Title: Elevating Individuals Author: Matt Mullenweg Published: April 11, 2026 --- [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/) [Matt Mullenweg](https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/) 1:35 pm _on_ April 11, 2026   # Elevating Individuals Posting here since it spans +make.wordpress.org/design/ , +make.wordpress.org/community/ +make.wordpress.org/marketing/ +make.wordpress.org/meta/ . My request: Let’s go back to how we used to elevate individual identity and contribution. Learn how to celebrate sponsorship in ways that encourage and cheer equally or more volunteers and people contributing in their spare time, and remember that’s how almost all of us started and how beautiful and fun that was. To expand a bit on what I tried to say in the Q&A, I was referring [to this tweet](https://x.com/krupajnanda/status/2042667034207752674?s=61): ![HFkC1nSagAAoUBl](https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2026/04/HFkC1nSagAAoUBl. jpeg?w=776) Krupa, sorry to use you as an example, but the giant SELF EMPLOYED on your badge shocked me, and led me down a path of thinking of all the ways my push to get companies doing what Automattic and Yoast has created some issues in its success, and the unintended consequences it’s maybe led us to. I’m not saying someone deliberately created this bad badge design on purpose or maliciously, but I do want to know what led to a result here that everyone involved thought Name and Company was just fine, and no one advocated for personal info you could have on a badge, and that we have before in previous designs. I would suggest WEBSITE since we’re software trying to help people make websites, and want to encourage and promote that, then WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. [https://wordpress.org/](https://wordpress.org/) username, for same reason, maybe hometown because that’s usually one of the first things people ask and it’s interesting. I’d put all those things over the company, because the company for people who want to show it off is usually obvious from their shirt or buttons before you can read the badge. [@desrosj](https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/) and [@peterwilsoncc](https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc/), Very sorry today for only being able to express disagreement in such a brief and unnuanced way. I’d love to get a Zoom when I’m feeling better so we can discuss and understand each other’s positions better. **Be a good conversationalist** I know I get annoyed when the first question someone asks when you meet is “what do you do for work?” [Here are fun openers that are better](https://buffer.com/resources/27-question-to-ask-instead-of-what-do-you-do/), and how can that inspire how we experiment with badges. **Individual Complaints** I was first made aware of this issue by hearing complaints from coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. WP devs who said they feel like we doing so much more to recognize the contribution of companies. I’ve heard several versions of “it’s a bigger deal for me to contribute without being paid for it!” **Where else is this showing up?** * [In every Five for the Future testimonial](https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/testimonials/). * Very much on the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory [https://wordpress.org/plugins/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. and theme directories. * In the business model of WordCamps. * In a lot of our language and goals. * In my presentations starting probably 6-7 years ago. **We’re measuring and celebrating inputs and contributions, not impact or results** I keep repeating this as the biggest thing we need to change in the WordPress culture and way of doing things. In hindsight, how silly is it to emphasize hours pledged in Five for the Future and not actual activity? And then check regularly if that activity is actually aligned with our goals, or perhaps working against them? (It has happened!) When is more contribution a bad thing? How has our emphasis on participation, process, or inclusive consensus slowed us down, even as we add more people? Are we surprised, given [The Mythical Man-Month](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month) figured that out in 1975! What have we lost, and who have we lost, as a result of the structure and processes we’ve created? How am I so smart yet so dumb sometimes?! 🙂 Here’s a better version. The most powerful question from Jerry Collona: “How have I been complicit in creating the conditions _I say_ I don’t want?” It works so well in all parts of life. ### Share this: * [ Threads ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/04/11/elevating-individuals/?share=threads) * [ Mastodon ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/04/11/elevating-individuals/?share=mastodon) * [ Bluesky ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/04/11/elevating-individuals/?share=bluesky) * [ X ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/04/11/elevating-individuals/?share=x) * [ Facebook ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/04/11/elevating-individuals/?share=facebook) * [ LinkedIn ](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/04/11/elevating-individuals/?share=linkedin) 1. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/33252cd1f33526af53580fcb1736172f06e6716f32afdd1be19ec3096d15dea5? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 2. [Matt Mullenweg](https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/) 2:15 pm _on_ April 11, 2026 3. It is a cause or symptom that, in delegating responsibility to teams and committees from myself and lead devs, who used to have ownership and decision-making authority across the entire project and exercised it regularly, we don’t have a great place to discuss issues that fall between the cracks of teams, or span them all. 4. I’d love some thought partners in asking and solving some of the big questions like where we’ve failed even as, or perhaps because of, succeeding. What lessons in our past have we forgotten? How are we adopting the mistakes of projects like Drupal and Joomla that caused us to pass them by? 5. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/33252cd1f33526af53580fcb1736172f06e6716f32afdd1be19ec3096d15dea5? