Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, posted a statement on X reporting that Joost de Valk would no longer be speaking at WordCamp Asia. De Valk is persona non grata for allegedly betraying Mullenweg.
Joost de Valk, creator of the Yoast SEO plugin, was scheduled to speak at WordCamp Asia on Feb. 21 about marketing WordPress products. However, he disappeared from the program. Mullenweg’ s post suggests that this removal was at his command.
Preventing dramas
Mullenweg stated that he removed De Valk to get ahead of any dramas that his presence might cause. Mullenweg wrote:
Before he tries to make more drama about not being at WordCamp Asia, I just wanted to say that I feel @jdevalk stabbed me when I was down, betrayed confidence, tried to take advantage of a situation for personal clout and influence. I have given him hundreds of hours of my time and more access than almost anyone in the WP community, including admin access on Google Analytics, a marketing leadership position, and more. This trust was betrayed. His previous contributions do not “make up” for this behavior, nor has he apologized or taken any conciliatory action. This deeply saddens me. Because of this, I will not interact with him any further or participate with anything he’s involved with, he’s persona non grata.
Mullenweg followed up his post with quotes from statements made by Joost de Valk alleging that De Valk was attempting to stage a coup against WordPress leadership.
Specifically, according to Mullenweg, De Valk claimed that it was time to let go of the cult and change the project leadership. Mullenberg could no longer function as the sole leader. De Valk would also report already speaking with several hosting companies. He is willing to lead the transition.
De Valk did not want to rule out Mullenberg
Because X is a microblogging platform with a limited number of characters, Mullenweg could not provide the full context of these statements. De Valk’s comment about the cult within WordPress leadership takes on a different meaning when read in full.
Indeed, the full statement shows that De Valk advocated the creation of a governing body, in which Mullenberg would still have a role. From September to December of last year, De Valk largely limited himself to suggestions about greater transparency. In particular, about how much of the trademark license fee went to the WordPress project. It wasn’t until December that he published his blog post entitled Breaking the Status Quo. In it, he openly advocated a governance structure that included multiple stakeholders. With Mullenweg still in a leadership position.
Joost de Valk has so far given no public reaction to his removal from WordCamp Asia. Nor on his status as persona non grata within WordPress. It is unclear what the purpose of Mullenweg’s exclusion of De Valk was.