A recent post on X (formerly Twitter) called attention to the fact that many popular open source projects, like WordPress, are run by a single person, often referred to as a Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL).
Is WordPress Run By A Benevolent Dictator?
Open source projects are commonly understood to be run by volunteers that form committees and hold votes. Many decisions at WordPress and other open source projects run that way. But in many projects, like WordPress, there is one person who has the final vote and makes major decisions about the project.
A recent post on X called attention to this fact in relation to WordPress and how some community members are reminded that WordPress has a single leader.
@helenhousandi tweeted:
“Watching WordPress people relearn that the B in BDFL stands for benevolent even when so much of OSS especially at scale is thankless (and yes it’s still a dictator!)”
@toderash replied:
“Cool cool cool.
Proviso: it’s not the label that makes a “BDFL” benevolent. Let’s just say there are examples out there of “FLFL”s – Feudal Lords For Life, running OSS like a fiefdom.Currently watching other WordPress people just waking up to this fact.”
BDFL
The term Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL) is generally used in a lighthearted way to describe the governance model where a founder of an open source project has the final say over all decisions but usually the major ones.
Some Famous BDFLs
- Linus Torvalds is the BDFL of Linux.
- Matt Mullenweg is the BDFL of WordPress.org.
- David Heinemeier Hansson is the BDFL of Ruby on Rails.
- Taylor Otwell is the BDFL of Laravel.
The term BDFL originated in 1995 as a joke when the creator of Python, Guido van Rossum, was named the First Interim Benevolent Dictator for Life.
Governance Models And BDFL
WordPress is a community and while it has been said that it has a benevolent dictator for life in Matt Mullenweg, it’s still a community-driven project, just like other open source projects. The unofficial BDFL titles reflect the lighter side of open source projects.
