“WordPress 6.7 is right around the corner and it’s difficult to get excited for it. How many people contributed to the release who can no longer contribute?”
That was the question posed by Jeff Chandler on October 18th. Matt’s response?
“That’s a good question. You used to be a journalist, you should count. My guess: 2 or 3, definitely under 10, out of 600+. See also: People think they’re a lot more important than they actually are.”
6.7 was released on November 12th along with a list of its 780 contributors. Let’s take a moment to thank 11 people from that list (i.e. definitely more than 10) who have since paused their contributions:
1. Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko, core component maintainer for Date/Time, announced he has stopped contributions “given recent WordPress actions against community and me personally.”
10. Tonya Mork, core committer, lead for numerous releases, and long-time contributor, announced she is pausing contributions due to being “greatly concerned about the well-being & eroding trust of contributors & users.”
The list is not complete. It took less than 30 minutes to come up with. It also doesn’t include people like Carrie Dils, Naoko Takano, Angela Jin, and many more who, though they didn’t contribute code to 6.7, added immeasurable value to what makes WordPress special. A thorough investigation would no doubt reveal even more losses, each one incredibly important to the project.
6.7 has been bittersweet. It is the community who have enabled WordPress’ success over the years. I hope every single person who has left knows that they are actually far more important than they think they are. Their absence will be felt.