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 6. [Matt Mullenweg](https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/) 2:21 pm _on_ April 11, 2026 7. Where has our focus and work on recruiting and empowering contributors encouraged human-driven solutions toward our goals rather than technological ones? Where does the technology of 2026 offer new solutions to our past problems? 8. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0c00bc6bb79905cd73ec1cb0f22bf813f7f34f46ee670d018b30b5569b2924dd? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Tammie Lister](https://profiles.wordpress.org/karmatosed/) 3:01 pm _on_ April 11, 2026 * In giving my answer here I might be replying to some other questions, but I’ll start here. I think technology of today can give space for more humane-driven solutions. What I mean there is it can open up spaces, it can bring people to engage and capabilitiescapability A **capability** is permission to perform one or more types of task. Checking if a user has a capability is performed by the `current_user_can` function. Each user of a WordPress site might have some permissions but not others, depending on their role. For example, users who have the Author role usually have permission to edit their own posts (the“ edit_posts” capability), but not permission to edit other users’ posts (the“ edit_others_posts” capability). they couldn’t do before. Let me unpack that a bit in a few points: - **Housekeeping**: it’s a fairly agreed fact that we need to give housekeeping over to non-human interactions. Any open project looking for contributors needs the floors clean, the bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions( adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.’s triaged, the kettle warming, a well stocked fridge (excuse the winding concept there). To me, this is low hanging fruit and I would take a dramatic approach with some nets in place. I will say, I think we need to make some bold moves( particularly around triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors.) that do so with nets in place for human respect, but also allow us to make change. - **Noise to signal**: how many times have people in the project said ‘drink from firehose’ or accepted the overwhelm of signals? By using technology we can ease, dial down the noise and ratio up the signal. - **Clarity**: focus on what needs to be done now. When you have a calm space, you have a calmer focus. Technology also I strongly believe helps us bring clarity to focus. I use it daily in my product work as does anyone in that area. - **Review**: this is probably the harder one. As a collective project we need to look at the world not as it was, we need to accept that ‘interfaceless’ is the reality and an interface first approach isn’t the way forward. Are our goals the right ones considering all the changes that have happened in the blink of an eye? Many of us that work on product day to day have had to change our work drastically, as a project WordPress also needs to. This re-focus will be on what humans need today and I will be as bold to say it’s not what we needed before, even a year ago. * I used the word humane for a reason. Open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. of history has encouraged ‘more more more’ of contributors, of anyone being part. It has in the past felt like a beast we are pouring coal into the furnace of. How many missed birthday parties of children, unwell people on trips, missed life stories because of ‘just one more patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a **diff**. A patch can be _applied_ to a codebase for testing.’ or ‘needing to be in a meeting’, or because had to travel to an event? Technology can bridge and has proven to so that people don’t need to be at events, this allows holistic lives of contributors – this should be embraced and praised, championed. * Now, I can only speak from my own headspace, but I know I am seeing this in others where they pace their technologies and apply what is around today meshed into their life in a way they are gaining back time, those moments. It’s not uncommon, some (I am one) have jumped into OpenClaw as part of their mesh to do this for them. This is the power of technology today, it can empower many in ways personally they haven’t been before. WordPress can take those lessons into it as a project. * That’s a lot, but to me that’s how we start doing this. It doesn’t start with a framework or a buzzword, it simply start by looking at how life can be better for those contributing today and to come to contribute. 9. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4f50dc56c80eceb636a7ef7d036a019a7d4189e8b3f87d9c899e848248ef36d8? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 10. [annezazu](https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/) 12:11 am _on_ April 12, 2026 11. > I’m not saying someone deliberately created this bad badge design on purpose > or maliciously, but I do want to know what led to a result here that everyone > involved thought Name and Company was just fine, and no one advocated for personal > info you could have on a badge, and that we have before in previous designs. > I would suggest WEBSITE since we’re software trying to help people make websites, > and want to encourage and promote that, then WordPress.orgWordPress.org The > community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This > is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes > as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. > [https://wordpress.org/](https://wordpress.org/) username, for same reason, > maybe hometown because that’s usually one of the first things people ask and > it’s interesting. I’d put all those things over the company, because the company > for people who want to show it off is usually obvious from their shirt or buttons > before you can read the badge. 