This is a quickly developing story. Since recording this, Automattic temporarily unblocked WP Engine from WordPress.org until October 1, and WP Engine successfully implemented their own way of handling WordPress updates. That’s a very impressive accomplishment in such a short time. The biggest unknown right now is what happens to ACF. Matt has stated that WP Engine can’t log into their wordpress.org account to release updates, and he’s also threatened to add ACF Pro to WordPress core. WP Engine has also updated the copy of their website in hopes of resolving their alleged trademark violation, but after continued threats from Automattic, they've filed an official 62-page complaint, requesting a jury trial in the State of California: wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Complaint-WP-Engine-v-Automattic-et-al.pdf Only time will tell how this all plays out.
This is so true, and this is the thing I don’t think Matt understands. Many users don’t see it as “ok, I just won’t use WP Engine.” They see it as “ok, I just won’t use WordPress.”
Wix and Squarespace are extremely expensive, specially when you discover how to use something like Cloudways and just pay like 10 bucks per month to host like 15 websites. And when you discover Bricks builder, you can never go back.
Except that neither is even comparable to WordPress. I could get a client using WordPress and actually optimize their website, despite it being WordPress and essentially junk. But it's mostly fixable junk. Squarespace and Wix are like "Yeah, you might want to cancel that subscription if you want to do something serious with your website." Or in other words: I'd make a custom plugin and theme for a client using WordPress but I wouldn't touch some drag 'n drop nonsense from SMB.
I agree that WPE (and other hosting companies) should contribute more towards the WP core and development, but Matt's actions were childish, selfish and douchey. They affected the end-users and sent many of them (us) into a bit of a panic. There is no question in my mind that he should be removed from the foundation board. It's a clear conflict of interest. ... his actions will just seed doubt in the stability of WP with a lot of people, myself included.
Absolutely. I never thought about WordPress alternatives until last week. Now I'm much more curious about Ghost, etc. Ultimately, I know WordPress is still the top platform for a reason, but I know I'm not alone in considering the alternatives.
@@Craylor Exactly. Now I'm doubting whether or not I want to invest into LTD plans for certain builders, components, plugins, etc. Do I want to continue investing my time into learning new WP related software? I'm not so sure anymore. I know Wordpress isn't going to go belly-up tomorrow, but what's Matt going to do next? Will his actions 2 months from now, 6 months from now, 1 year from now cause more waves? Will they cause devs and designers to jump ship altogether? Who knows. Personally, I'd like to have a job and a way to feed my family, and if WP is not the way to do it, then I need to invest my time and resources elsewhere. I don't think Matt really thought this through very well, at least not from the perspective of the little guys.
Automattic will lose this fight, WPEngine may get some scrapes, but they’ll come out on top. Also, going off a lot of the court records and screenshots of conversations of different key players, what Matt is doing could possibly be a considered a conspiracy and a crime.
WP Engine's hosting is ridiculously overpriced and they've messed up the Genesis framework. I wouldn't touch either of those products with a barge pole
Great analysis of a very dynamic situation. I've been using WordPress to make a living for the last 12 years and have a lot of respect for both Matt Mullenweg and WP engine. Seems like much of this could've been handled and off-line conversations between them.
*How creators stopped using SUPERLATIVES and CAPS to SCREAM at their audience* No, but seriously... Most webmasters don't care. Most business owners with a WP website do not care. Nobody really cares one week into the future. It's just silly beef based on emotions and people's principles with regards to funding a free project. Beef like this won't be behind closed doors because heated FOSS discussions always leak to the public one way or another.
That being said, one company doesn't match contributions although their business model heavily relies on the thing they ought to donate more to. On the other hand, the founder of WordPress needs to change the word "donation" to "tribute" because one can't force donations as opposed to tributes.
I'm building website for the company I work for ( not as a developer ) using HTML CSS and JS. In the future if it needs saving DATA i will use Laravel or Django... Or maybe express with mongoDB. I'm not a professional dev but with my knowledge in computer science and Linux servers + AI I'm confident i can build a small robust system 😊 PS: I tried WordPress a few times and it didn't fit with my style of building web apps.
Based of the advertisement problem you mentioned, is it fair to say much of the WP growth could be coming from webmasters/agencies selling their clients on using WP?
