The storm worsens in the WordPress ecosystem

Last year, I had written a post centred around WordPress, the open-source CMS, and how there was a storm brewing–creating some turmoil in the community.

Well, as of January 2025, that storm has worsened. Matt Mullenweg, WordPress co-founder, disbanded the sustainability team, in another display of tech bro brutal leadership. The treatment of the process, and frankly backwards thinking, has sent another shockwave of disruption through the WordPress community. Especially for those incredible people who were diligently working to make it a more sustainable eco-system.

A screenshot of the WordPress sustainability team slack discussion

A screenshot of the WordPress sustainability team slack discussion

What started as a member of team deciding to leave the group due to concerns of the leadership, quickly escalated within a few minutes to a full scale shutdown. The end result being Matt choosing to archive the channel. Ending 2 years of hard work from the community and key people involved in the group. A sad sad day.

Why this sucks

WordPress is a tool for creating websites. It is the backbone to a vast swathe of the websites live on the internet. Positive, sustainable changes in WordPress could have vast impacts on the carbon footprint of the web. But a lack of pioneering leadership who is blind to the long-term future will not produce positive change.

Why maybe it doesn’t matter

WordPress is open-source. It has a huge community that spans the globe. A community that relies on the tool to power their websites, but also their businesses. WordPress core is indeed worked upon by volunteers from the community.

So, from this stand point, I still feel like there is opportunity for moving forward in a positive manner.

Some personal reflections

I have utilised WordPress for many years. To be frank, I’ve built a chunk of my career around it.

I am deciding though to look for alternative solutions to build the best, most sustainable websites I can. I had decided this a little while ago, but these actions make me want to push for that sooner rather than later. I will no doubt continue to use WordPress for some time as client needs must, but as for the future, I may move away from it fully. I’m not sure yet.