We have a single server Drupal 9 site (yes, old and we are upgrading) we would like to maximize the performance on. It's a VM with 6 CPU, 12GB RAM, running Apache 2.4 and PHP 8.4. We are currently running the prefork MPM but are testing the following changes:

1. Event MPM
2. PHP8-FPM
3. Opcache

Memory isn't an issue as "free -h" shows no swap being used with 10GB free. The server does require a login via the Drupal simpleSAMLphp module. We are not doing any front-end (i.e. Varnish) or backend (e.g. Redis) caching. We are currently load testing using a script that spawns browser instances from Selenium Grid though we plan to look into k5/locust which would require less testing overhead.

A few questions in terms of setting parameters for the above:

1. This server is dedicated to serving web pages with Drupal. Should we lean towards pm=static vs pm=ondemand/dynamic? We are currently using pm=dynamic.
2. Each php-fpm process seems to consume no more than 100MB. Should we simply divide available memory/100MB to determine the value for pm.max_children?
3. We are looking at the Opcache status from https://github.com/rlerdorf/opcache-status and the numbers look good. Anything we should pay attention to for the opcache settings in PHP-FPM?
4. Any MariaDB settings we should look into?

When load testing the server with 40-50 users, top and mpstat show the following with:

1. pm.max_children = 30
2. pm.start_servers = 9
3. pm.min_spare_servers = 6
4. pm.max_spare_servers = 12
5. pm.max_requests = 100

​

top - 20:05:00 up 1:10, 15 users, load average: 4.85, 2.17, 1.82 Tasks: 373 total, 5 running, 368 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie %Cpu(s): 74.8 us, 8.9 sy, 0.0 ni, 14.3 id, 1.5 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.4 si, 0.0 st MiB Mem : 15691.45+total, 11877.61+free, 2856.645 used, 1348.715 buff/cache MiB Swap: 32767.99+total, 32767.99+free, 0.000 used. 12834.80+avail Mem 20:05:01 CPU %usr %nice %sys %idle 20:05:02 all 87.65 0.00 11.69 0.00 20:05:02 0 89.00 0.00 10.00 0.00 20:05:02 1 88.89 0.00 10.10 0.00 20:05:02 2 86.00 0.00 14.00 0.00 20:05:02 3 88.00 0.00 11.00 0.00 20:05:02 4 86.00 0.00 14.00 0.00 20:05:02 5 88.00 0.00 11.00 0.00 

According to /fpm-status, active process=30. The performance seems to indicate the site performance at 40-50 users is under load as response is <3s. 40-50 users seems low but it seems we are running into CPU issues so unless we can get CPU usage down, I don't see the number of users increasing.

Update: I got a fast accurate response below, so thanks, & this is closed.

I did look the instructions up online, and the article is from August 2026, so I don't know if it's my theme or what (Generate Press), but under appearance, there is no Reading under Settings.

So

I had it set correctly, but someone installed a plugin on my site to add a sort of store type thing, and now he set the items for sale on the index page and I want my original page back.

Why would the "Reading" be missing from the Settings area?

Thanks

Hello Everyone,

I built a free WordPress plugin for selling event tickets and checking guests in at the door. I'm the author.

Events and Tickets with QR Check-in — GPLv2 on WordPress.org. No paid tier, no per-ticket fee, no account to create with me.

What it actually does:

- Sets your event up by asking you questions — what kind of night, what the room looks like, how you get paid — instead of dropping you on a settings page.

- Sells the room you actually have: tables, rows or free seating, price categories and zones. A seat can't be sold twice.

- Asks for the name of every person coming. Each guest gets their own QR ticket as a PDF, by email.

- Checks people in from any phone at the door — camera, photo or keypad. A ticket works once, and a live count shows who's inside.

- A floor view keeps sold, seated and arrived apart, so you watch the room fill in real time.

- Card payments through Stripe, straight to your own account — or offline payment (bank transfer, cash) if you prefer.

- Six languages in the download: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Arabic — emails, dates and the printed ticket included, with Arabic drawn right-to-left on the ticket.

