21 Years of WordPress  ## Metadata - Author: [[sarahgooding.dev]] - Full Title: 21 Years of WordPress - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #WordPress - #Community - #21Years Author: Sarah Gooding Source: sarahgooding.dev Reference: [Link to article](https://sarahgooding.dev/2024/10/06/21-years-of-wordpress/) date created: 2024-10-07 13:00 --- # Title: 21 Years of WordPress: A Journey Through Time and Community ## Table of Contents:  - [📝 Summary](#📝-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#📖-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#🗒️-notes) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#🗣️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#📰-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#✅-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#🧪-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#📊-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#❓-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#🔮-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#💡-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#🧠-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#📊-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#🌍-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#✅-logical-validity) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#🔍-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#🎯-conclusion) ## 📝 Summary: Sarah Gooding reflects on 21 years of WordPress, exploring its growth from a simple blogging tool to a robust open-source platform powering millions of websites worldwide. The article emphasizes the importance of community involvement, collaboration, and the WordPress mission of democratizing publishing. Gooding highlights key milestones, influential community members, and the challenges faced along the journey. ## 📖 Main Content: The article begins with an overview of WordPress's early days in 2003, focusing on its origins as a fork of b2/cafelog and the vision shared by co-founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. Gooding recounts how WordPress became a game-changer in the blogging world by providing an easy-to-use, customizable platform. Gooding then discusses the role of the WordPress community, emphasizing the open-source ethos that has driven development and growth over the years. She highlights key milestones such as the introduction of the plugin ecosystem, the expansion to multisite capabilities, and the pivotal launch of the Gutenberg block editor, which revolutionized the way users create content. The article also covers the challenges WordPress has faced, from navigating the complexities of scaling an open-source project to managing conflicts between different stakeholders. Despite these challenges, Gooding points out that WordPress's strength lies in its resilient community, dedicated to improving and evolving the platform. ### 🗒️ Notes - **Early Beginnings**: - WordPress started in 2003 as a fork of b2/cafelog by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. - Aimed to create an open, easy-to-use publishing platform. - **Community and Growth**: - The WordPress community has been a core driver of its success, from individual contributors to large companies. - Key milestones include the plugin ecosystem, multisite, and the Gutenberg editor. - **Challenges and Evolution**: - Managing scalability and maintaining an open-source ethos were significant challenges. - Conflicts between different stakeholders have emerged, but community resilience has driven solutions and progress. - **The Future of WordPress**: - Continued focus on democratizing publishing and supporting diverse contributors. - Emphasis on making WordPress accessible and valuable for everyone, from bloggers to enterprise users. ## 📖 References: - Gooding, Sarah. "21 Years of WordPress: A Journey Through Time and Community." sarahgooding.dev. [Link to article](https://sarahgooding.dev/2024/10/06/21-years-of-wordpress/) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase:  1. Sarah Gooding describes WordPress's transformation from a simple blogging tool to a powerful content management system, driven by the vision of democratizing online publishing. The platform's adaptability and the community's commitment have been pivotal to its success. 2. The author highlights how the introduction of features like plugins, multisite capabilities, and the Gutenberg block editor have significantly influenced WordPress's growth. Despite challenges such as managing diverse stakeholder interests, the community's resilience has ensured ongoing progress and innovation. ## 📰 Newsletter: 🎉 **Celebrating 21 Years of WordPress!** 🎂 From its humble beginnings in 2003, WordPress has grown to power over 40% of the web! Sarah Gooding takes us on a nostalgic journey through WordPress's history—from its start as a simple blogging tool to becoming a platform for everyone, from casual bloggers to major enterprises. Want to relive key moments, like the launch of Gutenberg, and see how community spirit drove innovation? Don’t miss this reflective read! ➡️ [Check it out](https://sarahgooding.dev/2024/10/06/21-years-of-wordpress/). Here's to democratizing publishing, one block at a time! 