At this point, I am not even sure what Wordpress.org is anymore other than a marketing department for Automattic. It's hard to know if this is a real position with real people reporting to it or if the entire org is a paper department.
WordPress.org seems to be used to refer to Matt Mullenweg [1], as he apparently personally owns it, though one of Automattic's lawyers said last week that it is a non-profit that is separate from the WordPress Foundation [2].
The previous Executive Director of WordPress was also an Automattic employee. When they were announced in the role their employment with Automattic also wasn't disclosed [3].
All the information in the links you shared is totally wrong. Our lawyers have never said that WordPress.org is a non-profit or owned by the Foundation. It's owned and run by me personally, and I have a trademark license from the WordPress Foundation to use the WordPress name and brand on the site.
The author is identified as Neil Peretz, who it says is an associate general counsel at Automattic. He says:
"The Foundation also licensed the name WordPress to the non-profit WordPress.org, which runs a website that facilitates access to WordPress-related software."
A graphic included in the post similarly claims that "Right to use name as part of non-profit activities" went to WordPress. With the arrow coming from the WordPress Foundation.
We contacted Automattic's press email for clarification on that claim on Thursday. We have yet to hear back and the post hasn't been updated.
It seems like they used "non-profit" in that sentence to mean:
"an undertaking being conducted for a purpose other than making a profit"
…rather than…
"an organization that has been recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as being organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes as set forth in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code."
I will ask on behalf of the entire Wordpress community - is there any part of the Wordpress cluster of organizations that do not ultimately answer to Matt?
Hi Legitster. I will work with colleagues on a response to your question. It's a broad topic given how many facets there are to the WordPress community.
come on, Neil... you just published 700 words on the topic. You even made flow charts! Are you now saying you don't actually have a solid understanding of the situation?
Considering you own wordpress.org and the third link, that you claim is hosting completely wrong information, is on Wordpress.org you should ensure it has correct information. Especially, since it appears to have been written by you.
Does Mary Hubbard have the ability to kick Matt Mullenweg out of the org when he implodes? If not, she's not really an executive director of anything, but merely a puppet.
I feel like I've seen this entire song and dance routine before with the "Rails Foundation" — aka a cozy insiders club built to prop up DHH and his worldview. I find all of this stuff distasteful and not at all in keeping with the spirit of open source.
First, she's working for Automattic/wp dot org, not the WP Foundation.
Also, an executive director never has control over the board - they serve the board.
But a major difference between the WP Foundation and Rails Foundation is that the Rails one appears to be a legitimate foundation, with real budget and activities, real governance and transparency provided by actual, living, involved, knowledgeable humans who have agency.
The Wordpress Foundation is a shell for trademark and tax fraud... It has no governance, transparency, or even seemingly any activities. And the TWO non-Matt directors are completely MIA, with one of them seemingly having no Wordpress affiliation while also working in Matt's much-maligned private equity industry (who also fund his own company!)
Also, the Rails Trademark is under exclusive, seemingly transparent license to the Rails Foundation.
Whereas the WP Trademark was ceremoniously "given" to the WP Foundation (controlled, in effect, exclusively by Matt) in 2010, and then secretly given right back to Matt the same day.
There is a wordpressfoundation<dot>org, so I doubt it. In my opinion <dot>org is software repo/wp-inc HQ.. and <dot>com is commercial and hosting enterprise. But of course, let's hear from the horse's mouth himself!! :-P
Wordpress.org isn't a legal entity. It's simply a domain owned by Matt. It seems Matt has a license to use the Wordpress trademarks.
The Wordpress Foundation is a non-profit legal entity with a tiny budget. It appears the only thing it does is serve as a holding entity for the trademarks and the for-profit company than operates the WordCamp conferences.
I suspect that Automattic is the one who foots the bill for the infrastructure behind Wordpress.org, but that's not clear.
Matt talks about transparency, but how everything operates is a muddled mess.
> The Foundation also licensed the name WordPress to the non-profit WordPress.org, which runs a website that facilitates access to WordPress-related software.
Can you clarify when you're going to cease your public tantrums and your erratic idiotic behavior that is causing problems for Wordpress users worldwide?
At this point, I am not even sure what Wordpress.org is anymore other than a marketing department for Automattic. It's hard to know if this is a real position with real people reporting to it or if the entire org is a paper department.
I suspect we'll only find out when WP Engine makes them explain it all out in court.
WP Engine, the hero we didn't even know we needed. /s
Apparently Automattic states she's back working for them: https://x.com/automattic/status/1843750645037445200
So then what is WordPress.org in this context?
WordPress.org seems to be used to refer to Matt Mullenweg [1], as he apparently personally owns it, though one of Automattic's lawyers said last week that it is a non-profit that is separate from the WordPress Foundation [2].
The previous Executive Director of WordPress was also an Automattic employee. When they were announced in the role their employment with Automattic also wasn't disclosed [3].
