#automattic — Public Fediverse posts

WordPress-Mutterkonzern: Mullenweg nach kurzem Macht­kampf wieder CEO von Automattic https://www.computerbase.de/news/wirtschaft/wordpress-com-mutterkonzern-mullenweg-nach-kurzem-machtkampf-wieder-ceo-von-automattic.99391/ #wordpress #mullenweg #automattic

Mullenweg has returned as CEO after attempted board ouster

https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/12/automattic-confirms-mullenweg-has-returned-as-ceo-after-attempted-ouster-by-board/

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49688259

#HackerNews #Mullenweg #CEO #Automattic #TechNews #BoardOuster #Leadership

This whole thing with #MattMullenweg being put on leave by the board at Automattic and then back as Chairman and CEO within a few days, smells like what happened to #SamAltman at Open Ai. Strange shit's going down.

#WordPress #Automattic

🚀 Wow, Matt Mullenweg's CEO tenure was shorter than a TikTok video! 😆 #Automattic must’ve realized their mistake faster than it took to write the pink slip. Guess the revolving door at Automattic HQ is spinning wildly! 😂
https://www.theverge.com/tech/994087/matt-mullenweg-automattic-ceo-return #MattMullenweg #CEOChange #TechNews #ViralMoment #HackerNews #ngated

Matt Mullenweg reportedly returns as Automattic CEO 2 days after getting booted

https://www.theverge.com/tech/994087/matt-mullenweg-automattic-ceo-return

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683265

#HackerNews #MattMullenweg #Automattic #CEO #TechNews #Leadership #Changes #HackerNews

Matt Mullenweg reportedly returns as Automattic CEO 2 days after getting booted

https://www.theverge.com/tech/994087/matt-mullenweg-automattic-ceo-return

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683265

#HackerNews #MattMullenweg #Automattic #CEO #TechNews #Leadership #Changes #HackerNews

Matt Mullenweg reportedly returns as Automattic CEO 2 days after getting booted

https://www.theverge.com/tech/994087/matt-mullenweg-automattic-ceo-return

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683265

#HackerNews #MattMullenweg #Automattic #CEO #TechNews #Leadership #Changes #HackerNews

Matt Mullenweg reportedly returns as Automattic CEO 2 days after getting booted

https://www.theverge.com/tech/994087/matt-mullenweg-automattic-ceo-return

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683265

#HackerNews #MattMullenweg #Automattic #CEO #TechNews #Leadership #Changes #HackerNews

Matt Mullenweg reportedly returns as Automattic CEO 2 days after getting booted

https://www.theverge.com/tech/994087/matt-mullenweg-automattic-ceo-return

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683265

#HackerNews #MattMullenweg #Automattic #CEO #TechNews #Leadership #Changes #HackerNews

TechCrunch: Matt Mullenweg tells (trolls?) Automattic staff, saying he’s back in control after CEO ouster. “Matt Mullenweg has posted a message to Automattic’s Slack, claiming he is back in control as CEO of the WordPress.com parent company, according to a screenshot of the message seen by TechCrunch, which was confirmed by multiple employee sources.”

#MattMullenweg, #WordPress founder and #Automattic CEO, announced on Slack that he is #backincontrol of the company after being ousted by the board. The board had previously voted to put him on paid leave and appointed Mark Davies as interim CEO. Mullenweg’s #returntopower comes after a period of uncertainty and speculation about the reasons for his removal. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/11/matt-mullenweg-tells-automattic-staff-in-slack-hes-back-in-control-after-ceo-ouster/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

#MattMullenweg, #WordPress founder and #Automattic CEO, announced on Slack that he is #backincontrol of the company after being ousted by the board. The board had previously voted to put him on paid leave and appointed Mark Davies as interim CEO. Mullenweg’s #returntopower comes after a period of uncertainty and speculation about the reasons for his removal. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/11/matt-mullenweg-tells-automattic-staff-in-slack-hes-back-in-control-after-ceo-ouster/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

#MattMullenweg, #WordPress founder and #Automattic CEO, announced on Slack that he is #backincontrol of the company after being ousted by the board. The board had previously voted to put him on paid leave and appointed Mark Davies as interim CEO. Mullenweg’s #returntopower comes after a period of uncertainty and speculation about the reasons for his removal. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/11/matt-mullenweg-tells-automattic-staff-in-slack-hes-back-in-control-after-ceo-ouster/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

#MattMullenweg, #WordPress founder and #Automattic CEO, announced on Slack that he is #backincontrol of the company after being ousted by the board. The board had previously voted to put him on paid leave and appointed Mark Davies as interim CEO. Mullenweg’s #returntopower comes after a period of uncertainty and speculation about the reasons for his removal. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/11/matt-mullenweg-tells-automattic-staff-in-slack-hes-back-in-control-after-ceo-ouster/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

#MattMullenweg, #WordPress founder and #Automattic CEO, announced on Slack that he is #backincontrol of the company after being ousted by the board. The board had previously voted to put him on paid leave and appointed Mark Davies as interim CEO. Mullenweg’s #returntopower comes after a period of uncertainty and speculation about the reasons for his removal. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/11/matt-mullenweg-tells-automattic-staff-in-slack-hes-back-in-control-after-ceo-ouster/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

https://www.chefblogger.me/2026/09/10/automattic-ceo-matt-mullenweg-wurde-entmachtet/

Interessant, dass ich außer diesem Artikel kaum etwas über die interne Vorgänge bei #Automattic gelesen habe.

