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Matt Mullenweg started a Reddit discussion in the r/WPDrama subreddit asking what kind of drama he can create in 2025, sparking an avalanche of responses that subsequently generated a spinoff discussion about one of his responses to another Redditor.
The public r/WPDrama subreddit was created in October 2024 as a place to discuss the fallout from Mullenweg’s conflict with WP Engine. It currently has over 1,300 members.
Mullenweg And Drama
Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of the WordPress CMS (Content Management System), was involved in a self-described “nuclear” war with WP Engine in the latter half of 2024. The conflict has generally caused a negative backlash against Mullenweg and has led to a call for a restructuring of the governance of the open source WordPress project by Joost de Valk (co-founder of the Yoast SEO Plugin).
So it was somewhat surprising that he showed up on Reddit asking what further drama could he stir up in 2025. The post was provocatively titled: What drama should I create in 2025?
His intent for the post was not about creating actual drama but rather it was about what changes could be made to WordPress. The post title appeared to be a tongue in cheek but provocative choice for the Reddit discussion.
Mullenweg posted:
“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!”
His discussion starter generated nearly 600 responses, seemingly all of them negative.
The moderator of the subreddit pinned their response to the top of the discussion, which partially reads:
“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?”
That pretty much set the tone for the entire discussion.
ryanduff answered Matt’s question with:
“You should log off and find a good therapist”
Matt Mullenweg responded:
“Hi Ryan, freelance WordPress developer. I’m glad that WordPress and WooCommerce have been tools that have provided you some utility and economic benefit in the past, and hopefully again in the future. Your profile notes your strong religious belief, I’d ask before you post something like this again you ask: WWJD?”
WWJD is an acronym for “What Would Jesus Do?” Redditors responded with riffs on that comment.
His response received 85 downvotes, representing the displeasure and unpopularity of his post with other Redditors. One of the responses to his WWJD post referenced the federal judge who granted WP Engine’s request for a preliminary injunction.
They posted:
“What would Judge (Araceli Martínez-Olguín) do? We’ll see.”
Another Redditor responded:
“Maybe you should ask yourself WWJD (What Would Joost Do)”
That branch of the discussion went completely off the rails with various suggestions of what Mullenweg should do and spawned a standalone discussion titled, “Is Matt low-key threatening or attempting to intimidate this r/WPDrama user?”
That spinoff discussion spawned responses such as this one:
“He either thinks it’s funny, likes the attention, or is so far gone psychologically it doesn’t event register in his mind that your / our views matter at all. I’d guess it’s a combination of all of the above.
The best thing we can all do is break from WP completely and withdraw all volunteering, all financial interactions, cut using it, stop recommending it, and use something else for clients, or use a fork.
He was enjoying being a bully before he picked on WP Engine and now is losing the plot as they say and hopefully Joost can start his own fork that will finally be supported and marketed well enough to get going or can arrange some kind of ouster of spoiled baby MM.”
Matt Mullenweg’s Response To The Negativity
The response to his discussion was overwhelmingly negative. Nevertheless Mullenweg ended his participation by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.
He posted:
“I’m signing off for the night, it’s time for family movie time. Thank you for the conversation everyone. 🙂 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.”
That relatively upbeat post received seven down votes.
Read the entire discussion here:
What drama should I create in 2025?
Featured Image by Shutterstock/STILLFX