt they had to make an anonymous statement from fear of the same retribution I suffered: https://www.therepository.email/core-contributors-voice-conc...

(I am a less active direct contributor these days, so I’m still able to contribute even while blocked - but many people’s livelihoods depend on it, as sponsored contributors.)

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1. inglor_cz ◴[12 Jan 25 10:43 UTC] No.42672607[source]▶
Let us ponder for a moment that this is how autocracies go astray, but instead of the banhammer, it is jail or gallows for the dissidents, and possibly a war against an external enemy. No checks on an individual's power will result in self-defeating madness, at least sometimes.

It is also a counterpoint to the "just educate people more" crowd. That doesn't save bad institutions from going haywire. Matt Mullenweg is almost certainly a highly educated, well-traveled individual, and yet he rules his roost like Mao once did.