#Automattic CEO #MattMullenweg announced on Slack that he has been put on a #paidleave of absence by the company’s board, with CFO #MarkDavies stepping in as interim CEO. Mullenweg expressed his disagreement with the decision, citing a lack of due process. The move comes amidst ongoing #controversies surrounding Mullenweg’s #management, including a legal battle with #WPEngine and divisive buyout offers for employees. https://www.404media.co/wordpress-automattic-ceo-matt-mullenweg-put-on-leave-of-absence/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

#Automattic CEO #MattMullenweg announced on Slack that he has been put on a #paidleave of absence by the company’s board, with CFO #MarkDavies stepping in as interim CEO. Mullenweg expressed his disagreement with the decision, citing a lack of due process. The move comes amidst ongoing #controversies surrounding Mullenweg’s #management, including a legal battle with #WPEngine and divisive buyout offers for employees. https://www.404media.co/wordpress-automattic-ceo-matt-mullenweg-put-on-leave-of-absence/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

#Automattic CEO #MattMullenweg announced on Slack that he has been put on a #paidleave of absence by the company’s board, with CFO #MarkDavies stepping in as interim CEO. Mullenweg expressed his disagreement with the decision, citing a lack of due process. The move comes amidst ongoing #controversies surrounding Mullenweg’s #management, including a legal battle with #WPEngine and divisive buyout offers for employees. https://www.404media.co/wordpress-automattic-ceo-matt-mullenweg-put-on-leave-of-absence/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

#Automattic CEO #MattMullenweg announced on Slack that he has been put on a #paidleave of absence by the company’s board, with CFO #MarkDavies stepping in as interim CEO. Mullenweg expressed his disagreement with the decision, citing a lack of due process. The move comes amidst ongoing #controversies surrounding Mullenweg’s #management, including a legal battle with #WPEngine and divisive buyout offers for employees. https://www.404media.co/wordpress-automattic-ceo-matt-mullenweg-put-on-leave-of-absence/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

#Automattic CEO #MattMullenweg announced on Slack that he has been put on a #paidleave of absence by the company’s board, with CFO #MarkDavies stepping in as interim CEO. Mullenweg expressed his disagreement with the decision, citing a lack of due process. The move comes amidst ongoing #controversies surrounding Mullenweg’s #management, including a legal battle with #WPEngine and divisive buyout offers for employees. https://www.404media.co/wordpress-automattic-ceo-matt-mullenweg-put-on-leave-of-absence/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

STAY WEIRD FEDI: IN DEFENSE OF THE ECCENTRIC, ECLECTIC, AND ERRATIC

by vanta rainbow black

-

"queer people joined, and furries. it comes in waves." --Gargron, 2018

-

a person's attitude towards furries is a great litmus test for their level of tolerance generally, and the presence of furries and queer people and other outcasts in a space is a major sign of a healthy social ecosystem. maybe the biggest one even. with statistics showing the vast majority of furries are queer in some capacity, it makes sense that 2000's era meme furry hate was nothing more than thinly-veiled bigotry

the fediverse is an interesting place. what happens when you accidentally sextuple-overbook the same convention center with a queer pride event and furry convention and punk show and kink festival and antifa assembly and hacker conference? you get early mastodon, essentially. the november 2022 twitter waves and meta threads' activitypub integration have diluted this vibe considerably, but the fighting spirit of the fediverse is still there. and as corpo gentrifiers (meta, etc.) continue to attempt to chip away at what makes the fediverse so wonderful, here's why it's worth saving:

-

ONE: because it's beautiful

the fediverse is the only major social media platform where trans people can freely express themselves and be visible without fear of experiencing unmoderated hate-speech. provided your instance has adequate moderation, of course. but this is the case more often than not. sure, the occassional new bigot pleroma instance pops up once in a while. but at least you can trust that something will actually be fucking done about it when you submit a report. nazis get banned and defederated. it's such a low godddamn bar to clear... and yet, by and large, the fediverse is the only major social media platform that actually manages to do this (the decent sections of it, at least). why? well, here's the big secret: BECAUSE WE DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT PROFIT!!! big companies allow nazis to fester on their services because it makes them money, and here we're not beholden to such a corrupting influence. that's kinda the entire point

all the good servers have all the bad ones blocked. that's the beauty of the fediverse. they're essentially isolated from the good portion of the network. in a book i got interviewed for (Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media by Robert W. Gehl) this is termed the "covenantal fediverse" due to said instances broadly following the mastodon server covenant, the most important point of which is "active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia." the rest is just technical stuff. still important, but nowhere near as influental

