What is WordPress.org?

It remains near impossible to keep up with everything happening in the WordPress ecosystem. Here's a quick recap of some of the semi-recent highlights:

• Jason Bahl, the creator and maintainer of WPGraphQL, announced that he is leaving WP Engine to go work for Automattic, and that WPGraphQL is now a "canonical" WordPress plugin. His post is worth a read, regardless of where you stand on the ongoing saga.
• Mary Hubbard was announced as the new Executive Director of WordPress.org (or WordPress, depending on where you look). My post below has tangential thoughts on this. Hubbard was formerly employed by Automattic, but most recently employed by TikTok.
• Finally, contributors were greeted with a new checkbox when attempting to login to WordPress.org, which reads: "I am not affiliated with WP Engine in any way, financially or otherwise." In conjunction with this new checkbox, a number of long time contributors are finding their accounts locked / deactivated.
• Oh, and both Automattic and Matt Mullenweg have officially been served. It's not nearly as dramatic as the movies—I doubt anyone said "you've been served"—Automattic's went to its lawyers, and Mullenweg's was sent certified mail to his San Francisco address.

Today, as usual, I'm staying away from current events, though there is certainly much one could to write about each of the above bullets.

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What is WordPress.org? It's a simple question. It should have a simple answer. But, like everything revealed during the Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine saga, there isn't a simple or straightforward answer.

The answer to this question has become quite important to understanding the complaint filed by WP Engine, and subsequent comments by Mullenweg—there is a lot of confusion around the term "WordPress.org" and how it's being used. The announcement of Mary Hubbard as the new Executive Director is a good example of the confusion around "WordPress.org"—while the announcement on the WordPress.org website explicitly notes she will be the Executive Director of "WordPress.org", her website (linked in the post) says she's the Executive Director of "WordPress."

In the past, "WordPress.org" has meant three different things, depending on the context, which each being a valid use of the term over the years:

1. WordPress.org means WordPress.org, the website hosted at that domain. This is, of course, the most logical and straightforward reading of "WordPress.org".
2. WordPress.org means WordPress-the-software. In an ideal world, we would call WordPress-the-software simply "WordPress". But, Automattic has complicated this topic over the years with its offering of WordPress.com, requiring considerable explanation to end users, who are frequently told to "use WordPress.org not WordPress.com", as short hand to say "use WordPress-the-software instead of the WordPress.com service." In speech and writing, it is much simpler to guide users with this wording, as WordPress.com nominally uses WordPress-the-software, with substantial modifications, of course.
3. WordPress.org means the community. Over the years, we the community have used the term "WordPress.org" to mean the community, the collection of people who contribute to WordPress in one form or another. This also makes sense, because WordPress.org is the central hub where contributions happen.

The term hasn't only been overloaded by the community, or Mullenweg himself, Automattic's associate general counsel seems confused about what "WordPress.org ." In a post, seemingly attempting to bring clarity to the WordPress trademarks, Neil Peretz wrote the following:

The Foundation also licensed the name WordPress to the non-profit WordPress.org, which runs a website that facilitates access to WordPress-related software.

In this definition, WordPress.org is a "non-profit [entity]... which runs a website..." This was clearly an incorrect definition, as Mullenweg himself had this verbiage corrected on October 9. (As an aside, it's quite interesting that Neil Peretz is now active on Hacker News.)

Today, we need to clarify which one of these is the "right" WordPress.org. Despite its haphazard, multi-definition usage, "WordPress.org" has become a term that has legal meaning, as the saga between Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine has evolved. Mullenweg has even stated that "WordPress.org" has been brought into the lawsuit. Which definition is he using?

Looking more closely at the lawsuit specifically, in their complaint, WordPress.org appears 86 times in the complaint, and an additional 15 times in footnotes, referencing content on WordPress.org. The references are for a variety of reasons, with an emphasis on actions taken against WP Engine on the website WordPress.org, as well as using supporting data to explain what this "WordPress" thing actually is.

But, WP Engine's complaint explicitly does not name WordPress.org as a "party" to the lawsuit because, well, there is no entity behind WordPress.org. Instead, WP Engine is suing the owner of WordPress.org, the website, Matt Mullenweg, for actions he took on that website. The complaint also mentions his statements on ma.tt, another website Mullenweg owns and operates. In many regards, this makes sense—if WordPress.org was owned and operated by the WordPress Foundation, it's entirely likely that they, too, would be named party in this lawsuit, if similar actions had occurred on the not-for-profit's site. But, that's not the case today.

In reading the complaint, it's clear that WP Engine's lawsuit excludes the community and the WordPress software. On the latter piece, the complaint outlines how it uses the software as documented and recommended, utilizing the same software as the official, downloadable version (available from WordPress.org, natch).

Conversely, when Mullenweg references WordPress.org, he conflates all of the above definitions. In a September 27 message in the #announcements channel of the WordPress Slack, Mullenweg noted:

I'm worried that people don't understand how serious WP Engine / Silver Lake retaining Quinn Emanuel and naming WordPress.org is.

This reference must have been to the cease and desist, as WP Engine had yet to file its lawsuit. Within that document, "WordPress.org" is mentioned, but only insofar as it pertains to the actions Mullenweg and Automattic took on that site, a site Mullenweg has admitted to solely owning.

But, the mention of "WordPress.org" in this message implies more than just the website—it implies the community or, perhaps, the software. The ambiguity feels intentional, to me—a way to imply to the community that "WP Engine is coming after you." This seems far, far from reality, based on a straightforward read of both the cease and desist and the subsequent legal complaint.

(Unpacking the details of Quinn Emanuel, in particular, is a good idea for another time. I'm hoping a lawyer can provide deeper context about the firm.)

Of course, Mullenweg further conflated "WordPress.org" in the announcement of Mary Hubbard as Executive Director. Certainly she is not the Executive Director of WordPress.org the website. Is she overseeing the community? The software? Somehow part of the Foundation?

Given the lawsuit, I think it's time that the community collectively align on "WordPress.org" as a term. While WordPress.com has made this a confusing topic since its creation, it's clear that we need to be precise about what WordPress.org is: a website owned solely by Matt Mullenweg.

What does this mean for how we refer to other things? WordPress, the software, should be referred to simply as "WordPress" or, if necessary, "downloadable software." The WordPress Community should use its complete moniker—I personally plan to turn it into a proper noun.

But WordPress.org? It's no longer a term we can use in an ad hoc way. In my opinion, WordPress.org should always reference the website. Per his comments, as documented within WP Engine's legal complaint, Mullenweg owns that website and has full control over it. Any actions taken on that website may be his, or may be at his instruction.

The community is, of course, welcome to contribute to the WordPress project (including the software) via the WordPress.org website, but only at Mullenweg's discretion. And, as we've recently seen, Mullenweg's discretion is being actively used to shut out longtime contributors.