[1] https://www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2024/10/02/who-or-what... [2] https://www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2024/10/03/automattic-... [3] https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/01/16/expanding-word...
All the information in the links you shared is totally wrong. Our lawyers have never said that WordPress.org is a non-profit or owned by the Foundation. It's owned and run by me personally, and I have a trademark license from the WordPress Foundation to use the WordPress name and brand on the site.
Here is the original source for the claim, which is on Automattic's website: https://automattic.com/2024/10/02/wordpress-trademarks-a-leg...
The author is identified as Neil Peretz, who it says is an associate general counsel at Automattic. He says:
"The Foundation also licensed the name WordPress to the non-profit WordPress.org, which runs a website that facilitates access to WordPress-related software."
A graphic included in the post similarly claims that "Right to use name as part of non-profit activities" went to WordPress. With the arrow coming from the WordPress Foundation.
We contacted Automattic's press email for clarification on that claim on Thursday. We have yet to hear back and the post hasn't been updated.
It seems like they used "non-profit" in that sentence to mean:
"an undertaking being conducted for a purpose other than making a profit"
…rather than…
"an organization that has been recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as being organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes as set forth in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code."
Hi, it's Neil Peretz. I was just alerted to your post. I understand there's a question you have. How can I help you?
I will ask on behalf of the entire Wordpress community - is there any part of the Wordpress cluster of organizations that do not ultimately answer to Matt?
Hi Legitster. I will work with colleagues on a response to your question. It's a broad topic given how many facets there are to the WordPress community.
come on, Neil... you just published 700 words on the topic. You even made flow charts! Are you now saying you don't actually have a solid understanding of the situation?
Sorry for that error, the post has been updated now.
You're so bad at this...
Considering you own wordpress.org and the third link, that you claim is hosting completely wrong information, is on Wordpress.org you should ensure it has correct information. Especially, since it appears to have been written by you.
Does Mary Hubbard have the ability to kick Matt Mullenweg out of the org when he implodes? If not, she's not really an executive director of anything, but merely a puppet.
I feel like I've seen this entire song and dance routine before with the "Rails Foundation" — aka a cozy insiders club built to prop up DHH and his worldview. I find all of this stuff distasteful and not at all in keeping with the spirit of open source.
First, she's working for Automattic/wp dot org, not the WP Foundation.
Also, an executive director never has control over the board - they serve the board.
But a major difference between the WP Foundation and Rails Foundation is that the Rails one appears to be a legitimate foundation, with real budget and activities, real governance and transparency provided by actual, living, involved, knowledgeable humans who have agency.
The Wordpress Foundation is a shell for trademark and tax fraud... It has no governance, transparency, or even seemingly any activities. And the TWO non-Matt directors are completely MIA, with one of them seemingly having no Wordpress affiliation while also working in Matt's much-maligned private equity industry (who also fund his own company!)
Also, the Rails Trademark is under exclusive, seemingly transparent license to the Rails Foundation.
Whereas the WP Trademark was ceremoniously "given" to the WP Foundation (controlled, in effect, exclusively by Matt) in 2010, and then secretly given right back to Matt the same day.
I'm very excited to have Mary on board. :)
Can you clarify if this is a 1:1 backfill for Josepha's role or if her scope will be different?
The scope will be significantly broader as Mary brings a lot of talents to the ecosystem.
Can you clarify if "Executive Director of WordPress.org" is the same job as "Executive Director of the WordPress Foundation"?
I know you personally own wordpress.org and not the foundation (as many people suspected) so this is unclear.
There is a wordpressfoundation<dot>org, so I doubt it. In my opinion <dot>org is software repo/wp-inc HQ.. and <dot>com is commercial and hosting enterprise. But of course, let's hear from the horse's mouth himself!! :-P
Totally different. The Foundation has no employees, only volunteers and three board members. (I'm one of them.)
What legal entity is WordPress.org insured under, and who cuts the checks?
Wordpress.org isn't a legal entity. It's simply a domain owned by Matt. It seems Matt has a license to use the Wordpress trademarks.
The Wordpress Foundation is a non-profit legal entity with a tiny budget. It appears the only thing it does is serve as a holding entity for the trademarks and the for-profit company than operates the WordCamp conferences.
I suspect that Automattic is the one who foots the bill for the infrastructure behind Wordpress.org, but that's not clear.
Matt talks about transparency, but how everything operates is a muddled mess.
> Wordpress.org isn't a legal entity. It's simply a domain owned by Matt.
Automattic's website (https://automattic.com/2024/10/02/wordpress-trademarks-a-leg...) says otherwise:
> The Foundation also licensed the name WordPress to the non-profit WordPress.org, which runs a website that facilitates access to WordPress-related software.
I’d love to see something on the foundation website which explains this.
Thanks for your reply.
Can you clarify when you're going to cease your public tantrums and your erratic idiotic behavior that is causing problems for Wordpress users worldwide?