What Is “Forking” and Could It Happen to WordPress?

What Does Forking Mean?

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Forking means creating a new path – a fork – from an existing project so you can develop it in your own way. You can create an alternative version using the original code or software, and pursue independent goals and developments.

This duplication is an integral part of the open-source community. Anyone has the right to use, change, and distribute projects.

But, why is it done? Users might feel restricted by the existing software or they could disagree with the direction of the project.

Could WordPress Be Forked?

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On October 12th, WordPress forked the WP Engine-owned plugin, Advanced Custom Fields, and renamed it Secure Custom Fields. Taking control of the plugin is the latest move in the WordPress.org and WP Engine battle. But, could the same happen to WordPress.org?

Well, it already has. Earlier in the month, Matt Mullenweg (CEO of Automattic and co-founder of WordPress) shared a blog post named “Forking is Beautiful” to reflect on the history of forking within the company.

WordPress began as a fork of the b2/cafelog project, and a fork of the software was last made in 2018 with ClassicPress following a rift about the Gutenberg editor. Now, Mullenweg has even promoted a new fork created by a former WordPress community member, named FreeWP, and encouraged discontented users to join the alternative if they disagree with his recent actions.

From this, it’s clear Mullenweg only wants loyal users within the community – Mullenweg even paid unhappy employees to leave the company if they disagreed with him.

Given the lack of stability in the WordPress community right now, it’s understandable that many might want to take WordPress in a different direction. So, I expect we’ll see other alternatives pop up in the months to come. That said, there have been very few successful forks of WordPress – largely due to its huge success and complexity – so it’s unlikely Mullenweg feels threatened by any of them so far.