You now have to agree pineapple on pizza is good to use WordPress, thanks to CEO and Houston native Matt Mullenweg.
WordPress and Automattic co-founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg is forcing users to admit they like pineapple on pizza to use WordPress' open-sourced software. The Houston-based CEO and alleged pineapple-on-pizza lover is making contributors and users of the WordPress open-source project check a box that says "Pineapple is delicious on pizza" to log into the system.
The change seemingly went into effect this past Sunday. Users who attempted to log in or create a new account without checking the box received a "please try again" error.
Mullenweg, a Houston native who developed WordPress while a student at the University of Houston, recently implemented a similar but more pointed box that users were required to check. Just last week, a judge ordered Mullenweg to remove a box from the login window that required users to pledge they were not affiliated with current legal opponent WP Engine, a hosting service for websites built on WordPress. The ruling resulted in Mullenweg "rage quitting" his company Slack channel.
The new pineapple on the pizza question could be used to circumvent the court order using the new box as a proxy. A former WordPress contributor who quit the company because of the instability around Automattic told 404 Media, "When I initially saw it I assumed my friend was trolling me, but yeah, it's there and has a value attribute filled out, which leaves me suspicious that he's gonna use it as a proxy for the previous field."
They continued, "Everyone knows what was there before; this new field is required as well," the former employee said. "I feel like he's violating the court order, but of course I'm not a lawyer."
The equired acknowledgment of something like pineapple on pizza isn't just a quirky website feature, but an ongoing trend of peculiar behavior on the part of Mullenweg. The trolling of users and partners is even more evidence of an unstable environment at WordPress caused by its boss's very public crusade against his opponents.
In mid-September, Mullenweg wrote a blog post calling WP Engine a "cancer to WordPress." He also called out stakeholder Silver Lake and said they don't contribute sufficiently to the open source project, and WP Engine's branding has tricked customers into believing it is part of WordPress. In response, WP Engine sent a cease and desist letter to WordPress. Automattic then sent its own cease and desist letter outlining various trademark infringements WP allegedly committed.
On Sept. 25, Mullenweg banned WP Engine, blocking it from accessing its resources. Since then there has been a steady back and forth legally, with Mullenweg and WP getting more aggressive in their respective approaches.
The ongoing legal battle between Automattic and WP Engine over open-source software heated up in October, when a judge ordered Mullenweg to remove the controversial login checkbox from WordPress.org that forced users and partners to denounce WP Engine.
"I'm disgusted and sickened by being legally forced to provide free labor and services to @wpengine, a dangerous precedent that should chill every open source maintainer," Mullenweg wrote on X after the ruling.
"While I disagree with the court's decision, I've fully complied with its order. You can see most changes on the site. They have access to ACF slug but haven't changed it... must not have been the emergency they claimed," He concluded.
In October, the rumblings around WordPress and Automattic caused Mullenweg to offer any employees a buyout if they wanted to quit over his ongoing beef with WP Engine. He offered employees $30,000, or six months of salary (whichever is higher), to leave the company. Mullenweg said that 159 people, who made up 8.4 percent of the company, took the offer.
The battle has caused considerable strife at the company, and Mullenweg's behavior has continued to worry the WordPress community -- pizza preferences aside.