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Happy Friday! It's December 20 and we're covering Joost's call for change, the latest in Mullenweg's legal battle with WP Engine, WordPress.org's surprise holiday break, pineapple on pizza, and more.
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The Repository is taking a two-week break and will be back on January 10. Thank you for reading! It is a great privilege that you let me send you this newsletter each week, and I hope to bring you much more in the new year. Wishing you a happy holiday season and a restful break with loved ones.
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1. Joost de Valk Calls for End to Matt Mullenweg's BDFL Leadership of WordPress
Yoast founder Joost de Valk has called for radical change to WordPress leadership, today publishing his vision for a new era of WordPress—and putting his hand up to lead the community through the change.
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In a post titled Breaking the Status Quo, de Valk disagrees with WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg's self-assessment that he's an "enlightened leader," instead describing WordPress's benevolent dictator for life (BDFL)—a title given to a small number of open-source software development leaders—as "no longer benevolent."
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"I'm still, to this day, very thankful for what Matt has created. I would love to work with him to fix all this," de Valk said. "But it's clear now, that we can no longer have him be our sole leader, although I'd love it if we could get him to be among the leaders."
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de Valk proposes the creation of a WordPress Foundation-like entity to take over the project's leadership and key assets from co-founder Matt Mullenweg. He also wants to see the WordPress trademark relinquished to the public domain, companies, and individuals able to sponsor the foundation-like entity, as well as the creation of several small teams that would be responsible for various functions, like architecture, products, and events.
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Another element of his plan is the introduction of "Federated and Independent Repositories," a decentralized approach to plugin and theme hosting.
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de Valk is already in discussions with prominent business figures and community leaders, including Crowd Favorite CEO Karim Marucchi, who has thrown his support behind de Valk.
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"I believe Joost brings the ideal blend of project experience, community respect, and ecosystem business insight to guide this transition and work collaboratively with Matt and others," said Marucchi. "I support his outline and stand with Joost and those in the community who have contributed more than I have, saying, 'Let's do this together.'"
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de Valk and Marucchi plan to meet with community and industry leaders to decide the next steps in mid-January.
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2. Automattic and Mullenweg Ask Court to Dismiss Claims in WP Engine Case
Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, are again asking the United States District Court to dismiss or strike all but two of WP Engine's claims, this time from the rival hosting company's amended lawsuit.
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WP Engine filed legal action against Automattic and Mullenweg in October, alleging abuse of power, extortion, and anti-competitive behavior. The suit followed Mullenweg's keynote at WordCamp US 2024, where he accused WP Engine of profiting from WordPress without contributing enough back. Following the event, Automattic accused WP Engine of trademark infringement. In November, WP Engine expanded its lawsuit to include antitrust allegations.
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In their latest filings, Automattic and Mullenweg challenge WP Engine's antitrust claims, arguing that WP Engine has failed to define a relevant product market, does not show that Automattic has market power, and does not provide sufficient evidence of anticompetitive conduct. They also argue that trademark misuse is not a recognized claim for a declaratory judgment and that WP Engine's arguments are not legally valid under antitrust laws. Additionally, they challenge WP Engine's claim of attempted extortion, arguing that there's no legal basis for such a claim under California's Penal Code.
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Last week, WP Engine won a preliminary injuntion, forcing Mullenweg and Automattic to restore WP Engine's access to WordPress.org, remove a controversial login checkbox, and return the ACF plugin.
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The next hearing in the case is expected to be held in June 2025.
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3. Matt Mullenweg Announces Unexpected Holiday Break for WordPress.org Services
Matt Mullenweg announced today that WordPress.org is taking a holiday break effectively immediately, shutting down several services, including new plugin and theme submissions, until "sometime in the new year."
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In his announcement, Mullenweg clarified that WP Engine would continue to have full access to WordPress.org because he was "legally compelled to provide free labor and services to WP Engine thanks to the success of their expensive lawyers."
