Due to ongoing drama with Wordpress, I have made the incredibly difficult and painful decision to suspend my website. The actions of Matt Mullenweg and Automattic are harmful to the IT community, and while I know that most of you, the people who view this website, will not care, I do very much care about my clients, and their businesses.
I primarily work with startups, which largely love Wordpress for the simple fact that they, with a surprisingly small amount of learning, can manage their own websites and save money. For startups this is critical, and Wordpress has been a huge component of the foundation behind the ease-of-use I offer my clients. Now, not only do I have to consider the weight of migrating existing clients' websites away from Wordpress, since the main player running it does not seem to notice or care about the impact of his actions, but I also have to find a new solution for my future clients. Business comes with risk, yes, but why take the risk if you don't have to?
The instability created in the IT community by the actions of Matt Mullenweg and Automattic do not foster the environment my clients need to thrive. Matt has essentially stated that Wordpress has no obligation to its user base, and ignores the simple fact that more than a third of the internet is powered by Wordpress. The actions taken by Matt and Automattic, he claims, are geared toward protecting Automattic's interests, but they read more like a scolded child who has decided to go "nuclear". Additionally, (if I recall correctly), something like 85% of Automatticians agreed and took Matt's buyout offers.
Just the other day, I read a comment on a news article wherein the commenter described losing over $14,000 US in contracts because the client read online about the Wordpress drama and pulled out, and the loss of that client also caused an inability to deliver service to another client, who also pulled out. (Some people will say he should have managed his business better, and that one client should never depend on another like that, but this page is not about how someone runs their business, but rather the harm caused by the unilateral actions of Matt Mullenweg.)
To that end, and especially to my clients: I am committed to serving your needs, with or without Wordpress. My clients will not be charged for migrating their content to a different CMS. I might even just build my own, though I know I could not hope to rival WordPress as yet. Perhaps I will fork WordPress core and turn it into a different project, simply based on a strong foundation.
What I do know is this: My clients should not have to suffer from the unilateral actions of a person who seems to have the emotional maturity and volatility of a teenager. I will do everything in my power to ensure that their needs are met.
And if Matt, or any employee of either Automattic or WPEngine should happen to see this, I urge you to hear this plea, and to pass it along to whoever has the power: please find a resolution that doesn't start a digital World War. While Automattic and WPEngine might be able to handle these kinds of blows from each other, remember what happens to the guys on the ground when the titans fall. My mom once said, while watching the first Transformers movie, "Man, when those guys fight, they leave one hell of a mess!". And, of course, would you want to be underneath a giant alien robot who has just been dealt a killing blow, while he falls on you? I strongly doubt it. Those of us down here at the bottom can only watch in horror, scream our fears, and hope that they will be heard. This page is mine. End the fight. Both of you should "be the bigger man" here, and look beyond your own noses.