Tweaks WP

Dark card reading Your Rate Limits Are Not Working, with the subtitle 3,300 COUNT queries per second and a limit that is configured but never applied

Your Rate Limits Are Not Working. The Object Cache Is Why.

100k members polling unread counts every 30 seconds is roughly 3,300 COUNT queries per second. Without a persistent object cache that is all real queries, and rate limiting stops being enforced at all while still appearing configured. How to check, what to install, and how it breaks later.

Varun Dubey · August 8, 2026 · 8 min read

plugins

Best Community Plugins with Gamification (2026)

Gamification has become one of the most effective ways to build an active online community. Instead of relying only on discussion forums or member … Read more

Varun Dubey · August 7, 2026 · 8 min read

plugins

Best WordPress Forum & Community Plugins (2026): Complete Comparison

Building a successful online community starts with choosing the right WordPress plugin. Whether you want to launch a customer support forum, a private member … Read more

Varun Dubey · August 6, 2026 · 8 min read

Timeline showing a cache delete before a database write letting a concurrent reader re-cache the old row, leaving it stale for the full TTL

Performance

Four Object Cache Bugs That Only Appear in Production

Four object cache bugs that never reproduce without Redis: busting before the write, cached nulls returning as empty strings, one row served under two keys, and invalidation from a hook listener that misses REST, CLI and import.

Varun Dubey · August 5, 2026 · 8 min read

WordPress

Best Open Source Community Platforms in 2026: Complete Comparison

Building an online community requires more than just a place where users can create accounts and post updates. Modern communities need engaging profiles, discussions, … Read more

Varun Dubey · August 5, 2026 · 8 min read

Membership Websites

10 Best Plugins to Build an Online Community on WordPress (2026)

Building an online community is one of the best ways to increase engagement, strengthen customer relationships, and create recurring revenue. Whether you’re launching a … Read more

Varun Dubey · August 4, 2026 · 8 min read

Four rollout waves for WordPress 7.1 across a site fleet, from your own sites on 19 August to difficult client sites in the week of 31 August

How To

WordPress 7.1 Lands in 15 Days. Here Is the Fleet Rollout Plan.

WordPress 7.1 ships 19 August. A staged four-wave rollout for agencies: the inventory commands, which sites go last, what to verify where, the rollback decision, and why front-end smoke tests will miss everything.

Varun Dubey · August 4, 2026 · 8 min read

Timeline showing a thirty day exposure window between a premium WAF rule shipping on 28 July and the free tier rule on 27 August

Security

Your WAF Protected Paying Customers on 28 July. You Get the Rule on 27 August.

Wordfence shipped the ARVE backdoor rule to premium on 28 July. Free tier gets it 27 August. How to measure your own exposure window, verify the WAF is actually loaded, and four ways to close the gap.

Varun Dubey · August 2, 2026 · 8 min read

WordPress media library grid loading more attachments on scroll, with the media_library_infinite_scrolling filter set to true

Performance

WordPress 7.1 Turns On Media Library Infinite Scroll. Measure It Before You Keep It.

Media library infinite scroll is on by default in WordPress 7.1. The new precedence order, why setting the filter overrides every user's opt-out, WP-CLI commands to measure your own library, and the three plugin patterns this breaks.

Varun Dubey · August 1, 2026 · 8 min read

Membership Websites

Best 5 Facebook Group Alternatives for WordPress (2026)

Facebook Groups make it easy to start an online community, but they come with limitations. You don’t own your audience, your content is subject … Read more

Varun Dubey · July 31, 2026 · 8 min read

Dark navy card in WordPress blue reading Half the jobs, half the reruns, with metrics showing 52 percent fewer matrix jobs, 54 percent fewer job-minutes, and runs needing a rerun falling from 68 percent to 36 percent

Code Snippets

Core Trimmed Its PHPUnit Matrix. Do the Same to Yours.

Core cut its PHPUnit matrix by 52 percent and halved its rerun rate. How to apply the same reasoning to a plugin test suite.