Issue #232
Happy Friday! It's October 25 and we're covering WP Engine's injunction motion, codes of conduct, the WordPress Foundation, trademark disputes, WordPress 6.7, and more.

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This Week's Headlines

1. WP Engine Files Injunction to Halt Mullenweg's Attacks and Regain Access to WordPress.org


WP Engine has filed an injunction to stop Matt Mullenweg's escalating public attacks and rewind the clock back to 20 September 2024, the day the WordPress co-founder delivered his "spicy" WordCamp US keynote address, kicking off his war with the hosting company.

Read more at The Repository: WP Engine Files Injunction to Halt Mullenweg's Attacks and Regain Access to WordPress.org.

Automattic and Mullenweg have until October 30 to respond to the injunction motion, with a hearing set for November 26.

"If this is granted then I hope it brings some stability to the WordPress ecosystem, as people won't be constantly wondering what will happen next 🤞" posted Barn2's Katie Keith about the motion.

Among the many court documents filed this week, one in particular, submitted by Automattic, raised eyebrows across the WordPress community:

"WordPress.org is not WordPress. WordPress.org is not Automattic or the WordPress Foundation, and is not controlled by either. To the contrary, as Plaintiff itself acknowledges, WordPress.org is Mr. Mullenweg's responsibility," the court filing reads. It also asserts that "WP Engine, a private equity-backed company, made the unilateral decision, at its own risk, to build a multi-billion dollar business around Mr. Mullenweg's website. In doing so, WP Engine gambled for the sake of profit that Mr. Mullenweg would continue to maintain open access to his website for free. That was their choice."

"I was today years old when I learned .org did not belong to the WordPress Foundation. It is and always has been Matt's, which explains a lot, except his willingness to build it on the backs of volunteers. That's just wrong," posted developer and consultant Carrie Dils.

LearnDash founder Justin Ferriman added, "I've been in #WordPress for a LONG time, and only today have I learned that the repo is not the property of Automattic, nor the WordPress Foundation. It's Matt's thing, and he has no obligation to anyone."

One long-time OG contributor speaking to The Repository on background described Mullenweg's ownership of WordPress.org as "an open secret." As FundWP co-founder Andrew Palmer posted, "I am blown away everyday that I see people say that they didn't realise @photomatt owned dot org exclusively - I mean, where have you been?"

WP Tavern founder Jeff Chandler lamented the impact on the WordPress community, posting, "Do people contribute to WordPress to aid Matt in whatever mission he has or do we not? The breaking up of communities and turning places into silos for mini projects and mirrors as we all move forward is gonna suck."

Meanwhile, Salesforce has been added to the Five for the Future landing page, acknowledging the $8.8 million USD the company contributes to WordPress.org each year through its provision of Making WordPress Slack.

Lastly, lawyer and WordPress commentator Richard Best says WordPress.org's "I am not affiliated with WP Engine…" checkbox may be breaching Europe's GDPR.

2. WordPress Community Code of Conduct Update Draws Criticism Over Timing Amid Broader Tensions


The WordPress Community Code of Conduct has been updated to prohibit sharing private messages without consent, sparking mixed reactions over its timing amid broader tensions in the WordPress community.

Read more at The Repository: WordPress Community Code of Conduct Update Draws Criticism Over Timing Amid Broader Tensions.

The update to the Code of Conduct was prompted by a heated exchange in Post Status Slack on October 14, with screenshots shared on X by Kellie Peterson, the former Head of Domains at Automattic. The public sharing of the screenshots led to a change to the business community's code of conduct prohibiting the sharing of screenshots, copying of text, or otherwise sharing outside of Post Status Slack.

Angela Jin, the former Head of Programs & Contributor Experience for WordPress.org at Automattic has raised concerns about the potential weaponization of community codes of conduct.

3. WordPress Foundation Reveals Surge in Donations After WordCamp US 2024


The WordPress Foundation has published its recent board meeting minutes—the first time it has done so in its 14-year history—revealing that a surge in recurring donations since WordCamp US 2024 helped make its recent $100,000 donation to the Internet Archive possible.

Read more at The Repository: WordPress Foundation Reveals Surge in Donations After WordCamp US 2024 Enabled Internet Archive Donation.

The minutes from the October 17 meeting show the foundation's cash balance at $264,680, up $44,560 compared to last year. Automattic-sponsored finance contributor Harmony Romo reported that since WordCamp US in September, there had been 48 new recurring donations, totaling $12,535. The foundation now has 174 active recurring donations, marking an increase of 40 over last year.

The decision to publish the minutes comes after recent changes to the foundation's trademark policy and public questions over its financial position after the Internet Archive donation was announced last week. While the foundation has previously shared financial reports on its blog, the published minutes offer the first-ever glimpse into the board's discussions.

4. Automattic Removes WP Fusion Lite From WordPress.Com After Trademark Dispute


Automattic has removed the WP Fusion Lite plugin from WordPress.com after its developer, Jack Arturo, accused the company of trademark infringement.

Read more at The Repository: Automattic Removes WP Fusion Lite From WordPress.Com After Trademark Dispute.

