[shprd]

> saw a successful corporation using wordpress, just like his own

That's hilarious because Matt and Automattic actually invested in WP Engine, supported them in many ways ever since their inception and helped them be more successful and reach this level.

Your entire argument about "jealous of success" falls apart if you look only few months back. He wanted them to succeed for years and years, even after private equity, he still saw them as partners.

[ImPostingOnHN]

None of that makes the "entire argument fall apart". Sounds like he regrets doing that.

The argument that matt is doing this for the community, though, totally falls apart when we see that he is actively harming community members, and the argument that he's doing it for open source totally falls apart when we see that he tried to extort WPEngine for money into his own pocket before contriving the aforementioned pretexts.

Why just WPEngine? It seems because they're successful and he's jealous of their money (hence demanding they give it to him, and not the community).

Should matt have such a veto power over what the community wants? Put another way, the community has tolerated matt's behavior, but he keeps digging more and more – how do we stop his bad behavior?

And back to the first question: "tolerated" by who? The community embraced WPEngine and their contributions to the community. It's matt that the community can't tolerate.

[shprd]

Look here and see how everyone contribute: https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/pledges/?order=hou...

>shake down WPEngine for money into his own pocket

It's not going to Matt pocket, Matt pays that multiple folds and has done that for years. Stop making ignorant accusations.