Michael Willman claims he has lost clients and his house, and has been forced to layoff employees due to Matt Mullenweg’s public feud with WP Engine.

Matt Mullenweg has again falsely claimed community members have forked WordPress, this time also deactivating the accounts of five past and present contributors who’ve called for governance reforms.

Automattic employees have already stopped working on WordPress core, Gutenberg, Playground, Openverse, and WordPress.org.

Veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher has described Matt Mullenweg’s move to shut down WordPress’s sustainability team as “bizarrely heinous behavior.”

Patchstack’s WordCamp Europe 2025 sponsorship application was turned down because it hasn’t pledged contributions to Five for the Future.

Matt Mullenweg has made it clear he’s not interested in ceding control of WordPress, essentially challenging de Valk to fork the project.

Nick Hamze, Automattic’s former Chief Swag Officer, wants to “make the web weird again.”

The scholarship, established in 2015 in memory of Kim Parsell—affectionately known as #wpmom—honors Parsell’s contributions to the WordPress community and her advocacy for women in tech.

The partial shutdown — the first in WordPress’s 21-year history — followed WP Engine’s successful motion for a preliminary injunction on December 11.

Joost de Valk’s proposal to end Mullenweg’s reign aims to democratize decision-making, decentralize control, and ensure the sustainability of the open-source project.

Services no longer available include new user account registration, new theme and plugin submissions, new plugin reviews, and photo directory submissions.

A preliminary injunction last week ordered WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and his company, Automattic, to give ACF back to WP Engine.

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 checkbox requirement is now optional after long-time support contributor Mika Epstein requested on Trac that it be made optional.

Japan’s role in WordPress’s history was a key focus, with Mullenweg highlighting how the country became the first to localize WordPress and created Wapuu.

“We believe there has been a major breakdown in trust between Matt Mullenweg and the WordPress community stemming from actions he’s taken since WordCamp US 2024,” the letter states.

WPAI’s team will join Automattic’s operations, with WPAI founder James LePage leading efforts to “explore applied AI as an interaction paradigm for WordPress.”

Automattic and Mullenweg have 72 hours to restore WP Engine and its employees’ access to WordPress.org and return the ACF plugin to WP Engine.

While Hubbard is still figuring out her primary responsibilities, she said the WordPress community was a priority, adding, “Obviously, it’s hurt, and we have a lot to do.”

Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín said she was “inclined to grant some sort of injunction” but described WP Engine’s proposed order as “exceedingly vague,” making it difficult to enforce.

Matt Mullenweg’s latest move in his battle with WP Engine raises questions about an open-source project seemingly endorsing the forking and redistribution of premium plugins without compensation or acknowledgment, potentially violating the GPL.

Cameron Jones, whose question about WordPress events led to Mullenweg’s “forking” claim, cheekily wore a WP Engine-branded hat and t-shirt to WordCamp Sydney.

Web developer Dumitru Brinzan’s analysis reveals key trends in themes, plugins, and site management among WP Engine customers, and has drawn mixed reactions.

Veteran WordCamp Phoenix organizer Raquel Manriquez is honouring Pressnomics with her own take on the much-loved business event.

It’s The Repository’s 5th birthday!

WP Engine claims Automattic and Mullenweg have “willfully acquired and maintained” monopoly power in the WordPress ecosystem, impacting CMSs, hosting services, custom fields plugins, and plugin distribution.

The Twenty Twenty-Five default theme is among the highlights, which include a new Zoomed Out mode, big updates to the Style interface, and a new UI for the Block Bindings API.

WP Engine has asked Automattic to shut down the site, which offers a downloadable list of all the domains the company hosts, including staging sites.

“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.”

The founder behind the contentious site that sells nulled plugin and themes is aiming to raise €10,000 to cover costs for the next court hearing on November 27.

Automattic and Mullenweg have also requested that parts of WP Engine’s complaint related to Mullenweg’s public commentary about the company be struck under California’s anti-SLAPP law.

Mullenweg’s latest takeover threat follows WordPress.org’s recent controversial takeover of WP Engine’s popular Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin.

The WordPress Foundation has published its recent board meeting minutes—the first time it has done so in its 14-year history.

The WordPress Community Code of Conduct has been updated to prohibit sharing private messages without consent.

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

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

WP Engine has filed a preliminary injunction in a U.S. court to stop Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg’s public attacks and restore the hosting company’s access to WordPress.org.

One core committer has urged others to stop contributing to WordPress until a “healthy environment is put in place.”

WP Engine has been banned from sponsoring WordCamps and WordPress events, with WordCamp Sydney 2024 the first event to be affected.

WordPress.org has taken over the free version of Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin in a move WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has justified for security reasons, prompting backlash.

The lawsuit comes a day after WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org was again blocked following a temporary reprieve that allowed the company to find a workaround for plugin and theme updates.

WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg says an 8% licensing deal is no longer on the table.

The flexible, design-driven block theme plays on the idea that simple things should be intuitive while complex things should be possible.

WordCamp Asia organizer Jon Ang on programming for this year’s event, why organizers are marketing to non-WordPress people, and how DEIB have been deeply embedded into the event.