Advanced Custom Fields Free Fork (or Hostile Takeover?)

This video is not about taking sides, but rather about understanding the facts and discussing the potential consequences for the WordPress community. I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments below, but please keep the conversation respectful and constructive.

Key Topics Covered:
- Introduction of "Secure Custom Fields" and its similarities to ACF
- The broader implications for WordPress developers and users
- Matt Mullenweg’s comments on integrating popular plugins into WordPress core
- The potential future of WordPress as a platform

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[maxziebell]

Forking is totally legitimate, taking possession of the listing and the user base and all the hard work in the support section isn’t.

[ThierryC-terx]

Matt after watching this video: Welcome to our new Youtube channel SECURETuts

[zoltankemenes]

This entire scenario sends a very negative message to outsiders. The implication is that if you become too successful on WordPress, the platform will essentially extort a cut of your profits. If you resist, they'll ban you and seize control of your plugins and themes. How is this justified? This is happening at a time when it's more important than ever for WordPress to protect its market share and bring in new users. Their public messaging, meanwhile, is almost juvenile.

[tsgrunt]

Over 2 Million ACF installs, 1.5 million WPE sites. All are users with no stake in the game, and we end up being the kids stuck in the middle of divorce. And Matt is the super petty parent.

[HemantKumar-oter]

The hostile hijack of the plugin is bad enough, but did you notice they haven't even taken the ACF logo out (4:02). What Matt Mullenweg has done is a supply chain attack on the users of ACF. It's not a fork, it's theft.

[antonichristian]

Not good for Wordpress, not good for the WP community and certainly not good for plugin developers (new and old). After being a long time WP user I have to now ask myself should I still use WP and continue to condone Matt's abhorrent and un-professional behavior by proxy or start looking at other platforms. This is a purely ethical decision I will now have to make, but overall my feeling is it's all such a downer and a shame that it has come to this. Thanks for giving us the full picture Paul, worrying times indeed.

[noraholmquist]

Thank you for a reasonable view of the situation. You mentioned in passing something like …”that is a question for another video…” Looking forward to that other video, and perhaps a series? Wordpress is in crisis, and in crisis there is opportunity. Hopefully we Wordpress users will be fortunate enough to benefit from whatever changes happen.

[honeypeadigital]

This situation makes me feel like I came into this at the wrong time 😢. I don't see that going well.

[WldTangent]

My workplace's agency is heavily invested in WPE hosting and plugins to power their custom product. I've got a big meeting with a lot of people to look forward to tomorrow, thanks Matt!

[BK-qxqf]

Never has been a better moment for you to Review CraftCMS.... !

[johnpapadopoulos]

So are we looking at WordPress dystopian future? It might be a good idea to start looking for alternatives.

[eng.farahkh]

This will affect the wordpress ecosystem because developer now will think twice before contributing and supporting wordpress which has already started...😔

[Chris...S]

This is what I see happening... Similar as what happened with Radius Server. A group of open source devs will fork WordPress and release it under a new name with ACF free type custom fields, updated UI, remove Gutenberg from core, and make it a plugin. Take functionality from Elementor and bricks and build a proper core site builder. Mark my word after this last week. I'm sure many open source devs are on it. The community has had enough of Matt's childish behavior, and his sudden urge that he feels he needs to be compensated for others' hard work. If thats what he wanted, it shouldn't have released WordPress as open source and free to use as he did to begin with. Even so, he could easily closed source it. Just how Radius server did. It is clear his beef started with WPE but as you can see, it is now with all WP devs and the WP community. The only one who will lose out in the end is Matt.

[soundgrips]

Matt's message is pretty alarming. So if you make a Wordpress plugin that a lot of people enjoy using then Wordpress might just decide to add it to their core features? Why would any plugin developers want to take the time to build a plugin if they think it may just get "taken" from them?

[caban]

If I understand this, you have ACF, now WP comes in and replaces ACF with SCF for you? This is Hostile Takeover.
I just updated ACF as per WPTuts instructions in a previous video, so, I think, I am in safe side.
Not happy, we are not supposed to be taking sides.

[alanjacobs]

Been looking/hoping for an alternative to wp for a while. Really hope this mess encourages some more options to surface.

[davidknecht]

I still thought it was very awkward to change such a long-established name. But now it's clear! Thank you! Just took me some time, but I've switched back to ACF on all my client websites.

[Jason-mknn]

Perfectly explained. Like I said on the fb group, I still think that we cannot stop at just commentating. We need to quantify the numbers of people and then make it known to the community, WP, MM and WPE that this community is more than just a few major players. Words need to be put into actions.

[joeknox]

There are two key concepts that come to mind after hearing this news: altruistic narcissism and moral licensing. It's troubling to witness this behavior, especially when it's framed as being for the greater good.

Altruistic narcissism: describes someone who believes they are acting for a noble cause, but in reality, their actions are driven by self-interest and ego. They justify harmful behavior by convincing themselves they are doing it for the benefit of others. Meanwhile, moral licensing occurs when someone believes that their good deeds' give them the moral authority to act unethically elsewhere.

As you rightly mentioned, his actions are setting a dangerous precedent, and it’s clear from his own statements that he feels entitled to take advantage of others. In a post that openly communicates his intent, he essentially admits to exploiting anyone he deems suitable for his purposes. This willingness to manipulate under the guise of doing something beneficial for the community is not only damaging but also undermines the very values of openness and collaboration that initiatives like open-source are meant to uphold. It's a disappointing display of self-serving behavior disguised as a higher calling.

[websquadron]

Nicely done on focusing on Point 18. I agree totally with your views. WPE actively fixed the issue asap.