Another wrote:
“I work very closely with @WPEngine in my day job. They’ve got some fantastic people over there, and are doing many different things to further WordPress in many different ways.
And I will continue to work with them happily.”
Mullenweg Doubles Down
Mullenweg’s keynote wasn’t the end of his negative criticism. On Saturday he published an article on the official WordPress.org blog that amplified the remarks from his keynote that also generated a largely negative response on social media, with some on X and Facebook even calling for him to step down.
Mullenweg wrote:
“I spoke yesterday at WordCamp about how Lee Wittlinger at Silver Lake, a private equity firm with $102B assets under management, can hollow out an open source community. Today, I would like to offer a specific, technical example of how they break the trust and sanctity of our software’s promise to users to save themselves money so they can extract more profits from you.”
The rest of the blog post gets worse.
Backlash Overwhelmingly Against Mullenweg
One of the cleverest responses is published on WPHercules website which is word for word copy of Mullenweg’s article but with the words WP Engine replaced with WordPress.com (the managed WordPress hosting service), titled WordPress.com Is Not WordPress.org
WordPress agency owner Kevin Geary wrote in a blog response:
“This wasn’t my first WordCamp, but I legitimately felt bad for first-timers. Imagine an awesome and uplifting week ending like the Payback scene in The Sum of All Fears… A little awkward.
…Matt has presumably attempted diplomacy multiple times in different ways over the years as he passed that collection plate around, but without great success when it comes to WP Engine.
The question now becomes, is public ridicule and shame a valid approach? And should this ridicule and shame get delivered in the closing talk at a WordCamp?”
A WordPress community member tweeted that the post “ridiculous and completely unnecessary” and that WP apparently stands for “We’re petty.”
A negative tweet that is representative of the general mood:
“It’s been concerning for a few years now – at least for me. I don’t think a CEO should attack people/corps based on personal opinions, no matter if right or wrong. Not good for the WordPress ecosystem tbh. Agree?”
Another member of the WordPress community tweeted:
“When I go to an event or trade show, I do not assume the organizers support or endorse every vendor.
I also don’t expect them to criticize any vendor publicly at the event.”
Another tweet:
“Congrats on embarrassing yourself and alienating the #WordPress community to close out #WCUS!
Truly inspirational.”
And another:
“There’s been talk of the “existential” threat to WordPress’ standing for a number of years. Now it’s crystal clear that Matt is that existential threat.”
Targeting Of WP Engine Perceived As Unfair
This article isn’t taking sides, it’s only reporting what was said and how the WordPress community responded.
Some background information for those who may not be aware is that WP Engine is a managed web host that voluntarily contributes to the development of WordPress core, supports WordCamp and develops free plugins enjoyed by millions of WordPress publishers such as Advanced Custom Fields, LocalWP, WPGraphQL, Better Search Replace, and WP Migrate Lite.
The backlash on social media is firmly against Matt Mullenweg, including in the private Facebook group Dynamic WordPress (registration required) where a discussion generated over 100 posts. One member of the group who attended WordCamp remarked on the shocked faces of WordCamp attendees and more than one person wrote “Matt needs to go!” as others sympathized with WP Engine.
Watch Mullenweg’s keynote at the 7:08:25 minute mark ( 7 hour, 8 minute, 25 seconds):
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Krakenimages.com