TLDR. In May 2010 Ben Cook wrote a post titled Why Matt should resign. In it he argued that Mr. Mullenweg should resign from either Automattic or the WordPress Foundation because he had a conflict of interest. The post, a well-balanced, well-argued, and respectful post, was not liked by Mr. Mullenweg, who reached out to Ben Cook’s employer, Network Solutions, and tried to get Ben Cook fired. Network Solutions did not fire Ben Cook.
On 21 May 2010 Ben Cook wrote a post titled Why Matt should resign (the link goes to an archived copy on the Wayback Machine).
After stating the issue and describing the conflict of interest, he concluded with the solution he proposed:
Solution: Remove the Conflict
In government there are rules and regulations to prevent conflicts of interest like this from arising. When people write the rules for the industries and companies they’re financially invested in, we tend to wind up paying $30,000 for a toilet seat.
I should note that Matt seems to have tip-toed across this ethical tight-rope successfully – so far. But, as the old saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely and no one is perfect.
Eventually Matt will find himself faced with a decision that will hurt either the community or his company’s bottom line. I have no idea which side he’ll come down on but I do know one thing…
He shouldn’t be put in that position in the first place.
It’s time for Matt to do the right thing and remove himself from this obvious and dangerous conflict of interest.
A couple of months later, in July 2010, Ben Cook found out that Mr. Mullenweg had contacted his employer, Network Solutions, to complain about the post.
He sent an email to Mr. Mullenweg:
Matt,
Simple yes or no question - did you reach out to at Network Solutions and complain to them about my blog (despite a clear disclaimer that my posts are my opinions alone and do not reflect Network Solutions)?
Mr. Mullenweg replied:
Absolutely. I feel like your writing borders on hate speech and reflects badly on any organization you’re associated with, regardless of any disclaimers you may have
EDITOR’S NOTE. Ben Cook’s post and his blog are not online anymore. If you wish to know whether there was anything in the post that “border[ed] on hate speech”, you can read it on the Wayback Machine:
Ben Cook sent a follow-up question to Mr. Mullenweg:
I’m curious to know how that fits in with your mantra of discussing issues with the person privately?
Mr. Mullenweg replied:
It was not a public declaration, it was a private email, just not to you. I have tried to discuss things with you in the past and it felt like I was on one of those talk shows where people scream over you.
After receiving Mr. Mullenweg’s complaint, Network Solutions launched a brief investigation into the matter and decided that there was no reason to terminate Ben Cook’s employment.
You can read the full story on the Wayback Machine:
Matt Mullenweg tried to get me fired
The concluding paragraphs contain good advice and good insight. For this reason, we quote them here in full:
As with any good story, there are several lessons to take away from this episode. First and foremost, please make sure you’re abiding with your company’s social media policy. You never know when it will save your job from a passive-aggressive egomaniac leveling unfounded accusations to your employer behind your back.
Secondly, this event continues the disturbing pattern of behavior by Automattic & WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. Many within the WordPress community refer to Matt as their “benevolent dictator” because he controls pretty much every aspect of the WordPress project (from WordPress.com, to WordPress.org to the WordPress Foundation). However, the kind of bullying, threats, and intimidation displayed in this episode as well as here, here, and here, are lacking any hint of benevolence.
The final, and most unfortunate, lesson of this sad but true story is that unless you’re prepared to be attacked by Matt Mullenweg and the almost cult-like following he’s incubated, don’t criticize Mullenweg, Automattic, or WordPress in any way.
All hail King Matt.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The image for this post is the logo of WPblogger.com, Ben Cook’s blog. We took the logo from the archived WPblogger.com on the Wayback Machine.