My WordPress Slack ban

A couple of days ago, I got banned from the WordPress community Slack. As this is about WordPress, I figure I should use my WordPress blog to talk about it.

The Checkbox

Everything that day revolved around a small, mandatory checkbox which had been added to the wordpress.org sign-in page, declaring that you are not affiliated in any way. This login is pretty much the portal to contribute to the WordPress ecosystem.

I, and several others, immediately had questions as to how broad this was and the legal ramifications. This is important to me because my work on WordPress represents the MariaDB Foundation, my login uses my Foundation email address. Not only do I not want to be tied-up in legal issues, but I do not want to be responsible for dragging the MariaDB Foundation into them.

It is also very difficult for me to know if the MariaDB Foundation has a loose affiliation with WP Engine. Sure, I know they aren’t a direct sponsor, but they may be financially tied to one of our sponsors. As I am paid by the MariaDB Foundation, this could financially tie me.

I needed clarification on this before I could proceed. Others asking questions have clients who host on WP Engine, or use paid-for plugins created by WP Engine. They also needed similar clarification.

The Discussion

The discussion happened on Slack, and a majority of it that I’m aware about can be seen in the Twitter thread below.

It continued on a little bit afterwards. Matt emphasised that the value of the checkbox is not stored, and that many people had logged in since the checkbox was added. I pointed out that although the value may not be directly stored, by his own admission, it has been logged who has signed in since the mandatory checkbox was added, so it is effectively stored.

Shortly after this, my Slack session reset to another instance, and I was confused for a minute as to what happened. I then realised I had been kicked and banned from the server. I attempted to log in to Slack today just to confirm it was still in place. The system sent me this email when I tried.

My Thoughts

I don’t think we had a resolution to our questions, and the checkbox remains in place. Several people have stated that they will not sign in until there has been some proper legal clarification. WP Engine said this:

I’m not fully convinced that this protects everyone. The WordPress Twitter account responded with:

I have to say, I love that reader context is still a thing, I’m very surprised the current owner of Twitter did not kill it.

The MariaDB Foundation is a non-profit, any legal representation would be prohibitively expensive for us. So, I’d rather err on the side of not logging in until it is clear I am safe.

Does This Matter?

I am a small fry in this, not very important. My contributions mostly go as far as helping out with WordPress database questions, and often via other communication methods. I meet a lot of people face to face in the community and advise on how things could be better, things like that. My personal ban is not that important.

Several people who were banned at the same time are more important to the community. Having their voices taken away in this way is more damaging. I guess this is the start of the fallout from going nuclear that was talked about at the beginning of the fight.

I think clarification matters, this Tweet from Anita, quoting Uncle Chuck, says perfectly what I was thinking at the time:

Wider Thoughts

I think I speak for many in the WordPress community / ecosystem when I say that we don’t want to take sides in this battle. We don’t want to be forced to take sides via a checkbox. We just want to get work done, to improve WordPress for everyone.

The WordPress community is one of the most welcoming communities I’ve ever been a part of. It has brought friendship, meaning and value to many people. I want to see it succeed.

One of the things I have said since the beginning of me becoming Chief Contributions Officer is that contributions aren’t just code. Documentation, events, translations, community building, testing, bug reports, just so many things make up important contributions in an open source project. You don’t have to be a coder to contribute. I have seen these values expressed more in the WordPress community than anywhere else.

I cannot take a side in this battle, for several reasons. Not least because I have friends employed by both sides of it. But I would love for the collateral damage to stop. So that the community can heal.

I’ve said publicly, I would much rather my ban be permanent for asking the difficult questions and restore the voice to others who are more important. I’m not sure how I can help the community, but in some small way, I will be there for it.