This has been a hard post for me to write after participating in WordPress since before I even started a career in tech and, until 3 months ago, for my entire tech career. That said, it has been in the making for quite a while now and it is time that I make it official.
I’ve officially left the WordPress project after 14+ years of contributing including:

Meetup and WordCamp Speaker
Meetup and WordCamp Organizer
Core code contributor
Plugin developer
Photo contributor
Over 11 years as mostly the sole moderator for the official WordPress jobs site

Why leave now?
It’s true that I had largely been moving away from the WordPress project since at least 2017. I think that is when I realized just how dishonest so much of the “community” around WordPress really is.

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Hacker News

After 14+ years of contributing to WordPress in various capacities, the author has decided to leave the project. Disillusioned by the community's dishonesty and abusive practices, they believe WordPress has become an ecosystem that often exploits its contributors. The author highlights severe issues within the community and expresses concerns about the current state and future of WordPress, emphasizing the need for proper governance. They have archived their projects and stepped away from WordPress-related activities, urging others to consider the consequences of their involvement.

So Long WordPress

A note to the many good people still in WordPress

This article is biassed because it’s written by a person working for WP Engine. If Automattic was that bad for such a long time, why not coming forward with it sooner?
I am not on Automattic’s side on the latest drama, I agree with DHH on this one, but I perceive this article as propaganda.

Sucks people feel the need to leave, but I get it.

Or, you could help people at <a href="https://github.com/ClassicPress/ClassicPress" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://github.com/ClassicPress/ClassicPress</a>

I tried to tell people this back in 2016 including Matt himself and WordFence but no one would listen. In fact, WordFence and their employees viciously attacked me. And so I left. I knew it what just a matter of time until the WordPress community woke up to see how Matt hurt not helped. As I left WP behind what I realized was that it was just a matter of time as with all things. With options you don’t need to be tired to something that does not align with your values. And that’s the best and most amazing thing about the Open Source Community. We create options. I moved from WP to primarily Django. Django is a community I’m proud of.

This is saddening to see. Most of the open source community can point out who is at fault here. But the bigger unaddressed problem here is open source sustainability. This is our wake up call to draft better frameworks to help build sustainable open source projects and communities in the future.