There’s a decent chance that any given website you visit runs on WordPress. Businesses large and small, along with big-name media outlets, swear by it. According to an oft-cited estimate, more than 40% of the web uses the open-source content management platform, originally built for blogging, to do all kinds of things. At one time, PC Gamer’s website ran on WordPress.
But now there’s a problem: In the past six months, the project’s co-founder and longtime leader has alienated large chunks of its user and developer base, culminating in courtroom battles and repeated public spats. The reason, when boiled down? Competition.
Matt Mullenweg, who started the WordPress project in 2003 and still leads it, has long sold WordPress services through his company Automattic. The company also manages a host of side businesses—like the social network Tumblr, the podcast app Pocket Casts, and …