Following Automattic's recent "alignment buyout" that saw 159 employees depart, CEO Matt Mullenweg directed his remaining engineering team to release what he called a "community trust update" to WordPress's most popular themes.
The update, pushed live at 3 AM Tuesday, introduces what internal documents describe as "essential content preservation protocols." Users report their blog posts now randomly vanish unless they click through a daily digital loyalty pledge that includes statements like "I affirm my complete independence from all competing hosting services" and "I acknowledge WordPress as the one true open-source CMS."
"I woke up and my entire food blog was gone except for a popup demanding I 'prove my alignment with the WordPress ecosystem,'" said culinary blogger Michael Torres. "When I clicked 'maybe later,' my recipe archive started deleting itself post by post."
Three Automattic engineers, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, confirmed they were instructed to build the feature during a mandatory weekend "alignment hackathon."
"The deletion algorithm was actually pretty challenging to code while sobbing," one engineer noted. "But the specs were clear: any content containing phrases like 'great hosting service' or 'website builder' had to go."
The update also adds a "Community Harmony Score" widget that tracks user loyalty. Sources inside Automattic report Mullenweg personally reviews scores below 70% during his daily safari livestreams.
When reached for comment, Automattic's PR team responded with a single checkbox labeled "I denounce all WordPress competitors" and a timer counting down from 24 hours.
At press time, users discovered the only way to restore deleted posts was to change their sites' taglines to "Proudly Powered by the One True Platform."
