In a recent interview, Matt Mullenweg referenced three scandals and controversies from his past that have been long forgotten to show how it’s possible that the WP Engine scandal will also be forgotten. One of the examples he cited, the Hot Nacho Scandal, led Google to ban WordPress.org, caused Mullenweg to be rebuked by influential tech leaders, and resulted in his shaming in the mainstream media.
The Hot Nacho Scandal, named for a software company called Hot Nacho, was an intense event for Matt Mullenweg that shows what he endured in the past and may help explain his attitude toward the WP Engine scandal today.
Matt Recalls Three Forgotten Controversies
In a part of the interview where Matt downplays the current WP Engine (WPE) dispute he cited three scandals and controversies from the past ten to twenty years to show how he’s made mistakes and also how he has not shied away from an aggressive attention-getting defense of the WordPress open source project and yet with time it’s mostly been forgotten. He cited three controversies as examples of how the WP Engine controversy can also be forgotten with time, perhaps giving an insight into Matt’s thinking about it.
He cited three incidents:
1. The 2005 Hot Nacho Scandal
2. The 2007 Easter Theme Massacre
3. The Chris Pearson Thesis Conflict
The Thesis controversy is relatively recent but the other two go back almost two decades. The Hot Nacho incident was intense not unlike the situation Mullenweg finds himself to day with WP Engine and may explain where he gets his strength to carry on in the fight with WP Engine.
Matt said:
“You know, some of these previous controversies that got mainstream media coverage, you know CNN, I had this Hot Nacho scandal in the first couple years of WordPress or the Thesis fight or the Easter Massacre of themes, like all these things I’m mentioning you probably haven’t heard of.
It used to be like half my Wikipedia page, now it’s not. Today if you go to my Wikipedia page, their PR firm has a whole paragraph about this. I think in 5 years maybe it’ll be a sentence or not even on there at all.
So it’s not my first rodeo. Sometimes you have to fight to protect your open source ideals and the community and and your trademark. “
The Hot Nacho Scandal
The Hot Nacho scandal is named after an SEO software company that paid Matt Mullenweg to host web pages on WordPress.org, which resulted in Google banning the WordPress.org website.
Mullenweg was still working at CNET at the time and working on WordPress on the side when the scandal broke. The news was featured in publications such as Ars Technica, eWeek, MSNBC, Slashdot, and The Register.
A March 31, 2005 article published in The Register featured the lurid article title, “Blog star ‘fesses up to payola spam scam” and describes the shocking transaction that Mullenweg arranged with an SEO software company:
“Matt Mullenweg, founder of the popular open source weblog software WordPress, and CNET employee, has admitted to gaming the web’s search engines by hosting tens of thousands of “articles” that contain hidden, paid-for keywords.
Mullenweg hosted at least 160,000 pieces of “content” on his site wordpress.org which use a cloaking technique to hide keywords such as “asbestos”, “debit consolidation” and “mortgages”. Mullenweg was paid a flat fee by Hot Nacho Inc., which creates software for search engine gamers to use.”
Rebuked By Jason Kottke
Jason Kottke is a widely respected blogger who is known as a pioneer of independent publishing. So it must have been disappointing to Matt Mullenweg to be the recipient of harsh criticism from someone like Kottke, who wrote:
“WordPress is using its high Page Rank to game Google AdWords. This stinks like last week’s fish. Is WordPress and wordpress.org an open source project like we’ve all been told or is it a company? Either way, contributing to spam noise on the web is annoying.”
Hot Nacho Explains His Side
The founder of the Hot Nacho company explained that they were developing an SEO writing software and wanted to test it on WordPress.org. Matt agreed to accept payment to host the articles, cloaking the links to them so site visitors wouldn’t see them. It wasn’t sophisticated cloaking either. Mullenweg simply used CSS to push the links off-screen.
The Hot Nacho founder published an explanation and begged the world to not harshly judge Mullenweg:
“For my part, I invariably place some advertising on such pages because I’m also not corporate sponsored… It was a blunder that Matt used invisible links to connect to the Articles collection. It wasn’t necessary and I’m sure he regrets having done it that way. But please cut the guy some slack. …Sure, it was a mistake, but it was motivated by the fact that he’s a really good guy.”
Matt Mullenweg himself wrote:
“Knowing what I knew then, I would probably make the same decision; knowing what I know now I wouldn’t even consider it. Not thinking through all the ramifications was a big mistake. So was not having more community dialog from the beginning, which would have caught this earlier. I am extremely sorry for both, and it won’t happen again.”
The upside to the Hot Nacho Scandal was that WordPress received more donations in four days than it had in the previous entire year.
Transformative Event
The Hot Nacho Scandal may have been a formative experience for a young Mullenweg. It exposed him to intense criticism, rebuke and anonymous threats. According to Mullenweg at the time, he said that what others say doesn’t matter as much as what you do and acknowledged that he was developing a thicker skin.
Understanding what the Hot Nacho Scandal was helps put some context to how Mullenweg is approaching the WP Engine Conflict today.
Matt Mullenweg downplayed his dispute with WP Engine, saying it’s not as big a deal as people are making it out to be and shared that he believes it will all be over in a few months.
Matt Compares Himself To Standing Up To Bullies
The podcast host expressed surprise at how harshly Matt went after WP Engine, expressing that he never figured Matt to be the kind of person who would go after someone else so hard, that it didn’t seem to fit his idea of the kind of person Matt Mullenweg was in his mind. Matt responded that he thought that was kind of funny because he’s actually that guy.
The podcast host commented:
“I’ve read a lot about Matt’s work. I don’t know Matt and I’ve listened to him, he doesn’t seem like someone who would ever like insult someone and I was actually surprised that you were going as hard as you were. And I guess your perspective is like, they’re coming after everything I made or they don’t contribute, whatever. But I was actually surprised that you were you you were pissed off and I didn’t think that you would be the type of guy that would come off pissed off…”
Matt smiled as he explained that he feels obliged to stand up for WordPress, like someone standing up to a playground bully.
He explained:
“…so just like a schoolyard bully, you kind of have to stand up for yourself. So it’s kind of funny because you say you don’t think of me as doing this but actually if you look at the history of WordPress there have been maybe four or five times in the history where I had this kind of villain arc … like we had a fight to protect our principles and the sustainability and the future of WordPress.”
Matt Says People Will Forget About WP Engine Dispute
Matt compared the current dispute with WP Engine with previous controversies as a way to note how those were forgotten and one day the WP Engine conflict will also be forgotten.
