In March 2021, the Executive Director of WordPress announced that she was planning to put forward a Conflict of Interest Policy as part of a larger Contributor Handbook. In April 2022, she announced the release of two sections of the Contributor Handbook and said that in “coming weeks” a Conflict of Interest Policy and other sections would be released. Later that month, she announced another section and again said that in “coming weeks” a Conflict of Interest Policy would be released. In May 2022, she announced another section and again said that in “coming weeks” a Conflict of Interest Policy would be released.
That was the last announcement they made about the Contributor Handbook. The Conflict of Interest Policy and a promised Code of Ethics policy never materialized. We don’t know what happened, but we do know that the Executive Director of WordPress’ own situation seems like a major conflict of interest. [Read more]