Business Roundup Week Ending January 17

Is WordPress Crashing or Are We Debugging It?

It’s been a busy week for what I’ve come to call The Recent Unpleasantness in WordPress. The #club channel in Post Status Slack has been abuzz with thoughts and opinions from WordPress insiders. It feels like we’re at a crossroads as a community. If you’re not a Post Status member, now is a great time to join.

Here’s a quick summary:

After Joost de Valk and Karim Marucchi each published thoughtful posts about changes in current WordPress infrastructure and leadership, Matt Mullenweg announced that he had deactivated their .org accounts (oddly including Sé Reed, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen who were not involved in the current conversation). This action was covered in major tech media: TechCrunch and Slashdot.
Later, Matt warned in a tweet that WP Engine’s lawsuit due to the conflict he initiated could lead to the potential closure of WordPress.org.
Meanwhile, concerns from community members worried for their livelihoods are growing, along with frustration that significant contributions by agencies to WordPress marketshare have been overlooked.
Reddit discussions by community members are overwhelmingly negative. Many, even an official WordPress meetup group, are wondering out loud about alternatives to WordPress as Drupal releases its new DrupalCMS aimed at non-enterprise users.
Michael Willman, CEO of Revdev and moderator of the r/WPDrama subreddit, has joined the suit against Automattic and Mullenwe g, claiming Matt’s actions directly contributed to significant losses his business. In addition to his allegation that he was banned despite the WPE injunction, one interesting claim in his suit concerns violations of the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act related to the ACF/SCF takeover.
Finally, in case you missed it, Adrienne Travis has been maintaining a timeline of “The Mullenweg/WPE Thing“ on Github since shortly after it began. Updated frequently, it’s a good spot to stay up-to-date on what’s happening.

The European Accessibility Act requires eCommerce stores to make their platforms accessible to people with disabilities or face significant penalties when it becomes law in June.
Key compliance areas include keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and clear text formatting options.
Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees and under €2 million turnover are exempt from the requirements of the EAA.
Accessibility improvements can be a selling point for businesses, as research shows they can deliver a return of $100 for every dollar invested.
Learn more about the law in this post from Commerce Gurus.
I’ll also be hosting a free Solid Academy livestream “Understanding Legal Requirements for Web Accessibility” with Accessicart’s Bet Hannon in a few weeks.

What’s New from Post Status Members

The WordPress Android App is a Failure – Amber Hinds chronicles her frustrating experience in this post.
How AI Changed my Web Development Workflow – an interesting take from Eric Karkovack.
Lindsey Miller sold her marketing agency Content Journey which will merge with My Marketing Assistant.
WS Form has released a powerful new Form Styler
Brian Coords chats with Keanan Koppenhaver about how AI tools are transforming workflows
Rhys Wynne has released Preload LCP Image 1.4, a plugin that can help increase pagespeed.
Satyam Vishwakarma announced that PHPCamp Online is being relaunched and they’re looking for speakers.
Ronni K. Gothard Christiansen looks into fundamental issues with third-party consent management platforms.

Worth a Look

“Attention Kmart Shoppers!” – Take a trip to the past and hear cassette and reel-to-reel recordings of store music and announcements from Kmart Corporate dating back to the 1970s.
The Most Hearted Pens of 2024 has been released by CodePen with some clever examples of creative development.
WordPress 6.8 Release Squad Announced – Amidst all the upheaval, there is a new version of WordPress in the works. The release squad is now public and working.