In July, before the latest WP Engine blowup, an Automattic employee wrote in Slack that they received a direct message from Mullenweg sending them an identification code for Blind, an anonymous workplace discussion platform, which was required to complete registration on the site. Blind requires employees to use their official workplace emails to sign up, as a way to authenticate that users actually work for the companies they are discussing. Mullenweg said on Slack that emails sent from Blind’s platform to employees’ email addresses were being forwarded to him. If employees wanted to log in or sign up for Blind, they’d need to ask Mullenweg for the two-factor identification code. The implication was that Automattic—and Mullenweg—could see who was trying to sign up for Blind, which is often a place where people anonymously vent or share criticism about their workplace.

Kids - when the website demands your real identification, it’s not anonymous, ok. Pick a lane - do you want to be anonymous or do you want to post on this “Blind” site.

Here’s an example of my suggestion:

Blind: sign up with your genuine work email so you can talk shit about your company, bosses, and co-workers!

Me: closes window