12. I wanted to pull this thread out from this post and follow up on it [with an issue here for broader discussion and to create a new tool ](https://github.com/WordPress/wordcamp.org/issues/1701) to generate best practice badges so every WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. [Learn more](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). can benefit. Please chime in! 13. > Let’s go back to how we used to elevate individual identity and contribution. > Learn how to celebrate sponsorship in ways that encourage and cheer equally > or more volunteers and people contributing in their spare time, and remember > that’s how almost all of us started and how beautiful and fun that was. 14. An easy place to start with shifting this dynamic are the keynotes and telling stories of work by individual contributors, alongside broader features where folks sometimes sponsored from multiple contribute. I have also heard feedback from contributors that when their company isn’t listed, it then makes it harder for them to be sponsored to contribute. We need to be mindful of that balance too and I agree that right now we have swung too far towards emphasizing companies sponsoring people rather than the people doing the work, sponsored or not. [The default Twenty Twenty-Seven theme](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/04/08/tt7-team/) should be on our list for this. 15. I’d love to have a [“featured contribution” on our WordPress.org profiles](https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/) so folks can talk about something they were a part of and proud of. 16. > It is a cause or symptom that, in delegating responsibility to teams and committees > from myself and lead devs, who used to have ownership and decision-making authority > across the entire project and exercised it regularly, we don’t have a great > place to discuss issues that fall between the cracks of teams, or span them > all. 17. Personally, I’d love to bring back Lead Devs and refresh the list. I think this is a net negative in the project and is a learning that I think we lost along the way. It’s left big gaping holes in terms of accountability and responsibility that I see show up in releases every time when decisions need to be made. 18. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0c00bc6bb79905cd73ec1cb0f22bf813f7f34f46ee670d018b30b5569b2924dd? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Tammie Lister](https://profiles.wordpress.org/karmatosed/) 8:45 am _on_ April 12, 2026 * > I’d love to bring back Lead Devs and refresh the list. I think this is a > net negative in the project and is a learning that I think we lost along > the way. * If I might be so bold, I agree with this in part and maybe having a emeritus group for those is part of a solution. I also would shift our thinking not just to the word ‘developers’ in this. The project has changed, maybe it’s not just a role anymore to also reflect the changing space, the changing nature of the needs. If this does refresh, which in my next point I also would maybe challenge against by using those we have, it should have cross role, types, geography and diverse voices – our project does and our top conversations need to reflect that. * Another framing might be that committers being activated even more is something we can and should do. This could avoid having to form another layer which could be a gentler approach for people and use the knowledge we have already more effectively. The act of committing is incredible, but puts someone in a space that can lead also to advising, guiding and suggesting in ways I don’t think we as a project always listen to or give space for growing. How can we use those people we already have in the space across many companies, voices, roles and geographical locations – already building with a vast knowledge? This includes component maintainers and perhaps part of this is reviewing what these things mean across. That could be empowering to those that have been around for a while and also show those coming up as contributors there is a path to grow into. 19. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/de28dc6cd860dfba5e870bc8581b6dfe90719545a70690e109dde31b77687efc? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 20. [Amber Hinds](https://profiles.wordpress.org/alh0319/) 1:21 pm _on_ April 13, 2026 21. It’s worth noting that systems that elevate the total number of hours contributed are inherently biased towards large companies. It would be better to ask how many hours are being contributed of available hours. I.e., a single person volunteering 50% of their time is personally giving much money to the project than a company giving hundreds of hours if those hundreds of hours are only 5% of their available work hours. 22. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/de28dc6cd860dfba5e870bc8581b6dfe90719545a70690e109dde31b77687efc? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Amber Hinds](https://profiles.wordpress.org/alh0319/) 1:22 pm _on_ April 13, 2026 * *that should have said “much more” not “much money” – autocorrect. 🙃 * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0737740b55d6bee9487cf6803bb3c28208048049ebc0cbd91f3804a60a3fa741? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Chris Johannesson](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chrisjohdev/) 4:27 pm _on_ April 14, 2026 * That is a very important destinction to make. An idea could be to have two different systems. One for corporates and one for individuals. I understand your idea of percentage of available workhours but then it comes down to how many workhours you have. Not everyone has the sme number of workhours. However having separate systems for corporations and individuals would solve that issue I belive. 23. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/118da268a0c363731e91a800b9cbd55a95988ea50d8762452f0e1fdcf1c2365b? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 24. [Mary Hubbard](https://profiles.wordpress.org/4thhubbard/) 4:37 pm _on_ April 22, 2026 25. I agree, we’ve drifted. 26. To fix this, we need to restore something more fundamental: ownership, authority, and momentum. We are at a place where we require shared ownership and consensus for everything. 27. I also agree with [@annezazu](https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/) and other contributors that we should bring back clearer leadership in key places. Lead devs, feature leads, not just “devs” but people who are explicitly responsible for moving something forward and more importantly, closing the loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. [https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop](https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop). We attempted this move last year and it stalled. It stalled due to not gaining a large enough consensus. Let’s learn from this. Comments are closed. # Post navigation [← What’s new in Gutenberg 22.9? (8 April)](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/04/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-9-8-april/) [Dev Chat Agenda – April 15, 2026 →](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/04/15/dev-chat-agenda-april-8-2026-2/)