Every day, I open my computer in to Slack. The first thing I see, every day, is the WordPress Slack icon reporting a problem.
Every day, I click the icon and log in through WordPress.org, to be told that my Slack account is still disabled.
Although I can no longer access Slack, I am still contributing as best as I can. I’m still working on GitHub issues, Trac tickets, comments on the Make P2s, and through chatting directly with other contributors.
I am trying as best as I can not to let it affect my work. Contributing without using Slack is difficult – back-and-forth over an issue that could be a fluid dialogue becomes long paragraphs over days instead. Attending meetings is impossible – I am reduced to reading the notes – and helping others is much more difficult than it should be.1
But no matter what I do, it’s intensely demotivating to be reminded, every day, that I have been declared persona non grata.
I’ve still received no communication from anyone in the project as to why I can no longer access Slack or why I am blocked on Twitter.
I’ve spent more than 20 years – more than two-thirds of my life – contributing to WordPress. I have poured much of my life into this project, spent sleepless nights worrying about it, and dealt with the stress and burnout caused by the politics, personalities, and personal attacks.
Although I’ve been exiled by the project officially, I don’t feel like I’m “on the outside” because of the community. Many, many people have reached out, and I thank them for that.
Automattic’s response to the injunction this week says that they’re “continuing to protect the open source ecosystem”, but one thing is clear: WP Engine did not block me.
I like to think I can shrug all of this off, that I don’t really care that much, but I can’t. Because I do care. Because I believe – I still believe – that this thing matters.
I am trying the best that I can.
But, it’s hard to imagine wanting to continue to work on WordPress after this.
Edit: A few hours since publishing this, I have been blocked from WordPress.org, and hence from contributing on Trac as well.
- I am lucky. My job does not depend on contributing. [↩]