|
|
|
|
|
Happy Friday! It's November 29 and we're covering this week's injunction hearing in the WP Engine vs Automattic case, the controversial ACF Pro fork, Mary Hubbard's first community call, and more.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. Judge Signals Support for WP Engine Injunction
While the WordPress community enjoys a much-needed break from the recent drama during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend (for those who celebrate) WP Engine and Automattic's legal teams are busy hashing out a revised injuction proposal after Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín signalled her support for an injunction during Tuesday's highly anticipated first hearing.
|
Lawyer Mike Dunford, who livestreamed his take on the hearing on Twitch, speculated on what the injunction might look like, posting on Bluesky, "Even if [WP Engine's legal counsel] Quinn Emmanuel is inclined to work collegially toward something, I suspect that [Automattic's legal counsel] Hogan [Lovells] may have some client management issues to deal with on that front that will keep them from getting to an agreed injunction. Hope for everyone's sake I'm wrong about that."
|
Only 100 people were able to join the court's public Zoom call for the hearing, with Mullenweg telling folks in Post Status Slack that even he wasn't able to join the call. Samuel Sidler, a past Audrey Capital and Automattic employee, shared his thoughts on the incoming prelimary injunction, noting that Mullenweg may have broken court rules by re-streaming the hearing. Sidler also pointed to new information that Automattic has more than one sub-license in place for the WordPress trademarks, beyond Newfold Digital.
|
On the WP Shout blog, Karol Krol said while WP Engine focused on listing Automattic's alleged wrongdoings during the hearing, "Automattic's response was more along the lines of, 'Yes, we did that, but it wasn't illegal.' 🤷♂️"
|
"How Automattic has gone in a short time from the champion of open source - and loved by the community thanks to building WordPress - to being accused with extortion claims," posted Gergely Orosz, who writes The Pragmatic Engineer, linking to The Repository's coverage.
|
|
Meanwhile, the WP Engine Tracker website now features an activity log listing which hosts specific domains have fled to and when they left. At the time this email was sent, 24,280 domains have left WP Engine since September 21.
|
|
|
|
2. WordPress.org Forks ACF Pro in Unprecedented Move Against WP Engine
"Talk about confusion 🤯" posted Stattic's Robert DeVore, posting side-by-side images of the two Secure Custom Fields plugins that now co-exist in the WordPress.org plugin directory.
|
Matt Mullenweg's latest move in his battle with WP Engine and its private equity backer, Silver Lake, sparked community backlash on Reddit and social media. Critics argue that it raises serious ethical concerns, as it appears to endorse the forking and redistribution of premium plugins without compensation or proper acknowledgment, potentially violatating the GPL.
|
"Let's just sit for a moment with 'WordPress project nulls commercial plugins now' as a new bar for business prospects in this ecosystem," posted former component maintainer Andrey 'Rarst' Savchenko who, like many, have called the new SCF plugin a "nulled" product.
|
|
Meanwhile, Martin Groot's legal battle with Automattic over the Festinger Vault website returned to court in the Netherlands on Wednesday. The Repository is awaiting the court's published judgment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. Mary Hubbard Commits to Transparency in First Call with WordPress Community
"I apologize that a large percentage of the WP community has felt alienated. I recognize that. I feel it and I hear it in the conversations that I'm having," Hubbard said in response to a question about rebuilding trust.
|
On the WP Shout blog, Sabina Ionescu, who joined the call, said she was surprised to hear Hubbard apologize, "considering she only joined WordPress in October and had no involvement in the recent controversies and drama. This demonstrates her willingness to take accountability in her new role, which is a very encouraging sign."
|
During the one-hour call, Hubbard shared what she believes are the three biggest challenges facing the WordPress community: the decline in new attendees at WordPress events, the commercialization of WordPress and how the community fits into this, and the need for innovation.
|
|
A recording of the call is available to watch on CloudUp.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bluehost Cloud →
When performance is a priority try Bluehost Cloud! With 100% uptime, incredible load times, and 24/7 WordPress priority support, your sites can handle even the highest traffic spikes. Get started today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Dream Host has been removed from the WordPress.org Hosting page. A long-time contributor, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Repository they were confused about why Dream Host was removed—and why they were included in the first place. “Do hosts listed all pay for use of the trademark, an undisclosed extra fee, agree to resell WPCloud or pre-load Jetpack (both Automattic brands)?” they said. The source noted that Dream Host is listed on WordPress.org’s “WP Engine Promotions & Coupons” page and questioned whether the hosting company had asked to be included (Making WordPress.org )
- The Ajmer WordPress community in India has seen a sharp increase in engagement since hosting WP Campus Connect in October. According to organisers Pooja Derashri and Anand Upadhyay, many of the students from the four colleges that took part in the month-long initiative have since attended WordPress meetups, demonstrating how student-focused initiatives can foster the next generation of WordPress users and contributors (Do the Woo)
- The WordPress YouTube channel hit 50,000 subscribers this week since Jamie Marsland took over as Head of WordPress YouTube (X)
|
- Former Audrey Capital employee Samuel Sidler critiques a court declaration by Barry Abrahamson, Automattic’s Chief Systems Wrangler, calling it “inconceivable” that Automattic dedicates over 3,500 weekly hours—equivalent to 87 full-time employees—to WordPress.org. Sidler questions what such a large team is doing when there are inefficiencies like plugin review backlogs and outdated site designs, and suggests that Abrahamson might be conflating WordPress-the-software with WordPress.org-the-website (delta.blog)
