This is a warning for anyone looking at Kadence right now about what will be coming and we we all know it.

Liquid Web, after buying Kadence (or before I have never heard of them until this sale), seems to have fully embraced the AI build process from Claude Code. All tells are there. Its a clone of any other Claude website with the eyebrows and the numbers. They are going to sell "Kadence AI" soon, and I expect fully that Kadence is now a pile of shit owned by equity. I can't fault whoever built it for running with it and closing the sale. But as a "Founding" lifetime purchaser for Kadence, I can't recognise what I am looking at.

Kadence will be recommended a lot, and is here, because it's generally a good theme with great hooks and is good enough for a developer that needs to hand a site a customer wants a bit of control over.

But watch out. Don't invest today for something that might be milked for everything it can be by the new owners.

Liquid Webs website is absolute horse shit. Its a testament of the money hungry hype train of AI and if you think Kadence is safe now you are probably in for a surprise.

My suggestion:

Learn to FSE, learn to ACF Pro with Gravity Forms and CPT and templates. Learn to develop WP and don't settle for what's coming. Don't settle for a builder, or a theme or anything bundled and sold, especially if you are going to rely it for income.

We dropped Kadence about 2 years ago for full FSE or ACF/Templates, but I have a few legacy sites on it. And I went to do some work for a customer and realised so much had changed in the ownership that the brand trust we had is now in the toilet.

Just be careful making a decisions about developing into something you have no idea what the road map is anymore.

Hey everyone,

When I shared BrikPanel with you here 2 months ago, it had 80+ active installs and just 1 review on wp.org. Today it's at 200+ active installs and 17 reviews, all of them 5 stars. Before anything else, I want to thank the reddit community for giving the plugin this kind of momentum.

Over these 2 months I added some new features, and a few of them were things people requested in the last post. I'm sharing this post to show you what's new and to keep you in the loop on where the plugin is heading.

Here's the list of what 3.0 brought:

-Cohort retention, customer LTV, and RFM segmentation
-You can pull your Google Ads and Meta Ads spend into the panel and see your real ROAS and net profit (I'm still waiting on Meta's review approval, it'll be live in a couple of weeks)
-Two-way Google Sheets sync (edit stock/status in a sheet, it flows back into Woo)
-Site-wide Cmd/Ctrl+K search is here; orders, products, customers and pages all in one place
-You can export your dashboard data to Excel
-Bulk product editing can now update things like categories, tags and shipping settings too
-Added vendor support, so you can add different vendors and keep a list of them

Like I said in the previous post, let me repeat it here: the plugin will stay completely free on wp.org forever. I might add extra stuff on top as a paid version later on (I'm planning to build an AI mentor tool down the road), but this current version will always stay fully free.

Like the title says, my main goal is pretty clear: get WooCommerce as close to Shopify as I can, and show that the open source world can at least match closed source on quality when it comes to e-commerce.

There's still plenty missing; if you've tried it, write down what you didn't like or what's lacking, and just like last time I'll read all of it and add what I can. Thanks again, genuinely, to everyone who supported it, gave feedback, wrote a review, or said something kind.

🔗 https://wordpress.org/plugins/brikpanel-admin-panel-dashboard-for-woocommerce/

every site I take over has the same thing going on.
someone needed a contact form, installed a plugin.
needed to redirect one url, plugin.
wanted the excerpt a bit shorter, another plugin.
by the time it lands on my desk theres like 34 active and the homepage takes 6 seconds to load.

And half of them do stuff you could do in a few lines in functions.php or with the theme you already have. Some of them are fixing a problem the site doesn't even have anymore, it was relevant 3 years ago and just never got removed.

Speed is the obvious one but its not even the main thing imo.
Every plugin is one more thing that can break on an update, fight with another plugin, or just sit there unmaintained for ages being a quiet security hole. thats the part people don't think about.

what i tell people now is just ask if a visitor would actually notice it.
caching, fine.
security, fine.
some plugin that adds an animation to a button nobody clicks, probably not worth it.

I'm not saying run a bare install or rebuild everything yourself, thats dumb too. some plugins are doing real work and you'd be mad to recreate them. its more the leftover junk, the stuff you installed once to test something and forgot.

Anyway curious how other people handle it. do you keep to a rough number or just go case by case?

