Yoast's Former CEO Advocates for a 'Federated' WordPress Repository

WordPress.org Announces Holiday Pause Amidst Ongoing Dispute

Following a preliminary injunction granted to WP Engine against Matt Mullenweg and Automattic, a competing web hosting provider, Mullenweg has declared a temporary cessation of services at WordPress.org.

WordPress.org, the central repository for WordPress plugins, themes, and related resources, will suspend new user registrations, submissions of new plugins and themes, photo directory uploads, and plugin reviews, as detailed in a recent blog post by Mullenweg.

Community Response and Calls for Change

This decision has prompted reactions from prominent figures within the WordPress ecosystem. Joost de Valk, former CEO of Yoast, a leading WordPress SEO tool, articulated a vision for a more decentralized and independent WordPress approach.

Karim Marucchi, CEO of Crowd Favorite, an enterprise web consulting firm, voiced support for de Valk’s perspective through a separate publication.

De Valk questioned whether the WordPress community is comfortable with centralized leadership, stating, “We, the WordPress community, need to decide if we’re OK being led by a single person who controls everything… For a project whose tagline is ‘Democratizing publishing,’ we’ve been very low on exactly that: democracy.”

Proposed Solutions: A New Foundation

De Valk outlined five key proposals, including the establishment of a foundation-like entity to oversee the project and the transfer of all community assets – encompassing themes and plugins – to this organization.

He further suggested releasing the WordPress trademark into the public domain. Currently, the WordPress Foundation holds the trademark, with Automattic possessing an exclusive commercial license.

A federated system for plugin mirrors, facilitating data sharing between servers, was also proposed. This suggestion stems from a recent incident where Mullenweg, after restricting WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, took control of WP Engine’s Advanced Custom Fields plugin and created a forked version named Secure Custom Fields.

Mullenweg’s Response and Ongoing Debate

Mullenweg responded to de Valk’s proposals, suggesting that such an initiative should proceed under a different name than WordPress. He stated, “There’s really no way to accomplish everything you want without starting with a fresh slate…”

The conflict between Mullenweg and WP Engine, which began in September, has ignited broader discussions regarding the governance of the open-source WordPress project.

An open letter earlier this month, signed by 20 core WordPress contributors, criticized Mullenweg’s actions and urged consideration of “community-minded solutions.”

While Mullenweg has acknowledged the possibility of WordPress forks and even expressed openness to them, he has consistently defended the existing operational model.

Looking Ahead

De Valk plans to engage with WordPress community leaders in January to determine the next course of action. WP Engine has publicly welcomed this initiative and pledged its collaboration.

The company emphasized that WordPress’s success is a collective achievement, stating, “It is the result of a global community… who have invested their time, talent, trust, and resources in advocating for, supporting, and building the global WordPress ecosystem.”

Correction: This article was updated on December 23 to accurately reflect de Valk’s former role as Yoast CEO and to correct the URL for WordPress.org.