WordPress is in trouble
Automattic has announced that it will restrict its contributions to the open source version of WordPress - it will now put in about 45 hours a week in total, down from nearly 4,000 a week. The company is aiming to match the estimated hourly contributions of WP Engine as a response to WP Engine's legal response after actions by WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg. While usually, having the community take the lead would be fine, Mullenweg has the final say over some very important parts of the WordPress community. While it is fair for Automattic to focus on for-profit projects, Mullenweg still holds all the keys to WordPress. A fork is possible, but it will require new community-driven infrastructure.