"I Take No Pride in This, as It Means The...  🔗 **Source:** ["I Take No Pride in This, as It Means The...](https://twitter.com/DuaneStorey/status/2098915763369161085/?rw_tt_thread=True) > [!note]+ Document Notes > --- > tags: > - automattic > - wordpress-governance > - wp-engine-lawsuit > - open-source-governance > - matt-mullenweg > author: Duane Storey (quote-tweeting Trent Lapinski) > source: https://twitter.com/DuaneStorey/status/2098915763369161085/?rw_tt_thread=True > reference: https://twitter.com/DuaneStorey/status/2098915763369161085/?rw_tt_thread=True > date created: 2026-09-13 > --- > > [!info] Generated analysis — not the author's words. Sections below are machine-written > > from the captured source. Only text inside `> [!quote]` blocks is verbatim from the author. > > Do not quote or attribute any other line to the named author. > ## 🏷️ Title > Duane Storey on the Automattic board vote: "we should have solved open source governance" — a quote-tweet of Trent Lapinski's worst-case scenario for Automattic and WordPress > ## 🧭 Table of Contents > - Who is speaking (two voices in one capture) > - Summary > - Main Content and Notes > - References > - Paraphrase > - Newsletter > - Action Items > - Hypotheses, Methodology, Questions, Future Research > - Implications > - Learning Styles, Accessibility, DEIB > - Logical Validity and DARVO > - Conclusion > - Refactor Appendix (literature atoms, zettel candidates, fleeting queue) > ## 🔗 References (in-page) > - Trent Lapinski profile: https://twitter.com/trentlapinski > - Trent Lapinski's original post (Sep 12, 2026, 7:14 PM): https://twitter.com/trentlapinski/status/2098852701475946687 > - Duane Storey's quote-tweet (this capture): https://twitter.com/DuaneStorey/status/2098915763369161085/?rw_tt_thread=True > **Attribution note.** The Readwise capture flattens two accounts into one document. The first three paragraphs (beginning with a quoted sentence, then "Guys like Morten...", then "I personally don't know...") are Duane Storey's own words. Everything from "Thoughts on Automattic and WordPress:" through the closing "I take no pride in this..." paragraph is Trent Lapinski's post, which Storey is quoting. The opening quoted sentence at the very top is Storey re-quoting Lapinski's closing line. > ## 📝 Summary > **What happened.** On September 12, 2026, Trent Lapinski published a long post reacting to the Automattic board vote that placed CEO Matt Mullenweg on leave, and Mullenweg's return days later. Lapinski lays out a chain of consequences he expects: shareholder litigation if the board was replaced to reinstate Mullenweg, an 83 percent valuation decline he attributes to weak revenue, a likely loss in the WP Engine lawsuit, being cut off from venture capital, cash-flow and payroll stress, and, for WordPress itself, fewer developers and less leadership at the moment AI is reshaping the web. He closes with a personal lament that the open web he helped build is being destabilized and that open source governance should have been solved earlier. Duane Storey quote-tweeted that closing line and added his own commentary: people like Morten Rand-Hendriksen tried to bring governance to WordPress and were pushed out for it; twenty years of goodwill has been burned in record time; enterprises may now doubt open source generally; and after the ACF plugin takeover he sees no basis for trusting WordPress.org, with more turbulence expected as the lawsuit reaches a September 30 spoliation hearing. > **Why it matters.** This is a snapshot of how two long-tenured WordPress builders are processing the board episode in real time. Neither is a neutral observer, and much of Lapinski's post is explicitly speculative, but the emotional register (grief, exhaustion, loss of trust) is the same one many contributors are voicing. For anyone doing DevRel, OSPO, or community work in the WordPress ecosystem, this document is a useful barometer of sentiment among developers who have already partially exited. > **Stakeholders.** Automattic employees and shareholders (named in the post: major VC firms, BlackRock, Salesforce); the fired or reconstituted board; WP Engine and the court; WordPress.org contributors and plugin authors (the ACF/Secure Custom Fields episode is invoked); hosting companies; enterprise adopters; the broader open source community whose reputation Storey says is being damaged by association. > **Risks.