Absolutely. In fact, I even get many in my audience reaching out and asking which website platform I think they should use (I don’t always recommend WordPress, I pick what I think is the best for their use case). The average person is turning to Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, or the GoDaddy Website Builder… because those are the platforms they hear about.
@@Craylor sad that if often feels this group is the least listened to when it come to new WP features. The "professional" user wants more CMS functionalities in Core imo, ironically this would also help Automattic with their enterprise clients. ACF & most modules from WPextended plugin should be Core functionalites by now imo
I absolutely agree. Matt is now talking about including ACF in Core... I think it's mostly because he wants to stick it to WP Engine, and I think it sets a dangerous precident among plugin developers. However, I think we need *_some_* form of custom post types in Core.
Adoption is really had because there's a large portion of people who won't choose it because it's verry rarely the right tool for the job. Sure you can duct tape it together to do stuff but then some pore sole has to look after that duct tape. Sure you can duct tape it together to do stuff but 9 times out of 10 it's by someone who has no idea what they are doing and makes a mess of the entire project. There's so many people who have been burnt by a garbage WordPress project & you have to get over that noise and the hype of the rest of the web's new framework/tools circle jerk.
Yeah, it's true that WordPress is a blogging tool at its core. I see that perspective... but I still think it's a brand awareness issue more than a product issue (though I agree that the product can be improved). Perhaps my thinking is wrong and people do think of WordPress instinctively and shy away from it because they've heard horror stories about it.
Good points and I agree with the marketing problem that WP is facing. I believe that content creators like you can solve this problem by putting more content out on WP and its ecosystem.
Nothing wrong with an HTML website if you just need a static site and are comfortable with HTML. Since Matt controls wordpress.org, I’m not sure what you mean with your second question.
@@Craylor oh now i understand what’s going on. well i kept telling people to have old style website, because we can keep html files pretty easily. reply function is difficult but at least we can maintain some base for texts and photos.
@@Craylor If you are just displaying information and not expect comment sections then I think static sites are still great. They are more difficult to manage especially when adding new articles and editing old ones. The problem I see with Wordpress is it feels over engineered it makes it bulky. Then when updates roll they could break a thing or two, prompting you to do something about it. I think that if you are capable of reading and writing HTML you should stick to static websites unless there's a special functionality you really need or a client really wants WP. Editing in the CMS UI of Wordpress is really no different than editing an HTML file for a programmer.
7:30 Fears for the future of WP but by blocking WP engine from updates endangers 1.5m + websites. Also 5% is 5% why demand 8% all of a sudden? Greed is truly a deadly sin. If he continues with this it can kill WP soon.
The logic behind the 8% is the biggest thing I'm wondering about. He has since stated on social media that his 8% offer has been withdrawn because it's no longer enough. 🤔
@@Craylor And he just targeted WP engine. If he really believes WP needs funding then he should brave enough to demand 8% across the board to be fair. But I guess once he calmed down he withdrew his 8%. Someone must have knocked him back to his senses. With that blocking he did he could have caused either a financial or tech crisis. He should be careful with his actions.
@@techwizpc4484 Except he didn't withdraw it because he didn't want it anymore.. he said it wasn't enough! He implied in an interview today that he may be going for a hostile takeover of WP Engine as his next steps. Wild stuff unfolding in real-time.
@@Craylor Yikes! Can he do that? I get that he made the original WP but thousands of people have already contributed to the thing. It's like the D&D thing all over again. Thousands of authors have contributed to the lore but the copyright holder wants to claim it all.
@collared Oh really? I’ve been using WordPress version 4.9 since 2018 and have never updated it. I'm using a free theme created in 2014, and of course, I’ve made some changes to the theme. The load time on my website is quite fast, and I've been using WordPress since 2013, and it has never been hacked even once. FYI, my site gets over 100k visitors per day. Saying that WordPress is full of security holes makes me laugh🤣🤣
@@collared Oh really? I’ve been using WordPress version 4.9 since 2018 till now and have never updated it. I'm using a free theme created in 2014, and of course, I’ve made some changes to the theme. The load time on my website is quite fast, and I've been using WordPress since 2013, and it has never been hacked even once. FYI, my site gets over 100k visitors per day. Saying that WordPress is full of security holes makes me laugh🤣🤣
I've used WordPress for a few reasons. (1) it's what I learned years ago and am most familiar with, (2) the plugin marketplace is far wider due to its massive market share, and therefore, I feel the "ceiling" of flexibility is much higher than Ghost. However, this situation has me thinking about Ghost a lot. Considering doing a comparison video... Stay tuned 👀
I see both sides to it. Ultimately, no matter where you stand, I wish it could have been handled better by Automattic. We went from zero public mention of this to affecting people's websites in a matter of days.