- The Twenty Twenty-Five theme delivers clean, creative-focused designs but lacks starter content and makes some patterns and templates only accessible via specific modals, according to Matt Medeiros and Brian Coords. The pair want to see a shift to modular pattern libraries, including business pattern packs, rather than annual theme releases (The WP Minute)
- BuddyPress lead developer Mathieu Viet has quit WordPress, even moving his website to another platform, writing that he can no longer support the project following the fork of ACF Pro. “[Matt Mullenweg’s] actions lead the community of volunteers (earning their living thanks to WordPress® or not) who contribute to the open source project to become unwitting accomplished in practices contrary to rudimentary Web and business ethics,” he said (imathi.eu)
- WPCampus is seeking nominations for new board members. The higher education-focused non-profit will host an AMA on December 3, providing an opportunity to connect with current board members and learn more (WPCampus)
- Marcus Burnette says his shift from GoDaddy to Bluehost will enable him to influence the support and product teams at his new company, providing agencies the tools they need to build and scale their clients’ websites (Do the Woo)
|
- GridPane CEO Patrick Gallagher has assured customers the company is not shutting down. In a Tuesday post, Gallagher explained that GridPane operates in a "weird place" between a "hosting control panel" and traditional "managed WordPress," with the latter being more profitable. He plans to shift focus to this space in 2025. The announcement followed news that all current GridPane plans “are going in the vault forever" when its Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaign ends Monday night (GridPane)
- WP Mayor’s BLINK initiative aims to help WordPress businesses build meaningful connections and links to support marketing efforts (WP Mayor)
- PublishPress creator Steve Burge discusses his latest project, Logtivity, highlighting the challenges of SaaS development, from managing uptime and server administration to the substantial differences in monetizin SaaS products versus plugins (WP Tavern)
- Ryan Logan, creator of Influence WP, says the platform is aimed at fostering connections and positive change within the WordPress community, offering exclusive deals and a unique “bad actor bounty program.” (Post Status)
|
|
|
→ Plugins, Products & Themes
|
- BuddyPress 14.3.1 was released this week, fixing two bugs — one related to WordPress 6.7 compatibility and the other related to the BP Legacy Theme Pack (BuddyPress)
- WooCommerce Core Product Manager James Kemp joined Do the Woo for a Q&A, fielding a range of questions from the community. Kemp covered integrating select premium extensions into core for free, roadmap transparency, delayed progress on the new product editor, plans for a modern WooCommerce theme, and staying competitive with Shopify (Do the Woo)
|
- Wordfence is urging Anti-Spam by CleanTalk users to update to the latest version following the disclosure of a critical vulnerability in the plugin, used on 200,000 sites (Wordfence)
- Patchstack has disclosed an “interesting” vulnerability in the Rank Math SEO plugin, affecting over 3 million active installations and patched earlier this month (Patchstack)
|
|
|
- WordCamp Asia 2025 will debut YouthCamp, a free event on February 22 designed to teach children aged 8-17 how to build their first website (WordCamp Asia)
- The Indian WordPress community will start 2025 off strong with four WordCamps planned for Ahmedabad, Kolhapur, Kolkata and Pune in January and February, following WordCamp Delhi this weekend. Global meetup trends from January 2023 to June 2024 showed WordPress events in India drew the most engagement globally, with the top in-person events held in Ahmedabad and Mumbai (WordCamp Central)
- WordCamp Europe is seeking speakers for next year's event in Basel, Switzerland from June 5-7 (WordCamp Europe)
- Voting is now open for The WP Weekly Awards (The WP Weekly)
- WordCamp Nepal 2025, scheduled for March 21-22, will be held in Kathmandu for the first time in 10 years (WordCamp Central)
|
|
|
→ Black Friday / Cyber Monday
|
- WP Builds is sharing BFCM deals (WP Builds)
- WPBeginner's list of 90+ Black Friday deals includes free giveaways (WPBeginner)
- FDMEDIA is running a Black Friday giveaway with 18 businesses (wpbfdeals.com)
- The WP Weekly's Black Friday Deals page is live (The WP Weekly)
- LayerWP's Project Giving Back is inviting businesses to donate to charities (LayerWP)
- SmartSlider has published a Black Friday deals list (SmartSlider)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gravity Forms is the #1 WordPress form builder for businesses and agencies. The Gravity Forms Black Friday sale is running Monday, Nov 25, 8:00 AM to Tuesday, Dec 3, 11:59 PM (EST). Get 50% off all new licenses!
|
Unlock peak WordPress performance with Kinsta! Hosting WordPress has never been easier. An unbeatable combination of speed, security and support. Free migrations! Save now 50%, limited-time offer!
|
Make your online store unstoppable with Omnisend! Send emails and texts to your customers, automate your tasks, and watch your revenue grow. Start making sales.
|
It's every agency's catch-22: you need sales to earn revenue, but you're busy with projects. Build sustainable, reliable, recurring revenue with WP Remote and get the time you need to grow your biz.
|
|
Supercharge your site with Cloudways! This Black Friday, get 40% off for 4 months on blazing-fast, managed cloud hosting! Choose from top providers: DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, GCP, or AWS. Use code BFCM2024—don't miss out!
|
|
|
Put your brand in front of the WordPress community while supporting independent journalism.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
🤖 A year on, AI hasn't wrecked developer content but reshaped it (Tom McFarlin)
|
📝 500+ developers, designers, marketers and copywriters on how they use AI (20i)
|
🛩️ Topher DeRosia’s journey from aviation to creating HeroPress (Seriously, Bud?)
|
🚀 How Rocket.net resolved a major WooCommerce slowdown (Rocket.net)
|
💰 Specializing in WordPress can still be profitable for freelancers (The WP Minute)
|
|
🎙️ WP Builds’ 400th episode features Bud Kraus on his passion for edutainment (WP Builds)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
