Matt Mullenweg has published an extensive and self-critical assessment of the WordPress project’s state, questioning a process culture that — in his view — paralyzes decision-making, overshadows individual contributors in favor of companies, and has turned Five for the Future into a program generating useless data.

Remember that you can listen to this program from Pocket Casts, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the feed directly.

Program transcript

Hello, I’m Alicia Ireland, and you’re listening to WPpodcast, bringing the weekly news from the WordPress Community.

In this episode, you’ll find the information from April 13 to 19, 2026.

At WordCamp Asia in Mumbai, a seemingly routine question during the closing Q&A triggered the most intense internal debate the WordPress community has seen in a long time. An attendee asked the panel what the best way was for a company to contribute to the project. Two of core’s most active committers, Peter Wilson and Sergey Biryukov, gave the same answer: sponsor full-time contributors. Matt Mullenweg, following the event remotely, publicly disagreed in real time, transmitting his response through the Automattic communications team. What followed was a week of criticism and self-criticism that put long-unanswered questions back on the table.

The first thread started on Make Core, where Matt published a reflection on a photo of a conference badg...

Matt Mullenweg questions the direction of WordPress