{"id":141539,"date":"2025-04-23T20:30:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T03:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/?p=141539"},"modified":"2025-04-23T20:30:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T03:30:40","slug":"reflecting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/2025\/04\/reflecting\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I know there\u2019s been a lot of frustration directed at me specifically. Some of it, I believe, is misplaced\u2014but I also understand where it\u2019s coming from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The passing of Pope Francis has deeply impacted me. While I still disagree with the Church on many issues, he was the Pope who broke the mold in so many ways, inspiring me and drawing me back to the Catholic faith I grew up with, with an emphasis on service, compassion, and humility. His passing on Easter Monday, a holiday about rebirth, feels historic. Moments like that invite reflection\u2014not just on personal choices, but on the broader systems we\u2019re a part of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My life, which was primarily about generative creative work that was free for everyone to use, has been subsumed by legal battles. From the start, I\u2019ve said this: after many rounds of negotiation that I approached in good faith, WPE chose to sue. In hindsight, those conversations weren\u2019t held in the same spirit, and that\u2019s unfortunate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But we can\u2019t rewrite the past. What we can do is decide how we move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The maker-taker problem, at the heart of what we\u2019ve been wrestling with, doesn\u2019t disappear by avoiding it. If we\u2019re serious about contributing to the future of open source, and about preserving the legacy of what we\u2019ve built together, we need space to reset. That can\u2019t happen under the weight of ongoing litigation. The cards are in WPE hands, a fight they&#8217;ve started and refuse to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I\u2019m asking for a moment of reflection for us all as stewards of a shared ecosystem. Let\u2019s not lose sight of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know there\u2019s been a lot of frustration directed at me specifically. Some of it, I believe, is misplaced\u2014but I also understand where it\u2019s coming from. The passing of Pope Francis has deeply impacted me. While I still disagree with the Church on many issues, he was the Pope who broke the mold in so &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ma.tt\/2025\/04\/reflecting\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Reflecting<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"fullscreen","default_image_id":54207,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[13,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-wordpress"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/2025\/04\/reflecting\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Reflecting","url":"http:\/\/ma.tt\/2025\/04\/reflecting\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/ma.tt\/2025\/04\/reflecting\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Personal","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt"}],"creator":["Matt"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Matt Mullenweg","logo":"http:\/\/ma.tt\/files\/2021\/05\/Photo-on-2020-10-28-at-2.05-PM-1.jpg"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2025-04-24T03:30:40Z","datePublished":"2025-04-24T03:30:40Z","dateModified":"2025-04-24T03:30:40Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Reflecting\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/ma.tt\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/reflecting\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/ma.tt\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/reflecting\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"\"},\"articleSection\":\"Personal\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Matt\"}],\"creator\":[\"Matt\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"Matt Mullenweg\",\"logo\":\"http:\\\/\\\/ma.tt\\\/files\\\/2021\\\/05\\\/Photo-on-2020-10-28-at-2.05-PM-1.jpg\"},\"keywords\":[],\"dateCreated\":\"2025-04-24T03:30:40Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-24T03:30:40Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-24T03:30:40Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/ma.tt\/p.js"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oB3-AOT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44598,"url":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/2015\/01\/pope-francis-on-climate-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":141539,"position":0},"title":"Pope Francis on Climate Change","author":"Matt","date":"January 18, 2015","format":"aside","excerpt":"He has been called the \u201csuperman pope\u201d, and it would be hard to deny that Pope Francis has had a good December. Cited by President Barack Obama as a key player in the thawing relations between the US and Cuba, the Argentinian pontiff followed that by lecturing his cardinals on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Asides&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Asides","link":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/category\/asides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":249,"url":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/2002\/10\/pope-changes-rosary\/","url_meta":{"origin":141539,"position":1},"title":"Pope Changes Rosary","author":"Matt","date":"October 16, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"From Christine: I was a little shocked when I first read this but after reading the articles I feel better about it. The Yahoo article presented the information strangely, highlighting a string of statistics and records, and I got the impression it sounded like the Pope is trying to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"General\"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/tag\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45181,"url":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/2015\/06\/earth-reads\/","url_meta":{"origin":141539,"position":2},"title":"Good Environment Reads","author":"Matt","date":"June 23, 2015","format":"aside","excerpt":"In light of the Pope's encyclical last week and the US election season ramping up, there has been some great writing on the environment lately. Check these three articles out. McKibben to Obama: You still have time to be a climate champion. McKibben to Clinton: Now it\u2019s really time to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Asides&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Asides","link":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/category\/asides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2736,"url":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/2006\/10\/cardinal-blogging\/","url_meta":{"origin":141539,"position":3},"title":"Cardinal Blogging","author":"Matt","date":"October 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Accettura wrote in about this story about a Boston Cardinal starting a Vatican blog. Here's the blog. As a Catholic, I find this trend toward transparency pretty fascinating. How long before the Pope has a blog?","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Asides&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Asides","link":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/category\/asides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":150817,"url":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/2025\/12\/aldeas\/","url_meta":{"origin":141539,"position":4},"title":"Aldeas","author":"Matt","date":"December 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight was a lot of threads connecting for me. At Automattic's Noho Space we hosted an event for Martin Scorsese's new documentary about Pope Francis, called Aldeas. There was a point in my life when I wanted to become a priest, and I had been inspired by meeting a Franciscan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Asides&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Asides","link":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/category\/asides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":652,"url":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/2003\/05\/keeping-the-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":141539,"position":5},"title":"Keeping the Faith","author":"Matt","date":"May 8, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're like me, you've been very concerned about the direction XHTML 2 has been heading. Very recently I've thought to myself that I won't develop a commercial XHTML 2 site this decade. (Look how long it took them to get simple stuff right!) Only time will tell, but Tantek's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Web\"","block_context":{"text":"Web","link":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/tag\/web\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141540,"href":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141539\/revisions\/141540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ma.tt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}