A Word to Themeco Customers Concerning the Current Events in WordPress

There has been quite the controversy brewing in WordPress recently. You can browse the internet for the latest news and timeline of events if you wish to get up to speed. I’d like to take a few minutes to address what this means and doesn’t mean for Themeco customers.

For starters, we do not host our products on wordpress.org. This means that all updates you receive as it relates to our products and services are initiated and maintained on our private servers. WordPress could never hijack our products, and this decision was very intentional on our part going all the way back to the beginning of Themeco.

Unfortunately, the wordpress.org repo has always been somewhat political in their rules and guidelines (their right as it’s their service), and we’ve not wanted to spend time playing the game. We’d rather focus our efforts on building great products for customers. To be sure, we have missed out on a significant source of traffic for going this direction. Even so, it has afforded us creative control over building what we want to build how we want to build it.

Second, for those who may not know the tangled web of who controls WordPress, let me give you a quick summary. The WordPress software that you know was itself a fork of a piece of software called B2. Forking in the software world is the process of taking a piece of open source software and creating a new derivative version that can be further developed. This is a hallmark of open source software.

Where it gets muddy is how Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress, has structured the business around WordPress. Several years back he created the WordPress Foundation. The WordPress trademark was given to the Foundation of which Mullenweg is a 1/3rd voting member. Matt did not have to do this and the perceived gesture was a significant reason many people felt comfortable developing on the WordPress code base. The idea was if a non-profit foundation controlled the WordPress trademark it could never be abused by for profit motives (ironic considering the current circumstances).

The Foundation then licensed the WordPress trademark back to Mullenweg for use in commercial purposes. Mullenweg’s for profit company, Automattic, owns wordpress.com and many other products in the WordPress ecosystem, WooCommerce being one of the biggest. What was unknown to most until recently is that Matt also owns wordpress.org. It was thought that the WordPress Foundation owns/runs wordpress.org, separate from Mullenweg’s direct influence. That has since come under question as explained by Matt himself. The purpose of this article is not trying to untangle that point. It is muddy at best and part of the reason there is so much confusion around topics such as the difference between wordpress.org (Foundation) and wordpress.com (for profit part of Automattic). Even people who have been in the industry for many years didn’t fully understand this breakdown. Instead, I’d like to speak to our current and future customers directly. I’d like to share 1) why this very unfortunate event has no impact on Themeco customers and 2) how it can actually be looked at positively.

An often unspoken strength of the WordPress ecosystem is its fragmented nature. The core code is freely available to all. Anyone can use it and anyone can build on top of it. Several marketplaces have cropped up to provide consolidation — Envato Market and wordpress.org being the two largest. Even so, you do not NEED to use those platforms to use, build, or distribute WordPress products or services. This is a significant strength.

It means that no one authority can shut it down. As a matter of fact, even if Matt decided to shut down WordPress today, it would continue to run and our customers would be completely fine. Let me say that again. Even if WordPress were to shut down today, the literal WordPress software itself, our customers would be totally fine! Your sites would continue to function, and we would be able to continue to release updates, bug fixes, and new features.

This redundancy is often overlooked in WordPress and is a major reason so many have built on top of it (and would continue to do so even if the software went away tomorrow). You don’t have that optionality in the closed source world. If SquareSpace or Wix were to shut down tomorrow, you’re out of luck. Dependent upon how they shut it down you may not even be able to access your data. With WordPress, YOU own your data. No one can take that away from you, and that is significant.

But Kyle…what about what WordPress did this past weekend by taking over the free Advanced Custom Fields plugin on the wordpress.org repo?

A quick detour. As part of a series of events that started with private negotiations between Automattic and WPEngine concerning a trademark dispute, the folks behind wordpress.org blocked WPEngine from their wordpress.org accounts (they now own ACF) and then subsequently created a forked version of ACF called Secure Custom Fields. A new update appeared for anyone using the free ACF plugin that once updated would force them over to Secure Custom Fields.

I could write 5000 words on this, but it’s not the point of the article. The bottom line is that even though wordpress.org took this unprecedented action, there is still a mechanism for WPEngine's customers to circumvent this and get back on ACF as explained on their website. It's not ideal, to be sure, but it is possible. For ACF Pro users it’s not a blip on the radar as the update servers for ACF Pro were already maintained privately. Are you starting to see why we have always prioritized running our own update servers? As a matter of fact, we were one of the first companies to do so going back to 2014. We have even more detailed systems in place today, and we hope this brings confidence and peace of mind to our customers. We must be able to distinguish between the actions of WordPress and the stability of the underlying software.

I do have personal opinions on this matter that I am intentionally leaving out of this article. I want to speak directly to the matter at hand and not filter it by my own views or feelings. Having said that, I would like to share one personal anecdote.

I have met Matt before and we’ve emailed a couple of times in the past. I was very impressed by our interaction. We talked on the sidelines of an industry conference many years ago, and at the end of the discussion I asked him if there was anything I could pray for him about. As a Christ follower, I believe in the power of prayer. He thought about it for several seconds and then looked at me and said “wisdom.”

It reminded me of the passage in the Old Testament where Solomon was approached by God and essentially offered to be given anything he asked for. Solomon’s response was also for wisdom. Here is the full text of the passage in 1 Kings 3:6-14.

6. You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. 7 Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?

10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life."

Solomon’s humility has always hit deeply. As King he could literally make the laws and people had to follow them. Instead, he sought wisdom from the God he loved. I mentioned this story to Matt at the time and told him I would be praying. Full disclosure, I emailed him last night to remind him of this and discuss some of my views privately. I will continue to be praying for him and all those impacted. My door is also open to you if there is ever anything I could be praying for you about (kyle@theme.co).

It was important to me to address this topic directly since customers have been asking. For Themeco, it is business as usual, and we are continually committed to developing and supporting our customers. I hope many more will join us. And even if WordPress were to go away tomorrow, we have a plan in place and will continue to develop and support our customers.