Hi everyone,

I'm having a strange issue with MasterStudy LMS on a WordPress site.

When users are inside a course and click on any lesson in the curriculum, the page simply refreshes instead of opening the lesson content.

The lesson URL changes correctly and resolves to a URL such as:

/stm-lessons/lesson-name/

However, the lesson page itself is completely blank. The header and footer load normally, but the entire lesson player/content area is missing.

I checked the page source and the main content area is empty:

<main id="content" class="site-main post-1083 stm-lessons"> <div class="page-content"> </div> </main> 

Current setup:

• MasterStudy LMS (Free): 3.7.34
• MasterStudy LMS PRO Plus: 4.8.21
• Theme: Hello Biz
• Elementor Pro: 4.1.0

What works:

• Courses load correctly
• Lessons exist and are published
• Lesson URLs resolve correctly
• Content is visible inside the Course Builder
• Header and footer render normally

What doesn't work:

• Clicking a lesson inside a course only refreshes the page
• Directly visiting the lesson URL shows a blank page
• No lesson content, sidebar, navigation, progress bar, or "Next Lesson" button is rendered

Things I've already tried:

• Reinstalled the free MasterStudy LMS plugin
• Flushed permalinks
• Cleared LiteSpeed cache
• Checked Elementor Theme Builder for conflicting Single templates (none found)
• Verified that lessons exist and have valid slugs
• Checked browser console (no relevant JavaScript errors)

At this point it seems that WordPress resolves the lesson correctly, but MasterStudy is not rendering the lesson template at all.

Has anyone experienced this before? Could this be caused by a mismatch between MasterStudy LMS Free (3.7.34) and PRO Plus (4.8.21), or is there another known cause for completely blank stm-lessons pages?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I used to build websites using Elementor Pro and now that Gutenberg has advanced so much do i still need to use it?

Or has Gutenberg advanced enough to the point that Elementor is not needed anymore?

Am I better off using a stack like one of the following:

GeneratePress + GenerateBlocks
Kadence + Kadence Blocks
Astra + Spectra
Greenshift + lightweight theme
Stackable + block theme

Hi all.

Short introduction
I’m a volunteer at a Danish football club. The club’s website were setup in 2020 and haven’t really been maintained since. Now I’ve taken over the responsibility of the website. I do have some experience in WordPress but this is a monster I been given.

The current situation
Old PHP version (7.4 as I recall), 145 pages, 1.912 posts, nearly 50.000 images (plus all the extra sizes), 55 plugins (29 active), contact formulas in three different plugins, template from Elementor Pro on some pages, theme templates on other. SportsPress plugin installed to handle players and games, custom code in the plugin Snippets, etc.

Next step(s)
Now I want to do a thorough cleanup (which I most definitely will regret 😆) but where to start?

I was thinking of installing LocalWP and have the site locally to be able to use Codex (have a subscription through my regular job) to run through the site.

But what exactly should I look for?

— UPDATE —

Progress

1. Local environment set up with the same settings as the website before switching to a newer PHP version later on.

2. Backup created. Currently downloading the backup. Size: 76.7 GB(!).

3. Created a spreadsheet to document all current plugins with Name, Status (Enabled/Disabled), Current version, Needs update, Action (Keep, Remove, Consolidate and remove).

What do you guys think? I've been using Elementor for some weeks, then switched to Kadence and I feel that I can do the same tasks with just better and more intuitively.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been struggling with a question lately, and I’d love to get some perspective from fellow developers, especially those working with agencies or high-end clients.

I can code. I can build a lightweight, highly optimized, secure WordPress site from scratch using pure PHP, custom OOP based plugins, custom themes, custom post types (CPT), ACF, hooks and filters, API's ... etc.

Yet, I see more and more companies (even larger ones) shifting towards Elementor.

From a developer’s perspective, it feels like building a house out of Lego when you have the tools to forge steel. To me, average Elementor sites look bloated, dependency-heavy, and frankly, like something ANYONE with a basic tutorial could patch together.

However, the job market right now feels incredibly frustrating. I’m having a hard time finding a job because I seem to fall into a weird trap: either companies look for high-end full-stack engineers and consider me "overqualified/too expensive" for standard WP jobs, OR they are specifically looking for an "Elementor/Page Builder" – a role I’ve been hesitant to take because it feels like a step backward.

