---
title: "On Forking WordPress"
url: "https://sethgoldstein.me/on-forking-wordpress/"
updated: "2024-09-24T17:23:11+00:00"
sources:
  - "https://sethgoldstein.me/on-forking-wordpress/"
---

It’s been floated with the recent outburst between Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, that the community should fork (aka move the OSS) WordPress to a new project, with out the drama (or so it’s thought).

I’m not sure how I feel about this. It’s not going to be a small feat. When WordPress was forked from B2/cafeblog back on 2004 (correct me if that year is wrong). The Web was smaller, and WordPress didn’t power 40%+ of the Websites on the Web.

I think we need to separate WordPress.com/Automattic/Matt Mullenweg from the WordPress.org/WordPress Foundation.

I think WordPress.com needs to be 301-redirected to .org and Automattic needs to find a new name for their paid-service.

Matt complains about people being confused by WP Engine’s usage of WP, which I might add is not trademarked.

Matt has caused the LARGEST confusion of anyone with Automattic’s usage of WordPress.com!!!!

So to get back to the point. I don’t think forking WordPress.org is the answer. I think governance is the answer. And a clear delineation between DOT COM and DOT ORG needs to be made.