WordPress.org’s newest transfer entails taking management of a WP Engine plugin

WordPress.org has taken over a well-liked WP Engine plugin so as “to take away business upsells and repair a safety downside,” WordPress cofounder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg introduced right this moment. This “minimal” replace, which he labels a fork of the Superior Customized Fields (ACF) plugin, is now known as “Safe Customized Fields.”

It’s not clear what safety downside Mullenweg is referring to within the put up. He writes that he’s “invoking level 18 of the plugin listing tips,” wherein the WordPress staff 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 towards him and Automattic.

Related conditions have occurred earlier than, however not at this scale. This can be a uncommon and weird scenario introduced on by WP Engine’s authorized assaults, we don’t anticipate this occurring for different plugins.

WP Engine’s ACF staff 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 comply with steps it printed earlier to “carry out a 1-time obtain of the real 6.3.8 model” to maintain getting updates.

As its identify implies, the ACF plugin permits web site creators to make use of customized fields when current generic ones gained’t do — one thing ACF’s overview of the plugin says is already a local, however “not very consumer pleasant,” function 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.