The situation is complex. I watched the interview. According to Matt, he claims that WPEngine has modified core WordPress, so it is a different experience from the actual platform, "like modding core WordPress." His point is that they shouldn't use this language to claim it is vanilla WordPress. This is also true for other open-source platforms, such as Android, licensing, and Google, for example. It also doesn't seem like they're taking him seriously when he expressed his concern, stating, "probably his fault; might not be a leader who should lead the platform." It is everyone's fault, but Matt should not have banned them. He will lose the battle. He should have at least warned customers that WPEngine is violating their terms and given them at least three months to make a decision. If they had the intention, WPEngine had his communication widgets blocked anyway, so direct communication would have been out of the question.
This is a really fantastic summary of the situation. Thank you for being fair and balanced! I find your unique perspective (especially as a Gen Z representative!) really helpful. I hope that influencers in the WordPress space will hear what you have to say 🙌 PS - thanks for the shoutout! Extremely honoured 🙈
The name "WP Engine" is a bit misleading for sure, and many beginners believe that WordPress is behind WP Engine. That's probably the biggest issue here. However, Matts behavior was childish and not handled in a professional way. It feels like a personal attack of some kind. I hope this situation gets resolved, and that the WordPress community can continue to grow and improve WordPress. Matt has done a great job with WordPress over the years, but maybe it's time for him to step aside and let someone else lead, who strongly believes in WordPress and the open-source philosophy.
I totally understand the naming confusion. WP Engine is the only (notable) host I can think of that uses "WP" in the name. I agree that it feels personal. There have been many theories as to what could "really" be behind it (maybe they're trying to go public and he doesn't like that?). Either way, the situation was mishandled and is just damaging the WordPress brand and reputation as a whole.
One issue is Matt didn't push harder regarding trademark earlier on, as I think he was a bit naïve perhaps.. He has been in communication with WPEngine for many years, however not much progress has been made. WPEngine didn't do themselves any favours by modifying Stripe attribution code taking money that should go to WooCommerce. I think if you're going to make a nearly half a billion dollar a year company off the back of WordPress it's in your best interest to give back.
![Tee Grizzley - Robbery 8 [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/34_vkNV6wrU/mqdefault.jpg)
This is a quickly developing story. Since recording this, Automattic temporarily unblocked WP Engine from WordPress.org until October 1, and WP Engine successfully implemented their own way of handling WordPress updates. That’s a very impressive accomplishment in such a short time.
The biggest unknown right now is what happens to ACF. Matt has stated that WP Engine can’t log into their wordpress.org account to release updates, and he’s also threatened to add ACF Pro to WordPress core.
WP Engine has also updated the copy of their website in hopes of resolving their alleged trademark violation, but after continued threats from Automattic, they've filed an official 62-page complaint, requesting a jury trial in the State of California: wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Complaint-WP-Engine-v-Automattic-et-al.pdf
Only time will tell how this all plays out.
Well, it is super easy, barely an inconvenience to proxy and route the updates from WPE to go through IP that isn't blocked by WP.
Wix & SquareSpace sending a big thanks to Matt
This is so true, and this is the thing I don’t think Matt understands. Many users don’t see it as “ok, I just won’t use WP Engine.” They see it as “ok, I just won’t use WordPress.”
Wix and Squarespace are extremely expensive, specially when you discover how to use something like Cloudways and just pay like 10 bucks per month to host like 15 websites. And when you discover Bricks builder, you can never go back.
Except that neither is even comparable to WordPress. I could get a client using WordPress and actually optimize their website, despite it being WordPress and essentially junk. But it's mostly fixable junk. Squarespace and Wix are like "Yeah, you might want to cancel that subscription if you want to do something serious with your website." Or in other words: I'd make a custom plugin and theme for a client using WordPress but I wouldn't touch some drag 'n drop nonsense from SMB.
