WordPress sustainability team disbanded after Matt Mullenweg's Reddit drama

In the world of WordPress, 2025 has picked up right from where 2024 left off. WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has disbanded the Sustainability Team. This comes on the heels of a team representative, Thijs Buijs, resigning in protest after Mullenweg took to Reddit to ask the community what “drama” he should create in 2025.

Buijs’s departure wasn’t just a quiet exit; it was a loud protest against what he described as unsustainable leadership. Mullenweg’s Reddit post, seen by many as trivializing the serious issues of the past year, including job losses and significant community upheaval, ignited a firestorm.

In his resignation note, Buijs highlighted the inconsistency and lack of support from leadership. He expressed his frustration at the counterproductive nature of recent actions, which he believes undermine the economic, social, and ecological sustainability of WordPress. The drama escalated when Mullenweg, in a surprising move, decided to dissolve the entire sustainability team shortly after Buijs’s resignation. According to Mullenweg, he wasn’t aware that a Sustainability Team even existed until after the resignation. This, despite the fact that Mullenweg himself suggested creating a Slack channel for sustainability discussions back in 2022, as captured in the video below.

His justification? A lack of results and a questionable return on investment. This decision was met with widespread outrage, as many pointed out that Mullenweg himself had initially suggested the creation of a sustainability channel.

The community reaction has been nothing short of explosive. Members expressed their dismay at the sudden dismissal of a team that had been working tirelessly to address sustainability concerns. Critics accused Mullenweg of hypocrisy and gaslighting, pointing out that his actions contradict his earlier statements and commitments.

Comments poured in, with some accusing Mullenweg of being out of touch with the community and others likening his leadership style to that of Elon Musk, albeit a less successful and far more petulant version. Others have questioned his leadership abilities, suggesting he’s more suited to running a popsicle stand than a global open-source project.

This incident has sparked a broader conversation about the future of WordPress and its leadership. Many are questioning whether the platform, which powers a significant portion of the internet, can afford to ignore sustainability concerns. Others are calling for a change in leadership, citing Mullenweg’s recent actions as evidence of a deeper problem.

As the dust settles, one thing is certain: the WordPress community is at a crossroads. But in the words of one community member, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Maybe it’s time for the WordPress community to take this advice to heart as they grapple with the implications of recent events and look to the future with cautious optimism.