Mullenweg continued:
“You know, some of these previous controversies that got mainstream media coverage, you know CNN, I had this Hot Nacho scandal in the first couple years of WordPress or the Thesis fight or the Easter Massacre of themes, like all these things I’m mentioning you probably haven’t heard of.
It used to be like half my Wikipedia page, now it’s not. Today if you go to my Wikipedia page, their PR firm has a whole paragraph about this.
I think in 5 years maybe it’ll be a sentence or not even on there at all.”
Mullenweg Downplays WP Engine Dispute
Matt sought to portray WP Engine as not that big a company and ultimately people are making a bigger deal about the dispute than it actually is.
He said:
“And they’re a web host which people think is the largest but actually you know probably the sixth or seventh largest WordPress web host. There’s a lot of bigger ones and they’re a single digit percentage of all the WordPresses in the world. They probably have like 700,000 800,000 or something.
People have made this into a bigger deal than it really is.”
Mullenweg Expects Fight To Be Over In Months
Lastly, Mullenweg expressed the opinion that it was his duty to stand up and fight and that he expected the WP Engine dispute to be behind him within a few months although he did acknowledge that there are many angry people.
The characterization that the dispute will be over within a few months is startling because it seems to suggest that there is something going on behind the scenes or that he would simply prevail and get his way. Mullenweg didn’t explain what he meant by that comment and the podcast hosts didn’t ask him to elaborate.
Mullenweg said,
“So it’s not my first rodeo. Sometimes you have to fight to protect your open source ideals and the community and and your trademark.
By the way, I expect this to resolve in the next few months. Although it’s easy to find like, if you go on Reddit or Twitter, I get a lot of hate.”
At this point Matt explained the conflict from his point of view, painting himself as the victim who was forced to go on the attack, narrating a sequence of events that generally isn’t how most people experienced it. He painted WP Engine’s side as the aggressor and characterized the public rebuke he gave of WP Engine at WordCamp as a “presentation.”
Mullenweg explained:
“Some of the people are uncomfortable with you know us having to to fight protect ourselves. You know WP Engine took some, a very aggressive legal action. So it turned out when we thought we were sort of good faith negotiating they were preparing a legal case to attack us because you know 3 days after I give this presentation they launched this huge lawsuit with Quinn Emanuel it’s kind of like the one of the biggest nastiest law firms.”
Where Were The Hard Questions?
One of the podcast hosts solicited the WordPress communities on Reddit and Twitter for questions that he could ask Matt Mullenweg. The community responded with many questions but the podcast hosts largely refrained from asking those user submitted questions, which to be fair were pretty hard-hitting and inherently presupposed things about Mullenweg.
Elementor released a free to use standalone AI app called Site Planner that enables users to create a website in a step by step process beginning with the most general concept of the site and ending with a complete website design down to the individual page elements. I gave it a try and was stunned by how easy and fast it was to create a website.
Intuitive Approach To Site Building
Elementor’s application of AI features an intuitive and attractive user interface, everything feels to have been considered so that at no point does one feel the need to read instructions. The questions asked at the start of the process establish a general overview of what the site is about, necessary pages, what the goals are and so on.
Getting started is as simple as clicking a start button, the first hint that building a site with Elementor is going to be easy.
Screenshot Of Start Of AI Site Building App
Collaborative Capabilities
The site design process can be a designer working with a client or multiple stakeholders in a company working together to roll out the next iteration of a website. Elementor’s Site Planner app recognizes this reality and offers users the option to collaborate over Google Meet or proceed alone with the AI as one of the first steps of the process.
Screenshot Of Collaboration Option
Generate A Website Brief
A website brief is a document that outlines the goals and expectations of a web design project. It serves as a road map and plan that guides the stakeholders through the planning and development stages of the project.
Elementor’s AI Site Planner app smartly begins with asking the right questions for putting together a website brief that serves as the backbone of what is to be created.
The site planner generates a website brief describing what the website project is and once that’s approved Elementor creates what it refers to as a sitemap, a site diagram or site architecture diagram that provides a high-level overview of the different pages and how they’re interlinked.
It then generates a wireframe of the entire site that can be zoomed in to edit individual sections of a website at an overview level, to “fine-tune” the layout.
This is how Elementor describes the process:
1 Brief From Vision -> Brief Start an AI-led conversation and get your project off the ground. Watch your ideas, descriptions, and notes transform before your eyes into a proper website brief.
2 Sitemap From Brief -> Sitemap AI Site Planner instantly maps out all your key pages and creates a complete sitemap in minutes, not hours. Easily shuffle or edit pages to fit your vision.
3 Wireframe From Sitemap -> Wireframe Get your first draft in minutes. Watch AI turn your sitemap into content-filled wireframes in a click.
Elementor AI Site Planner
The Elementor AI Site Planner is in my opinion a successful implementation of AI for planning a website. Read the full announcement.
Three unrelated things happened in the world of WordPress and Content Management Systems which may point the direction of how content is published on the web. Two of the developments are directly related to WordPress and has the feel of pieces falling into place.
WordPress Parallel Community
There is movement to build a parallel community and infrastructure to WordPress. The goal is to bring stability to WordPress and ensure that it continues to be the world’s most popular content management system. Recent events related to the Automattic and Mullenweg dispute with WP Engine have given rise to actions that may in time wrest control of WordPress away from Automattic and Matt Mullenweg.
Alternative WordPress Community: Piece One
This second approach of creating an alternative WordPress community gained major support from GoDaddy in the form of a half million dollar donation to the non-profit The WP Community Collective, a group whose goal is to support an independent WordPress open source ecosystem.
“GoDaddy …just invested a half-million dollars in the WordPress community through a donation to The WP Community Collective, an initiative focused on funding and empowering WordPress contributors. This monetary support will be directed towards providing financial, operational and promotional support within the greater WordPress community.
The WP Community Collective contribution by GoDaddy… aims to strengthen open source communities by providing resources for designers, developers and other contributors who make the internet work.”
What makes the GoDaddy funding interesting is that one of the investors in GoDaddy, BlackRock, is also an investor in Automattic. BlackRock recently lowered the value of their stake in Automattic, which is said to currently be less than one percent.
Second News: Post Status WordPress Community Becomes A Non-Profit
The second piece of the alternative WordPress community is in the form of an investment made by Joost de Valk in an actual WordPress business community that was founded 15 years ago. Joost is turning it into a non-profit and setting it up with a governance board.
According to the announcement:
“…we’re excited about this community and the history that has brought Post Status to where it is – a true staple of the WordPress community where thoughts flow freely, business is done, and mutual support is abundant.