@@nickm1049 🤣🤣🤣🤣
They are more dangerous than Wordpress!
I agree that WPE (and other hosting companies) should contribute more towards the WP core and development, but Matt's actions were childish, selfish and douchey. They affected the end-users and sent many of them (us) into a bit of a panic. There is no question in my mind that he should be removed from the foundation board. It's a clear conflict of interest. ... his actions will just seed doubt in the stability of WP with a lot of people, myself included.
Absolutely. I never thought about WordPress alternatives until last week. Now I'm much more curious about Ghost, etc. Ultimately, I know WordPress is still the top platform for a reason, but I know I'm not alone in considering the alternatives.
@@Craylor Exactly. Now I'm doubting whether or not I want to invest into LTD plans for certain builders, components, plugins, etc. Do I want to continue investing my time into learning new WP related software? I'm not so sure anymore. I know Wordpress isn't going to go belly-up tomorrow, but what's Matt going to do next? Will his actions 2 months from now, 6 months from now, 1 year from now cause more waves? Will they cause devs and designers to jump ship altogether? Who knows. Personally, I'd like to have a job and a way to feed my family, and if WP is not the way to do it, then I need to invest my time and resources elsewhere.
I don't think Matt really thought this through very well, at least not from the perspective of the little guys.
The biggest problem with wordpress is bugs, speed, security, lack of good UX and lack of basic features.
Though it is fine for 99% of websites and is easy enough for most people to update pages once the site is up.
People who complain about the lack of features obviously don't understand that it's a blogging platform, not a CMS.
@@cedricol wordpress does just about all that other CMSes like Joomla do
I cant see how these are WP issues, they all depend on what YOU are doing and HOW you are doing it
Great insights here. I love the conclusion: it aint dead but, if we're not self-aware as a community, this could be the beginning of the end. Spot on!
Automattic will lose this fight, WPEngine may get some scrapes, but they’ll come out on top. Also, going off a lot of the court records and screenshots of conversations of different key players, what Matt is doing could possibly be a considered a conspiracy and a crime.
WP Engine's hosting is ridiculously overpriced and they've messed up the Genesis framework. I wouldn't touch either of those products with a barge pole
Hello from New York City! Where can we find the WordPress Contributor chart at time code 09:23 on the web? Thank you for your informative video.
"non biased" lol
Great analysis of a very dynamic situation. I've been using WordPress to make a living for the last 12 years and have a lot of respect for both Matt Mullenweg and WP engine. Seems like much of this could've been handled and off-line conversations between them.
i hope you become the next ceo, that was the most optimistic and hopeful speculation i have heard this week
I love the insight shared on the topic as a Gen Z from Uganda sharing more on WordPress and I love your conclusion hope it will be resolved soon
Private equity... say no more!
*How creators stopped using SUPERLATIVES and CAPS to SCREAM at their audience*
No, but seriously... Most webmasters don't care. Most business owners with a WP website do not care. Nobody really cares one week into the future. It's just silly beef based on emotions and people's principles with regards to funding a free project. Beef like this won't be behind closed doors because heated FOSS discussions always leak to the public one way or another.
That being said, one company doesn't match contributions although their business model heavily relies on the thing they ought to donate more to. On the other hand, the founder of WordPress needs to change the word "donation" to "tribute" because one can't force donations as opposed to tributes.
I'm building website for the company I work for ( not as a developer ) using HTML CSS and JS. In the future if it needs saving DATA i will use Laravel or Django... Or maybe express with mongoDB.
I'm not a professional dev but with my knowledge in computer science and Linux servers + AI I'm confident i can build a small robust system 😊
PS: I tried WordPress a few times and it didn't fit with my style of building web apps.
What if WP Engine bought Automatic?
Full stack bootstrap forever. Most real developers never liked Wordpress now I see why smh
Look everyone! This guy is a REAL developer! 😂
@@RR-ok4wz Yeah, most real developers never liked it but it's almost 50% of the web, we've really found the only real dev out there
Based of the advertisement problem you mentioned, is it fair to say much of the WP growth could be coming from webmasters/agencies selling their clients on using WP?