-

TWO: because it's subversive

c'mon. being "normal" is boring as fuck. "is anything as strange as a normal person? is anyone as cruel as a normal person?" pushing back against the mainstream is awesome and epic and cool as fuck. not just for the sake of it of course, but because the mainstream SUCKS. compulsive heterosexuality, patriarchy, transphobia, ableism, competition instead of cooperation, sanitized advertiser-friendly language ("unalived" etc.), silence in the face of injustice, compromise, conformity, boring watered-down top 100 pop hits playing on the radio and barbeques with a biological family who harshly judges and really just outright hates you

DON'T WE FUCKING DESERVE BETTER?!?!?!?!?!?!

i think we do. let's be less like uptight milquetoast suburbanites and more like the neighbors down the street who they despise -- the punk house with a front yard full of empty beer bottles and crumpled up anarchism zines that's constantly getting noise complaints. in other words: let's have fun, and be awesome, and fuck the corpo stiffs trying to stand in our way!

you can't even say swear words on tiktok. and other corpo social media platforms don't fare much better. that's no way to live. FUCK!!!!!

-

THREE: because it's important

as fascism ever-encroaches digital spaces free from corporate tyranny will only become more important. as trans people are being actively genocided here in the U.S. and abroad, alternative social media systems are a place where we can truly express ourselves. find ourselves. become ourselves. corporations are rolling back DEI initiatives and rules against queerphobia. these corpo platforms are no place to thrive. when i joined mastodon in 2017, it was at a crucial time in my gender journey. fedi singlehandedly saved me from being some doofy techbro and turned me into the amazing cyberpunk catgirl i am today. it gave me the critical positive trans representation i so desperately needed, and gave me a likeminded community. a space to learn and grow, and try on new aspects of identity to see what fit. i credit it almost entirely with shaping me into Vanta Rainbow Black

it's a common thread on the fediverse. always has been. even today. so much so that i came up with a name for it, way back in 2017: The Fediverse Effect. people tend to join and realize they're trans due to the sheer abundance of trans people on the network. it really helps to have positive representation y'know? like actual tangible people to dispel common myths and misconceptions, who you can even talk to personally about this stuff. it was indispensible in my journey towards finding myself and molding myself into the person i was meant to be

-

in closing... fuck meta. fuck automattic. fuck flipboard. and fuck all the other corporate gentrifiers in the future who might try to encroach upon our beautiful weird digital haven in the name of turning a profit. you have nothing but my contempt

we should stay weird. unsanitized. unmarketable. for to do otherwise would be to forfeit the very soul of what makes the fediverse so special

stay weird fedi

also published on my blog: https://vanta.blog/posts/2025-8-14-stay-weird-fedi

#vantablog #StayWeirdFedi #fediverse #FediPact #meta #threads #automattic #flipboard

STAY WEIRD FEDI: IN DEFENSE OF THE ECCENTRIC, ECLECTIC, AND ERRATIC

by vanta rainbow black

-

"queer people joined, and furries. it comes in waves." --Gargron, 2018

-

a person's attitude towards furries is a great litmus test for their level of tolerance generally, and the presence of furries and queer people and other outcasts in a space is a major sign of a healthy social ecosystem. maybe the biggest one even. with statistics showing the vast majority of furries are queer in some capacity, it makes sense that 2000's era meme furry hate was nothing more than thinly-veiled bigotry

the fediverse is an interesting place. what happens when you accidentally sextuple-overbook the same convention center with a queer pride event and furry convention and punk show and kink festival and antifa assembly and hacker conference? you get early mastodon, essentially. the november 2022 twitter waves and meta threads' activitypub integration have diluted this vibe considerably, but the fighting spirit of the fediverse is still there. and as corpo gentrifiers (meta, etc.) continue to attempt to chip away at what makes the fediverse so wonderful, here's why it's worth saving:

-

ONE: because it's beautiful

the fediverse is the only major social media platform where trans people can freely express themselves and be visible without fear of experiencing unmoderated hate-speech. provided your instance has adequate moderation, of course. but this is the case more often than not. sure, the occassional new bigot pleroma instance pops up once in a while. but at least you can trust that something will actually be fucking done about it when you submit a report. nazis get banned and defederated. it's such a low godddamn bar to clear... and yet, by and large, the fediverse is the only major social media platform that actually manages to do this (the decent sections of it, at least). why? well, here's the big secret: BECAUSE WE DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT PROFIT!!! big companies allow nazis to fester on their services because it makes them money, and here we're not beholden to such a corrupting influence. that's kinda the entire point

all the good servers have all the bad ones blocked. that's the beauty of the fediverse. they're essentially isolated from the good portion of the network. in a book i got interviewed for (Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media by Robert W. Gehl) this is termed the "covenantal fediverse" due to said instances broadly following the mastodon server covenant, the most important point of which is "active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia." the rest is just technical stuff. still important, but nowhere near as influental

-

TWO: because it's subversive

c'mon. being "normal" is boring as fuck. "is anything as strange as a normal person? is anyone as cruel as a normal person?" pushing back against the mainstream is awesome and epic and cool as fuck. not just for the sake of it of course, but because the mainstream SUCKS. compulsive heterosexuality, patriarchy, transphobia, ableism, competition instead of cooperation, sanitized advertiser-friendly language ("unalived" etc.), silence in the face of injustice, compromise, conformity, boring watered-down top 100 pop hits playing on the radio and barbeques with a biological family who harshly judges and really just outright hates you

DON'T WE FUCKING DESERVE BETTER?!?!?!?!?!?!

i think we do. let's be less like uptight milquetoast suburbanites and more like the neighbors down the street who they despise -- the punk house with a front yard full of empty beer bottles and crumpled up anarchism zines that's constantly getting noise complaints. in other words: let's have fun, and be awesome, and fuck the corpo stiffs trying to stand in our way!

you can't even say swear words on tiktok. and other corpo social media platforms don't fare much better. that's no way to live. FUCK!!!!!