It was born in a real venue, with a real door and a real queue outside, and works just as well for dinners, concerts and conferences.

Pleas Download on : https://wordpress.org/plugins/bitforgenet-guest-tickets/

new functionalities coming soon

Thank you!

Hi everyone

I’m having an issue with my hero banner graphic on an e-commerce site built with Elementor. The top of the image (text and top section of the graphics) keeps getting cut off on tablet/desktop viewports.

Setup details:

Widget: Image Carousel inside a Flexbox Container

Original Image Size: 1920 x 850 px

Image Resolution in Elementor: Set to "Full"

What I’ve tried so far:

Set Image Fit to both Cover and Contain in the Carousel style settings.

Turned Equal Height ON in the Content tab.

Toggled Full Width ON/OFF under Image Style.

Adjusted the outer Container Min Height (tried up to 850px+).

Despite these settings, the upper part of the graphic remains cut off/cropped inside the frame.

Has anyone run into this ratio issue before? What is the best way to force the carousel frame to display the full height of the 1920x850 image without clipping the top? Or should I be using a different widget/approach for hero banners like this?

Screenshots attached showing my settings and how it currently renders. Thanks in advance for any help!

I ran a website on a .co.uk domain. I purchased the .com domain and then transferred the website over. I then let the .co.uk domain name lapse and no longer own it.

The administration email address for the .com website was for the old .co.uk email address. Is there a way to force the change on the website to the .com email address as the normal way of doing it doesn’t work as I need to confirm on the old .co.uk email address.

All and any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone.

Recently I've been making all of my websites with claude. Making custom themes, building everything from scratch. The performance has been great in comparison to using elementor.

I wanted to know how other are managing, and a bit worried to know when claude is making the custom themes and mu-plugins folders, what specific security measures should I keep in mind?

We built a chat plugin for WordPress years ago. Real-time messaging between members, one-to-one and groups. Then I never released it. It sat on my drive, and every so often I'd open it, decide it wasn't ready, and close it again.

A month ago I finally committed to finishing it. I've spent the last few weeks on the boring part: rewriting the notification layer, adding moderation, fixing bugs that had been there since 2022.

And now I'm stuck on the one thing I never thought about in all those years: what to give away for free.

My last plugin's free version was too complete. People used it happily for years and never had a reason to pay. I don't want to repeat that. But a free tier nobody installs converts nobody either, and I honestly can't tell where the line is.

The specific problem: my audience is community sites, and BuddyPress already ships free 1-to-1 messaging. If my free tier is just DMs, there's no reason to install mine. Free has to clearly beat what they already have, but if it beats it by too much, nobody upgrades.

Everything it does:

One-to-one and group chat, replies, forwarding, editing, starred messages, mentions, reactions, typing indicators, read receipts, presence, images, files, video, voice messages, GIFs, archive, mute, block, conversation requests, reporting, moderation queue with strikes and bans, browser push, unread summary email, dark mode, RTL, floating widget, full-page inbox, BuddyPress integration, real-time delivery or polling with no external service.

Where I've landed so far:

* Free: groups, 1-to-1, mentions, mute, archive, starred, forwarding, images, dark mode, reporting

* Paid: real-time delivery, moderation tools, push, voice messages, reactions, editing, typing indicators

What I keep going back and forth on:

* Groups. The strongest upgrade driver, but also the only real reason to install this over BuddyPress core. Gating them feels like removing the hook.

* Reactions: They cost me nothing to run, but they're what makes a group feel alive. Paid or free?

* Moderation: I split it: collecting reports is free, acting on them is paid. Shipping a free chat with no way to report abuse didn't feel right.

* Limits instead of locks. Capping free groups at around 10 people instead of blocking them, so the wall only shows up once the community actually grows.

Which feature on that list would you actually pay for?

Is it just me or did they remove the ability to add 'stars' to modules and themes on drupal.org?

I’m doing product research on how RevOps teams find problems that don’t trigger an obvious failure.