Absolutely. In fact, I even get many in my audience reaching out and asking which website platform I think they should use (I don’t always recommend WordPress, I pick what I think is the best for their use case).
The average person is turning to Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, or the GoDaddy Website Builder… because those are the platforms they hear about.
@@Craylor sad that if often feels this group is the least listened to when it come to new WP features. The "professional" user wants more CMS functionalities in Core imo, ironically this would also help Automattic with their enterprise clients. ACF & most modules from WPextended plugin should be Core functionalites by now imo
I absolutely agree. Matt is now talking about including ACF in Core... I think it's mostly because he wants to stick it to WP Engine, and I think it sets a dangerous precident among plugin developers. However, I think we need *_some_* form of custom post types in Core.
Very interesting story! Thank you for explaining this as I was a little confused.
Adoption is really had because there's a large portion of people who won't choose it because it's verry rarely the right tool for the job.
Sure you can duct tape it together to do stuff but then some pore sole has to look after that duct tape.
Sure you can duct tape it together to do stuff but 9 times out of 10 it's by someone who has no idea what they are doing and makes a mess of the entire project.
There's so many people who have been burnt by a garbage WordPress project & you have to get over that noise and the hype of the rest of the web's new framework/tools circle jerk.
Yeah, it's true that WordPress is a blogging tool at its core. I see that perspective... but I still think it's a brand awareness issue more than a product issue (though I agree that the product can be improved). Perhaps my thinking is wrong and people do think of WordPress instinctively and shy away from it because they've heard horror stories about it.
Great analysis, they should work more on marketing. Best from Zürich Clay!
Really good content!
You mean they might stop ruining WordPress? Great!
Good points and I agree with the marketing problem that WP is facing. I believe that content creators like you can solve this problem by putting more content out on WP and its ecosystem.
Totally! I’ll be continuing to cover WordPress on my channel.
There were no gen Z people because no one likes PHP nowadays and WP is PHP
What is OPEN SOURCE 😂
It's not dying.
Just when i can generate code at an instant, the most popular cms is going to die. Hmmmm
Old news click bate.
why not html website? does this include WP org??
Nothing wrong with an HTML website if you just need a static site and are comfortable with HTML.
Since Matt controls wordpress.org, I’m not sure what you mean with your second question.
@@Craylor oh now i understand what’s going on.
well i kept telling people to have old style website, because we can keep html files pretty easily. reply function is difficult but at least we can maintain some base for texts and photos.
@@Craylor If you are just displaying information and not expect comment sections then I think static sites are still great. They are more difficult to manage especially when adding new articles and editing old ones.
The problem I see with Wordpress is it feels over engineered it makes it bulky. Then when updates roll they could break a thing or two, prompting you to do something about it.
I think that if you are capable of reading and writing HTML you should stick to static websites unless there's a special functionality you really need or a client really wants WP. Editing in the CMS UI of Wordpress is really no different than editing an HTML file for a programmer.
@@techwizpc4484 You can also get some powerful, fast, free hosting for static sites with Cloudflare Pages or Github Pages.
@@Craylor I tried the github one but that's owned by Microsoft now, right? Can't be too sure what plans they have for Github and Github pages.
i hope if wp will disappear business owners will transfer to wix
Very well said, Christian!
Thank you!
7:30 Fears for the future of WP but by blocking WP engine from updates endangers 1.5m + websites. Also 5% is 5% why demand 8% all of a sudden? Greed is truly a deadly sin. If he continues with this it can kill WP soon.
The logic behind the 8% is the biggest thing I'm wondering about. He has since stated on social media that his 8% offer has been withdrawn because it's no longer enough. 🤔
@@Craylor And he just targeted WP engine. If he really believes WP needs funding then he should brave enough to demand 8% across the board to be fair. But I guess once he calmed down he withdrew his 8%. Someone must have knocked him back to his senses.
With that blocking he did he could have caused either a financial or tech crisis. He should be careful with his actions.
@@techwizpc4484 Except he didn't withdraw it because he didn't want it anymore.. he said it wasn't enough! He implied in an interview today that he may be going for a hostile takeover of WP Engine as his next steps. Wild stuff unfolding in real-time.