** Reputational contagion from one project to open source as a category; contributor attrition; enterprise procurement hesitation; the possibility that speculative financial claims are repeated as fact; and the risk that the governance conversation becomes only about one person rather than about structures. > **Bottom line.** Two builders who once had deep skin in the game are saying, in different registers, that the WordPress project's dependence on a single decision-maker has become its central liability. Lapinski's financial and legal forecast is heavily speculative and should be treated as a scenario, not a report. Storey's governance point is the durable takeaway. > ## 📖 Main Content > ### 🗒️ Notes > - **Structure of the capture.** Storey's commentary is short and pointed; Lapinski's post is a numbered-feeling cascade of "if this, then that" steps. Read them as two documents. > - **Storey's three moves.** (1) Governance advocates were ostracized. (2) One person destroyed twenty years of goodwill and made open source look risky to enterprises. (3) Trust in WordPress.org is gone since the ACF takeover; the September 30 spoliation hearing may bring more instability. > - **Lapinski's chain.** Board stacking risks a class action; fired directors still represent shareholders and could seek an injunction; valuation down 83 percent implies bad revenue; the WP Engine case is likely lost and could carry penalties or even criminal referral; the board's leave decision was probably a pre-trial rescue attempt; former directors will sue; VC funding is closed off; the only paths are a down-round buyer, a settlement plus deep layoffs, or Mullenweg stepping aside so a new team can bring investors back; WordPress must pivot to an agentic AI stack but nobody can drive that change. > - **What is evidenced in the body vs. asserted.** The body links only to Lapinski's profile and post. No filings, valuations, or financial statements are linked. The 83 percent figure, the CFO firing, the interim CEO, and the criminal-referral possibility all appear without sources inside the captured text. > - **What lands regardless of the speculation.** The emotional close ("I take no pride in this") is the part Storey chose to amplify, and it is the part that resonates across factions: builders mourning a commons. > - **Named references worth verifying elsewhere.** Morten Rand-Hendriksen's WordPress Governance Project (2018 to 2019); the October 2024 Advanced Custom Fields to Secure Custom Fields takeover on WordPress.org; the WP Engine v. Automattic litigation in the Northern District of California; the September 30 spoliation hearing. > ## 📚 References > Primary sources linked in the captured body: > - Trent Lapinski, post of Sep 12, 2026: https://twitter.com/trentlapinski/status/2098852701475946687 > - Duane Storey, quote-tweet: https://twitter.com/DuaneStorey/status/2098915763369161085/?rw_tt_thread=True > Context the reader should locate independently (not linked in the body; verify before citing): > - WordPress.org News, "Secure Custom Fields" (October 2024) announcing the ACF fork on the plugin directory: https://wordpress.org/news/2024/10/secure-custom-fields/ > - WP Engine, Inc. v. Automattic Inc. and Matthew Mullenweg, N.D. Cal., case no. 3:24-cv-06917 (docket via CourtListener or PACER). > - WordPress Governance Project (Morten Rand-Hendriksen and Rachel Cherry, 2018 to 2019), archived project site and its WordCamp US 2018 origin. > - Automattic company communications regarding the September 2026 board action and CEO status (official statements should be preferred over secondary commentary). > ## 🗣️ Paraphrase > **Storey, paragraph 1 (re-quoting Lapinski).** Storey opens by lifting Lapinski's closing lament: none of this is something to be proud of, because it amounts to the open web being taken apart, and better governance could have prevented it. > **Storey, paragraph 2.** People such as Morten worked hard to introduce governance structures into WordPress and were pushed to the margins for their trouble. Storey says he ha 📄 **Full text:** [[Full Document Contents/Tweets/I Take No Pride in This, as It Means The...-2.md|"I Take No Pride in This, as It Means The... by Duane Storey]] ## Highlights - I take no pride in this, as it means the destruction of the open web as we know it. Something I contributed many years of my life to building is now being destabilized and destroyed. It’s a shitty feeling, and I wish we had solved open source governance more effectively so this never could have happened. