Dear WordPress,

Has it really been 10 years? It seems just yesterday we were playing around on my blog, and the blogs of a few high school friends. Two of those friends are married, one isn’t anymore, two are still figuring things out, and one has passed away.

You were cute before you became beautiful. Wearing black and white, afraid of color, trying to be so unassuming. I know you got jealous when I wore those Blogger t-shirts. They were the cool kids at SxSW and I thought maybe you could grow up to be like them.

You wouldn’t have shirts of your own for a few more years. We didn’t know what we were doing when we made them and the logo printed ginormous. People called them the Superman shirt and made fun of them. But, oh, that logo — the curves fit you so well.

You showed the world you were growing up, and how much you cared about design and typography and other platonic ideals. You knew that open source didn’t have to be homely. I stretched myself too thin trying to get you there, and I did a stupid thing to pay for it. I hurt you, but instead of casting me away you held me closer, supported me, gave me another chance. I will never forget that. Akismet made me feel less guilty. I wouldn’t change anything, because the mistake made me understand how important it is to fly straight and take your time.

You’re so beautiful… I’m continually amazed and delighted by how you’ve grown. Your awkward years are behind you. Best of all, through it all, you’ve stuck with the principles that got you started in the first place. You’re always changing but that never changes. You’re unafraid to try new things that may seem wacky or unpopular at first.

I see you all over the world now, glowing from screens, bringing people together at meetups and WordCamps — you’re at your best when you do that. You’re my muse; you inspire me, and I’ve seen you inspire others. You become a part of their life and they become a part of yours. I hope we grow old together.

Cheers to ten years, and here’s to a hundred more.

Love,
Matt

250 thoughts on “Dear WordPress,

  1. I’ll never forget meeting you back in ’04 while visiting MJ in SF. You told me to give WordPress a shot. I’ve never looked back. Thanks, Matt!

  2. All I can say is thank you, Matt. The lifestyle I get to enjoy now is completely contingent on my decision to leave my day job and pursue a freelance career with WordPress. 3 lives here in Chicago definitely changed by what you did. And I’m sure there’s 1000x these kind of stories.

  3. Congrats on 10 years. So much has changed over the last decade but one thing is for sure. WordPress is only getting better and stronger. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years have in store. Also, what a beautiful piece. Cheers!

  4. Thanks for everything WordPress! Thanks for giving so many a voice!

    On a personal note, thanks for making it possible for me to move back to tech-dead Victoria and start my own little family!

  5. Thanks Mr WordPress. Thanks Matt and MIke. And Thank you to all the developers, wirters and readers all over the world. You all together make my life a little better everyday. From my old boring life with a job I dislike to a journey that begins everyday, which challenges my capacity of creating new a better ways of communicating and help others

  6. Congrats Matt and thank you for giving us WordPress.

    And a very Happy 10th birthday WordPress – here’s to another hundred or so more 🙂

  7. Nice letter, but damn I feel old now! Either way, congrats to WordPress and the team for making it thus far and so big.

  8. Congrats and thanks for all your hard work. Looking forward to a fantastic 10th Anniversary party tonight with our awesome local WordPress community and to WordCamp SF 2013.

  9. Lovely post Matt. I like millions of others am extremely grateful today for your vision and leadership in building WordPress into what it is today. I look forward to posting a comment again here in another 10 years thanking you again 🙂

    Ed

  10. thank you so much, you changed the world. not less. It is still very easy to share ideas with the whole world and it is still easy to read, what people with the same interest think. even if they are 10.000 km away. go on!

  11. Thank you very much for wordpress, and dear wordpress: congratulations!
    One of those things that make my world better just by being there, and that is truly great!

  12. Congratulations Matt! I’m looking forward to the next 10 years and beyond. Such exciting things in the blogging world is happening all the time and so many wonderful blogs launching every day because of WordPress.

  13. Pingback: WordPress 10 Anos
  14. Dude, that 4th paragraph speaks so hugely about how far you have come and one of the reasons why WordPress is as successful as it is today. That saga left a really sour taste in my mouth for a long time, but maybe it was a fork in the karma-road where you actually chose wisely and have now reaped the rewards.

    Celebrate with pride what you and the community have created, people all around the world now make a living off some of the code that you wrote when you were a teenager (if there’s any of that code still left), along with Michel V and Mike L.

    I’ve been a happy coat-tail rider since the .76 days, looking forward to seeing this little 10-year-old mature further.

  15. Congratulations, Matt! What an incredible journey it’s been for you over those 10 years, huh? And for the rest of us since discovering WordPress for ourselves too!

    Keep it up 🙂

  16. Thanks a MILLION! Thanks to WordPress a single mom can make a living, have fun, and start a business : ) What’s funny is that 10 years ago I graduated from high school, wish I would have found WordPress then, I would be a pro by now! Well the last 3 years have been good and I couldn’t be happier.

