[HN Gopher] Mary Hubbard New Executive Director of Wordpress.org
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       Mary Hubbard New Executive Director of Wordpress.org
        
       Author : program
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2024-10-08 19:38 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (wordpress.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (wordpress.org)
        
       | photomatt wrote:
       | I'm very excited to have Mary on board. :)
        
         | mattbeck wrote:
         | Can you clarify if this is a 1:1 backfill for Josepha's role or
         | if her scope will be different?
        
           | photomatt wrote:
           | The scope will be significantly broader as Mary brings a lot
           | of talents to the ecosystem.
        
         | mattl wrote:
         | Can you clarify if "Executive Director of WordPress.org" is the
         | same job as "Executive Director of the WordPress Foundation"?
         | 
         | I know you personally own wordpress.org and not the foundation
         | (as many people suspected) so this is unclear.
        
           | bzmrgonz wrote:
           | There is a wordpressfoundation<dot>org, so I doubt it. In my
           | opinion <dot>org is software repo/wp-inc HQ.. and <dot>com is
           | commercial and hosting enterprise. But of course, let's hear
           | from the horse's mouth himself!! :-P
        
           | photomatt wrote:
           | Totally different. The Foundation has no employees, only
           | volunteers and three board members. (I'm one of them.)
        
             | mattl wrote:
             | I'd love to see something on the foundation website which
             | explains this.
             | 
             | Thanks for your reply.
        
         | quintoni wrote:
         | Can you clarify when you're going to cease your public tantrums
         | and your erratic idiotic behavior that is causing problems for
         | Wordpress users worldwide?
        
       | legitster wrote:
       | At this point, I am not even sure what Wordpress.org is anymore
       | other than a marketing department for Automattic. It's hard to
       | know if this is a real position with real people reporting to it
       | or if the entire org is a paper department.
        
         | that_guy_iain wrote:
         | I suspect we'll only find out when WP Engine makes them explain
         | it all out in court.
         | 
         | WP Engine, the hero we didn't even know we needed. /s
        
       | DonnieBurger wrote:
       | Apparently Automattic states she's back working for them:
       | https://x.com/automattic/status/1843750645037445200
       | 
       | So then what is WordPress.org in this context?
        
         | pluginvulns wrote:
         | WordPress.org seems to be used to refer to Matt Mullenweg [1],
         | as he apparently personally owns it, though one of Automattic's
         | lawyers said last week that it is a non-profit that is separate
         | from the WordPress Foundation [2].
         | 
         | The previous Executive Director of WordPress was also an
         | Automattic employee. When they were announced in the role their
         | employment with Automattic also wasn't disclosed [3].
         | 
         | [1] https://www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2024/10/02/who-or-
         | what... [2]
         | https://www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2024/10/03/automattic-...
         | [3] https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2019/01/16/expanding-
         | word...
        
           | photomatt wrote:
           | All the information in the links you shared is totally wrong.
           | Our lawyers have never said that WordPress.org is a non-
           | profit or owned by the Foundation. It's owned and run by me
           | personally, and I have a trademark license from the WordPress
           | Foundation to use the WordPress name and brand on the site.
        
             | pluginvulns wrote:
             | Here is the original source for the claim, which is on
             | Automattic's website:
             | https://automattic.com/2024/10/02/wordpress-trademarks-a-
             | leg...
             | 
             | The author is identified as Neil Peretz, who it says is an
             | associate general counsel at Automattic. He says:
             | 
             | "The Foundation also licensed the name WordPress to the
             | non-profit WordPress.org, which runs a website that
             | facilitates access to WordPress-related software."
             | 
             | A graphic included in the post similarly claims that "Right
             | to use name as part of non-profit activities" went to
             | WordPress. With the arrow coming from the WordPress
             | Foundation.
             | 
             | We contacted Automattic's press email for clarification on
             | that claim on Thursday. We have yet to hear back and the
             | post hasn't been updated.
        
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