…Over the past few months, it’s become very clear that Post Status is an enormously important place for the community to come together and discuss all things WordPress. A place with light moderation, but also with true freedom of speech (within the boundaries of treating everyone with respect) and the freedom to have different opinions.
We want to enshrine those freedoms even more. That’s why we (Marieke and myself) will be buying Post Status”
Joost de Valk, the founder of Yoast SEO plugins, has recently become an outspoken advocate of changing WordPress governance to a more democratic model and of creating a parallel WordPress structure that secures and stabilizes the distribution of WordPress themes and plugins.
Third Development: Federated WordPress Directories
There have been ongoing discussions across the WordPress community about decentralizing plugin and theme distribution so that WordPress.org, which is controlled by Automattic and Matt Mullenweg, is no longer the sole source. Decentralization would remove that control by distributing software through multiple channels.
Karim Marucchi (LinkedIn profile), well known in the WordPress community as a leader in enterprise WordPress development, wrote about securing the supply chain in reference to making the availability of plugin and themes secure and trustworthy.
“Securing the Supply Chain & Start Modernization The first step is to act on what Joost called Federated And Independent Repositories. It is absolutely imperative that we show the world that we have supply chain security. To create a community Plugin, we should immediately form a collaboration group between independent contributors, multiple hosting companies, agencies, and the broader product community within our ecosystems. Designed from day one to prevent any business or entity from disrupting the supply chain”
Joost de Valk recently wrote about the importance of a federated repository:
“We need to supplement WordPress.org updates with other sources, so that what happened to Advanced Custom Fields, can’t happen again. Lots of hosts are currently experimenting with or already putting in place mirrors of WordPress.org. This creates issues: download and active install statistics are no longer reliable, for instance.
Just having mirrors of WordPress.org also doesn’t really solve the problem of a single party controlling our single update server. For that, we need to make sure that those mirrors federate with each other, and share each others data and, as Karim suggested, allow for independent plugins and themes to be hosted there, outside of the wordpress.org repository. I call this: Federated and Independent Repositories, in short: FAIR.
I’m already talking to several hosts about this, and would welcome anyone who wants to join these conversations, so we’re not duplicating work.”
There is now a project called AspirePress that aims to decentralize WordPress which has been gathering momentum. AspirePress intends to become a mirror repository and eventually become a decentralized distributed model, which is expressed in their motto at the top of every page:
“Decentralize. Distribute. Democratize.”
AspirePress is committed to being a truly open source WordPress community project:
“AspirePress is a community-driven open-source project aimed at providing resources and tools to improve the lives of WordPress developers everywhere. We are focused on building a package mirror to freely distribute plugins and themes to WordPress users, no matter who or where they are.”
AspirePress is an example of people in the WordPress community taking steps to decentralize WordPress so that one entity can’t unilaterally take over someone else’s plugin and replace it with their own as Automattic and Matt Mullenweg did to WP Engine’s highly popular ACF plugin which was completely replaced with a renamed version controlled by Automattic.
Challenges And Evolution Within The WordPress Community
Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, were Stanford university students who at a certain point decided that it was in their company’s best interest to bring in a CEO with experience to take over and that’s what happened. Google’s founders still remained involved in the company but CEO seat was filled by someone else who was trustworthy. Google’s one of the largest and most influential companies in the world and is an example of founders who successfully relinquished control to more experienced hands. So it’s not like there is no precedent of a company founder who successfully handed control to someone else in order to grow the company.
There are other examples in the open source community as well:
The Joomla! CMS is an open source fork of the Mambo CMS.
Originally developed by Netscape, Mozilla became the Mozilla Foundation, an independent entity committed to open-source ideals.
The Python programming language was developed by Guido van Rossum and who remained the “benevolent dictator” until he handed control to a Steering Council governance model in 2018.
MariaDB, a fork of MySQL (after it was acquired by Oracle) is managed by the MariaDB Foundation.
These examples of successful transitions in for-profit and open-source organizations demonstrate that change in leadership and control can lead to growth. The three developments discussed in this article reflect the gradual shifts occurring in WordPress, a platform that supports thousands of jobs and generates billions in revenue worldwide. Stakeholders invested in WordPress’s stability may see these developments as steps toward that goal.
The last year has been quite eventful within the WordPress ecosystem, marked by discussions and disputes that have prompted some to question the long-term sustainability of the platform and consider exploring alternative solutions.
However, when you dive deeper into these concerns, they pale in comparison to WordPress’s enduring strengths as a product and its unmatched versatility in the CMS space.
Market Share Is Sustained
The first version of WordPress was released on May 27, 2003. Its unique architecture, combined with it being open source, saw a surge in popularity – now dominating (as of December 2024) 43.7% of the CMS market share.
This growth has also been steady despite the emergence of other CMSs including Shopify, Wix and Squarespace. But none of these are open-source.
Not “Just Another” CMS
WordPress’ unique architecture, which allows plugin and theme extendibility, combined with the power of open-source, means it can scale far beyond the blogging platform it was originally.
This means themes could be built for end-users without them having to necessarily understand HTML or CSS and plugins made by third-party developers that could extend and scale the core platform in limitless ways.
Over the years, I’ve built so much with WordPress, including forums, job boards, educational and learning-based portals, ecommerce sites, communities, comparison engines, and scaled themes.
Our clients have ranged from people performing small side hustles and launching startups to managing hundreds of installs on a custom-built server for scaling sites for different global regions and building custom APIs using WordPress to scale activity.
No other CMS provides this flexibility – with any alternatives only doing so with a huge cost and technical debt.
Extendibility [Mostly] Without Limits
While I’ve been involved in building many things with WordPress, the concept of third-party plugins paved the way for trusted extendability within the CMS.
The emergence of free and premium plugins in the WordPress ecosystem has created its own niche, with over 59,000 free plugins available within the official directory – and this does not include the thousands of plugins available away from the repo.
When I discovered WordPress in 2009, I realized it wasn’t just a blogging platform – and, more importantly, it was the most cooperative to SEO best standards. I published my first of numerous plugins in October 2010.
In 2013, I co-founded an agency with WordPress development as one of its core offerings where we have worked on thousands of WordPress sites. Whenever we received an inquiry or pitched for anything to build, WordPress was always the CMS that provided the best solution.
It’s also so easy to get started with WordPress, and I advise anyone who wants to extend their knowledge to do so through experimentation (I talked about it at BrightonSEO a couple of months ago)
A Truly Passionate Community
Another reason I loved WordPress was when I discovered that the community’s massive support helped the CMS progress.
Like the SEO community, the WordPress community is extremely engaging and supportive, not just to help solve issues and help develop the CMS overall, but also there’s a lot of support for people’s professional and personal development.