    WordPress inspires me, makes me grow, and has given me the freedom to work for myself but not by myself. I love the community, and how generous people are in giving help. Thank you soooooo much! +1 on 100 more years : )

  17. Matt: congratulations on a job well done. So many of us wouldn’t have such beautifully awesome blogs without you and your tireless hard work. Thank you so much for such a great product.

  18. Thanks for the platform that allowed me to be independent and have my blog on my own server instead of depending on corporations and for making it open source so that if anything happens to automattic, WordPress won’t die.

  19. WordPress is (still) so wonderful. I walked a path 6-7 plus years ago, where I was to choose a CMS for the company where I work. WordPress immediate attracted me, because it was simple and easy to install, setup and use. And it still is. It has proved that simplicity and aestetics wins when it competes against too many features and functionality and in the end more user unfriendly complexity.

    And here many years later I’m the humble coordinator of WordPress in Denmark. I have arranged a few WordCamps and have met a lot of fine people. And last night I celebrated WordPress with some of those people.

    Thank you Matt and thank you WordPress

  20. WordPress is the first CMS for me and the only one. You don`t need anything else when you have a such beautiful CMS. Thank you for that, Thank you, community, for more…

  21. WordPress is wonderful. This is more easy then other.
    Congratulations and thanks Matt 🙂

  22. Long live Open source, long live WordPress; keeping alive the ideals of free internet and belonging to a community! Here’s to a hundred years more! Thank you!

  23. Congratulations, Matt! You’ve changed so many lives for the better, mine included. Last year, I raved about the Wonders of WordPress at WordCamp, and I’m doing it again in June. You’ve given us all a gorgeous gift. Thank you.

  24. Hey Matt and All WordPressers, congrats and cheers to another 10 times 10 🙂 Next month my WordPress blog is turning 5! Time indeed flies! Best from me! Rayna

  25. Thanks for the good work. Keep it up!
    I do my best to help others to get in touch with WordPress through my work. And I try to keep up with your innovations and evolve with it as a web developer.

    Regards from Sweden

  26. Thanks Matt and WordPress is my bread and butter. Congrats for the 10 years. Here’s a toast to another 10, 100, and maybe 1000 years!

  27. Will never forget that first time we met in South Africa, good times. Thank you for all the inspiration, hard work, and helping to give people a voice and enable stories to be shared all over the world. Chris

  28. Hey dear WP boy, 10 years and so smart, I just keep imagining when you have 16, driving a fast eletrical car… Happy Birthday. From a uncle that you dont know but loves you.

  29. Thanks and happy birthday WordPress, you’re help a lot of people since you born. And now you’re like divas in the net.. I love you WordPress,

  30. A big thanks to you and the whole team who started it, and are still running it so well.. Happy birthday to you all..

    If we meet, please let me buy you a beer.

  31. With WP, I am a part of something free and beautiful. I make friends who don’t know me, but help me all the time; trust folks whom I’ve never met; focus on customers’ happiness a lot more than on browsers, and have a feeling of accomplishment because I belong to most transparent and generous community ever. Thank you, Matt, and thank you all who work on development of open culture and participatory journalism.

  32. Thank you so much for this heart-warming message. I celebrated WordPress 10th Anniversary in Toronto and was pleased to see the good turn-our there. ♥♥♥

  33. Happy 10th birthday to your WP baby, Matt Mullenweg! Best wishes to you in your future endeavors!

  34. The Amazing Ma.tt. Thank you for all those 10 years, wich was 8 years of my live too 🙂 Keep up the good work, and you will be fine in the next 100 years i think.

  35. Thanks Matt for creating the wonder that is WordPress . Everyday I am discovering new things on communication through it . Cheers for the coming years.

  36. Awesome 10 years. Millions of people make their livelihood directly or indirectly with wordpress.

    We thank the community for extending wordpress beyond limitations.

    “Once it is a blogging platform, then adopted itself as CMS tool, Now it is grown & not just a CMS” The growth and transformation is amazing.

    As Matt already quoted “WordPress is not just for profit”, there is a bonding of love which keeps the community grow and united.

    Similar to Matt’s birthday posts, we are awaiting to see wp20,wp30,wp40,wp50 and goes on 🙂

    We love wordpress, automattic and the man behind this Matt!!!

    Cheers!!!

  37. Matt,

    Love this.
    When I met you at Summit basecamp, I didn’t even know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
    These days I’m presenting at WordPress meetups so, needless to say, a lot has changed. =)

    Congratulations on your phenomenal success and thank you for all of your contributions.

    – Mindie

    P.S. I am even dragging Sean (Stephenson) to WordPress meetups now so someday he will become WordPress rockstar, too. 😉

  38. Wow…I’ve missed 2003 when it first came out. Where was I? Oh yeah…going back to school to get another degree in Nursing. But instead got in the Respiratory Therapy program…got my more schooling. I even got a license in ARF to start a new business but I dropped them all and now I’m back online again. Happy 10th Birthday WordPress!!! I love how you make things so EASY for us…designers, writers, and entrepreneurs.

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