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It's the first time in WordPress.org's 21-year history that it has shut down for the holidays, and it's unclear when the services will resume.
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Bluehost Project Manager Chris David Miles welcomed the surprise break, posting, "Thank you @WordPress, giving the volunteer teams some time off with a holiday quiet period seems like a great idea!🌲🎁 🎆 And a big thank you to everyone contributing back to the project - your efforts are appreciated! 💙"
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Consultant Joe Youngblood questioned why the break was indefinite, posting, "Hope y'all have a Merry Christmas or happy holiday season, but would've been nice to have a clear date on when things would return to normal for those of us crafting plans for new submissions."
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While WP Engine has been exempt from the pause to services, it's unclear how it might impact the hosting company's customers—and whether the shutdown might potentially conflict with the preliminary injunction, which orders Mullenweg to stop "blocking, disabling, or interfering with WP Engine's and its affiliates' access to WordPress.org."
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4. WordPress.org Login Gets Another Slice of Controversy with Pineapple on Pizza Checkbox
Matt Mullenweg's war with WP Engine took a turn for the ridiculous this week, with WordPress.org's login page now asking users to confirm that pineapple is delicious on pizza.
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The WordPress.org X account polled followers on Tuesday, asking whether pineapple was delicious on pizza and whether the checkbox should be required to log in. A total of 58% said they didn't like pineapple on pizza, and 81% voted against the checkbox.
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X7 Media owner Ryan Bilesky jokingly posted on X, "Conspiracy theory: Matt knows some people at WPE don't like pineapple on pizza and is therefore blocking them with 'targeting' them specifically as a work around to the injunction."
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- Ryan McCue, creator of the WordPress REST API, has been banned from WordPress.org. Yesterday, McCue revealed he continued to work on GitHub issues and Trac tickets despite being blocked from Making WordPress Slack and WordPress.org's Twitter account in October. McCue says he still doesn't know why he was banned, though it's likely his blog post, WP Engine Must Win, had something to do with it. "Although I've been officially exiled from the project, I don't feel 'on the outside' because of the support from the community. Many people have reached out, and I'm grateful for that," McCue said. McCue has been contributing to WordPress for more than 20 years and is the Engineering Director at Human Made (Pre-Thought Listen)
- Matt Mullenweg has dismantled a "hit" piece published by Inc.com yesterday. In his scathing review of journalist David Freeman's profile article, Mullenweg rightly points out a slew of inaccuracies, including a line stating Automattic is a $710-million company when it was valued at $7.5 billion during its last Series round in 2021 (ma.tt)
- Advanced Custom Fields has been returned to WP Engine. A preliminary injunction last week ordered WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his company, Automattic, to hand back the plugin, which has over 2 million active installations. On December 13, the ACF team confirmed on X that they had regained access to ACF's WordPress plugin listing. In October, WordPress.org took over the free version of ACF and renamed it Secure Custom Fields, which Mullenweg justified at the time as necessary for security reasons (The Repository)
- The WP Community Collective (WPCC) has officially been incorporated as a California membership nonprofit. The newly-minted board, headed by President and CEO Sé Reed, announced this week that the incorporation marks a new chapter in the organization's commitment to supporting the people and projects that make up the WordPress and open source communities (The Repository)
- WooCommerce's James Kemp says he's yet to decide which premium extensions will be integrated as part of the company's "more in core" initiative. Earlier this month, developer Robert DeVore posted a list of plugins he claimed were being merged into WooCommerce core, citing an insider source. But Kemp said it was part of his new role as Core Product Manager to plan the "more in core" roadmap, and he simply hadn't done it yet. "I'm the one who will be writing the roadmap, and I'm more than happy to confirm what that will look like once it's ready! Before we roll anything into core, I want community feedback," he said on X. DeVore's list, which includes Products Addons, Product Bundles, Gift Cards, Min/Max Quantities, and Product Recommendations, has sparked speculation that WooCommerce may merge plugins into core that directly compete with products developed by third-party developers (X)
