A cheeky Aussie who wore a WP Engine-branded hat and t-shirt to WordCamp Sydney has been caught up in Matt Mullenweg’s war with the hosting company.
Earlier this month, Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, accused WP Engine of seeking to fork WordPress events during an interview at the Nerdearla conference in Mexico City on November 9. While discussing WP Engine’s ongoing lawsuit against him and Automattic, he alleged the company was using scare tactics and seeking to create alternative WordPress meetups and WordCamps.
“What WP Engine is doing, their strategy is to make everyone really scared,” Mullenweg told Nerdearla founder Ariel Jolo. “They want to say: ‘Oh, WordPress is in trouble, Matt is taking over things.’ They’re trying to fork the meetups. They’re trying to say: ‘Oh, let’s create a separate Meetup system, let’s create separate WordCamps.’”
When pressed for evidence, Mullenweg cited WordCamp Sydney, held on November 2-3. “Literally, there was just a WordCamp Sydney, and a WP Engine employee stood up at the thing, and he said: ‘Hey, what if we created a separate meetup system?’ And the whole audience was like: ‘Uh… why?’ But so, yeah, it’s literally happening,” he claimed.
The Repository was present at WordCamp Sydney and attended the panel session, Reinvigorating Local WordPress Communities, which Mullenweg referred to in his interview. Contrary to his claim, no WP Engine employee raised the idea of creating a separate meetup system.
The question under scrutiny was posed by Cameron Jones, a self-employed web developer and past WordPress meetup organizer, who asked about the sustainability of WordPress events under the current structure. Jones highlighted challenges such as organizer burnout, difficulty finding speakers and venues, and restrictions on sponsorships from companies like WP Engine and Australian-based Envato. He suggested exploring alternative models, including compensating organizers and speakers, to address these challenges.
Jones, who wore a WP Engine-branded hat and t-shirt along with a GoDaddy-branded hoodie—all swag from prior WordPress events—has never worked for WP Engine.
The panel session, including Jones’s question, is available to view on WPSydney’s YouTube channel. It’s understood an Automattic employee filmed Jones’s question and provided it separately to Mullenweg.
Speaking to The Repository, Jones expressed frustration at being misrepresented to add “ammunition to Matt’s self-proclaimed nuclear war.”
“I agree with many of his criticisms of WP Engine, but it is behavior like this that has alienated the broader WordPress community,” Jones said.
“I care deeply about the community here in Australia and we have been particularly impacted by the effects of the COVID pandemic, with only a handful of meetups currently active across the country, and I want to ensure that we do not just accept the status quo because that is the way it always has been, but that leaders of the community here are making decisions that are best for the community.”
A source famililar with the situation, speaking on background, dismissed Mullenweg’s claims as and baseless.
“[WP Engine] aren’t trying to create a fork [of events], they’re trying to make sure that Matt’s actions have consequences, and you can see that with the legal filings,” the source said. “They’re not trying to be, like Matt would say, a ‘bully’—and I think that’s a little interesting coming from him. WP Engine is not trying to hurt the WordPress community in any way.”
The first court hearing in WP Engine’s lawsuit against Automattic and Mullenweg is scheduled for November 26 to consider WP Engine’s motion for a preliminary injunction. However, in a new filing today, Automattic and Mullenweg requested more time to respond to evidence that they claim WP Engine introduced after Automattic’s reply to the motion.
