On Christmas Eve, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg took to Reddit, causing quite a stir by asking what kind of drama he should create in 2025. He posted, “What drama should I create in 2025? I’m very open to suggestions. Should we stop naming releases after jazz musicians and name them after Drake lyrics? Eliminate all dashboard notices? Take over any plugins into core? Change from blue to purple? I think we can brainstorm together and come up with way better things than I could on my own. ☺️ Also, Merry Christmas! 🎄”
The post quickly amassed over 500 comments. However, the community was far from being amused, and a good portion of the replies urged him to stop posting, step down, seek professional help, or take a break and avoid creating any drama. “For someone in your position, creating extraneous drama for these people is not only disrespectful, it’s outright psychopathic to the extent that it affects their ability to work and be productive.”, read one comment from Stubby_Shillelagh.
Redditor WillmanRacing referenced a Sherman Act violation, suggesting sarcastically, “I have a fantastic idea for some drama we can get up to. Why don’t we create a charitable foundation governing our open source software product, instead of our for-profit company. Why don’t we also operate our main website as its own separate entity, with employees and volunteers provided by yet another entity. Then, why dont we have all of these entities take action against one of our competitors and their entire customer base, refusing to do business with any customers until they stop working with our competitor. Why don’t we ban ALL of those people from our services, and try to compel them to use our service instead?”
Many expressed frustration and hoped for a return to normalcy. One Redditor shared, “I’ve been a huge fan of WordPress for the longest time, and I hate to see all this drama happening. Learning WordPress is actually how I landed my first official programming job. I really hope everything will get back to normal soon.”
Responding to calls for taking a break, Matt quoted Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “Life’s but a walking shadow, A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Matt also hinted that some exciting things are on the way. He said, “I’m really excited for people to experience Phase 3 of Gutenberg, things like real-time co-editing done completely peer-to-peer with WebRTC.”
Another person chimed in, “Matt is doing to WordPress.org what broadcom is doing to VMware. WordPress used to be such a happy place with a rich thriving developer community, but now everyone is scared shitless that Matt will do a rug pull because he feels like it.”
It (WordPress) has a very special place in my heart, as well. I think WordPress’ brightest days are ahead of it.
– Matt Mullenweg
Matt was also criticized for not grasping the gravity of the situation. One Redditor said, “How can you write such a post in a time like this? The WordPress community needs stability and a leadership to trust again. It doesn’t matter if you want to be funny, this is not the right time. Do you think people see this post and think, “yeah, that’s a project I want to contribute to?” Contributors are leaving, even getting banned. Clients are worried. Users looking for alternatives. A court is involved. But your actions don’t really look like you get the seriousness of this. It’s really sad to watch.”
Another Redditor too shared this opinion and Matt replied, “I hope you see how much this is unique to WPE and not something that has happened before or since with others. Silver Lake holds things for 4-6 years and then flips and moves on. Myself and many others are in this for decades. We have seen their type come and go in the past.”
When a Redditor asked about choosing Shopify or sticking with WordPress, Matt recommended, “Use WordPress if you value freedom, autonomy, and want to be in complete control of your digital future. Shopify can be expensive but a good proprietary solution if you want to do exactly what they offer and not color outside the lines too much.” Most of Matt’s comments in Reddit were downvoted.
Some supported Matt’s recent actions. “Thanks for your “drama”. Had it been successful, this would have set the best precedent ever for the all the hyper-capitalist leeches leeching off the free work of others. But everyone is selfish, and short-sighted. They should have taken the opportunity to back you, and dealt with you later, but alas. All fools.”, read one comment.
Another one said, “If you want to make the change you claim you want to see and Matt take a more ethical stance on his business practices, then maybe give WordPress back to the people for free as it was intended. Until then we should appreciate the guy who brought us to the dance. Does not mean we need to like him, more successful people are not liked, something very sad about watching a group of people attack a man who gave 50% of the net to the world for free.”
The community also offered Matt various suggestions, both serious and playful:
- Provide steady leadership.
- Listen to the community.
- Show restraint and consider how his actions affect the rest of the community.
- Publicly promise that no plugins from the Repo will be taken over.
- Endorse a successor to WordPress
- Federate the Repos and take the hosting costs off Automattic.
- Introduce a built-in way to create a simple contact form
- Hand over WordPress.org to a community-run group.
- Make Gutenberg absolutely awesome.
- Offer WordPress with three options right out of the box: Classic only, Gutenberg only, or both.
- Name WordPress releases after meteors/poets/songwriters.
- Charge $.05 per request to anything at WordPress.org
Regarding the ongoing drama, Matt said, “We’ll look back on the WPE drama next year as something that seemed like a big deal at the time but isn’t that notable in the grand arc of history.”
He signed off, saying, “I really do enjoy talking with people on the internet, even if we don’t always agree, and I appreciate everyone taking the time to share their perspective. Forums like this is how I got my start as a teenager. If you think Reddit is spicy, you should have seen Usenet and IRC back in the day! I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and very happy new year.”
The discussion spilled over to Twitter, too. Ryan Duff dubbed it “Just another day of very unhealthy and toxic behavior from WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg.”
Takis Bouyouris tweeted, “Either Matt has crossed some sort of personal Rubicon, or it is hard to imagine how such pettiness could have been the attribute of one who lead the project for so many years. Being lonely at the top, detached from reality and without healthy consult is a sign of a fading ruler. The Autumn of the Patriarch, by Gabriel García Márquez is a great novel on the topic.”
Duane Storey tweeted, “Matt looking down at the #WordPress community on Reddit this Christmas eve, wondering why we are all still singing and enjoying ourselves without our WordPress.org toys.”
Kellie Peterson exclaimed, “What fresh hell? This is what Matt Mullenweg is doing on Christmas Eve. He could be spending it with his alleged many godchildren, his mother, and his sister but instead he’s sowing chaos.”