On the other hand I understand the market side of it: it's cheaper, faster to deliver, and lowers the barrier to entry. But my questions to those who actually know how to code but still choose page builders are:

1. What is the long-term value for the client? Isn't maintaining a site with 15 plug-ins and constant elementor updates a ticking time bomb compared to a clean, custom theme?
2. Where is the line between a "developer" and a "page builder"? If general school kids can stack widgets together, what is our actual value-add if we adapt to this workflow?
3. Can Elementor actually be used on a truly high/enterprise level, or is it always just a cheap compromise for clients who don't want to pay for real dev work?

Change my mind. Why should a competent developer ever touch Elementor?

I’ve been a Wordpress power user for 20 years and I am working with art, so media plays a really big role on the sites I manage. One issue that always seems to be present is the real problem of trying to update media captions, alt txt, etc en masse.

One cannot simply copy and paste the required info, and move on. For some reason it seems to take an eternity to save these kinds of changes.

I have never come across a physical setup capable of doing this kind of editing without long waits to save or waiting for the system to recover from a hang.

What is it about the way Wordpress interacts with the database that makes this so difficult for it?

Is there any solution?! I mean a real one.

My setups have included:

10-20 years ago:
LAMP with cPanel, hosted by GoDaddy
2gb ram, 1 processor

10 years ago:
LAMP on centOS, hosted in house
raspberry pi 3 model B

10-8 years ago:
OpenLiteSpeed, hosted by AWS
4gb ram, 1 processor, ssd elastic storage

Current:
OpenLiteSpeed, hosted by AWS
M7A - large; 8gb ram, 2 processors, ssd elastic storage

Fresh install
Plugins currently in use to help mitigate some media issues:
CompressionX
Media Library helper - bulk edit

I should note, this same kind of issue crops up when dealing with woocommerce installs that make frequent use of variations. The work-around there, if your site sells from the front end, is to instead use plugins to offer product add-ons inline with the item for sale. This option does not help at all, however, if most of your sales are handled via pos or admin backend order generation.

-

Please help it make sense! I am just adding a short line of txt to each media field and yet it behaves as if I was adding a few gb worth of data to each line.

Thank you ☺️

both Shopify and WooCommerce are powerful e-commerce platforms that can help you create and run an online store,

but they have different strengths and weaknesses. Shopify is ideal for businesses that prioritize ease of use and customer support,

while WooCommerce is ideal for businesses that need more customization options and advanced features.

I don’t know if the adoption of 7.0 is just too low for this to become widespread or if I’m just a weirdo and most people don’t use their arrow keys to navigate the editor but this used to work perfectly and is now completely broken.

Before 7.0 if you had a set of nested blocks, let’s say a group block with columns and then heading, paragraphs, images etc in the individual columns, you could use your arrow keys to move through the layers. For example if I was in the heading tag at the top of a column and clicked the up arrow it would make the column block the active selected block. Press it again and you’re on the columns container. One more time and you’re at your parent group.

Now if I’m in that exact same scenario and click up from the heading block it will jump me to the lowest nested child block of the next highest root level block or if I’m already in the highest root level block it will take me to the page title. There is absolutely no way to use the keyboard to navigate between layout block layers anymore and it’s infuriating.

This functionality is so engrained into my brain that it’s muscle memory at this point and I keep flying all over the page when I just want to adjust my column gaps or something. Forcing me to point and click around to the breadcrumbs or expanding the document overview sidebar is such a pain and takes so many steps.

I have to imagine this is also absolutely horrible for accessibility, not being able to even get to certain blocks without a mouse.

I just have no clue why they would change something that was so logical and just worked exactly as expected since the inception of the block editor. Was this just a mistake or did someone intentionally do something this stupid?

I truly can’t see any value to how the keyboard navigation works now and see no point in why someone would choose for it to behave this way over the old way. Is there something I’m missing? Am I just a stubborn old developer who hates change? I feel like this is not unreasonable to complain about, especially with the massive accessibility concern.

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for a reliable white-label WordPress development agency for ongoing client projects. We mainly handle custom WordPress development, website updates, speed optimization, WooCommerce work, and occasional custom functionality.

I’ve worked with freelancers before, but now looking for a more dependable long-term team that can handle projects consistently and communicate well.

