When all this started, I questioned if I would resume my WordPress contributions that had been on hiatus. When all started going really batshit crazy, I questioned it even more.
All that made me sad. I do believe in WordPress’s mission. I do believe in FOSS and it having a positive impact to our world. I do highly value the larger WordPress community, hold that as something dear to me and consider it as one of my virtual homes.
Then I went to sauna for a few times. Sauna has always been a place to process and organise my thoughts.
Last weekend at the sauna I started talking about the current situation with one of the regulars that I consider my friend. They don’t know anything about WordPress and is working in completely different trade.
The discussion with them reminded me about some of the things why I have contributed. And about the reasons why I’ve done that in the Community Program Manager’s and Incident Response Team member’s capacity.
One of those reasons is that I believe WordPress project needs people that are not sponsored by Automattic in leadership and high positions.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying in any way that Automatticians are doing a poor job. Actually I think the opposite. At least the Automatticians with whom I’ve had pleasure working with, are doing excellent job and they care about the community a lot.
Still, I think it’s important that high positions in the project are not populated only by Automatticians. That would be unhealthy situation for an FOSS project, especially with as large community and usage as WordPress has.
That’s the reason why I decided to resume my contributions effective immediately.
I don’t blame the contributors who step down or pause their contributions. I understand them and their decisions very well. I applaud them taking a stand.
For me the way to take a stand is to contribute. By taking that stand, I am not defending Matt or his actions. I do believe that his approach to all this has been wrong, harmful and damaging. I don’t agree with Matt’s approach at all.
But by leaving only mostly Automatticians to the helm of the project during these troubling times is a worrying thought. The project and community is so much more than Matt or one company. Or at least it should be.
I recognise that I probably don’t have much say or influence over how things go and what happens next. But I’ll do my best to protect the community and ecosystem from the positions I’m at. And voice concerns and critical views where relevant – as I’ve always done.
I’m going to do my best to defend the awesome community, which we all have built together, from this batshit craziness.