An Open Letter to Wordpress and WP Engine

Jonathan Cilley -

Dear Wordpress and WP Engine Leadership,

First, let me be clear that I am not here to take sides regarding who is right or wrong about what a fair level of contribution back to open-source projects is. Everyone has different means; everyone has a slightly different take on what philosophically should be done to give back to open-source projects you use and/or generate income from. While both of those issues are important, what is even more important is to not have the open-source community become so fractured due to an issue between two organizations that it becomes irreparably harmed in the process.

Over the 20 plus years of my career and personal journey with technology, I have directly and indirectly benefitted from open-source projects. While I was in high school and college, open source projects and programming languages directly enabled me to learn what I needed to begin programming professionally. In my first job out of college, the company I worked for used open source software platforms to run their business, and several of the developers there contributed back to projects when they could. Throughout the rest of my career, I have used a combination of open-source tools, and commercial closed-source tools, to do what I need in the roles I have been in. Whenever possible, both I and my teams have contributed back to the open-source community either through providing back to the project code bases or by providing financial support to the project creators. To some people what I personally was able to contribute back to the community may not seem significant, but for me I have always attempted to give back as much as I can. Now more than ever, I find that I turn towards providing financial support to the open-source community since my free time is not what it used to be.

Here are some examples of the projects I currently support that either directly or indirectly contribute to open source:

  • Cloudron - The project is closed-source, yet they contribute back to many open-source projects they use as part of their solution from the money they raise.
  • CapRover
  • WeatherFlow Pi Console
  • Ghost
  • Wordpress (Previously. I moved to Ghost for my blog several years ago)

Now that you understand a little more about my support of the open-source movement, I want to get to the crux of my issue regarding the state of affairs between Wordpress and WP Engine. What you are doing, by exposing your dirty laundry to the whole world, is creating an overall sense of distrust among all of us that have historically supported open-source projects. Rather than having a productive discussion, this has become a legal battle over trademarks and how much contribution back to an open-source project is "enough." On the one hand Wordpress, you come across as a greedy, for-profit organization trying to squeeze money out of another company that has every right to use your open-source software as they see fit. On the other hand WP Engine, you come across as being ungrateful and unwilling to contribute a meaningful amount back to an open-source project that has allowed you to earn substantial sums of income. In the end, both organizations look like toddlers calling each other names on the playground versus handling this like a group of mature adults.

We as an open-source community need companies like Automattic and WP Engine to take an active leadership role in projects that have defined the modern web. We need you to take not only a project leadership role but also an evangelist role where the success and promise of open source is spread across the globe. Please, for the good of the open-source community as a whole, take the time to work out your differences privately and in a mature manner. If the discourse continues in the manner it has been, we are endangering not only the Wordpress project, but the entire rationale for why the open-source licensing model is viable to begin with. Do not let this issue become an existential threat to our movement as a whole, take the steps needed to resolve it now to protect the trust we have placed in both companies.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cilley
Open-source advocate, user, and supporter