Away from the extensive resources that WordPress provides through its documentation and forums, the WordPress community thrives all year round through its WordCamp meetups worldwide and participates in other communities, including WordPress chat and PostStatus. There are also numerous podcast series to follow, including Do the Woo, WP Product Talk, and WP Builds.
This community is extremely supportive and resilient to changes, which in turn helps the development of WordPress core, which has been instrumental in shaping the future of website creation, production, and improvement.
The community also gives back in ways I haven’t seen in other verticals.
You Own Your Site And Data
You’d think this would be obvious, but it isn’t. Remember, WordPress is open source. Not only does this mean that the core product is completely free and supported by the community, as already mentioned, but it is also your property.
To now compare this to Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace – these other CMS platforms own your site!
While people may believe there are inherent risks with WordPress, I’d ask you what would happen to your site if, for example, Shopify were to close business tomorrow.
The answer is simple – your site would cease to exist. Then what? If WordPress were to stop development forever from today, you’d still be in the same position and still have your website, content, and data – all of it. What do the other CMSs offer?
As another layer of freedom and risk mitigation, the choice of using WordPress as a CMS is also independent of where you choose to host it.
If for whatever reason you want to migrate your site from one host to another you have the freedom to do so whereas closed source platforms not only own the website you produce with them, but also the server where it resides.
Do The Recent WP ‘Disagreements’ Present A Risk To WordPress?
TLDR – no. The situation does not affect the functionality of WordPress as a CMS. WordPress remains a stable, reliable, and widely used platform, with no indication that its long-term sustainability is at risk. The CMS itself is unaffected and continues to thrive. If you want to read more about the current discussions and disagreements impacting WP leadership, you can read articles such as this and this to gain more insight.
Other Options?
Still skeptical about WordPress? OK, what are your other options?
While other CMS platforms can perhaps be a good alternative to a “standard informational site”, or a site that has no customization requirements at all from the normal out-of-the-box functionality (which eventually happens for every site that starts to scale in any way), you have to make very informed decisions about whether it’s actually worth it – and what the problem is that you believe you’re solving.
Some questions I’d ask myself:
Is the CMS open source? If not, what do I own?
Is there a strong form of community and support?
Does it play nicely with third-party connections and APIs you intend to use?
Can you scale the site in the way you want?
Can you truly control output on the front end?
Does it adhere to SEO best practices?
If any of the answers above are a “no” then you need to understand the risks of those issues before considering any migration, as you may find that the risks of the alternative outweigh anything that WordPress would.
A couple of months ago, I decided to research several open-source CMSs to see if any other platform could compete with WordPress and its capabilities. Unsurprisingly, nothing came close.
TL;DR
WordPress is here to stay and is still the CMS I’d advise in 99% of cases.
It’s safe, supported, robust, future-proof, and open source.
Whilst other CMS platforms can offer some solutions to smaller or simpler sites, I am yet to be truly convinced that they pose any considerable risk to their future or their role in the future of websites.
A legal document filed in federal court formally notifies that Automattic and Matt Mullenweg have added new representation, a lawyer who has previously represented Meta and Facebook. The new documentation is formally called NOTICE of Appearance. There may be an additional legal filing that may indicate that the previous legal team may no longer be representing Automattic and Matt Mullenweg.
New Attorney
A legal form was filed titled “NOTICE of Appearance filed by Rosemarie Theresa Ring on behalf of Automattic.” Rosemarie Theresa Ring is an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, one of the top law firms in the United States.
Gibson Dunn was founded in 1890 and has represented George W. Bush in the Bush v. Gore legal fight over votes in Florida, Apple, Inc. in an infringement lawsuit against Samsung and also has represented Meta and Facebook.
The law firm that has previously represented Automattic and Matt Mullenweg in their defense in the WP Engine federal lawsuit are Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, a prestigious international law firm specializing in litigation. According to a citation in Wikipedia, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan have been recognized as a top tier legal firm for intellectual property, patent, trademark, and copyright law, as well as other categories.
“77 Jan 24, 2025 NOTICE of Appearance filed by Rosemarie Theresa Ring on behalf of Automattic Inc., Matthew Charles Mullenweg (Ring, Rosemarie) (Filed on 1/24/2025) (Entered: 01/24/2025)
Jan 24, 2025 Notice of Appearance/Substitution/Change/Withdrawal of Attorney”
The legal documents aren’t yet available to view but this article will be updated when they are.
What Does It Mean?
It’s unclear if the previous legal representation is still representing Automattic and Matt Mullenweg as part of their legal team as defendants in the WP Engine lawsuit. But it does appear that the defendants are preparing to fight back with some seriously experienced legal representation.
WordPress Multisite is a feature for managing the structure and multiple sites from a single WordPress installation.
In this article, I’ll share the step-by-step approach to creating a new WordPress website or converting an existing WordPress website into a WordPress Multisite.
But before that, let’s understand the basics of WordPress Multisite.
What Is WordPress Multisite?
WordPress Multisite enables you to create and run multiple websites on the same WordPress installation. It is like having one central hub to control an entire network of sites.
Websites on a Multisite network share core files and databases, making it easy for network administrators to manage all websites from one WordPress user account.
The reason why businesses opt for Multisite is because it helps save both time and money. Plus, it takes less server space than separate installations.
To know WordPress Multisite better, let’s look at some of its significant features:
Centralized management: Allows you to control all your websites from one single dashboard.
Shared themes and plugins: Use your website anywhere after you install these shared themes and plugins.
User management: Enables you to create super admins to oversee the entire network.
Domain mapping: Facilitates you assigning unique domains to each site in your network.
How Does WordPress Multisite Work?
To understand the functionality of WordPress Multisite, you need to understand WordPress user roles and how they differ. By default, a standard WordPress site has five user roles:
Administrator (site Admin).
Editor.
Author.
Contributor.
Subscriber.
However, for WordPress Multisite, there is one more user role called super admin. There are six user roles for WordPress Multisite:
Super Admin (own/control – all sites of multisite network).
Administrator (site Admin) – controls one website of the network.
Editor.
Author.
Contributor.
Subscriber.
For a regular WordPress website, the site admin has administrative access to only one website. As there is just one website on the network, the admin controls only that website.
Site admins can add users, but only to the websites they administer. They cannot install WordPress plugins or themes, but they can choose which ones to activate or deactivate.
However, in WordPress Multisite, the super admin has access to more than one website.
The super admin, also known as the network admin, controls a whole network of websites and has activated Multisite initially.
They also have access to every website’s network admin setting and dashboard within the network. Super admins can also map custom domains.
