Zach Tirrell

@KatieKeithBarn2 Heartbreaking

It's the end of an era - StellarWP is no more. Some of the most important brands in the WordPress ecosystem - LearnDash, The Events Calendar, Kadence, Iconic, GiveWP and others - have had their websites taken offline and redirected to basic landing pages on the website of their parent company, Liquid Web 😢 For 5 years, I watched the development of StellarWP with interest as it was a first-of-its kind in WordPress. I never shared my opinions publicly because I had many friends there. However, those people have either quit or been laid-off, and now feels like the time due to genuine concern for these great brands and their future, and what this means for the wider WordPress community. Back in 2020/2021, the WordPress product ecosystem was growing rapidly. Many products were seeing huge growth, which sparked a wave of acquisitions. Some were by hosting companies like Liquid Web, who saw potential in expanding into products. They acquired an impressive range of products and created the StellarWP umbrella brand to house them. In my opinion, this was the first mistake. I never understood the purpose of a public-facing Stellar brand because it diluted the visibility of well-known brands that the public was already familiar with. For example, each individual product no longer had a prominent presence at WordCamps because they were represented at the shared Stellar booth instead, which felt strange for brands as big as LearnDash. I'm sure the existence of Stellar brought some benefits internally - e.g. shared resources and centralized marketing - but publicly, I think it harmed the products rather than helping them. Another mistake was acquiring companies of vastly different sizes. It's sensible to apply the 80/20 rule to business by prioritizing the highest revenue products - I do this myself with Barn2's plugins. However, I noticed that some of Stellar's smaller brands - once highly respected independent businesses - were neglected. I struggle to see the logic in acquiring a brand and then giving it less focus. I suspect that some of the companies that acquired WordPress products during the 2020/2021 boom expected the high level of growth to continue post-Covid, which was never realistic. If revenue projections weren't met then naturally, this would have led to the patterns we've seeing at Stellar, such as multiple rounds of cuts, layoffs and restructures - and ultimately deprioritizing their entire product range, as we are seeing with the death of their individual websites. However, the true reason I'm writing this is not to analyze the reasons - it's because I'm concerned about what happens next. I can foresee two possible futures for Stellar's products: FUTURE 1 - SLOW DECLINE The decision to relegate huge brands to minor landing pages on the Liquid Web site suggests that we'll see a slow decline of these products over time. We'll see further cuts and layoffs, and some of WordPress' best brands will fade. That would be a loss for everyone because strong, visible products strengthen the WordPress ecosystem as a whole. FUTURE 2 - ACQUISITION I'd love to see the Stellar brands get acquired by a company (or multiple companies) that understand their value and can give each product what it needs to grow and thrive. Companies with a strong record of building successful WordPress products. I don’t know what will happen next, but I hope these products end up with people who truly understand and care about the WordPress product ecosystem and have the ability to take them forward. More than anything, I hope the outcome gives the remaining people working on these products the stability and leadership they deserve.

This is working really well. I love that there are multiple WordPress MCP options to experiment with now.

@bryceadams @metorikhq This is amazing! The segmentation is such a powerful component of Metorik, this makes that much more accessible.

Finally playing around with AI in @metorikhq and yeah this is pretty cool 🤩

@RepJackKimble Are you sure this isn't ICE? Looks like the same uniforms

President Biden was responsible for drug cartels like this one operating in the United States.

@sunnytrochaniak @OliverSild @Solid_WP @TheDavidJohnson We signed the new agreement today

@OliverSild @Solid_WP @TheDavidJohnson Thanks for chiming in here @OliverSild. Since timing is important - when was your new agreement finalized?

Well that's kinda shady. @Solid_WP just changed their 25-site Security Pro licence THIS WEEK from $399 to $549 - a 38% price increase. And are now offering "40% off" as their BF promo.

Today we're extremely proud to introduce the newest product in The Events Calendar suite: Seating 💺 Create interactive seating maps and sell tickets for specific seat types--like general admission, VIP, accessible, and more. See it in action below 🧵

I'm really excited that we just released a new Seating add-on for The Events Calendar. I think this will be great for small theaters and venues to elevate the experience of their ticketing. theeventscalendar.com/products/seati…

@takisbig @wpengine @automattic @photomatt I'll try to simplify. The legal process in the US can take a long time. The previously filed WPE lawsuit won't get its first hearing until March 2025. WPE has asked the court to require Automattic/Mullenweg to put everything back the way it was prior to WCUS until the court case

So @wpengine has got an injunction notice against @automattic and @photomatt which -please correct me if I am wrong, cause I know little of US law- which mandates that a) they should stop interfering with WPE's access to the WordPress community, org repository etc AND b) this is extended to all those acting in the same directio,n ie -I am guessing- A8C employees, contributors, organisers, etc. Help me fathom this one out. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

@ChrisBadgett Congrats Chris! Wish I'd seen this before our call, then I could have said it more personally :)

Today LifterLMS turns 10 years old. The #1 key to our success comes down to 1 word: People. Feeling a lot of things from gratitude, excitement about the future, humility, and more. Blog post coming with in-depth reflections & thoughts...

@JustinFerriman Not gonna lie, it’s scary.

@KatieKeithBarn2 We also received this email. LevelUp is fully integrated as part of our team and we deeply appreciate them.

Several plugin companies have told me they've received an anonymous email about the evils of outsourced support - LevelUp in particular. 5 of Barn2's 8 support team members are LevelUp. They're all full members of our team and it makes no difference if they're direct hires ❤️

@KatieKeithBarn2 A a general principle, yes absolutely needed in a remote environment. However, lots of exceptions made - someone is eating, it’s an unscheduled or early call, someone is in a temporary location where it’s not viable

Do you have a rule that team members must have their camera on during calls? I prefer to be able to see people during work calls as it's better for communication. (It doesn't matter how professional their setup is or if they use a fake background.) Should this be a rule? 🤔

@KatieKeithBarn2 We’ve always seen the biggest sales spike on Monday, but Friday is more conventionally when people have time off

A question for people in the US 🇺🇸 I'm planning our Black Friday "Ask Barn2 Anything" livestreams and am wondering which days you're most likely to be working, given that you have Thanksgiving. Do you usually buy plugins on Black Friday itself, or is Cyber Monday better?

@noeltock Happy to get you hooked up with Nexcess hosting (and Give licenses if you are doing donations)

Since WP hosting is the big topic atm, any host want to kindly offer some hosting for 2 charitable projects in Ukraine? 🇺🇦 Ping me, thank you 🙏🏼

@JustinFerriman I’ve been a local elected official the past 5 years in my town. I’ve also done some advocacy at the statehouse this year, I’d be happy to talk with you about my experiences

@JustinFerriman @LearnDashLMS Thanks Justin! We appreciate the kind words of support

@cljwebdev @schutzsmith I would love to know who you think is "the guy" who made The Events Calendar

@schutzsmith Stinks, I know the guy who helped make "The Events Calendar," but he isn't there anymore.

OK, what WordPress calendar are we moving to? The Events Calendar from Modern Tribe just has too many issues and lack of thought out features at this point that I cannot keep recommending it to clients. I’m hoping there’s some gold out there I haven’t seen before.

Stellar Spark is a virtual event we're hosting on July 19, covering a whole range of topics to help elevate your WordPress site or business. I'm particularly excited that @JosephaHaden will be our keynote speaker! Sign up for #StellarSpark! stellarwp.com/stellar-spark/…

@JustinFerriman This just feels like straight facts