-

THREE: because it's important

as fascism ever-encroaches digital spaces free from corporate tyranny will only become more important. as trans people are being actively genocided here in the U.S. and abroad, alternative social media systems are a place where we can truly express ourselves. find ourselves. become ourselves. corporations are rolling back DEI initiatives and rules against queerphobia. these corpo platforms are no place to thrive. when i joined mastodon in 2017, it was at a crucial time in my gender journey. fedi singlehandedly saved me from being some doofy techbro and turned me into the amazing cyberpunk catgirl i am today. it gave me the critical positive trans representation i so desperately needed, and gave me a likeminded community. a space to learn and grow, and try on new aspects of identity to see what fit. i credit it almost entirely with shaping me into Vanta Rainbow Black

it's a common thread on the fediverse. always has been. even today. so much so that i came up with a name for it, way back in 2017: The Fediverse Effect. people tend to join and realize they're trans due to the sheer abundance of trans people on the network. it really helps to have positive representation y'know? like actual tangible people to dispel common myths and misconceptions, who you can even talk to personally about this stuff. it was indispensible in my journey towards finding myself and molding myself into the person i was meant to be

-

in closing... fuck meta. fuck automattic. fuck flipboard. and fuck all the other corporate gentrifiers in the future who might try to encroach upon our beautiful weird digital haven in the name of turning a profit. you have nothing but my contempt

we should stay weird. unsanitized. unmarketable. for to do otherwise would be to forfeit the very soul of what makes the fediverse so special

stay weird fedi

also published on my blog: https://vanta.blog/posts/2025-8-14-stay-weird-fedi

#vantablog #StayWeirdFedi #fediverse #FediPact #meta #threads #automattic #flipboard

STAY WEIRD FEDI: IN DEFENSE OF THE ECCENTRIC, ECLECTIC, AND ERRATIC

by vanta rainbow black

-

"queer people joined, and furries. it comes in waves." --Gargron, 2018

-

a person's attitude towards furries is a great litmus test for their level of tolerance generally, and the presence of furries and queer people and other outcasts in a space is a major sign of a healthy social ecosystem. maybe the biggest one even. with statistics showing the vast majority of furries are queer in some capacity, it makes sense that 2000's era meme furry hate was nothing more than thinly-veiled bigotry

the fediverse is an interesting place. what happens when you accidentally sextuple-overbook the same convention center with a queer pride event and furry convention and punk show and kink festival and antifa assembly and hacker conference? you get early mastodon, essentially. the november 2022 twitter waves and meta threads' activitypub integration have diluted this vibe considerably, but the fighting spirit of the fediverse is still there. and as corpo gentrifiers (meta, etc.) continue to attempt to chip away at what makes the fediverse so wonderful, here's why it's worth saving:

-

ONE: because it's beautiful

the fediverse is the only major social media platform where trans people can freely express themselves and be visible without fear of experiencing unmoderated hate-speech. provided your instance has adequate moderation, of course. but this is the case more often than not. sure, the occassional new bigot pleroma instance pops up once in a while. but at least you can trust that something will actually be fucking done about it when you submit a report. nazis get banned and defederated. it's such a low godddamn bar to clear... and yet, by and large, the fediverse is the only major social media platform that actually manages to do this (the decent sections of it, at least). why? well, here's the big secret: BECAUSE WE DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT PROFIT!!! big companies allow nazis to fester on their services because it makes them money, and here we're not beholden to such a corrupting influence. that's kinda the entire point

all the good servers have all the bad ones blocked. that's the beauty of the fediverse. they're essentially isolated from the good portion of the network. in a book i got interviewed for (Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media by Robert W. Gehl) this is termed the "covenantal fediverse" due to said instances broadly following the mastodon server covenant, the most important point of which is "active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia." the rest is just technical stuff. still important, but nowhere near as influental

-

TWO: because it's subversive

c'mon. being "normal" is boring as fuck. "is anything as strange as a normal person? is anyone as cruel as a normal person?" pushing back against the mainstream is awesome and epic and cool as fuck. not just for the sake of it of course, but because the mainstream SUCKS. compulsive heterosexuality, patriarchy, transphobia, ableism, competition instead of cooperation, sanitized advertiser-friendly language ("unalived" etc.), silence in the face of injustice, compromise, conformity, boring watered-down top 100 pop hits playing on the radio and barbeques with a biological family who harshly judges and really just outright hates you

DON'T WE FUCKING DESERVE BETTER?!?!?!?!?!?!

i think we do. let's be less like uptight milquetoast suburbanites and more like the neighbors down the street who they despise -- the punk house with a front yard full of empty beer bottles and crumpled up anarchism zines that's constantly getting noise complaints. in other words: let's have fun, and be awesome, and fuck the corpo stiffs trying to stand in our way!

you can't even say swear words on tiktok. and other corpo social media platforms don't fare much better. that's no way to live. FUCK!!!!!

