{"id":9612,"date":"2026-05-01T07:45:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T11:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/?p=9612"},"modified":"2026-04-30T23:50:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T03:50:34","slug":"wordpress-governance-cracks-show-as-mullenweg-reverses-committer-decisions-weeks-before-7-0-ships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wordpress-governance-cracks-show-as-mullenweg-reverses-committer-decisions-weeks-before-7-0-ships\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress governance cracks show as Mullenweg reverses committer decisions weeks before 7.0 ships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catching up on Slack messages during a flight home from WordCamp Asia, Matt Mullenweg found a ten-day-old message about a disputed ticket involving Akismet<\/a> and WordPress 7.0. What followed was not a quiet resolution. Mullenweg posted a wide-ranging critique in the core committers channel, described WordPress’s recent output as “boring or mediocre crap,” said “the wheels have fallen off” in terms of how the project operates, and then reversed a decision that core committers had already made, directing that Akismet appear on the WordPress 7.0<\/a> Connectors screen.<\/p>\n

The underlying dispute centered on process rather than the feature itself. An Automattic-sponsored contributor had committed Akismet as a default connector during the release candidate phase without the standard review and consensus-building that significant additions to core typically require. Core committers, including John Blackbourn from Human Made, objected on those grounds. Mullenweg<\/a> had previously indicated he opposed forcing Akismet into the Connectors screen. After reviewing the thread, he reversed that position entirely. When someone noted his earlier stance, his response was direct: “I did say that, and have changed my mind and we’re doing this.”<\/p>\n

The result is that Akismet, an Automattic product, will ship on the WordPress 7.0 Connectors screen on May 20, following a process that multiple core committers flagged as bypassing standard governance.<\/p>\n

Separately, Mullenweg described Five for the Future contribution tracking data as “worse than useless” and called for a broader rethink of how corporate contributions factor into WordPress development<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Developer Josh Collinsworth published a widely circulated post titled “If WordPress is to survive, Matt Mullenweg must be removed,” which reflects how seriously parts of the community read the incident.<\/p>\n

The governance structure underneath all of this is the BDFL model, where Mullenweg holds effective authority over both the WordPress Foundation and Automattic<\/a> simultaneously. That model functions quietly during stable periods. Under pressure, and weeks before a major release, it produces a situation where the person most publicly critical of the project is also the person with unilateral authority to override its maintainers.<\/p>\n

For businesses and hosting providers built on WordPress, the software ships May 20 regardless. The questions this incident raises are about process, not code, and those tend to outlast any individual release cycle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catching up on Slack messages during a flight home from WordCamp Asia, Matt Mullenweg found a ten-day-old message about a disputed ticket involving Akismet and WordPress 7.0. What followed was not a quiet resolution. Mullenweg posted a wide-ranging critique in the core committers channel, described WordPress’s recent output as “boring or mediocre crap,” said “the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20624,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[6546,1658,12,6545,6547],"class_list":["post-9612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-akismet-controversy","tag-matt-mullenweg","tag-wordpress","tag-wordpress-7-0","tag-wordpress-core-committers-dispute"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWordPress governance cracks show as Mullenweg reverses committer decisions weeks before 7.0 ships - Web Hosting News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/wordpress-governance-cracks-show-as-mullenweg-reverses-committer-decisions-weeks-before-7-0-ships\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WordPress governance cracks show as Mullenweg reverses committer decisions weeks before 7.0 ships - Web Hosting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Catching up on Slack messages during a flight home from WordCamp Asia, Matt Mullenweg found a ten-day-old message about a disputed ticket involving Akismet and WordPress 7.0. 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