Pros And Cons
After weighing the pros and cons of WordPress Multisite, it will become easy for you to decide if it aligns with your specific needs and technical expertise.
The Pros
Easy To Manage: With Multisite installation, you can control multiple sites from one admin panel. There is no need to switch and log each site separately.
Efficient Updates: You can apply core updates, plugin updates, and theme changes across all your websites with just a few clicks.
Easier Delegation: WordPress Multisite enables you to assign site-level admins to network sites to make it easy to share site management tasks.
Scalability: The best part about Multisite websites is that you can scale it as your business grows, as unlimited WP subsites are allowed under one URL. It will also enable you to delete the old ones that are not required without impacting the rest of the network.
Targeting Marketing And Branding: Multisite websites let you create tailored experiences for different geographic regions, product categories, and customer segments. For instance, if you’re doing SEO and link building, you can promote content in a much more geographically or niche-relevant way.
Greater Control: When you use multisite, you have greater control over using plugins and themes for each site. This lessens the risk of bad plugins or themes, which can compromise the security or performance of the entire network.
SEO-Friendly: WordPress multisite can help with SEO as well. You can properly structure your website and content for languages, locations, topics, products/services, etc. Having a well-structured website helps Google to understand your website easily. Also, you can track and understand which part of the site is performing well (even for Google algorithmic updates) and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.
The Cons
Here are some of the drawbacks of using multisite:
Performance Issues: One of the major challenges with Multisite is that users may face performance issues in situations when one site gets adversely impacted; it affects the other sites as well.
Steep Learning Curve: Multisite has its own set of complexities. If you are not a technical expert, the initial setup and management can be quite challenging for you.
Limited Plugin Compatibility: Not all plugins are compatible with a Multisite setup, which can limit your options. In fact, various premium plugins may require a license per subsite, which can lead to an increase in cost.
Backup And Migration Challenges: Migrations can be challenging as every site shares one database. Migrating one site off your network is very challenging; therefore, ensure that you have a solid backup strategy in place.
Use Cases: When To Use A WordPress Multisite
Here are some use cases when using a WordPress Multisite is a good idea:
Franchise Businesses
If you have a franchise business, opting for Multisite can be one of the best decisions.
Every franchise will get a separate website, but you will have control over the look and functionality of all of them.
Subway, McDonalds, Dominos, and many other brands use this to give every location a unique online presence while ensuring brand consistency.
Learning Management System (LMS) Websites
Imagine a university where every department needs its own website. Using Multisite, offers each department its own space while maintaining brand consistency and centralized management.
LMS websites are created for various schools and universities, but they have a similar structure and functionality.
Multi-Language Websites
WordPress Multisite can be a great idea for businesses that target a global audience. It also offers a solution for managing multiple language versions of a website.
Every language gets its own site, which makes it easier to manage translations and localized content.
Business Or Ecommerce Sites
Using WordPress Multisite is a perfect option for ecommerce sites. It creates different versions of the same service or product website.
For instance, you can create different sites on the same product line, accounting for differences in language and culture. Furthermore, you can delegate network administrator control to business representatives in every region.
Social Commerce Integration
WordPress Multisite can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to leverage social commerce.
By creating separate subsites for different product categories or target audiences, businesses can tailor their offerings and marketing messages to specific demographics.
Additionally, plugins can be integrated to allow for direct product sales from social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, creating a seamless shopping experience for customers.
A Multisite installation could be useful for government sites, SaaS businesses, educational organizations, magazines and media publications, ecommerce, etc., or simply where you want to create a well-structured website with an easy approach.
When Using A WordPress Multisite Is Not Recommended
Here are some of the use cases that explain when you should think twice about using WordPress Multisite capability:
1. Have Different Website Requirements
WordPress Multisite is not recommended for websites with varied functionalities, structures, plugins, or purposes.
For example, if you have three types of businesses that provide healthcare, LMS, and SaaS services, Multisite won’t help.
2. Can’t Afford Sufficient Hosting
WordPress Multisite is resource-intensive, especially when your business grows.
It requires substantial hosting plans, as inadequate hosting can lead to slow load times across all your sites. To avoid this, you should ensure that you have a WordPress Multisite optimized hosting for your website.
3. Security Risks
All the websites in a multisite network share a single database, potentially compromising data isolation. This shared structure might also not comply with industry-specific regulations.
Thus, if you have security concerns, it might not be an ideal choice for you.
4. Don’t Have A Permanent Programmer
If you run a small company without a dedicated programmer or IT team, opting for Multisite might get you in more trouble than it’s worth.
Multisite demands more technical know-how to set up and maintain, so if any issues arise, they will be challenging to diagnose and fix without expert help.
Steps To Create A WordPress Multisite
Before you start creating a WordPress Multisite, you need to choose a domain structure for Multisite – either a subdomain or subfolder structure.
Example of Sub-domain structure:blog.website.com/
uk.website.com/
Examples of Sub-folder structure:
website.com/blog/
website.com/uk/
WordPress Multisite also allows using a different domain for each website of the network. For example, you can use the website.us domain for the USA-targeting website and website.ca for the Canada website.
You can follow this guide to set up domain mapping for your WordPress website.
Once you have these essentials, you can start with the process of creating a WordPress Multisite.
Step 1: Enable The WordPress Multisite Network Feature
To enable this, you need to install a new WordPress as you normally do. You need to enable a WordPress Multisite network feature on an existing WordPress website if you want to convert it into a Multisite.
But before that, you should completely back up your website.
Follow these steps to enable the Multisite feature:
Set up an FTP connection to your website or Cpanel > file manager and edit the wp-config.php file.
Navigate to the wp-config.php file. Scroll down to the bottom and add this code before the /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */. line:
Save the changes and close the wp-config.php file.
Step 2: Setting Up The Multisite Network
Screenshot from WordPress, December 2024
Before doing anything, you need to deactivate all of your plugins to complete the process.
Then go to Tools > Network Setup page.
Screenshot from WordPress, December 2024
Now, you should choose between subdomains (e.g., site1.yourdomain.com) or subdirectories (e.g., yourdomain.com/site1) for the Multisite structure. Then Click “Install.”
Now, WordPress will show you some code snippets to add to your website’s wp-config.php and .htaccess files.
Screenshot from WordPress, December 2024
Step 3: Edit The wp-config.php And .htaccess Files
You need to edit the wp-config.php file and add the code just below the line (code) you added before.
Then, edit the .htaccess file and replace the existing code with the new code of the WordPress Multisite installation.
Don’t forget to save the changes.
