The news is significant. The shift in how open-source WordPress has operated for over a decade is substantial, especially since the Five for the Future program began.
Last week, the new Executive Director of WordPress announced that Automattic would reduce its weekly contribution hours to WordPress.org from approximately 4,000 to only 45.
To understand the implications, consider that Automattic has been the single largest contributor to open-source WordPress by a wide margin. While the second-place contributor’s hours have typically ranged from 100 to 400, Automattic’s contribution has been on a different scale.
The full consequences are not yet clear. Let’s explore four potential effects of this reduction on open-source WordPress, assuming this decision remains in effect.
Four Possible Implications of Automattic’s Reduction
The WordPress community has already been actively discussing the potential impacts of Automattic’s announcement. Here’s a closer look at four key areas:
Community Governance Challenges
The widening gap between WordPress.com and WordPress.org highlights concerns about WordPress’s governance structure, a debate that intensified after the legal conflict between Automattic and WP Engine. Recent actions, like removing prominent community members from WordPress.org, have amplified these concerns about the project’s leadership and future direction.
The WordPress Foundation Question
While WordPress is technically an open-source project, a small group controls the website, repositories, and trademark. This arrangement functioned adequately when Automattic contributed thousands of hours weekly. However, the inherent conflict is now apparent.
While community members have advocated for releasing control of The Foundation and the plugin repository to the broader WordPress community, the likelihood of this occurring seems low. The current leadership shows no signs of changing, despite growing calls for distributed governance.
Potential WordPress.com/WordPress.org Split
The relationship between WordPress.com and WordPress.org can be confusing. They are distinct entities sharing a name, but this latest development suggests their paths might diverge further.
Some believe this contribution reduction aims to stop open-sourcing work and confine it to .com. They might not need to contribute to .org, retaining the trademark for commercial purposes to develop a superior forked product on .com while still calling it WordPress.
Can they really do that though?
While Automattic can’t legally close existing WordPress code (due to its GPL license), they can keep new features private.
If this happens, the implications could reshape the WordPress ecosystem:
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WordPress.org could enter maintenance mode.
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New features might debut on WordPress.com first or exclusively.
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The ecosystem could split between commercial and community versions.
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Third-party hosts might need to “pay to play” for premium features.
Some community members view this as a risky gamble, since WordPress.com’s success is only possible because of WordPress.org.
Security and Development Oversight Concerns
Automattic’s contributor hours to Five for the Future have significantly decreased. While the announcement stated that the focus would be on “security and critical updates,” many community members are questioning whether this dramatic reduction is sustainable.
The concerns include:
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Security patches and vulnerability assessments.
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Core development review and testing.
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Performance monitoring and optimization.
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Cross-platform compatibility checks.
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Integration testing with major plugins and themes.
Some community members believe this could be detrimental to WordPress’s development momentum.
However, some community members see this as a strategic move. Automattic’s business interests are deeply connected to WordPress’s success, and their Gutenberg investment remains incomplete, which requires ongoing development to achieve business goals.
The announcement included a line stating:
“We’re excited to return to active contributions to WordPress core, Gutenberg, Playground, Openverse, and WordPress.org when the legal attacks have stopped.”
This suggests the reduction might be more of a negotiating tactic than a permanent shift.
Loss of Critical Documentation and Knowledge Infrastructure
A recent post from a long-term Automattic contributor highlights the extensive documentation that is about to vanish from the WordPress development ecosystem.
This contributor, a Core Team member since 2014, has played a crucial role in keeping WordPress development organized and accessible across multiple teams (including Documentation, Testing, and Community).
Her contributor hours were just cut to zero.
In her post, she lists seven areas that will be impacted by the change. The first one she highlights – “the Source of Truth” – is also the most critical.
She also contributed towards the release roadmap, which took years of experience to master. This kind of institutional knowledge cannot be replaced quickly.
She is the only person to write a detailed post about her contributions and their loss. This leaves us wondering how many other individuals are responsible for similar critical infrastructure documentation that will disappear.
The reduction in Automattic’s contributor hours is forcing the WordPress community to address concerns about project governance, but we’re seeing other companies stepping up their contributions, which might lead to a healthier WordPress ecosystem in the long run.