Internal WordPress Rift Exposed

Disagreements within WordPress have recently come to light, sparking debate around leadership, burnout, and the project’s long-term stability.

A clash among the core contributor team has spilled into the public eye, leaving many outside the organisation puzzled. What started with a post over a week ago escalated into a striking outburst, uncovering underlying strains within the WordPress contributor community.

Mary Hubbard Announcement Triggers Conflict

The latest dispute appears to have been triggered on 15 September, when Mary Hubbard, Executive Director of WordPress, announced the creation of a new Core Programme Team. The aim of this group was to help Core contributor teams work together more effectively, improving coordination and collaboration across different areas of the project. However, the announcement only acted as a spark for what seems to be a much deeper and ongoing disagreement.

In her statement, Hubbard outlined that the team’s purpose was to make contributions easier by improving efficiency, documenting practices, highlighting roadmaps, and offering clearer processes to new groups. She stressed that the team would not dictate product direction, with each Core group remaining independent. Instead, the new body would focus on listening, connecting contributors, and reducing friction.

The announcement quickly provoked a strong reaction. Jenni McKinnon, a member of the documentation team, published a response that was later removed. In her post, she claimed the initiative was announced during an active legal and procedural review that dealt directly with the project’s governance structure. McKinnon stated she was formally involved in this review as part of her recognised role within the Strategic Social Resilience Operations (SSRO).

She went on to argue that the Core Programme Team should be paused immediately until the review had been completed and clearance formally granted. McKinnon also declared that Hubbard had no valid authority in this matter, suggesting that any decisions linked to her would be procedurally invalid and subject to legal scrutiny.

Her directive emphasised that all official oversight and governance rested with SSRO, herself, and other verified leaders under secured protocol. She claimed the measures were necessary to safeguard the integrity of WordPress contributors, protect against governance sabotage, and ensure that any future decisions were both lawful and ethical.

McKinnon concluded by noting that any further updates would only be shared through secure channels or once the ongoing review had finished.

The statement caused shock across several WordPress-related Slack and Facebook groups, sparking questions and debate. Many observers were left wondering how such a dispute had spilled into the open. The tension, however, can be traced back to earlier disagreements around documentation team involvement that had been brewing for more than a week.

Documentation Team Participation

On 10 September, Estela Rueda, a member of the documentation team, published a post alerting the Core contributor community to a new development in the upcoming WordPress 6.9 release process. She explained that the release squad would be trialling a smaller group that left out dedicated documentation leads, with only a temporary “Docs Liaison” included instead.

Rueda raised concerns about this change, emphasising the crucial role documentation plays in every release. She argued that sidelining documentation could lead to it being neglected during planning and coordination, which would put the entire project at risk. She also pointed out that failing to include a formal documentation lead sends a discouraging message to contributors: that documentation is undervalued and unlikely to earn them proper recognition within the community.

In her post, she warned that documentation is not a luxury but an essential part of the process. Without it, the project would eventually struggle to function at scale. By removing the position from the release squad, she said, WordPress risks showing newcomers that documentation work is less respected and will not lead to visibility in project credits.

Jenni McKinnon, another member of the documentation team, quickly responded with her own views. She criticised the decision, claiming it ran counter to the principles of open-source collaboration and could promote what she described as “exclusionary” practices. McKinnon also warned that this approach might encourage harmful, almost “cult-like” behaviours within the contributor base.

According to McKinnon, the rationale of reducing “overhead” was misleading. Instead, she argued, the decision sent a damaging message that documentation was non-essential. In her view, this undermines transparency, weakens contributor morale, and risks alienating those who play an important role in the project.

She later expanded her comments, going further in her criticism. In one statement, McKinnon claimed that the move reflected a wider trend towards “top-down” management within WordPress. She alleged that Mary Hubbard, the project’s Executive Director, had been the driving force behind the proposal, despite objections from all documentation team leads and several long-standing contributors.

McKinnon also insisted that presenting the change as an “experiment” or as part of efforts to “streamline” processes was misleading. She argued that what was really happening was an attempt to centralise control and reduce input from important teams. She further claimed that this shift had already caused harm within the community, including what she described as abusive behaviour behind the scenes.

Documentation Team Member Asked To Step Away

The latest development appears to have been set off by an announcement earlier today revealing that Jenni McKinnon had been asked to “step away” from her role.

In a post titled “The stepping away of a team member,” Milana Cap explained the reasoning behind the decision. She wrote that the Documentation team’s leadership had requested McKinnon to step back following disagreements about the team’s role in the release process.

According to Cap, recent structural changes to the WordPress release squad sparked wider discussions about documentation’s place in the release cycle. While the team was working with the Core group, the release squad, and Executive Director Mary Hubbard to find a path forward, McKinnon made a series of comments that clashed with the team’s position. These included calls for sweeping reforms across the project and suggestions to remove certain leaders from their roles.

Cap noted that these actions conflicted with the intentions of the Documentation team. Attempts were made to address the situation privately, with leadership asking McKinnon to refrain from posting further comments of that nature. However, as the behaviour persisted, the team ultimately decided it was best for her to step away temporarily.

The post stressed that this step was not necessarily permanent. The team expressed a willingness to work with McKinnon in the future to explore a return, provided it would serve the best interests of both her and the team.

This announcement is thought to have fuelled the heated exchanges that unfolded later in the comments section of a separate post made by Mary Hubbard.

Zooming Out: The Big Picture

have privately expressed wider concerns. They believe that technical debt within the Core project has been mounting and worry that broader, long-term priorities are being overlooked.

In a separate discussion on her 10 September post about documentation team involvement in WordPress releases, Estela Rueda also touched on the issue of contributor burnout. She noted that participation often comes in waves, with numbers rising during releases or special projects. However, those who remain active over the long term frequently end up feeling exhausted and in need of breaks.

When viewed together, these concerns create the impression — at least to outsiders — that underlying tensions and strain are beginning to show within the WordPress project.