Over the past year, we, Karim & Joost, have written and talked extensively about the challenges facing WordPress. We’ve been critical. At times, very critical. Of leadership, of governance, of the way decisions are made and enforced. We stand by that criticism.
Matt’s way of operating has, in our view, been harmful. It has led to a fractured community. It has created distrust. It has made contributors feel unsafe or unheard. That is not good for WordPress. It is not good for open source. And it is not something we should normalize.
But something else has become clear to us over the past months.
Even when you believe change is necessary, even when you build a credible alternative, you still need a broader ecosystem willing to step up.
And that’s where FAIR stops as far as WordPress goes.
Why FAIR exists
FAIR was never about “taking over” WordPress. It was never about forking, nor did it exist for the sake of ego or power. It was a response to a structural problem.
The WordPress ecosystem has grown into a massive economic engine. Hosting companies, agencies, plugin developers, SaaS providers, thousands of businesses rely on it. Those of us who believe in it think of it more as an open web operating system than a simple CMS. Yet governance and infrastructure remain tightly controlled. That imbalance creates risk.
When key infrastructure or distribution mechanisms are dependent on a single commercial entity, the entire ecosystem becomes fragile. That fragility became impossible to ignore.
FAIR, launched under the Linux Foundation, was an attempt to create a neutral, community-governed package manager and infrastructure layer. The goal was stability. Predictability. Shared stewardship. A model that could reduce systemic risk and ensure long-term independence.
In a very short period of time, the technical project went from a proposal to an effort involving a larger team and us, and then to an actual working model. Over the second half of the year, the project achieved technical success. Today, it is a viable technical alternative to the problem. But success isn’t just measured in technical success or the amount of effort.
It is a serious effort. Thought through. Properly structured. Not a Twitter thread. Not a protest. A working technical achievement and a real proposal for a model that could work well for all involved parties. But proposals need backing.
The hard reality: hosts don’t want to invest
In recent months, we’ve had many conversations with hosting companies and other large ecosystem players. What became increasingly clear is this: they do not want to invest in this kind of solution.
Not because they love the current situation. Not because they agree with everything that’s happened. But because investment means commitment. It means cost. It means stepping into political tension. And most of all, it means risk. The current situation, however uncomfortable, is predictable enough. Changing that requires money and coordinated effort. And that willingness simply isn’t there.
You cannot build alternative infrastructure of this magnitude on goodwill alone. You need adoption and funding. You need shared responsibility. You need large players willing to say: “Yes, we will carry part of this.”
Without that, FAIR becomes aspirational rather than actionable.
And we are not here to do an aspirational infrastructure project.
A moment of uncomfortable empathy
Here’s the part that surprised us.
In trying to understand why hosts wouldn’t step up, we found ourselves understanding, if not agreeing with, more of the structural tension Matt has been pointing at for years.
He has often argued that too many companies benefit from WordPress without contributing proportionally. That the burden of maintaining core infrastructure falls on too few shoulders. That the incentives are misaligned.
We still fundamentally disagree with how he has handled that frustration. The methods have caused damage. Public pressure campaigns and unilateral decisions are not the way to build trust.
But the underlying economic problem is real.
When hosts, some of whom generate significant revenue from WordPress, are unwilling to invest in a neutral stability layer, that tells you something about the ecosystem’s incentive structure.
And it tells you something about the limits of idealism.
The AI shift changes the battlefield
At the same time, the ground is shifting beneath all of us.
AI is transforming how websites are built, maintained, and even conceptualized. The barriers to publishing are falling again, not because of CMS innovation, but because AI systems can generate, deploy, and optimize digital experiences at unprecedented speed.
This changes the competitive landscape dramatically.
WordPress is no longer just competing with other CMS platforms. It’s competing with AI-native site builders, automated content systems, headless frameworks, and entirely new interaction models.
In that context, spending years fighting governance battles while the broader web evolves may simply be the wrong strategic focus.
The ecosystem needs to adapt to AI. To rethink workflows. To rethink value. To rethink what open source publishing means in a world where content can be generated infinitely and interfaces are conversational.
That is where energy is needed.
So: we are stepping away from FAIR
After much consideration, we’ve decided to stop working on bringing FAIR to the WordPress ecosystem.
Not because the idea was wrong.
Not because the governance concerns disappeared.
Not because everything is suddenly fine.
But because without hosting integration, including meaningful financial and structural support from key ecosystem players, the project is not viable.
Continuing would mean either building something underfunded and fragile which defeats the purpose or personally carrying a burden that should be shared.
Neither is responsible.
Ending our work on FAIR is not surrender. It is recognizing constraints. And we do so knowing that the work was not for nothing.
What we still believe
We still believe WordPress needs more transparent, accountable governance.
We still believe concentration of power creates systemic risk.
We still believe the community deserves better than polarization and fear.
But we also believe change cannot be forced by a handful of motivated individuals if the broader economic layer of the ecosystem refuses to participate.
Open source is not just code. It is a system of incentives.
And these incentives, right now, do not align for this kind of structural reform.
What’s next
For FAIR
At Cloudfest’s hackathon this year, we’ll work on making FAIR work with and for TYPO3. The TYPO3 community and technical leadership sees a lot of value in the system that was created, because the technical project actually delivered a good, technically solid, federated package management system.
In Europe, the concept of digital sovereignty is an incredibly hot topic, and an important part of that is being able to rely on package management servers. FAIR solves for that and we are proud to see that recognized by the TYPO3 community and to see them continue on the work we started.
For us
WordPress is entering a new phase, shaped not by internal governance debates, but by AI and platform shifts that will redefine publishing and the web itself.
That is where we want to focus our time and energy.
On helping WordPress businesses adapt.
On making plugins and tools smarter.
On ensuring independent publishers remain competitive.
On finding a path forward for Open Source in a world where a line of code has no value.
On building products that move the ecosystem forward, instead of fighting over its control structures.
The FAIR experiment clarified something important: if the ecosystem won’t fund neutrality, neutrality won’t materialize.
That’s a lesson worth learning.
A word of thanks
Many individuals have been with us along this road, and we’d be remiss not to thank them for their efforts. You know who you are, please know that you have our deepest thanks. We also owe thanks to the Linux Foundation. The team there has been incredibly helpful and stood by us as we took on this challenge.
We remain committed to WordPress. We remain critical where criticism is needed. We remain hopeful that governance can improve.
But for us both, FAIR ends here.
— Karim & Joost
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