What a difference 24 hours makes

Well, it’s amazing – but not surprising – what can happen in 24 hours. Yesterday I posted Thoughts on the attack on WP Engine in which I gave my own (and deliberately somewhat muted) reflections on the attack on WP Engine. In a nutshell, ‘not cool’.

I sensed what would be happening within WP Engine and Silver Lake, and I expressed my hope that legal action would not follow:

“My hope is that the inevitable tension that will now exist between you can be resolved for the benefit of your respective customers and the wider community. None of us needs it. And Silver Lake/WP Engine, my plea to you is to keep your hounds at bay, and address this problem in a way that best serves your customers. My suggestion is that you can achieve this with open and honest communication with the community, without resorting to anything stronger. I believe your customers (myself included) will want to see unity, and nothing that results in further division. Please close the chasm, rather than deepen it.”

Of course, when I wrote that, I was not aware of everything set out in the cease and desist letter from WP Engine’s lawyers (which, given its gravity, I will not repeat here). If what they say is true (and if it weren’t, they’d be risking a defamation claim) then, well, it’s hardly surprising that the hounds have been unleashed. ‘Nuclear’ has been met with a correspondingly powerful response.

Will good sense prevail?

I remain of the view, though, that this matter can be resolved without recourse to the courts, and I sincerely hope that that is how this story ends.

I think we should make no mistake though: this is the most serious issue to occur between significant players in the WordPress community since the community’s inception, and it’s happening between two of its most influential and competitive participants. For the benefit of WordPress and the ecosystem that surrounds and nurtures it, I hope good sense can prevail because, if this matter is allowed to get to the courts, nothing good will come from it other than vindication or who is right and who is wrong and, quite possibly, who has to pay certain sums to the other. That may be pleasing to one or other company but will do nothing for WordPress. It will sow further division among the community, it will unsettle those with loyalties to both Matt/Automattic and WP Engine (I suspect many WP Engine customers are in that boat, myself included) and it could result in a loss of business for both companies.

How this can probably be brought to a swift close is obvious. But I don’t like pointing out the obvious, so I won’t.