Would love recommendations based on actual experience. Preferably a team that has been around for a few years and can work as a backend partner for an agency.

Who have you worked with and would recommend? I am in Connection with a company named Technocrackers - Their website mentions white label wordpress and Woocommerce services.

I installed a plug-in to fix a pagination issue to allow the little page numbers to show up to allow seeing pages of posts vs just a huge list. It failed. I deleted the plug-in (WP-paginate) and now see an error "multisite support not enabled" and the posts list is gone (not viewable, but still present).

I am not a WP developer and the prior individual who set it up is not available. The web presence is to allow written documents to be seen on various topics - each topic is a post, separated into general areas (xyz files, etc).

Perhaps there is a setting I am overlooking?

ruralveterinaryoutreach.org/ gets to the main area list and if anay of the sub-divisions are selected, the error occurs and no files (posts) are listed.

Is there a way to fix this easily or is it time to go find an IT WP guru?

thanks in advance.

WordPress 7.0 turns AI provider keys into site-level operational credentials. Before enabling a connector, decide who owns the key, who may spend against it and which plugins may use it.

TL;DR

• WordPress 7.0 includes a provider-agnostic PHP AI Client and a Settings > Connectors screen, but core does not bundle OpenAI, Google or Anthropic provider implementations. Those providers are available as separate WordPress.org plugins.
• AI calls require explicit provider configuration and explicit calling code. A fresh WordPress 7.0 site does not automatically send prompts or content to external AI providers.
• Connector keys saved through wp-admin are masked, but not encrypted in the database. Trac #64789 remains open and is scoped for Future Release as of June 4, 2026.
• WP_AI_SUPPORT=false is the strongest global off switch in 7.0 because plugins cannot override it through the wp_supports_ai filter.

,

Here's the link to the announcement.

Not sure if it is me but is the Admin part slower in the update 7.0?

I am using The SEO Framework with Wordpress dot org. The generated Sitemap doesn’t list all the pages on my site and I can’t find a way to add the missing ones.

Can someone tell me how to add missing pages from my site to my sitemap?

Thanks a lot!

I ran a couple WordPress blogs 15 years ago and ended up getting really tired of fixing backend issues with plugins and themes. I'm a writer/photographer and do not enjoy troubleshooting code at all, but I had to do a lot of that to save money.

So now I want to start another blog about local farms, bakeries and general food culture, but I'm even less enthusiastic about blog maintenance than I was back in the day. Getting older will do that to you.

Any suggestions for photo-friendly themes that will require little to no maintenance and have some e-commerce potential?

The newest version of Wordpress just broke all our sites running Slider Revolution. The banners either disappeared or pulled in something random in place of the banner. Anyone else having this issue?

We created a workaround for our sites, but I'm hoping Slider Revolution comes up with a patch.

Been building on WP_AI_Client since the early betas of 7.0 and figured I'd dump some production notes because the docs are thin and I had to figure out most of this from the source code directly.

The basic idea is your plugin calls WP_AI_Client, the user picks their provider in wp-admin (Anthropic, OpenAI or DeepSeek), adds their own API key, and WordPress handles the transport. Your plugin never touches the key. You write one prompt and it works across all three providers without code changes. User switches from Claude to GPT, your code stays the same. The provider abstraction is actually solid and error handling is decent too, rate limits and timeouts come back as structured objects instead of you parsing each provider's weird error format separately.

Where it gets rough is streaming and tool calling. If you want token-by-token output in the browser you're going to fight it a bit, I ended up writing a custom streaming handler between WP_AI_Client and the frontend because the built-in support is too thin for anything real-time. Tool calling works but feels bolted on... each provider handles function calling differently and the abstraction doesn't smooth that over. Expect to write provider-specific adapters if you're doing anything non-trivial.

The part that matters most long term is what this changes architecturally. Before 7.0 every AI plugin was also an AI infrastructure provider handling keys and billing and model deprecations and all that crap. Now WordPress owns the transport layer so plugins can just focus on what they actually do. I think we'll start seeing plugins that use an LLM call for one specific thing instead of trying to be "AI everything." A WooCommerce plugin that spots order anomalies, a support plugin that drafts ticket responses, that kind of thing. Small focused uses where the AI is one feature, not the whole product.

Anyone else building on this? Especially curious about streaming and tool calling because those are the two spots where I wrote the most workaround code.