With Automattic’s involvement decreasing to just 1% of what it was before, the open-source WordPress project is going to be negatively affected.
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Program transcript
Hello, I’m Alicia Ireland, and you’re listening to WPpodcast, bringing the weekly news from the WordPress Community.
In this episode, you’ll find the information from January 6th to 12th, 2025.
WordPress 6.8 is already on track to move forward. The team that will lead this next major version of WordPress has already been announced, with marketing and version communication being handled by the version lead, who will once again be Matt Mullenweg.
The release dates have also been set, with the first beta version scheduled for March 4, the first release candidate on March 25, and the final release on April 15.
What is clear is that this new version will bring very few new features due to the focus being applied to the project, and it will lead to WordPress 6.8 being a general maintenance version, mainly for bug fixes, but new features will be analyzed in great detail.
In recent months, the WordPress community has witnessed significant debates about its governance and future direction. Prominent figures like Karim Marucchi and Joost de Valk have proposed technological modernization and a more inclusive governance structure for the project. Their proposals include the creation of an independent foundation to oversee the development of WordPress, separating its governance from the direct control of Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com. Additionally, they advocate for implementing federated repositories to decentralize control of the code and encourage more community participation.
In response to these initiatives, Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, has taken controversial actions, announcing a significant reduction in his company’s sponsored contributions to the WordPress project, decreasing from about 3,988 hours per week to around 45 hours per week, focusing mainly on security updates and critical issues. This decision is partly attributed to the legal actions taken by WP Engine and the criticisms from community members who call for a separation of Automattic from the project.
This reduction in contributions has raised concerns about the impact on the development and maintenance of WordPress. Some members of the community fear that the decrease in resources could slow down the project’s progress and affect its stability. On the other hand, this situation has rekindled the debate about the need for more decentralized governance and the importance of contributions from diverse entities to ensure WordPress’ sustainability and evolution.
Meanwhile, on WordPress.org, discussions are taking place about the JKPress project, the Joost/Karim Fork, and the deactivation of certain users from the official WordPress repository. According to Matt: “To simplify things and give this project the boost it needs to take off, I will deactivate the .org accounts of Joost, Karim, Se Reed, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen, strongly encouraging anyone who wants to try different leadership models or align with WP Engine to join their new effort”.
This move has sparked debate within the community, as some see it as an attempt to protect the stability of the WordPress ecosystem, while others interpret it as an act of censorship that could stifle innovation and the dialogue surrounding the future of the project. This tension highlights the need for a balance between maintaining the project’s cohesion and allowing diverse ideas within the community.
In this context, the proposals by Marucchi and de Valk become even more relevant, as they seek to strengthen the governance structure and promote greater community participation. The creation of an independent foundation and the implementation of federated repositories could provide solutions to balance the power dynamics within the WordPress ecosystem and ensure its continued development, regardless of decisions made by a single entity.
The Community team has issued a statement regarding concerns that have arisen from the recent changes in the events program, especially those related to Automattic’s temporary reduction in contribution hours. Despite these adjustments, the Community team wants to reassure event organizers that they remain committed to their support, though some processes may slow down due to the situation. However, the team, which consists of independent contributors and those from other companies, will continue working to keep the program active.
Additionally, after the attempt a few months ago to eliminate Slack and convert the chat to an open-source project, the Matrix project for the WordPress Community is now shutting down.
The integration of login with the premium version of Slack and the donation it makes to the Community with a superior product were the final steps in continuing with this service and not dedicating more resources to the Matrix project.
And finally, this podcast is distributed under a Creative Commons license as a derivative version of the podcast in Spanish; you can find all the links for more information, and the podcast in other languages, at WPpodcast .org.
Thanks for listening, and until the next episode!
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