The versatility and customisation options for WordPress are unparalleled when it comes to website creation tools, which is part of the reason why custom themes designed around certain industries are both very popular and radically unique.
However, one addition to the central hub of WordPress that has sparked some intense debate involves one of the oldest culinary debates engaged with online.
Some users of WordPress.Org when attempting to login found that the relatively familiar login box had an extra checkbox that extolled the virtues of pineapple on pizza.
This question is controversial by itself for reasons relating to culinary history well outside the scope of WordPress, but the reason why it was controversial with so many developers and website users was not necessarily the food opinion but its placement on their login prompt.
The reason for this is that it was an unprofessional response to an unprofessional move which was itself an unprofessional response on the part of Automattic, a commercial company which runs WordPress.Org and is closely associated with the non-profit WordPress Foundation.
The checkbox originally required users to state that they were not in any way affiliated with WP Engine, a WordPress hosting service. After WP Engine won a court injunction to remove the checkbox, this was interpreted as an in-joke by Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg, a co-founder of WordPress.
Whilst some software engineers and web developers saw the funny side, others were extremely critical of the unprofessional behaviour displayed by some of the most important figures in
WordPress, particularly as this has a knock-on effect on the rest of the ecosystem.
Enterprise software needs to be trusted completely inside and out, and for two decades WordPress was an effective solution in this regard when in the hands of professionals.
However, impulsive decisions such as this have shaken some of this trust, leaving plugin and theme developers to maintain the stability lacking from some in the industry.
