Matt Mullenweg Is Complaining That WP Engine Hasn’t Donated to the WordPress Foundation, Despite It Having Too Much Money
Trust is a big part of security and trust is in short supply with the head of WordPress these days. He keeps saying things that are problematic. At the top are the outright lies to highly misleading statements. One of his arguments against WP Engine had been problematic before and then got more problematic late last week.
Recently, the Trademark Policy page of the WordPress Foundation was updated to include this message about WP Engine:
They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.
Matt Mullenweg has admitted he made that change. It isn’t the only time he has brought up WP Engine not having donated to the foundation.
The foundation does almost nothing (and some of what it does might not be legal), so it isn’t clear why they should be donating. He hasn’t provided an explanation for that.
That situation looks a lot worse when you read the minutes of the WordPress Foundation’s annual meeting for this year. Which, for the first time, the foundation published. Those were published on Friday. In that, we find out that the foundation donating $100,000 to the Internet Archive because they have too much money:
The board, alongside a recommendation from Harmony Romo, identified that the foundation should maintain a balance of $150,000. There was further discussion as to how the current excess should be directed. It was suggested that donations could be made to non-profit organizations with similar missions (Foundation for Public Code, Black Girls Code, and Internet Archive) as has been done in the past. Matt Mullenweg requested that an agenda item be added to direct $100,000 to the Internet Archive as they are currently in need.
Why the WordPress Foundation is donating money to the Internet Archive again, when it doesn’t seem related to WordPress, is its own question. But what senses does it make for WP Engine be donating money to foundation when they have too much money and had to get rid of it?
Despite that, the Trademark Policy page hasn’t been updated to remove the statement about WP Engine not donating.