After finishing it, you need to re-login to your website to access the Multisite network.
Step 4: Configure Network Settings
After logging in to your website, go to Network Dashboard to add new sites and change network settings. For this, go to My Sites > Network Admin > Dashboard.
Screenshot from WordPress, December 2024
Settings and other things are the same as those for the normal WordPress installation.
It’s done. This is how you can create your first site in your Multisite network.
If you want to convert your existing website into a Multisite, then here are the steps.
How To Convert An Existing Site To Multisite?
By default, WordPress allows you to convert an existing WordPress site into a Multisite sub-domain only.
If you want to convert a WordPress SubdomainMultisite, then you can follow the above-mentioned steps.
But if you want to convert an existing site into a Multisite Subfolder, then follow these steps:
(Pro tip: Take a complete website backup before starting the process.)
Step 1: Enable The WordPress Multisite Network Feature
You need to edit the wp-config.php file and add this code:
Now, you can find and choose the subfolder option for your Multisite. To do this, go to Tools > Network setup.
Screenshot from WordPress, December 2024
Then, choose the Subfolders option, and click the Install button.
Step 4: Enable The Network
You need to add the code shown by WordPress to the wp-config.php and .htaccess files, as shown above in Step 3 of creating a new multisite.
Once you have done it, you can create your first subfolder site. For this:
Screenshot from WordPress, December 2024
Go to My Sites > Network Admin > Sites.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully converted your WordPress site to a Multisite.
WordPress Multisite FAQs
What is the difference between WordPress Multisite vs. managing separate installations?
Here are the major differences:
In separate installations, you have full control and customization for each site, whereas WordPress Multisite offers limited individual site customization.
WordPress Multisite has a centralized dashboard for all sites, whereas separate installations demand individual management for each site.
Multisites generally use server resources more efficiently; on the contrary, for separate installations, each site uses its own resources.
What are the best tips for managing WordPress Multisite?
Some of the best tips for managing WP multisite are:
Choose network-wide themes carefully.
Implement two-factor authentication.
Set up regular, automated backups of your entire network.
Wrapping Up
Setting up a WordPress Multisite network is like creating a digital theme park where visitors can effortlessly explore all your attractions.
Converting a WordPress site to a Multisite subdirectory is a powerful solution whether you are managing multiple brands, creating a network of niche sites, or simply planning for future growth.
Use this guide to create a WordPress Multisite for your business.
Your WordPress theme encapsulates your brand and helps provide a good user experience. But people often forget about the search engine optimization aspect of it.
A WordPress theme that isn’t SEO-friendly (or worse, is bloated and slow) can be a real hindrance in the fiercely competitive battle to land on top of the search engine result pages (SERPs).
And since higher rankings can drive more organic traffic, leads, and revenue — this is one element you really want to get right.
In this guide, you’ll learn what an SEO-friendly theme is, what you should consider when selecting one, and which five WordPress themes are best for SEO.
The Basics Of A Search-Friendly WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme built with search engine optimization in mind helps websites achieve better rankings on SERPs.
Optimized WordPress themes are built to elevate your SEO efforts and provide a great user experience.
There are thousands of themes for WordPress users to choose from and thousands more from third-party providers.
Most of these themes make your WordPress website look stunning, but a glance under the hood could tell a different story.
Poor coding, slow loading speeds, and a lack of plugin support can be hiding underneath a beautiful facade. All of these flaws affect search engine rankings.
When you have significant technical SEO issues, Google won’t trust your website as an industry authority, and you’ll likely struggle to reach the first page.
On the other hand, the best WordPress themes for SEO are both stunning and optimized with the latest SEO techniques in mind. They’ll have:
A responsive design.
Clean code.
Fast loading speeds.
And they’ll let you optimize your WordPress website effortlessly.
How To Choose The Best WordPress Theme For SEO
So, how do you choose an SEO-friendly WordPress theme?
You should:
1. Pick A Responsive Theme
Mobile devices (excluding tablets) account for nearly 60% of web page views worldwide.
A majority of smartphone users look up websites, products, and related content on their phones. After all, when you hear about a cool product, you usually don’t want to wait until you’re home to check it out.
SEO-friendly WordPress themes have responsive layouts. A responsive WordPress website will adjust to varying screen sizes across devices with ease.
That way, mobile shoppers aren’t greeted with a poorly adjusted ecommerce homepage when they click through.
Google prefers mobile-friendly websites and offers a tool where you can test how your website fares and performs on different devices.
WooCommerce, Jetpack, Akismet, and Google Analytics are popular plugins. You can also download the best SEO plugins to make optimization easier.
The WordPress theme you pick should support popular plugins, especially those you use regularly.
W3 Super Cache is an example of a plugin that’s always active because it maintains optimum page speed. You don’t want it to fail because you switched themes.
Screenshot of W3 Total Cache dashboard in WordPress CMS, November 2024
3. Pick A Theme With Clean Code
Your website is made up of code. If code is poorly written, it can affect your website’s security, speed, and resources.
The same applies to WordPress themes.
The best WordPress themes for SEO have clean code that makes them more secure and reliable, with less downtime.
Clean code and SEO go hand-in-hand. This is because clean code WordPress themes boost page load speed and SEO ranking.
For example, an optimized theme with clean code speeds up updates of essential SEO elements like meta, title, and header tags. This helps search engines to:
Find these tags quickly.
Crawl your website easily.
To analyze your chosen WordPress theme and ensure it has clean code that conforms to the standard WordPress coding conventions, you can make use of themecheck.info.
Upload a theme to the website using a zip file, and it will evaluate the theme for security and code quality.
Note that free WordPress themes don’t have the cleanest code and might pose security threats, especially if the developer copies and alters code from an online source.
4. Choose A Theme That Works On Multiple Browsers
Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Opera are common desktop and mobile browsers, but there are several more. You don’t need to cater to all of them, but your theme should work across the most popular browsers.
An SEO-friendly WordPress theme caters to all popular browsers, making it convenient for users to read and share your content, regardless of their browser choice.
Besides supporting different browsers, check version compatibility. Not everyone uses the latest browser version. Often, updates are delayed based on the device or operating system they’re using.
Ideally, your website should work seamlessly on the last five versions of the most popular Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux browsers.
You can use tools like PowerMapper to check browser compatibility.
Screenshot of powermapper.com, November 2024
Developers can also manually run tests to determine compatibility.
5. Evaluate Page Builder Plugins Carefully
A page builder is a WordPress plugin that makes creating your website’s layout easier through drag-and-drop features. You can quickly choose from premade layout options and drag and drop the elements to place them where you want.
