If WordPress.org is not for the community, then we will be

This post, written by our founder Sarah Savage, is her speaking on her feelings about the vision she has for WordPress, the AspirePress future, and the ways in which we can serve the community. It reflects her views, and her commitments to the community.

When I saw the news that lawyers for Matt Mullenweg and Automattic were filing a brief that stated plainly, “wordpress.org is not WordPress”, I was shocked. Like many of the members of the community, I had relied on the .org as the de facto place to find WordPress and the WordPress community. And I was angry and scared at the notion that it was all a sham.

As I reflected on the twenty years I’ve spent in software development, and PHP and WordPress specifically, I came to a realization: I realized that it was not our fault we didn’t understand. In fact, I firmly believe that the deception was intentional.

As I came to this realization, I faced a decision-point. I could be angry about it, sure. Or, I could do something about it. I decided to do something, which was make this commitment to you.

For those of you who are hurt and angry and feel betrayed, I want you to know this: if WordPress.org will not be there for you, then AspirePress will be. You’re welcome here.

I will also make the following promise. You can screenshot this, share this, post this, remind me of this, email me this, and hold me accountable to this promise. Here goes:

I promise that for as long as AspirePress exists, regardless of legal structure or governance model or leadership or finance, AspirePress will be a community, focused solely on the good of users of the software we distribute and support, regardless of name, and regardless of who they are, where they come from, or any characteristic besides their desire to be in community.

This isn’t some kumbaya lets-all-get-along promise, either. This is the foundation of our governance model and the basis of our existence. Community is messy, challenging, difficult and important. We are obligated – no, required – to work together to form healthy community and provide a space where everyone can participate with dignity and respect for all.

WordPress democratized publishing: if you have a blog, you can publish it anywhere that will host you and say anything within the bounds of the laws you are subject to obey. Your opinion doesn’t need to be right or politically correct or even widely accepted to be published. The voice of the minority can be heard.

I want to make clear that for participation in the AspirePress project we endorse a code of conduct. And while we may vehemently disagree with some uses of the tools we produce, as long as those uses don’t break the law the license we issued is the determining factor for the right to use them. But that is what community requires: a willingness to live with those you disagree with, sometimes strongly.

That’s why AspirePress doesn’t block people for expressing their bona fide (respectful) opinions, and that’s why we listen to feedback from our users and community before we act. And even when we have to make hard or controversial decisions, we will work to do so within the guidelines of our vision and values, with the best interests of the community, not ourselves, in mind.

We are not perfect, and we will never be. But we will do our best to build a welcoming, inclusive community where everyone is welcome, and everyone can live in harmony, even if we aren’t on the same page in every way. At the end of the day, community needs to be about more than dollars and cents, or profit and loss, or investors and open source advocates. We welcome equally the Silver Lake investors as we do those who advocate that the GPL should make everything free and no one should make money from free code.

The bottom line is this: if WordPress.org will not be for the community, then AspirePress will be your home.

Welcome home.