11–20 of 87 posts
At this point, I am not even sure what Wordpress.org is anymore other than a marketing department for Automattic. It's hard to know if this is a real position with real people reporting to it or if the entire org is a paper department.
WP Engine, the hero we didn't even know we needed. /s
I'm very excited to have Mary on board. :)
Can you clarify if "Executive Director of WordPress.org" is the same job as "Executive Director of the WordPress Foundation"? I know you personally own wordpress.org and not the foundation (as many people suspected) so this is unclear.
Apparently Automattic states she's back working for them: https://x.com/automattic/status/1843750645037445200 So then what is WordPress.org in this context?
WordPress.org seems to be used to refer to Matt Mullenweg [1], as he apparently personally owns it, though one of Automattic's lawyers said last week that it is a non-profit that is separate from the WordPress Foundation [2]. The previous Executive Director of WordPress was also an Automattic employee. When they were announced in the role their employment with Automattic also wasn't disclosed [3]. [1] https://www.plu…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you clarify if "Executive Director of WordPress.org" is the same job as "Executive Director of the WordPress Foundation"? I know you personally own wordpress.org and not the foundation (as many people suspected) so this is unclear.
Totally different. The Foundation has no employees, only volunteers and three board members. (I'm one of them.)
Thanks for your reply.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
WordPress.org seems to be used to refer to Matt Mullenweg [1], as he apparently personally owns it, though one of Automattic's lawyers said last week that it is a non-profit that is separate from the WordPress Foundation [2]. The previous Executive Director of WordPress was also an Automattic employee. When they were announced in the role their employment with Automattic also wasn't disclosed [3]. [1] https://www.plu…
All the information in the links you shared is totally wrong. Our lawyers have never said that WordPress.org is a non-profit or owned by the Foundation. It's owned and run by me personally, and I have a trademark license from the WordPress Foundation to use the WordPress name and brand on the site.
The author is identified as Neil Peretz, who it says is an associate general counsel at Automattic. He says:
"The Foundation also licensed the name WordPress to the non-profit WordPress.org, which runs a website that facilitates access to WordPress-related software."
A graphic included in the post similarly claims that "Right to use name as part of non-profit activities" went to WordPress. With the arrow coming from the WordPress Foundation.
We contacted Automattic's press email for clarification on that claim on Thursday. We have yet to hear back and the post hasn't been updated.
I feel like I've seen this entire song and dance routine before with the "Rails Foundation" — aka a cozy insiders club built to prop up DHH and his worldview. I find all of this stuff distasteful and not at all in keeping with the spirit of open source.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
WordPress.org seems to be used to refer to Matt Mullenweg [1], as he apparently personally owns it, though one of Automattic's lawyers said last week that it is a non-profit that is separate from the WordPress Foundation [2]. The previous Executive Director of WordPress was also an Automattic employee. When they were announced in the role their employment with Automattic also wasn't disclosed [3]. [1] https://www.plu…
All the information in the links you shared is totally wrong. Our lawyers have never said that WordPress.org is a non-profit or owned by the Foundation. It's owned and run by me personally, and I have a trademark license from the WordPress Foundation to use the WordPress name and brand on the site.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you clarify if "Executive Director of WordPress.org" is the same job as "Executive Director of the WordPress Foundation"? I know you personally own wordpress.org and not the foundation (as many people suspected) so this is unclear.
Totally different. The Foundation has no employees, only volunteers and three board members. (I'm one of them.)
Does Mary Hubbard have the ability to kick Matt Mullenweg out of the org when he implodes? If not, she's not really an executive director of anything, but merely a puppet. I feel like I've seen this entire song and dance routine before with the "Rails Foundation" — aka a cozy insiders club built to prop up DHH and his worldview. I find all of this stuff distasteful and not at all in keeping with the spirit of open s…
Also, an executive director never has control over the board - they serve the board.
But a major difference between the WP Foundation and Rails Foundation is that the Rails one appears to be a legitimate foundation, with real budget and activities, real governance and transparency provided by actual, living, involved, knowledgeable humans who have agency.
The Wordpress Foundation is a shell for trademark and tax fraud... It has no governance, transparency, or even seemingly any activities. And the TWO non-Matt directors are completely MIA, with one of them seemingly having no Wordpress affiliation while also working in Matt's much-maligned private equity industry (who also fund his own company!)
Also, the Rails Trademark is under exclusive, seemingly transparent license to the Rails Foundation.
Whereas the WP Trademark was ceremoniously "given" to the WP Foundation (controlled, in effect, exclusively by Matt) in 2010, and then secretly given right back to Matt the same day.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Totally different. The Foundation has no employees, only volunteers and three board members. (I'm one of them.)
What legal entity is WordPress.org insured under, and who cuts the checks?
The Wordpress Foundation is a non-profit legal entity with a tiny budget. It appears the only thing it does is serve as a holding entity for the trademarks and the for-profit company than operates the WordCamp conferences.
I suspect that Automattic is the one who foots the bill for the infrastructure behind Wordpress.org, but that's not clear.
Matt talks about transparency, but how everything operates is a muddled mess.