Matt Mullenweg and WordPress Hijack the Advanced Custom Fields Plugin – Pixel Envy
It is nearly impossible to get me to feel sympathetic for anything touched by private equity, but Mullenweg has done just that. He really is burning all goodwill for reasons I cannot quite understand. I do understand the message he is sending, though: Mullenweg is prepared to use the web’s most popular CMS and any third-party contributions as his personal weapon. Your carefully developed plugin is not safe in the WordPress ecosystem if you dare cross him or Automattic.
Nick’s post really speaks to the level of exasperation many are feeling about this situation. The disagreement between WordPress – which means Matt Mullenweg – and WP Engine has managed to burn a huge amount of goodwill towards WordPress. You don’t get to build open-source software and use it (as Nick puts it) “as your personal weapon”.
Mullenweg’s conduct isn’t just dangerous to WordPress, it’s a danger to the entire open-source community. And what’s most worrying: he apparently can’t see it. He keeps escalating and escalating, and it will not end well for his company or for WordPress as a product.