A routing rule stops assigning some leads, a lifecycle stage quits updating, or billing and the CRM slowly drift apart. Every system still appears to be working, so nobody gets alerted. Usually, someone notices later because a dashboard looks strange, a rep complains, or Finance finds that the numbers don’t match. Then someone has to work backward through the CRM, warehouse, billing system, automations, and spreadsheets to find where the problem started and what it affected.

I’m trying to understand how common this actually is. I’m not selling anything.

What was the last issue that broke quietly in your revenue stack? How did you notice it, and how long did it take to find the cause?

If this rarely happens because your monitoring is already good, I’d genuinely like to hear how you set it up.

Plugin link: https://wordpress.org/plugins/jevshield-ai-anti-spam/ (free tier: 100 checks/month)

The problem I'm solving: most contact-form spam today isn't bots — it's human-written. 10-15 emails a day like "Dear webmaster, we sell high-DA backlinks" (each slightly reworded so keyword filters miss them), plus "your domain will be suspended in 24h" phishing scares and Bitcoin extortion demands. CAPTCHAs and Turnstile can't help — they check the visitor's browser, not the message.

So I built JevShield: instead of checking browsers, it uses AI to read the actual message and classify intent. It filters the human spam, and as a side effect scores genuine inquiries 0-100 on buying intent (budget, timeline, "book a call") so real quote requests get flagged for fast response instead of rotting in the inbox.

Works with Contact Form 7 / WPForms / Elementor / native comments. No puzzles for visitors, ever.

Genuinely want to know:
1. Is human-written form spam actually a problem for you, or do Akismet/Turnstile already cover it?
2. Would the "intent score for real leads" angle matter to you, or is pure spam-blocking enough?
3. What would make you switch from what you use now?

Happy to answer technical questions (rules-vs-AI fallback, latency, data handling — no data stored unless you opt in).

Hi all, long-time lurker here. I manage a few WordPress sites (client work + my own), and the thing that drove me insane wasn't bots — Turnstile handles those fine.
It was the human-written spam. 10–15 emails a day: "Dear webmaster, we sell high DA backlinks," each slightly reworded so keyword filters miss them. Plus the occasional "your domain will be suspended in 24h" phishing scare, and DMCA extortion attempts demanding Bitcoin. All typed by real people, all invisible to CAPTCHAs.
So I built JevShield: instead of checking the visitor's browser, it reads the actual message with an AI model and classifies the intent. It blocks the human spam, and as a side effect scores genuine inquiries 0–100 on buying intent (budget, timeline, "book a call") so real quote requests get flagged for fast response instead of rotting in the inbox.
It's on wordpress.org (jevshield-ai-anti-spam), free tier is 100 checks/month, works with Contact Form 7 / WPForms / Elementor / native comments. No puzzles for your visitors, ever.
I'm not here to sell — genuinely want to know:
1. Is human-written form spam actually a problem for you, or do Akismet/Turnstile already cover it?
2. Would the "intent score for real leads" angle matter to you, or is pure spam-blocking enough?
3. What would make you switch from what you use now?
Happy to answer technical questions (how the rules-vs-AI fallback works, latency, data handling — no data stored unless you opt in).

Hello friends,

AirTel is one of the best ISP in India. Generally, we have better speed for every site.

It's quite slow on airtel but not on Jio hotspot data.

https://preview.redd.it/ws7ykobmr0sh1.png?width=805&format=png&auto=webp&s=7a4cfb8767c90d466f710b571724cdf7e1d2f0d1

If you're on airtel, you may be facing this problem while visiting WordPress Dashboard or downloading plugins.

Jio

https://preview.redd.it/s2jj5djrt0sh1.png?width=895&format=png&auto=webp&s=7ea38fe4593e9bf71094f1f1cfed8b52b2b18be3

Slow in Asia-Pacific region

https://preview.redd.it/ia7tyt5lz1sh1.png?width=798&format=png&auto=webp&s=963ba0a9369210456a7a5fe2d9e18cb1df42ff63

Also see https://speedvitals.com/ttfb-test?result=3bP1bs6d

Thanks