Re: Automattic's Actionable Misconduct Directed to WP Engine [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Re: Automattic's Actionable Misconduct Directed to WP Engine [pdf]

wpengine.com

41 pointsKye15 comments

>> "Stunningly, Automattic’s CEO Matthew Mullenweg threatened that if WP Engine did not agree to pay Automattic – his for-profit entity – a very large sum of money before his September 20th keynote address at the WordCamp US Convention, he was going to embark on a self-described “scorched earth nuclear approach” toward WP Engine within the WordPress community and beyond. When his outrageous financial demands were not met, Mr. Mullenweg carried out his threats by making repeated false claims disparaging WP Engine to its employees, its customers, and the world. Mr. Mullenweg has carried out this wrongful campaign against WP Engine in multiple outlets, including via his keynote address, across several public platforms like X, YouTube, and even on the Wordpress.org site, and through the WordPress Admin panel for all WordPress users, including directly targeting WP Engine customers in their own private WordPress instances used to run their online businesses."

The plot thickens.

Not looking good.

I'd be surprised if the board doesn't vote him out of his CEO position.

If he tried to extort them and was dumb enough to put it in writing they should just release it instead of making claims he did so. Extortion is pretty illegal. Let’s see the evidence.

The texts he sent are in the PDF.

They claimed the actual extortion took place over the phone. The closest he gets to acknowledging it in those texts is mentioning %. I would be curious if that is enough evidence. Pretty stupid behavior, either way.

WCUS took place in Oregon where both sides of that phone call would have been located. As far as I know while Oregon is two-party consent in most cases, only one party needs to consent to record a phone call.

Given the apparent escalation, I would be surprised if the WP Engine people hadn't consulted with legal and started recording calls during the event if it was legal to do so.

I'm no fan of WP Engine and their outrageous prices for very average performance, but this is a terrible look for Matt M if true.

More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41631912

Matt himself confirmed[1] he asked for 8% of WP Revenue or else.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1fnz0h6/cease_de...

And the problem was with post revisions (??) and/or PE firms, sure…

This must be one of those "Matt Bombs" people talk about.

So not refuting any of Matt’s points !

WPEngine literally exists on Matt’s product but they are neither ready to contribute dev hours or money (which can be used for development) to platform.

I don’t think this makes WPEngine looks good.

That’s what Matt said.

Now they are trying to legally block him for perfectly genuine points.

Would have been great if they clarified any of those points.

Matt’s points still hold true.

WP Engine is hosting WordPress.org software, which isn't owned by Matt. His product is WordPress.com, which is deliberately designed to blur this distinction and confuse users so he can wield this as an advantage against his competitors. Apparently this isn't enough and he's resorting to shitposting now.

But why specifically them? Pantheon and Acquia offer basically the same service as WPEngine, but they weren't singled out like that. This whole thing makes it seem like Matt had some personal vendetta against WPEngine (or did the other two already get blackmailed earlier and caved?).

Is Automattic hurting for money? If they're making half a billion developing and selling WordPress, why do they care what some other host does, even if they don't contribute as many hours upstream...? They're still part of that long tail of the WordPress ecosystem and helps grows users and devs.

It's so weird watching this all unfold. In 2024 I definitely didn't expect to be bringing out the popcorn for WordPress drama, of all things.

Did you read the PDF? WP Engine answers this - quote below. They employed (or used to employ) WordPress core contributors and have spent lots of money in the community. It's not 'Matt's Product' but an open source code base supported by a large community.

=== Quote ===

Contrary to Mr. Mullenweg’s statements that WP Engine does not contribute to his narrow and self-serving definition of the WordPress community, WP Engine has been deeply dedicated to advancing the use and adoption of WordPress through innovation, investment, and active community involvement. WP Engine has contributed tens of millions of dollars in ongoing support for the broader community through events, sponsorships, and the development of educational resources, including sponsorship of WordCamps worldwide and producing DE{CODE}; educating and empowering the WordPress community through content like the WordPress Roundup and the Building WordPress series; hosting, funding and actively maintaining multiple Open Source projects (e.g., ACF, WPGraphQL, faust.js) within the ecosystem used by millions of websites around the world; and producing informative webinars, podcasts, and tutorials. Even considering Mr. Mullenweg’s incorrect statement that contribution is only based on hours worked and contributors to Five for the Future, Mr. Mullenweg falsely stated that WP Engine is failing on this metric. In reality, WP Engine is ranked 30 out of 189 in hours contributed and 16 out of 189 in contributors, significantly outpacing multiple other contributors relative to our revenue.

=== End Quote ===

Blackmail is not okay - even if what he argues is true. He could have just done his presentation as he wanted and, as long as his claims are actually true, he wouldn't have had any trouble. Instead he tried to Blackmail a company into giving his FOR PROFIT COMPANY money. This wasn't about supporting WordPress, this was about rent seeking for his own organization.

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