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0c01npcqqw2tyf75na94)) - Note: Lapinski's closing lament, the line Storey chose to amplify; the durable takeaway regardless of the speculative finance. - Tags: atom/literature/h2 - Guys like Morten tried really hard to get some type of governance in the WP ecosystem, and they were effectively ostracized for it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0a29j2yng7srrkk8yc3y)) - Note: Storey's core claim: governance advocates were pushed out, and the missing governance is now the visible cost. - Tags: atom/literature/h1 - If I were a large enterprise, I might be having doubts about open source now seeing how one person can cause some much damage in such a short amount of time and destabilize the ecosystem.. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0g70abcx4pz8k7j356mc)) - Note: Hasty generalization: extends one project's single-controller problem to open source as a category. - Tags: fallacy/hasty-generalization - Automattic has declined in value 83% in 5 years. Their revenue is likely bad, like really bad for such a decline to happen. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0jd73aaa6v9wz618zbv1)) - Note: Non sequitur: a valuation markdown does not entail a revenue decline; multiples compressed sector-wide. - Tags: fallacy/non-sequitur - If Matt cannot find another investor all he has left is the companies revenue which is in major decline but he just fired the CFO. There’s a good chance they won’t be making payroll sooner rather than later. Which means more layoffs. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0m6ev73zy7ep6kh91xw0)) - Note: Slippery slope: no investor, no CFO, missed payroll, layoffs, each step asserted without evidence. - Tags: fallacy/slippery-slope - As the Internet moves towards becoming an agentic AI Internet, WordPress’s only hope is to become an agentic system. Merely using WordPress as a data store is not enough. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0e0ghcmwq88w13k3c26g)) - Note: Lapinski's agentic-pivot claim; a direct prompt for Core AI to publish a real roadmap. - Tags: atom/literature/h3 ## New Highlights added 2026-09-19 at 6:31 PM - I take no pride in this, as it means the destruction of the open web as we know it. Something I contributed many years of my life to building is now being destabilized and destroyed. It’s a shitty feeling, and I wish we had solved open source governance more effectively so this never could have happened. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0c01npcqqw2tyf75na94)) - Note: Lapinski's closing lament, the line Storey chose to amplify; the durable takeaway regardless of the speculative finance. - Tags: atom/literature/h2 - Guys like Morten tried really hard to get some type of governance in the WP ecosystem, and they were effectively ostracized for it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0a29j2yng7srrkk8yc3y)) - Note: Storey's core claim: governance advocates were pushed out, and the missing governance is now the visible cost. - Tags: atom/literature/h1 - If I were a large enterprise, I might be having doubts about open source now seeing how one person can cause some much damage in such a short amount of time and destabilize the ecosystem.. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0g70abcx4pz8k7j356mc)) - Note: Hasty generalization: extends one project's single-controller problem to open source as a category. - Tags: fallacy/hasty-generalization - Automattic has declined in value 83% in 5 years. Their revenue is likely bad, like really bad for such a decline to happen. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0jd73aaa6v9wz618zbv1)) - Note: Non sequitur: a valuation markdown does not entail a revenue decline; multiples compressed sector-wide. - Tags: fallacy/non-sequitur - If Matt cannot find another investor all he has left is the companies revenue which is in major decline but he just fired the CFO. There’s a good chance they won’t be making payroll sooner rather than later. Which means more layoffs. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0m6ev73zy7ep6kh91xw0)) - Note: Slippery slope: no investor, no CFO, missed payroll, layoffs, each step asserted without evidence. - Tags: fallacy/slippery-slope - As the Internet moves towards becoming an agentic AI Internet, WordPress’s only hope is to become an agentic system. Merely using WordPress as a data store is not enough. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m2dr0e0ghcmwq88w13k3c26g)) - Note: Lapinski's agentic-pivot claim; a direct prompt for Core AI to publish a real roadmap. - Tags: atom/literature/h3