Page builders are an excellent option for easy website creation, and most premium WordPress themes offer them.
If you’re a digital marketing agency working with multiple clients, you can use page builders to set up multiple websites quickly.
But page builders do have a few issues.
Page builders generate a lot of code, and, as mentioned earlier, bloated websites are slow. This is bad for SEO.
More importantly, when you create a website using a page builder and then switch themes, the layout – and consequently, the content on it – will require several edits.
You will need to weigh the benefits of drag-and-drop page builders against the development resources required to fix any bloated code. If you’re building websites for clients you will need to expend resources to ensure that the sites perform well by fixing bloated code.
6. Choose A Theme That Loads Quickly
Users have very short attention spans. Many will leave if a website takes more than a few seconds to load. Page speed is crucial for SEO.
Improving page speed has shown tremendous results. A study from NitroPack in partnership with Google showed that compared to a 2-second page load speed, 50% more visitors drop off when a page loads in 3 seconds. And a 0.1 second improvement led to an 8.4% increase in ecommerce conversions.
It’s tempting to go for a reasonably-priced theme with a laundry list of features, like custom widgets or Google Fonts. But if you don’t actually use these functions, then they’re just slowing your website down.
You should pick a fast, lightweight, and customizable WordPress theme with only the features you need. Alternatively, you can pick SEO-optimized themes that let you disable functions you don’t use.
Use Google Search Console to find out how fast your website is and see if it’s slowed down after you’ve installed a theme.
7. Select A Theme That’s Updated Regularly
Regular theme updates are crucial for security and bug fixes. You don’t want a WordPress theme that’s updated once a year.
Developers use updates to provide the latest security patches, fix bugs, address compatibility issues with the latest browsers and plugins, and clean up old code.
Your SEO takes a hit when you use an outdated theme. If your theme isn’t compatible with the latest version of Google Chrome, it won’t load. You’ll lose out on the potential traffic generated by Chrome users and give your competitors a chance to leapfrog you.
Outdated themes might also have limited functionality on newer devices and browsers.
8. Choose A Theme With Good Ratings
The easiest way to identify the best WordPress themes for SEO is to check user reviews and ratings.
Don’t just check the reviews and testimonials on the theme’s official website – check for ratings on third-party websites and social media, too.
Users might not leave SEO-focused reviews, but they will often list things like “slow loading speed” or “not mobile-friendly.” Compare these to your SEO checklist to understand how usable and well-built the theme is.
Compare common user problems with issues that could affect your website in general, and avoid those themes.
While a small number of speed-related complaints in a sea of positive reviews is OK, you should avoid themes with mostly poor reviews.
Best WordPress Themes For SEO
Divi.
Astra.
Kadence.
Hello by Elementor.
GeneratePress.
If you’re looking for the best WordPress theme for SEO, these are it. Let’s take a deeper look into each of them:
Divi
Screenshot of www.elegantthemes.com, November 2024
Divi is an SEO-optimized WordPress theme with a wide range of pre-built templates to suit websites across most niches, including SEO agencies and blogging.
It lets you customize almost every aspect of your WordPress website.
Created by Elegant Themes, Divi has built-in SEO optimization and is regularly updated, so you never have to worry about compatibility.
Astra
Screenshot from wpastra.com, November 2024
Astra is a powerful WordPress theme with retina-ready premade page templates to suit different businesses.
Its lightweight code and fast load speeds make it an excellent option for an SEO-friendly WordPress theme.
Astra supports popular WordPress plugins, including Yoast SEO and All in One SEO. It also supports drag-and-drop page builders such as WPBakery.
Kadence
Screenshot from kadencewp.com, November 2024
Kadence is a multi-purpose WordPress theme that lets you create lightning-fast websites in minutes. It has templates for brands, influencers, small businesses, ecommerce, and agencies.
It also integrates with major plugins, including Elementor, WooCommerce, and Beaver Builder.
Kadence is built with the best SEO practices for markup and schema and lets you customize every element of your website – including header styles, colors, and typography – easily.
Hello By Elementor
Screenshot of elementor.com November 2024
Built with lean, non-intrusive code, Hello by Elementor is the perfect WordPress theme for SEO.
It’s ultra-lightweight, responsive, and claims to load websites in a quarter of a second. A faster website leads to lower bounce rates and happier users.
Despite its focus on speed and using minimal resources, Hello still offers hundreds of templates, plenty of customization options, and regular updates. It also has RTL support.
GeneratePress
Screenshot of generatepress.com, November 2024
Whether you’re a freelancer, startup, or agency, GeneratePress is a great WordPress theme for SEO.
It’s fast, lightweight, and accessible. The free version of the theme is focused on speed and performance, which are essential SEO elements.
Upgrading to the Premium version gives you access to GeneratePress’ block-style website builder (so you never have to learn a line of code), professionally designed starter websites, and customization controls.
Final Thoughts: How To Pick The Best SEO-Optimized WordPress Theme
WordPress themes are a great way to spruce up your website, but they shouldn’t hinder your SEO efforts. Don’t let the overwhelming amount of theme options intimidate you into quickly picking one and settling.
Instead, maintain your cool and pick an SEO-optimized WordPress theme after doing your research.
A Motion to Intervene has been filed in the WP Engine lawsuit against Automattic and Matt Mullenweg, alleging fifteen claims and seeking monetary awards along with changes to WordPress.org’s governance structure.
A motion to intervene is a legal request by a third party that seeks to join an ongoing lawsuit, the success of which hinges on proving that they have a significant interest in the outcome of a case.
Legal Filing Seeks To Take Control Of WordPress
Among the requests made in the legal filing is one that compels Matt Mullenweg to create a WordPress Oversight Board to oversee the governance of the WordPress Foundation, WordPress.org and other related entities.
“D. Order Defendant Matt Mullenweg to establish a Governance Oversight Board as defined in the Proposed Order For Contempt filed by Michael Willman;”
Moderator Of WPDrama Subreddit
The person filing the court motion is a WordPress web developer and a moderator of the r/WPDrama subreddit named Michael Willman, CEO of Redev, a WordPress development and SEO company, who alleges that Mullenweg banned him, which caused him to lose two clients and a significant amount of earnings because of those losses.
Michael explained what happened in a message to Search Engine Journal:
“Near the start of this dispute, I lost a large ($14,500) contract as a direct result of being banned by Matt along with everyone else loosely associated. We had just closed the contract mere days before and the client is just seeing all these stories, and they back out. Losing that revenue would eventually make us unable to serve our largest client at the time, and we lost them too.
