An official WordPress.org social media account was used to troll the open source movement to decentralize the WordPress plugins and themes repository, creating what some feel was an undignified, even “childish”, representation of the WordPress community.
What Is The FAIR Project?
The Federated And Independent Repositories project is an open-source initiative that was launched in 2025 in response to actions by Matt Mullenweg and Automattic that exposed a weakness in how plugins and themes are distributed to WordPress sites. The project was initiated after Mullenweg cut off WP Engine from updating their plugins, disrupting the proper functioning of thousands of websites.
The FAIR goal of the FAIR project is to decentralize the distribution of WordPress plugins and themes to protect against one person from disrupting the free distribution of software.
FAIR is backed by open source giant Linux, announced in June 2025. The official announcement explained that the purpose of FAIR is to create a “vendor-neutral” method for distributing WordPress software within a trusted environment, writing:
“Vendor-neutral package management for content management systems like WordPress provides critical universal infrastructure that addresses the new realities of content, e-commerce and AI.
The FAIR Package Manager project helps make plugins and tools more discoverable and lets developers choose where to source those plugins depending on the needs of their supply chain. By giving commercial plugin developers, hosts, and application developers more options to control the tools they rely on, the FAIR Package Manager project promotes innovation and protects business continuity.”
What Caused An Issue With FAIR?
A WordPress user recently experienced a temporary problem updating their website using the FAIR repository, forcing them to manually SFTP the software updates to their server.
They posted on X:
“Here I am updating one of my sites for the new year, and it looks like FAIR broke my plugin and theme updates.”
After updating their site they returned to X with more thoughts about their experience with FAIR:
“Glad this was just a “for fun” site and not something critical. I like experimenting with stuff in the WordPress ecosystem, but this is a bit too experimental for my taste. Going back to stock updates, at least until 2.0.
…This is making me rethink how I organize my domains and sites. Should probably just set up a sandbox for things like this, but then again… the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If it’s all locked away in a sandbox, I’ll forget to ever touch it.”
There was an issue with an update to FAIR version 1.2.2. According to the release notes:
“FAIR Connect 1.2.2 Release Announcement
Version 1.2.2 of FAIR Connect is a fast follow up to our version 1.2.1 release. This release fixes a fatal error introduced in 1.2.1 that impacts the updating process.
If you previously updated to 1.2.1, you will need to perform this update manually.”
So apparently there’s an issue with updating the FAIR Connect plugin which requires manually deactivating the FAIR Connect plugin, downloading the updated version of the plugin from the FAIR repository, then manually uploading the plugin from the WordPress admin plugin dashboard (unless the site is unavailable, which necessitates SFTP’ing the updated plugin).
WordPress Trolls The FAIR Project
The official WordPress.org X account posted the following comment about the FAIR project:
“Looks like the Federated and Independent Repository project is going great. This is clearly going to rock the WordPress world. We don’t know how we’ll continue without these contributors. Maybe they need some REST.”
The post was highly unusual for the WordPress X account because it’s normally a feel-good destination of announcements and inspiration related to WordPress. The unprofessional tone of the post caught many in the WordPress community by surprise.
One person shared their disappointment:
“Hi Matt! These comments aren’t clearly going to rock the atmosphere in our community too. So, http://WP.org never had issues?”
RapidLightnings responded:
“These people working at or for WordPress are so childish and unprofessional. Professional people wouldn’t care or would not post stuff like that on official accounts.”
Responses Hidden By WordPress
There were additional responses that were hidden by WordPress:
Like this by o_be_one:
“For an OpenSource project, your take is toxic af.”
Rohan K called the post by the official WordPress account immature:
“Growing pains. Why are you gleefully gloating about this, when your immature and short-sighted actions led the creation of it? It makes you look bad.
Grow up.”
Aron Prins posted a one-word response:
“Ewww”
Thisbit commented on how it reflects poorly on the WordPress leadership:
“Shameful leadership.”
Jono Alderson reflected on the childishness of the tweet:
“Oh hush. Your misuse of this account for sniping is childish and tedious. Be better.”
Other posts were directed at Matt Mullenweg, with this one prematurely dancing on WordPress’s grave:
“SO HAPPY that AI is ending WordPress for good.
Ciao CattyMatty”
And this one:
“I’d say get a clue, but you’d probably steal it from another developer.”
Jono Alderson’s Response
Alderson started a new discussion to express his opinion about the WordPress troll-post:
“I love WordPress-the-software, but this kind of childish nonsense makes me ashamed and embarrassed to be associated with WordPress-the-brand. What childish, petty, unprofessional, shameful, amateur nonsense. All of these people need firing and replacing with capable grown-ups.”
The responses to Jono’s post generally expressed disappointment that the official WordPress account was used for trolling, with one person responding that it seemed crazy.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/AYO Production
