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Happy Friday! It's November 8 and we're covering core contributor concerns about "culture of fear," Festinger Vault’s legal battle, WP Engine Tracker, and more.
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This Week's Headlines
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1. Core Contributors Voice Concerns Over Mullenweg's Control and "Culture of Fear" in WordPress Community
Veteran WordPress core committers and contributors have described a "culture of fear" within the project, driven by co-founder Matt Mullenweg's "outsized control" and the potentially career-ending consequences of opposing him. Many say the lack of formal governance has left them vulnerable to the whims of Mullenweg, whose recent actions have raised questions about the future direction of WordPress.
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Bans of prominent voices critical of Mullenweg's leadership, like WordPress REST API creator Ryan McCue, highlight what they describe as an unhealthy power dynamic, where speaking out risks livelihoods. "Angering Matt has the potential to render our ability to make a living as contributors moot," according to one committer. "That's scary as hell."
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In recent weeks, The Repository has spoken with numerous long-time committers and contributors who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. While many agree that WP Engine should contribute more to WordPress—but aren't required to do so, under the GPL—they disapprove of Mullenweg's "nuclear" approach, which one committer described as "unnecessarily divisive." As another contributor explained, "We can agree with Matt's goals, but the way he's treating people who disagree with him is unacceptable."
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2. Festinger Vault Crowdfunding Legal Battle With Automattic After Contentious Site's Shutdown
Martin Groot, the developer behind Festinger Vault, is crowdfunding his ongoing legal fight against Automattic after the company shut down his website, seized his assets, and froze his bank account.
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At a court hearing in Amsterdam on October 2, Automattic argued that Festinger Vault, a contentious website that sells nulled premium plugins and themes, had violated both the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks and GPLv2.
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But, opportunely for Groot, the court found that Automattic may have violated its Duty of Truthfulness and Duty of Completeness under Dutch law after failing to submit Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg's September 29 interview with YouTuber Theo Browne.
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In the interview, Mullenweg says Festinger Vault's actions are "not illegal" and are "legal under the GPL.” The judge noted that Mullenweg’s comments "shed a different light on the case” contrary to what Automattic had argued in court.
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The court lifted the freeze on Groot’s bank account and ordered Automattic to pay his court costs. The case returns to court on November 27.
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3. Automattic Launches WP Engine Tracker, Mullenweg Clarifies Why He "Got So Crazy"
As Ivan Mehta reported for TechCrunch, the site's URL is wordpressenginetracker.com, which is ironic given Mullenweg and Automattic have accused WP Engine of misusing the WordPress trademark and confusing people into believing WP Engine is associated with WordPress.
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In related news, in an interview with CIO last week, Mullenweg said that WP Engine "could have avoided all this for $32 million. This should have been very easy." He also accused WP Engine of gaslighting him for 18 months and said, "that's why I got so crazy."
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He told CIO he would "love to go back to the negotiating table" but any new deal would have to reflect updated business realities, pointing to WP Engine's "distressed" position, loss of customers, and attacks on himself and WordPress.org.
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Meanwhile, Matt Medeiros and Brian Coords unpacked Mullenweg's recent interview with TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos for The WP Minute, noting it wasn't just another tech conference appearance but a deep dive into the conflict between Automattic and WP Engine.
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In Other News
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WordPress Project
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> A fourth release candidate for WordPress 6.7 is now available for testing. The final release is due out November 12 (WordPress. org News)
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> Gutenberg 19.6 is out and introduces inline comments as an experimental feature, allowing users to comment on top of blocks (Make WordPress Core)
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> WordPress’s Interactivity API is transforming websites into fast, app-like experiences with effortless, real-time updates, according to Damon Cook (WP Engine) and Seth Rubenstein (Pew Research Center), who share real-world examples (WP Tavern)
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> A new WordPress design system library for Figma aims to streamline the design process for folks working across the WordPress ecosystem (Make WordPress Design)
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> The WordPress Design Team’s latest design share includes several in-progress updates for the block editor and data view, and concepts for the Photo Directory and Make WordPress landing page (Make WordPress Design)
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WordPress Community
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> Automattic is increasing its contribution to The PHP Foundation to $250,000, up from $100,000. Automattic is one of 10 founding members of the foundation (X)
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> Do the Woo has launched a world-first integration that allows episodes of the podcast to be distributed to Fediverse using the ActivityPub plugin, allowing comments and interactions to be synced between Mastodon and the podcast's website (Do the Woo)
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> GoDaddy-sponsored contributor Courtney Robertson joined the CHAOSScast podcast to share insights on how the WordPress project is using GrimoireLab, an open source analytics platform, to track contributors, improve sustainability, and automate reporting (CHAOSScast)
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> ICYMI, WP Includes recently launched its Gender Equality in WordPress Businesses report, revealing nearly a quarter of women reported experiencing harassment, bullying, or discrimination at work. The report also provides actionable recommendations for companies to address these issues (WP Includes)
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> Courtney Robertson (GoDaddy) and Jonathan Wold (Guildenberg) recap WooSesh day one with organizer Brian Richards, including Woo's brand refresh, plans to modernize WooCommerce's UI and UX, market research expectations, and the Woo mobile app (Do the Woo)
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Business, Enterprise & Products
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> Freemius will give 100% of its revenue on November 12 to Girls Who Code as part of the company's 10th-anniversary celebrations.
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> The ACF team released the findings of their 2024 survey, revealing a significant proportion of users are developers working for agencies, maintaining one to three sites monthly, and there's been a rise in the use of hybrid themes, with classic themes losing popularity (Advanced Custom Fields)
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> WooCommerce is shifting focus to work on a new beta of the product editor experience that will integrate more closely with planned changes to the WordPress admin, including data forms and data views (WooCommerce)
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> Gato GraphQL creator Leonardo Losoviz has launched a new feature he's calling "headless WordPress without WordPress" that allows developers to migrate to a different PHP-based app, such as Laravel or Symfony, with minimal effort (Gato GraphQL)
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Conferences & Events
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> Core Days, a next-gen event for core developers will be held this weekend, November 8-9, in Rome, Italy (Core Days)
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> WordCamp Europe organizers are calling for teams interested in hosting the 2026 event. Applications close on November 15 (WordCamp Europe)
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> Voting is open for the fourth annual Monster’s Award 2024, celebrating the best products and services across 25 categories (TemplateMonster)
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Classifieds
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Help diverse voices in WordPress be heard! Support Inclusion in Tech removes barriers for speakers at WordCamps. Donate and empower SiNC.
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Meanwhile...
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💬 Is WordPress destined to become a social network? (Do the Woo)
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🎙️ Tom Greenwood, a green trailblazer in the digital agency world, wants to disconnect to reconnect (If I Ruled the World)
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📝 Sam Sidler isn’t convinced revisions caused the war with WP Engine (delta.blog)
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The Repository is a weekly email for the WordPress community by Rae Morey. Mike Johnston is our proofreader. A big thank you to Kinsta, our hosting sponsor, and MailPoet, our email sponsor.
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