[mikl]

1. Release your code as open source.

2. Make a fortune.

3. Complain that people are freeloading.

4. Abuse your power as project founder to punish them, torching the community trust you’ve built up over decades.

5. Profit?

Whatever Mullenweg hoped to gain by undermining WPEngine can’t possibly be worth the damage he’s done to WP and his own company.

[huskyr]

I think the only reasonable course of action for Automattic would be for Mullenweg to step down and for them to make a mea culpa, but i doubt that will happen. Given that half of the web runs on WordPress, i wonder how many people will actually move away from WP as a CMS. Maybe if there is a succesful community fork.

[bdcravens]

They could also buy WP Engine. Or vice versa.

I doubt it will result in a mass migration. Many wouldn't move to a fork. We are very engaged in this kind of news, but the kinds of users who use WordPress often aren't. Our small company actually uses WP Engine, and I asked our owner (who also handles content, marketing, etc, and who I report to) if he had heard of what was going on, and he hadn't.

[that_guy_iain]

They actually sold their stake in WP Engine... Maybe they realised that was a bad move.

[karel-3d]

If I understand it correctly, the core of the dispute is trademark and that WPEngine somehow implies WordPress affiliation.

I can see both sides of the story here, but the scorched earth strategy doesn't seem to be very effective for building trust

[prox]

The wording you use “effective for building trust” is a misnomer. As someone who uses ACF, I am suddenly an outcast in the world of Matt/Wordpress.org? And people who I know make money from plugins, are they next in line for the hostile take over treatment?

This IS a violent breach of consumer/user trust. Whatever you thought before of this takeover/stealing, this is what trust gone looks like.

[that_guy_iain]

>If I understand it correctly, the core of the dispute is trademark and that WPEngine somehow implies WordPress affiliation.

No, the core of the dispute is Matt wants either money from WP Engine or for them to contribute to WordPress. He's using the trademark as leverage. However, their usage of WordPress does not imply affiliation instead saying stuff "We bring WordPress to the masses".

The use of WP in their name was them actually following WordPress' trademark policy where they asked people not to use WordPress in their names but WP.

[skywhopper]

I think the trademark issue is weak in this case anyway. WP Engine has been around for 14 years with that name, and has been part of the Wordpress community.

But absolutely nothing about a trademark dispute excuses the lies, unethical behavior, and just downright personal animus Mullenweg is pouring into this takedown.

[DonnieBurger]

Speaking of potential trademark issues, it looks like "Secure Custom Fields" retains some ACF branding:

https://x.com/TDKibru/status/1845178985308881146/ https://archive.is/sjuHl

Ironically, Automattic is actively taking legal action against a premium plugin reseller for trademark infringement on modified WooCommerce plugins: https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1fqw2eh/automatt...

[lexicality]

He has certainly gained a lot of personal attention. Maybe he was feeling lonely?