-

THREE: because it's important

as fascism ever-encroaches digital spaces free from corporate tyranny will only become more important. as trans people are being actively genocided here in the U.S. and abroad, alternative social media systems are a place where we can truly express ourselves. find ourselves. become ourselves. corporations are rolling back DEI initiatives and rules against queerphobia. these corpo platforms are no place to thrive. when i joined mastodon in 2017, it was at a crucial time in my gender journey. fedi singlehandedly saved me from being some doofy techbro and turned me into the amazing cyberpunk catgirl i am today. it gave me the critical positive trans representation i so desperately needed, and gave me a likeminded community. a space to learn and grow, and try on new aspects of identity to see what fit. i credit it almost entirely with shaping me into Vanta Rainbow Black

it's a common thread on the fediverse. always has been. even today. so much so that i came up with a name for it, way back in 2017: The Fediverse Effect. people tend to join and realize they're trans due to the sheer abundance of trans people on the network. it really helps to have positive representation y'know? like actual tangible people to dispel common myths and misconceptions, who you can even talk to personally about this stuff. it was indispensible in my journey towards finding myself and molding myself into the person i was meant to be

-

in closing... fuck meta. fuck automattic. fuck flipboard. and fuck all the other corporate gentrifiers in the future who might try to encroach upon our beautiful weird digital haven in the name of turning a profit. you have nothing but my contempt

we should stay weird. unsanitized. unmarketable. for to do otherwise would be to forfeit the very soul of what makes the fediverse so special

stay weird fedi

also published on my blog: https://vanta.blog/posts/2025-8-14-stay-weird-fedi

#vantablog #StayWeirdFedi #fediverse #FediPact #meta #threads #automattic #flipboard

STAY WEIRD FEDI: IN DEFENSE OF THE ECCENTRIC, ECLECTIC, AND ERRATIC

by vanta rainbow black

-

"queer people joined, and furries. it comes in waves." --Gargron, 2018

-

a person's attitude towards furries is a great litmus test for their level of tolerance generally, and the presence of furries and queer people and other outcasts in a space is a major sign of a healthy social ecosystem. maybe the biggest one even. with statistics showing the vast majority of furries are queer in some capacity, it makes sense that 2000's era meme furry hate was nothing more than thinly-veiled bigotry

the fediverse is an interesting place. what happens when you accidentally sextuple-overbook the same convention center with a queer pride event and furry convention and punk show and kink festival and antifa assembly and hacker conference? you get early mastodon, essentially. the november 2022 twitter waves and meta threads' activitypub integration have diluted this vibe considerably, but the fighting spirit of the fediverse is still there. and as corpo gentrifiers (meta, etc.) continue to attempt to chip away at what makes the fediverse so wonderful, here's why it's worth saving:

-

ONE: because it's beautiful

the fediverse is the only major social media platform where trans people can freely express themselves and be visible without fear of experiencing unmoderated hate-speech. provided your instance has adequate moderation, of course. but this is the case more often than not. sure, the occassional new bigot pleroma instance pops up once in a while. but at least you can trust that something will actually be fucking done about it when you submit a report. nazis get banned and defederated. it's such a low godddamn bar to clear... and yet, by and large, the fediverse is the only major social media platform that actually manages to do this (the decent sections of it, at least). why? well, here's the big secret: BECAUSE WE DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT PROFIT!!! big companies allow nazis to fester on their services because it makes them money, and here we're not beholden to such a corrupting influence. that's kinda the entire point

all the good servers have all the bad ones blocked. that's the beauty of the fediverse. they're essentially isolated from the good portion of the network. in a book i got interviewed for (Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media by Robert W. Gehl) this is termed the "covenantal fediverse" due to said instances broadly following the mastodon server covenant, the most important point of which is "active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia." the rest is just technical stuff. still important, but nowhere near as influental

-

TWO: because it's subversive

c'mon. being "normal" is boring as fuck. "is anything as strange as a normal person? is anyone as cruel as a normal person?" pushing back against the mainstream is awesome and epic and cool as fuck. not just for the sake of it of course, but because the mainstream SUCKS. compulsive heterosexuality, patriarchy, transphobia, ableism, competition instead of cooperation, sanitized advertiser-friendly language ("unalived" etc.), silence in the face of injustice, compromise, conformity, boring watered-down top 100 pop hits playing on the radio and barbeques with a biological family who harshly judges and really just outright hates you

DON'T WE FUCKING DESERVE BETTER?!?!?!?!?!?!

i think we do. let's be less like uptight milquetoast suburbanites and more like the neighbors down the street who they despise -- the punk house with a front yard full of empty beer bottles and crumpled up anarchism zines that's constantly getting noise complaints. in other words: let's have fun, and be awesome, and fuck the corpo stiffs trying to stand in our way!

you can't even say swear words on tiktok. and other corpo social media platforms don't fare much better. that's no way to live. FUCK!!!!!