I took this all personally, and I tried to take to his #ranting channel on Slack to respond to his inane blog posts and share how his actions had damaged me and got me to the point of being ready to sue him as well.
He then banned me in retaliation for that and afterwards claimed a message saying I was going to go to Houston to file other legal documents was a “physical threat.”
He has a long history of inconsistent application of the Code of Conduct and I don’t think he can show that his actions here were justified, my own reading of the Code of Conduct implies that some type of warning in private is the first step. “
That last part about the allegedly false claim that he made a physical threat against Matt Mullenweg is now a part of the new motion.
Post On Reddit
Mr. Willman posted about his motion on Reddit, saying that he will donate 5% of any monetary awards to WordPress.
Members of the Reddit WordPress community were supportive, with one member named JonOlds posting:
“A client backing out of a signed contract ($14,500) because you being banned created a significant change is the most clear-cut example of harm from the WPE bans that I’ve seen so far. Fuck MM, and I really hope this is granted.”
Another person wrote:
“Dude you’re my hero ❤
And I’m sorry for all this stuff that’s happened to you, it’s awful. I genuinely admire how well you’ve handled all this, while moderating this sub too.”
Claims For Relief
Section D of the filing lists fifteen claims, among them he cites that Mullenweg’s retaliatory actions disrupted existing client contracts and the ability to cultivate new clients. It also describes attempted extortion, libel and trade libel among the many other claims.
Three of the claims made in the motion:
“1. Intentional Interference with Contractual Relations Defendant Matt Mullenweg’s actions, including banning Michael Willman from the Make.WordPress.org Slack workspace and retaliating against him, disrupted existing contractual relationships. Some specific examples are the $14,500 website development contract that was canceled due to Michael Willman being banned from WordPress.org, the remainder of another contract with Trellis that was lost valued at $5,526.35, and an ongoing relationship with Trellis that included active retainers valued at $4,700 per month in addition to regular ad-hoc work, the combination of which generated $77,638.65 in invoices in 2024.
2. Intentional Interference with Prospective Economic Relations By targeting and banning Michael Willman from essential WordPress platforms, Defendants interfered with potential business opportunities. The absence of new website development projects, loss of existing relationships and the unease expressed by clients about the WordPress ecosystem are direct results of these retaliatory actions.
4. Attempted Extortion During discussions, Matt Mullenweg offered to refer clients to Michael Willman’s business on the condition that he cease working with WP Engine and join Automattic’s affiliate program. This constitutes coercive conduct aimed at disrupting Michael Willman’s business relationships.
6. Libel Matt Mullenweg publicly claimed that Michael Willman made threats of physical violence, a statement that is objectively false and defamatory. This damaged Michael Willman’s reputation within the WordPress community and beyond.
7. Trade Libel Public statements by Matt Mullenweg disparaged Michael Willman’s professional services and integrity, causing harm to his business relationships and reputation.”
Possible Outcome Of New Court Motion
The motion to intervene contains serious allegations of abuse of authority by the single most influential person in the open-source WordPress project, a worldwide ecosystem of developers, business users, publishers, plugin and theme developers and thousands of volunteers around the world who contribute to the development of the WordPress content management software.
The filing not only seeks restitution, it also asks the court for changes to the WordPress governance to remove Matt Mullenweg from his position of power at WordPress.
Read The Reddit Post And Legal Document
A link to the legal document is posted on a Reddit discussion about the filing:
Automattic announced it is minimizing support for the WordPress.org CMS project, using words and phrases that present the withdrawal of support as a positive change to make WordPress stronger, while casting blame on WP Engine for its decision to minimize contributions.
The entire statement uses double-speak, pretextual statements and passive-aggressive language to portray itself as a victim of WP Engine and framing the withdrawal of support as the unavoidable consequences of WPE’s lawsuit against Automattic, saying:
“Additionally, we’re having to spend significant time and money to defend ourselves against the legal attacks started by WP Engine and funded by Silver Lake, a large private equity firm.
…We’ve made the decision to reallocate resources due to the lawsuits from WP Engine.
…This legal action diverts significant time and energy that could otherwise be directed toward supporting WordPress’s growth and health.
…We remain hopeful that WP Engine will reconsider this legal attack, allowing us to refocus our efforts on contributions that benefit the broader WordPress ecosystem.”
At no point in the statement does Automattic acknowledge its role in creating the conflict, instead portraying itself as forced to go down the path of Mullenweg’s self-described “nuclear” war with WP Engine when in fact there has always been time to engage in constructive dialogue.
Automattic Turns Against The WordPress Community Itself
A stunning feature of Automattic’s statement is that this is the first time that it points a finger at the WordPress community itself as part of the reason for pulling back resources. It wraps the word “community” in quotation marks in a manner that seems to undermine the legitimacy of the critics, which has the subtext of portraying the critics as not true members of the WordPress community.
There is an undertone of contempt for the criticisms against Mullenweg, which to be fair started out as timid expressions of hope that things would work themselves out then gradually increased to outright calls for new a new governance structure that reflects the diversity of the entire WordPress community and a move away from the so-called “benevolent dictatorship” of Matt Mullenweg.
Automattic’s statements targeted the WordPress community itself:
“We’ve also faced intense criticism and even personal attacks against a number of Automatticians from members of the ‘community’ who want Matt and others to step away from the project.
…Automatticians who contributed to core will instead focus on for-profit projects within Automattic, such as WordPress.com, Pressable, WPVIP, Jetpack, and WooCommerce. Members of the ‘community’ have said that working on these sorts of things should count as a contribution to WordPress.”
Use Of Doublespeak
Lastly, Automattic’s statement uses language that seems to cross the line into doublespeak. Doublespeak is the use of language in a way that is deceptive and manipulative as opposed to a rhetorical approach that seeks to persuade. Doublespeak obscures and distorts reality and masks the real meaning and intent of a statement.
Example of doublespeak:
“To recalibrate and ensure our efforts are as impactful as possible, Automattic will reduce its sponsored contributions to the WordPress project. This is not a step we take lightly. It is a moment to regroup, rethink, and strategically plan how Automatticians can continue contributing in ways that secure the future of WordPress for generations to come. “
The portrayal of the withdrawal of support as a way of securing “the future of WordPress for generations to come” is manipulative and hides the reality that those actions have the opposite effect.
It also claims:
“This realignment is not an end, but a new beginning—one that will ultimately strengthen the foundation of WordPress.”
That’s an example of how Automattic’s statement portrays the actual weakening WordPress.org as a way to strengthen it.
There are many other examples of how the statement portrays Automattic as the victim, WP Engine as the aggressor and the WordPress community itself as complicit in undermining itself.