@@Craylor Yikes! Can he do that? I get that he made the original WP but thousands of people have already contributed to the thing. It's like the D&D thing all over again. Thousands of authors have contributed to the lore but the copyright holder wants to claim it all.
this is why you dont use WP lol whole thing is filled with security risks like i dont belive in wordpress despite it being used by alot other websites
What is your favorite platform?
Not to mention heavy on loading times, especially if there's so many plugins included.
@@Craylor ive only ever had small-scale websites so theyve always been coded from scratch
@collared Oh really? I’ve been using WordPress version 4.9 since 2018 and have never updated it. I'm using a free theme created in 2014, and of course, I’ve made some changes to the theme. The load time on my website is quite fast, and I've been using WordPress since 2013, and it has never been hacked even once. FYI, my site gets over 100k visitors per day. Saying that WordPress is full of security holes makes me laugh🤣🤣
@@collared Oh really? I’ve been using WordPress version 4.9 since 2018 till now and have never updated it. I'm using a free theme created in 2014, and of course, I’ve made some changes to the theme. The load time on my website is quite fast, and I've been using WordPress since 2013, and it has never been hacked even once. FYI, my site gets over 100k visitors per day. Saying that WordPress is full of security holes makes me laugh🤣🤣
Young and hip, ouch that burned lol :)
If you really believe in open source why you don’t use ghost then? It is better for influencers and at all😂 and no php any more😅
I've used WordPress for a few reasons. (1) it's what I learned years ago and am most familiar with, (2) the plugin marketplace is far wider due to its massive market share, and therefore, I feel the "ceiling" of flexibility is much higher than Ghost.
However, this situation has me thinking about Ghost a lot. Considering doing a comparison video... Stay tuned 👀
@@Craylor that’s good idea, I’ll wait for comparison video😉
The number of people defending Silver Lake is shocking.
I see both sides to it. Ultimately, no matter where you stand, I wish it could have been handled better by Automattic. We went from zero public mention of this to affecting people's websites in a matter of days.
😂lol
The situation is complex. I watched the interview. According to Matt, he claims that WPEngine has modified core WordPress, so it is a different experience from the actual platform, "like modding core WordPress." His point is that they shouldn't use this language to claim it is vanilla WordPress. This is also true for other open-source platforms, such as Android, licensing, and Google, for example.
It also doesn't seem like they're taking him seriously when he expressed his concern, stating, "probably his fault; might not be a leader who should lead the platform."
It is everyone's fault, but Matt should not have banned them. He will lose the battle. He should have at least warned customers that WPEngine is violating their terms and given them at least three months to make a decision. If they had the intention, WPEngine had his communication widgets blocked anyway, so direct communication would have been out of the question.
This is a really fantastic summary of the situation. Thank you for being fair and balanced!
I find your unique perspective (especially as a Gen Z representative!) really helpful.
I hope that influencers in the WordPress space will hear what you have to say 🙌
PS - thanks for the shoutout! Extremely honoured 🙈
Thanks for writing that article! I don’t think this video would have been the same without it.
The name "WP Engine" is a bit misleading for sure, and many beginners believe that WordPress is behind WP Engine. That's probably the biggest issue here. However, Matts behavior was childish and not handled in a professional way. It feels like a personal attack of some kind. I hope this situation gets resolved, and that the WordPress community can continue to grow and improve WordPress. Matt has done a great job with WordPress over the years, but maybe it's time for him to step aside and let someone else lead, who strongly believes in WordPress and the open-source philosophy.
I totally understand the naming confusion. WP Engine is the only (notable) host I can think of that uses "WP" in the name. I agree that it feels personal. There have been many theories as to what could "really" be behind it (maybe they're trying to go public and he doesn't like that?). Either way, the situation was mishandled and is just damaging the WordPress brand and reputation as a whole.
One issue is Matt didn't push harder regarding trademark earlier on, as I think he was a bit naïve perhaps.. He has been in communication with WPEngine for many years, however not much progress has been made.
WPEngine didn't do themselves any favours by modifying Stripe attribution code taking money that should go to WooCommerce. I think if you're going to make a nearly half a billion dollar a year company off the back of WordPress it's in your best interest to give back.