-

THREE: because it's important

as fascism ever-encroaches digital spaces free from corporate tyranny will only become more important. as trans people are being actively genocided here in the U.S. and abroad, alternative social media systems are a place where we can truly express ourselves. find ourselves. become ourselves. corporations are rolling back DEI initiatives and rules against queerphobia. these corpo platforms are no place to thrive. when i joined mastodon in 2017, it was at a crucial time in my gender journey. fedi singlehandedly saved me from being some doofy techbro and turned me into the amazing cyberpunk catgirl i am today. it gave me the critical positive trans representation i so desperately needed, and gave me a likeminded community. a space to learn and grow, and try on new aspects of identity to see what fit. i credit it almost entirely with shaping me into Vanta Rainbow Black

it's a common thread on the fediverse. always has been. even today. so much so that i came up with a name for it, way back in 2017: The Fediverse Effect. people tend to join and realize they're trans due to the sheer abundance of trans people on the network. it really helps to have positive representation y'know? like actual tangible people to dispel common myths and misconceptions, who you can even talk to personally about this stuff. it was indispensible in my journey towards finding myself and molding myself into the person i was meant to be

-

in closing... fuck meta. fuck automattic. fuck flipboard. and fuck all the other corporate gentrifiers in the future who might try to encroach upon our beautiful weird digital haven in the name of turning a profit. you have nothing but my contempt

we should stay weird. unsanitized. unmarketable. for to do otherwise would be to forfeit the very soul of what makes the fediverse so special

stay weird fedi

also published on my blog: https://vanta.blog/posts/2025-8-14-stay-weird-fedi

#vantablog #StayWeirdFedi #fediverse #FediPact #meta #threads #automattic #flipboard

STAY WEIRD FEDI: IN DEFENSE OF THE ECCENTRIC, ECLECTIC, AND ERRATIC

by vanta rainbow black

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"queer people joined, and furries. it comes in waves." --Gargron, 2018

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a person's attitude towards furries is a great litmus test for their level of tolerance generally, and the presence of furries and queer people and other outcasts in a space is a major sign of a healthy social ecosystem. maybe the biggest one even. with statistics showing the vast majority of furries are queer in some capacity, it makes sense that 2000's era meme furry hate was nothing more than thinly-veiled bigotry

the fediverse is an interesting place. what happens when you accidentally sextuple-overbook the same convention center with a queer pride event and furry convention and punk show and kink festival and antifa assembly and hacker conference? you get early mastodon, essentially. the november 2022 twitter waves and meta threads' activitypub integration have diluted this vibe considerably, but the fighting spirit of the fediverse is still there. and as corpo gentrifiers (meta, etc.) continue to attempt to chip away at what makes the fediverse so wonderful, here's why it's worth saving:

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ONE: because it's beautiful

the fediverse is the only major social media platform where trans people can freely express themselves and be visible without fear of experiencing unmoderated hate-speech. provided your instance has adequate moderation, of course. but this is the case more often than not. sure, the occassional new bigot pleroma instance pops up once in a while. but at least you can trust that something will actually be fucking done about it when you submit a report. nazis get banned and defederated. it's such a low godddamn bar to clear... and yet, by and large, the fediverse is the only major social media platform that actually manages to do this (the decent sections of it, at least). why? well, here's the big secret: BECAUSE WE DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT PROFIT!!! big companies allow nazis to fester on their services because it makes them money, and here we're not beholden to such a corrupting influence. that's kinda the entire point

all the good servers have all the bad ones blocked. that's the beauty of the fediverse. they're essentially isolated from the good portion of the network. in a book i got interviewed for (Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media by Robert W. Gehl) this is termed the "covenantal fediverse" due to said instances broadly following the mastodon server covenant, the most important point of which is "active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia." the rest is just technical stuff. still important, but nowhere near as influental

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TWO: because it's subversive

c'mon. being "normal" is boring as fuck. "is anything as strange as a normal person? is anyone as cruel as a normal person?" pushing back against the mainstream is awesome and epic and cool as fuck. not just for the sake of it of course, but because the mainstream SUCKS. compulsive heterosexuality, patriarchy, transphobia, ableism, competition instead of cooperation, sanitized advertiser-friendly language ("unalived" etc.), silence in the face of injustice, compromise, conformity, boring watered-down top 100 pop hits playing on the radio and barbeques with a biological family who harshly judges and really just outright hates you

DON'T WE FUCKING DESERVE BETTER?!?!?!?!?!?!

i think we do. let's be less like uptight milquetoast suburbanites and more like the neighbors down the street who they despise -- the punk house with a front yard full of empty beer bottles and crumpled up anarchism zines that's constantly getting noise complaints. in other words: let's have fun, and be awesome, and fuck the corpo stiffs trying to stand in our way!

you can't even say swear words on tiktok. and other corpo social media platforms don't fare much better. that's no way to live. FUCK!!!!!