🥳🚀 ## ✅ Action Items: - **Contributor Engagement**: This reflection on WordPress’s history aligns with my advocacy focus by emphasizing community involvement. Highlighting these milestones can inspire new contributors to see the impact of their participation. - **OSPO Strategy**: WordPress’s open-source evolution provides valuable insights into governance structures and contributor management, relevant to my aspirations as an OSPO director. ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - Increased emphasis on community recognition and involvement will lead to more active contributors. - The introduction of more user-friendly features, like Gutenberg, directly correlates with growth in the user base and adoption rates. ### 📊 Methodology: - **Data Sources**: Contribution records from WordPress GitHub repositories, user surveys. - **Research Design**: Longitudinal study to compare growth metrics pre- and post-major feature launches (e.g., Gutenberg). - **Analysis Techniques**: Use correlation analysis to determine the relationship between feature releases and community engagement metrics. ### ❓ Questions: - How has the WordPress community managed conflicts between different stakeholder groups over time? - What lessons can be learned from WordPress's journey for other open-source projects looking to scale? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Investigate the impact of specific community initiatives on WordPress's growth. - Assess how different governance approaches have influenced WordPress's ability to scale while maintaining its open-source mission. ### 💡 Implications:  Future research into WordPress's growth and governance can provide insights into best practices for managing large open-source communities. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for other projects aiming to scale while preserving community values. ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: - **Visual Learners (Spatial)**: - **Present**: Minimal visual aids. - **Improve**: Add a timeline infographic to illustrate key milestones in WordPress's history. - **Aural Learners (Auditory-Musical)**: - **Present**: None. - **Improve**: Provide an audio version of the article or a podcast-style discussion on WordPress's evolution. - **Verbal Learners (Linguistic)**: - **Present**: Rich narrative detailing the journey of WordPress. - **Improve**: Include more quotes and stories from community members to enrich the narrative. - **Physical Learners (Kinesthetic)**: - **Present**: None. - **Improve**: Suggest readers interact by experimenting with older versions of WordPress to appreciate the evolution firsthand. - **Logical Learners (Mathematical)**: - **Present**: Logical progression of events. - **Improve**: Include data on WordPress growth metrics to appeal to logical learners. - **Social Learners (Interpersonal)**: - **Present**: Emphasizes community involvement. - **Improve**: Encourage group discussions or interviews with veteran community members. - **Solitary Learners (Intrapersonal)**: - **Present**: Reflective tone. - **Improve**: Add prompts for readers to reflect on how they have benefited from or contributed to the WordPress community. - **Naturalistic Learners**: - **Present**: None. - **Improve**: Use analogies that compare community growth to natural ecosystems, emphasizing organic development. ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment: - **Screen Reader Compatibility**: The article uses good semantic struct - Document Tags: [[Matt Mullenweg]] [[open source corporate contribution]] [[wordpress]] [[wpdrama]] [[wp engine]] - Summary: If I close my eyes I can still smell the pages of well-worn books and feel their dusty spines, walking down the quiet aisles of the public library in the small town where I grew up. - URL: https://sarahgooding.dev/2024/10/06/21-years-of-wordpress/ image credit: [Janko Ferlic](https://stocksnap.io/photo/books-library-6XANS2384I) - CC0 If I close my eyes I can still smell the pages of well-worn books and feel their dusty spines, walking down the quiet aisles of the public library in the small town where I grew up. It wasn’t one of those libraries with fancy architecture or ornate decorations, but there were several small nooks where people could hole up and get lost in their reading selections. I remember spending hours alone in those corners completely absorbed in whatever was my latest obsession. The library was one of the few places I was allowed to walk to by myself. I remember wasting entire days and weeks researching everything there was to find on various subjects of interest – the possibility of time travel, English poetry, lucid dreaming, political memoirs, philosophy, the list goes on. My family didn’t have a lot of money for lessons or traveling, and many times I felt painfully stuck in the small town where I lived. The public library was my gateway to the world, an outlet for my boundless curiosity. That old adage – “Knowledge is power” – is something that I feel like electricity every time I step into a library, even today. I’m instantly overwhelmed by how much there is to learn and enjoy. Libraries are magic. My experience is certainly not unique. It echoes that of library lovers everywhere. We all know that libraries are one of the last free public spaces, and there is something sacred about that which should be protected. Access to