The dispute has drawn attention to WordPress.com's move last year to replicate the WordPress.org plugin repository, which led to some WordPress.com listings outranking WordPress.org in Google search results. Arturo said this caused confusion among users who had downloaded the free version of WP Fusion Lite from WordPress.com, with many mistakenly believing they had purchased it, resulting in support requests typically reserved for paying customers.

5. WordPress 6.7 Nears Release With RC1 Bug Fixes and Field Guide


The first release candidate for WordPress 6.7 was released this week for testing. It includes over 48 commits for the Block Editor and 36 tickets for Core since the Beta 3 release. A second release candidate is scheduled for October 29 ahead of the official release on November 12.

For more on what's coming in WordPress 6.7:
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In Other News

WordPress Project

> The WordPress.org theme repository reached a major milestone this week, with 1,000 block themes now available (The Repository)

> Gutenberg 19.5 focuses on stabilizing existing features and brings improvements to the user interface and the zooming editing experience (Make WordPress Core)

> Anne McCarthy's "Source of Truth" posts detailing major WordPress releases will now be published on the Gutenberg Times website. The Automattic-sponsored contributor announced the change ahead of her upcoming sabbatical (nomad.blog)

WordPress Community

> Samuel "Otto" Wood is no longer moderating r/Wordpress. The long-time Audrey Capital-sponsored WordPress contributor gave up his mod status this week after recruiting five new mods to take his place. His departure comes after former mods Summer Childe and Bluesix quit last week and deleted their accounts (Reddit)

> Jonathan Desrosiers, a Bluehost-sponsored core committer, has shared how he commits to WordPress core. It follows a discussion between committers at WordCamp US about the need to document their work, responsibilities, and knowledge on their blogs (Jonathan Desrosiers)

> Scott Kingsley Clark has regained access to his WordPress.org and Making WordPress Slack accounts. The Pods lead developer was banned after he quit contributing to the Fields API (X)

> Several folks shared this week that they're no longer contributing to WordPress, including Sam Suresh (WordCamp organizer and mentor) and Bjørn Johansen (Meetup organizer) | Javier Casares says following legal advice, he'll continue contributing to WordPress, including repping the WordPress Hosting Team (X)

> HeroPress founder Topher DeRosia says the 10-year-old project serves as an important counterbalance to negativity in the WordPress community (WP Builds)

> Former Automattic designer Saxon Fletcher has shared a functional prototype for the new WordPress admin experience he had been working on before accepting the company's recent buyout offer (X)

Business, Enterprise & Acquisitions

> Vastly more domains that previously ran Drupal 7 now point to WordPress compared to a modern version of Drupal, according to Pantheon co-founder Josh Koenig (Pantheon)

Plugins, Products & Themes

> BuddyPress 14.2.1 was released this week following the discovery of a vulnerability in the "Take Photo" feature (BuddyPress)

> WooCommerce is joining forces with Equalize Digital for a full accessibility audit of the front-end of the ecommerce plugin (X)

> Local, WP Engine's local development tool for WordPress sites, has grown to 1.7 million downloads and 100,000 recurring monthly users since its launch eight years ago (WP Engine)

Security

> Patchstack CEO Oliver Sild has raised concerns that the WordPress plugin user interface doesn't indicate when an installed plugin or theme has been abandoned, removed from WordPress.org, or closed due to security issues. His comments come after several plugin developers recently pulled their plugins from the repository (Patchstack)

> Security engineer Scott Arciszewski has joined AspirePress as a security advisor and project contributor. The AspirePress team is currently building a distributed repository to replace WordPress.org (scottarc.blog)

> Elementor's Miriam Schwab and Oliver Sild from Patchstack discuss how the two companies collaborate to protect Elementor's 17 million installations (WP Tavern Jukebox)

> A new malware campaign targeting WordPress sites through a fake plugin, universal-popup-plugin-v133, is creating deceptive browser fix pop-ups (Sucuri)

Conferences & Events

> Matt Mullenweg is joining TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 as a featured speaker on October 30 (TechCrunch)

> Submissions for InstaWP's AnyoneCanWP hackathon close today. Over 775 teams have registered for the competition, with winners to be announced on November 10 (AnyoneCanWP)

> WooSesh is on next week. The live, virtual conference for WooCommerce store builders will feature 22 speakers over 17 sessions on October 29-30. This year's Seshie award winners will also be announced (WooSesh)

> Voting is open for the fourth annual Monster's Award 2024, celebrating the best products and services for WordPress across 25 categories (TemplateMonster)

> The Italian WordPress community is hosting Core Days, a next-gen event aimed at core developers, on November 8-9, 2024, in Rome (Core Days)

> WordCamp Delhi organizers are calling on designers to submit Wapuu designs (WordCamp Delhi)

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Meanwhile...

🎙️ Laura Elizabeth of "Sorry, who are you?" fame on her journey from freelancing to product success (The WP Minute+)

🤑 A back-of-a-napkin analysis of hosting companies' WordPress contributions vs revenue (X)
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