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THREE: because it's important

as fascism ever-encroaches digital spaces free from corporate tyranny will only become more important. as trans people are being actively genocided here in the U.S. and abroad, alternative social media systems are a place where we can truly express ourselves. find ourselves. become ourselves. corporations are rolling back DEI initiatives and rules against queerphobia. these corpo platforms are no place to thrive. when i joined mastodon in 2017, it was at a crucial time in my gender journey. fedi singlehandedly saved me from being some doofy techbro and turned me into the amazing cyberpunk catgirl i am today. it gave me the critical positive trans representation i so desperately needed, and gave me a likeminded community. a space to learn and grow, and try on new aspects of identity to see what fit. i credit it almost entirely with shaping me into Vanta Rainbow Black

it's a common thread on the fediverse. always has been. even today. so much so that i came up with a name for it, way back in 2017: The Fediverse Effect. people tend to join and realize they're trans due to the sheer abundance of trans people on the network. it really helps to have positive representation y'know? like actual tangible people to dispel common myths and misconceptions, who you can even talk to personally about this stuff. it was indispensible in my journey towards finding myself and molding myself into the person i was meant to be

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in closing... fuck meta. fuck automattic. fuck flipboard. and fuck all the other corporate gentrifiers in the future who might try to encroach upon our beautiful weird digital haven in the name of turning a profit. you have nothing but my contempt

we should stay weird. unsanitized. unmarketable. for to do otherwise would be to forfeit the very soul of what makes the fediverse so special

stay weird fedi

also published on my blog: https://vanta.blog/posts/2025-8-14-stay-weird-fedi

#vantablog #StayWeirdFedi #fediverse #FediPact #meta #threads #automattic #flipboard

Automattic's plan to move Tumblr's backend to WordPress is "on hold," which means Tumblr posts also won't be available in the fediverse in the near future, CEO Matt Mullenweg said in a Decoder episode. Here's more from @theverge.

https://flip.it/P8_x4D

#Fediverse #ActivityPub #WordPress #Tumbler #Automattic #Tech #Technology

"We launched in Sep/2024 with a bold mission: to foster an #open, #decentralized, and #usercentric #socialweb. In just the few short months that remained in 2024, we made meaningful progress. Our participation at #W3C #TPAC and collaborations with major stakeholders like #Mastodon, #Ghost, and #Automattic have helped spark momentum for a healthier, more resilient online ecosystem.
Today we are proud to publish our 2024 #AnnualReport– the first of many."
#SWF
https://socialwebfoundation.org/2025/05/06/reflecting-on-our-first-year-the-social-web-foundations-2024-annual-report/

I'm off for a week of full-time volunteering with Three Rings at 3Camp, our annual volunteer hack week: bringing together our distributed team for some intensive in-person time, working to make life better for charities around the world.

And if there's one good thing to come out of me being suddenly and unexpectedly laid-off two days ago, it's that I've got a shiny new laptop to do my voluntary work on (Automattic have said that I can keep it).

#note #threeRings #volunteering #laptop #computers #work #automattic #employment #devcamp #hackathon

Via: 🔗 https://danq.me/2025/04/04/3camp-2025/

Automattic has announced a reduction in its WordPress.org contributions, citing legal pressures and criticism from the broader WordPress community #WordPress #Automattic #WPEngine #OpenSource #ACF #WebDevelopment #WebDesign #WebDesign

https://winbuzzer.com/2025/01/10/automattic-scales-back-wordpress-contributions-amid-wp-engine-conflict-xcxwbn/

As I write this, the most recent big move by Matt Mullenweg in his ongoing dispute with WP Engine was to abuse his position to seize control of a WP Engine owned plugin, justifying this act with a security fix. This justification might, under other circumstances, be believable. For example, if WP Engine weren’t actively releasing security fixes.

Now, as I wrote on a Hacker News thread, I’d been staying out of this drama. It wasn’t my fight, I wasn’t deeply familiar with the lore of the players involved, etc.

BUT! This specific tactic that Mullenweg employed happens to step on the toes of some underappreciated work I had done from 2016 to 2019 to try to mitigate supply chain attacks against WordPress. Thus, my HN comment about it.

Mullenweg’s behavior also calls into question the trustworthiness of WordPress not just as a hosting platform (WP.com, which hosts this website), but also the open source community (WP.org).

The vulnerability here is best demonstrated in the form of a shitpost:

I do not have a crystal ball that tells me the future, so whatever happens next is uncertain and entirely determined by the will of the WordPress community.

Even before I decided it was appropriate to chime in on this topic, or had really even paid attention to it, I had been hearing rumors of a hard-fork. And that maybe the right answer, but it could be excruciating for WordPress users if that happens.

Regardless of whether a hard-fork happens (or the WordPress community shifts sufficient power away from Mullenweg and Automattic), this vulnerability cannot continue if WordPress is to continue to be a trustworthy open source project.

Since this is a cryptography-focused blog, I’d like to examine ways that the WordPress community could build governance mechanisms to mitigate the risk of one man’s ego.

Revisit Code-Signing

The core code, as well as any plugins and themes, should be signed by a secret key controlled by the developer that publishes said code. There should be a secure public key infrastructure for ensuring that it’s difficult for the infrastructure operators to surreptitiously replace a package or public key without possessing one of those secret keys.

