WordPress.org has taken over a well-liked WP Engine plugin so as “to take away business upsells and repair a safety drawback,” WordPress cofounder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg introduced at the moment. This “minimal” replace, which he labels a fork of the Superior Customized Fields (ACF) plugin, is now referred to as “Safe Customized Fields.”
It’s not clear what safety drawback Mullenweg is referring to within the submit. He writes that he’s “invoking level 18 of the plugin listing pointers,” by which the WordPress crew reserves a number of rights, together with eradicating a plugin, or altering it “with out developer consent.” Mullenweg explains that the transfer has to do with WP Engine’s recently-filed lawsuit in opposition to him and Automattic.
Related conditions have occurred earlier than, however not at this scale. It is a uncommon and weird scenario introduced on by WP Engine’s authorized assaults, we don’t anticipate this taking place for different plugins.
WP Engine’s ACF crew claimed on X that WordPress has by no means “unilaterally and forcibly” taken a plugin “from its creator with out consent.” It later wrote that those that aren’t WP Engine, Flywheel, or ACF Professional clients might want to go to the ACF web site and observe steps it printed earlier to “carry out a 1-time obtain of the real 6.3.8 model” to maintain getting updates.
As its title implies, the ACF plugin permits web site creators to make use of customized fields when present generic ones received’t do — one thing ACF’s overview of the plugin says is already a local, however “not very person pleasant,” characteristic of WordPress.
The Verge has reached out to Automattic, WordPress.org, and WP Engine for remark.
Replace October twelfth: Adjusted so as to add readability about Mullenweg’s use of the “fork” label.
