WordPress forces user conf organizers to share social media credentials, arousing suspicions
One told to take down posts that said nice things about WP Engine
Organisers of WordCamps, community-organized events for WordPress users, have been ordered to take down some social media posts and share their login credentials for social networks.
The order to share creds came from an employee of Automattic, the WordPress host whose CEO happens to be Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of WordPress. A letter sent to WordCamp organizers explains that the creds are needed due to "recurrent issues with new organizing teams losing access to the event's social media accounts."
So far, so sensible.
But the requirement to share creds comes in the middle of a nasty spat in the WordPress community, sparked by Mullenweg's efforts to have rival hosting biz WP Engine license the WordPress trademark or devote more staff to working on the open source content management system's code. Mullenweg argues that private-equity-controlled WP Engine is not acting the in spirit of open source by profiting from WordPress. WP Engine contends that it does plenty for the community.
One source of support for WP Engine was WordCamp Sydney, which recently used its X account to argue that the hosting biz sponsoring its events was a valuable contribution to the WordPress community. "It's not just about contributing dev back to core," event organizers argued.
We'd link to the Xeet in which WordCamp Sydney made that observation, but another Automattic employee wrote to the event's organizers with a request to take it down – on grounds that it did not "align with the Community Team's view." The Community Team includes Automattic staffers who help with WordCamps.
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