I had previously begun work on a proposal to solve this problem for the PHP community, and in turn, WordPress. However, my solution (called Gossamer) wasn’t designed with GDPR (specifically, the Right to be Forgotten) in mind.

Today, I’m aware of SigStore, which has gotten a lot of traction with other programming language ecosystems.

Additionally, there is an ongoing proposal for an authority-free PKI for the Fediverse that appears to take GDPR into consideration (though that’s more of an analysis for lawyers than cryptography experts to debate).

I think, at the intersection of both systems, there is a way to build a secure PKI where the developer maintains the keys as part of the normal course of operation.

Break-Glass Security with FROST

However, even with code-signing where the developers own their own keys, there is always a risk of a developer going rogue, or getting totally owned up.

Ideally, we’d want to mitigate that risk without reintroducing the single point of vulnerability that exists today. And we’d want to do it without a ton of protocol complexity visible to users (above what they’d already need to accept to have secure code signing in place).

Fortunately, cryptographers already built the tool we would need: Threshold Signatures.

From RFC 9591, we could use FROST(Ed25519, SHA-512) to require a threshold quorum (say, 3) of high-trust entities (for which there would be, for example, 5) to share a piece of an Ed25519 secret key. Cryptographers often call these t-of-N (in this example, 3-of-5) thresholds. The specific values for t and N vary a lot for different threat models.

When a quorum of entities do coordinate, they can produce a signature for a valid protocol message to revoke a developer’s access to the system, thus allowing a hostile takeover. However, it’s not possible for them to coordinate without their activity being publicly visible to the entire community.

The best part about FROST(Ed25519, SHA-512) is that it doesn’t require any code changes for signature verification. It spits out a valid Ed25519 signature, which you can check with just libsodium (or sodium_compat).

Closing Thoughts

If your threat model doesn’t include leadership’s inflated ego, or the corruption of social, political, and economic power, you aren’t building trustworthy software.

Promises and intentions don’t matter here. Mechanisms do.

Whatever the WordPress community decides is their best move forward (hard forks are the nuclear option, naturally), the end result cannot be replacing one tyrant with another.

The root cause isn’t that Mullenweg is particularly evil, it’s that a large chunk of websites are beholden to only his whims (whether they realized it or not).

One can only make decisions that affects millions of lives and thousands of employees (though significantly fewer today than when this drama began) for so long before an outcome like this occurs.

If you aren’t immune to propaganda, you aren’t immune to the corruption of power, either.

But if you architect your systems (governance and technological) to not place all this power solely in the hands of one unelected nerd, you mitigate the risk by design.

(Yes, you do invite a different set of problems, such as decision paralysis and inertia. But given WordPress’s glacial pace of minimum PHP version bumps over its lifetime, I don’t think that’s actually a new risk.)

With all that said, whatever the WordPress community decides is best for them, I’m here to help.

https://scottarc.blog/2024/10/14/trust-rules-everything-around-me/

#AdvancedCustomFields #arrogance #automaticUpdates #Automattic #codeSigning #cybersecurity #ego #MattMullenweg #news #PKI #pluginSecurity #powerCorrupts #SecureCustomFields #security #softwareGovernance #supplyChain #supplyChainSecurity #supplyChainSecurity #technology #threatModels #trust #WordPress #WPEngine

»#WPEngine #sues #WordPress co-creator #Mullenweg and #Automattic, alleging abuse of power.« https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/02/wp-engine-sues-automattic-and-wordpress-co-founder-matt-mullenweg/?eicker.news #tech #media

Dusting off Pocket Casts. I’m an irregular podcast listener, and frankly I forgot why I switched away from it years ago.

But it looks as good as I remember and at some point it seems #Automattic acquired #PocketCasts? Current drama aside, I dig that.

I’ve always liked this quilt style for displaying shows. #podcast #poscasts #iPhoneApps #iPadApps

Tumblr is reportedly on life support as its latest owner reassigns staff - Enlarge / "You'll never be bored again" is one of the more fitting slog... - https://arstechnica.com/?p=1982553 #mattmullenweg #microblogging #marcoarment #automattic #davidkarp #blogging #culture #verizon #tumblr #yahoo #tech #oath #aol

Meet Anne from Jetpack: Philosopher, Nomad, Happiness Engineer

https://jetpack.com/resources/meet-anne-from-jetpack-philosopher-nomad-happiness-engineer/

What will Tumblr become under the ownership of tech’s only Goldilocks founder? - This week, Automattic revealed it has signed all the paperwork to acquire Tumblr from Verizon, incl... more: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/nGgUDGYigFY/ #interneteconomy #webdevelopment #mattmullenweg #socialnetwork #digitalmedia #marissamayer #verizonmedia #worldwideweb #automattic #wordpress #social #talent #tumblr #media #yahoo #m&a #tc

Axios’ Dan Primack on ‘the most polarizing startup that exists’ - Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the... more: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/igN70sVmWZM/ #u.s.securitiesandexchangecommission #verizoncommunications #rothenbergventures #venturecapital #equitypodcast #digitalmedia #verizonmedia #worldwideweb #automattic #danprimack #techcrunch #visionfund #startups #boston #tumblr #wework #yahoo #alex