published works should be shared – this is a moral imperative that is intuitively understood by friends of the library. [WordPress](https://wordpress.org/) embodies this same democratizing force on the other side of the publishing coin, empowering anyone with an idea to share it, start a business, or organize a community. Creators of all backgrounds can share their expertise to a global audience without the boundaries of traditional publishing. As open source software, it’s available for anyone to use and modify for their own purposes. People are often surprised to find out that WordPress powers [43%](https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress) of all websites. There are many reasons for its popularity. One of them is contributors’ relentless commitment to making WordPress easy for anybody to use. I’ve had a front row seat to see the blood, sweat, tears, and meticulous care contributors put into this project to get the details right. They have made it possible for ordinary people to tell their stories and find a voice in the world. WordPress’ GPL licensing and its leadership are two other factors that I believe have been fundamental to its success and longevity. And on this point I want to address the current news: [WP Engine is suing WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Automattic](https://x.com/wpengine/status/1841643374090031461) following a public dispute over trademark infringement and the hosting company’s lack of contributions to the core open source project. During my [10 years of writing WordPress news at WP Tavern](https://wptavern.com/last-call), I have certainly disagreed with some of Matt’s decisions, have actively encouraged his critics to hold him accountable, and have amplified their voices in my articles as part of my commitment to serving the public interest in my reporting. I frequently withheld my personal opinions from my articles. Now that I am no longer reporting on WordPress, nor presently active in the community, I want to state that I fully believe in Matt’s leadership of the project. I’ve seen a lot of renewed talk around governance due to this current situation, which has prompted me to comment on the matter. There is no bureaucratic governance model that would do a better job of [delivering on user freedoms](https://ma.tt/2009/07/not-lonely-at-all/) and the improvements to WordPress’ user experience than what Matt has done as [BDFL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictator_for_life). WordPress stands as a north star among copyleft software projects today, thanks to the 19-year old kid who had the preternatural good sense to [adopt the GPL license](https://ma.tt/2009/10/matt-qa-wordpress-gpl/). Matt will never change WordPress’ license. His leadership in upholding the GPL has had a [profound impact on WordPress’ economy](https://ma.tt/2015/07/licenses-going-dutch/), enabling it to thrive and dominate the CMS market. I don’t pretend to understand the nuances of protecting trademarks. I’ll leave that to the lawyers. Adding to what is already a painful and complicated legal quagmire, there seem to be many unhappy people co-opting this situation in order to belabor other tired, unrelated grievances. Certainly, I think this situation could have been handled better from a community perspective, but you’ve got one human guy responsible for a lot. I believe Matt is acting in WordPress’ interest long term and is the best person to continue setting the strategic objectives for the project. Nobody blinks an eye about fighting for more corporate support for individual unpaid maintainers but when you try to do this at scale, wow – that is difficult to navigate. I don’t envy that job. Following the harrowing xz-utils backdoor attempt, I am convinced we need to stay acutely aware of the dire need for financial support for OSS maintainers. With [60% of maintainers unpaid](https://socket.dev/blog/the-unpaid-backbone-of-open-source), and many of them thinking of quitting, our critical infrastructure is at risk. Yes, I understand that it’s the tactics he’s using in fighting for OSS support that have been contentious. We all grew up in this space together, and after weathering many heated conflicts, we’re bound to see missteps on both sides of this conflict. I believe in the power of friction as a positive force for open source projects, and I hope something good will come of all this. It’s heart-breaking that this situation has come to legal action, and I wish they could have solved it with a professional mediator or through some other means. It’s been said before but all the money sunk into litigation could be spent on OSS maintainers. There are many details we will probably never know. I don’t fully agree with how Matt has handled this matter, but I will not support any governance model that doesn’t have his leadership at the forefront. WordPress is his life’s work and his legacy. No design-by-committee model is going to give you the same consistent, decisive, nonstop forward momentum that we have experienced with WordPress thus far. After 21 years of delivering on this, I believe Matt is uniquely qualified to steer the project forward. His leadership has built something truly extraordinary., 21 Years of WordPress, sarahgooding.dev, 01j9hc52g21wx6d37bfr5na6dd.