Mary Hubbard to be the New Executive Director of WordPress.org

Matt Mullenweg has announced that Mary Hubbard will take over as the new Executive Director of WordPress.org on 21st October, 2024, following the resignation of Josepha Haden Chomphosy.  Mary is taking on this new role after stepping down as the Head of TikTok Americas, Governance and Experience. She is not a stranger to the WordPress arena, having worked at Automattic …

Impact of WPEngine’s Ban on ACF Plugin

When WP Engine was blocked from accessing WordPress.org, users were left wondering what the future holds for ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) and how this ban will impact their sites moving forward. ACF Blocked from WordPress.org On October 03, 2024, ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) announced via X that “The ACF team has been blocked from accessing WordPress dot org and are …

Thank You, Josepha: WordPress Executive Director Resigns

Josepha Haden Chomphosy has stepped down from Automattic, where she served as the Executive Director of the WordPress project. She was also leading Automattic’s open-source division, championing the efforts of developers, designers, community builders, and WordPress advocates. She has now updated her title in the WordPress Slack to “Community Steward.” Like Josepha, 159 employees left Automattic after accepting the Alignment …

New Social Web Foundation Launched with Automattic’s Support  

The Social Web Foundation was officially launched on September 24, 2024, with a mission to foster a “growing, healthy, financially viable, and multi-polar Fediverse.” This non-profit organization is spearheaded by Evan Prodromou (Research Director), Mallory Knodel (Executive Director), and Tom Coates (Product Director) and is dedicated to uniting social networks through the open standard protocol, ActivityPub. The Fediverse is a …

WordPress Enforces Plugin Check and 2FA for New Plugin Submissions

Security Review Lead Chris Christoff has announced two new changes for the WordPress Plugin Directory, effective from October 1, 2024. These changes aim to enhance plugin directory security and promote best practices among plugin developers. Mandatory Two-Factor Authentication As of October 1, 2024, all plugin owners and committers must enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to submit new plugins to the WordPress …

Automattic Publishes WP Engine Term Sheet Amidst Controversy

As the Automattic-WP Engine controversy continues, Automattic published the term sheet delivered to WP Engine on September 20, 2024. “In the interest of transparency, we’ve published the term sheet we offered to @LeeEWittlinger and @heatherjbrunner, it’s a simple one-pager.”, tweeted Matt Mullenweg. The announcement post reveals that initial discussions between Automattic and WP Engine began in February 2023, led by Matt …

InstaWP Announces the World’s First WordPress Online Hackathon ‘AnyoneCanWP’

InstaWP, known for its innovative one-click WordPress sandbox launcher, has launched AnyoneCanWP, the world’s first online hackathon dedicated to WordPress development. Registrations are open now, and participants can submit their projects until October 26. The hackathon will officially begin on October 11, 2024, with a keynote address by Joost de Valk, founder of Yoast SEO and a pivotal figure in …

Matt Mullenweg Announces Temporary Lifting of WP Engine Ban

Matt Mullenweg has announced that the restrictions on WP Engine will be temporarily lifted until October 1, 00:00 UTC, allowing them to access WordPress servers. WP Engine was banned on September 25 from utilizing any WordPress.org resources following legal actions related to trademark disputes, which left WP Engine customers unable to access the Plugin/Theme directory or update their websites The …

WP Engine Banned from Using WordPress.org Resources

The dispute between Automattic and WP Engine has intensified. Both companies have issued Cease and Desist orders to each other, leading WP Engine to remove the news feed from the WordPress admin dashboard. In response, WordPress.org has now banned WP Engine from utilizing any of its resources. The WordPress.org statement read: “Pending their legal claims and litigation against WordPress.org, WP …