- Festinger Vault, a website selling nulled premium plugins and themes, remains offline following a court-ordered ex parte shutdown in September. Automattic has accused the site's owner, Martin Groot, of trademark infringement and GPL violations. The case was heard in Rotterdam District Court on November 27 and a decision on whether to lift the ex parte ban is expected on January 7, 2025. In an update shared with his customers this week, Groot said the verdict was coming later than he'd hoped, and he was going "full steam behind the scenes" to prepare the site to relaunch (Festinger Vault)
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- The WordPress Global Sponsorship Program has scrapped its tiered fee structure, replacing it in 2025 with a flat $160,000 fee—$15,000 more than the Gold tier offered in 2024, which was priced at $145,000 (Make WordPress Community)
- Gutenberg 19.9 introduces the Style Book to classic themes, a new Query Total block, component library enhancements, and code quality improvements (Make WordPress Core)
- Several Make WordPress teams are electing new reps for 2025: the Core Team is replacing current reps Joe McGill (10up) and Sarah Norris (Automattic), the Community Team is replacing Junko Nukaga and Leo Gopal (Hostinger), the Sustainability Team wants to re-elect its existing reps, and the Hosting Team has elected Zunaid Amin (Rocket.net) to co-lead with existing rep Lucas Radke (WordPress VIP)
- In a WordPress Speed Build Challenge last week, Automattic-sponsored contributors Nick Diego and Ryan Welcher battled it out, pitting AI against good ol' fashioned manual labor. AI won (YouTube)
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- Matt Medeiros has acquired MasterWP. The long-time podcaster and founder of The Matt Report and The WP Minute is relaunching the site as a platform for training teams working with WordPress (X)
- WP Engine has recapped the its 2024, highlighting product innovations, like Dynamic Plugin Loading and Page Speed Boost, as well as its acquisition of NitroPack and brand refresh. However, the review makes no mention of the ongoing legal battle with WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his company, Automattic (WP Engine)
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- Hackers have stolen over 390,000 WordPress credentials in a year-long support chain attack targeting other hackers. The attackers used a trojanized credentials checker tool, infiltrating systems via fake GitHub repos and phishing emails (Bleeping Computer)
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- WordCamp Buffalo is being rebranded as ColorCode Buffalo in 2025 and will no longer be an official WordPress event (X)
- The Ajmer WordPress Community has launched a scholarship program to support 2-4 students in attending WordCamp Ahmedabad 2025 (Ajmer WordPress Community)
- WP Bakery has launched its fifth annual WP Gives a Hand initiative, inviting companies to donate a percentage of their revenue during the last week of the year to charity (#wpgivesahand)
- Tickets to WordCamp Europe 2025 in Basel, Switzerland, are now available (WordCamp Europe)
- WordCamp Asia 2025 has announced seven rounds of speakers, including three invited speakers from Automattic. Tickets are still available for the event in Manila, Philippines, from February 20-22 (WordCamp Asia)
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HOLIDAY READS AND LISTENS
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☕ Entrepreneur Andrew Palmer on his 20-year journey in web development and decision to step away and focus on something else, most likely catering (WP Tavern)
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🏗️ Greyd's Jessica Lyschik on building a block theme for a million users (Webmasters)
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🗺️ Google's Felix Arntz on his journey from freelancer to Google engineer (Webmasters)
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🧡 Cory Miller on his Oklahoma City roots, 13-year marriage, and mental health struggles (Seriously, Bud?)
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📣 Automattic's Birgit Pauli-Haack on her journey from nonprofit work to becoming a WordPress advocate and founder of the Gutenberg Times, and her role helping folks stay updated on the evolving block editor (Do the Woo)
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🎓 Matt Mullenweg on how studying at the University of Houston influenced his career journey (University of Houston)
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🌐 The World Wide Web Consortium has published a statement on ethical web principles to guide building a better web (W3C)
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