Stop Measuring WordPress Health by Plugin Count
Opinion: a site with forty plugins is not ‘mature.’ It is a support contract wearing a dashboard.
August 13, 2026·Alex Harlan
Archives: Opinion
Stop Shipping Settings Screens Nobody Asked For
Opinion: the WordPress admin does not need another tab. It needs fewer decisions on day one and a door to the rest.
August 4, 2026·Alex Harlan
The Site Editor Is a Product. Treat It Like One.
Opinion: a canvas without an onboarding path is not ‘powerful.’ It is unfinished retail.
August 1, 2026·Alex Harlan
Agencies Should Budget for Review, Not Just Launch
Opinion: the launch party is not the expensive part. The month after, when the plugin update lands, is.
July 20, 2026·Alex Harlan
The Plugin Directory Is Infrastructure. Treat It That Way.
Opinion: calling the directory a marketplace makes slop inevitable. Calling it infrastructure makes curation a duty.
July 14, 2026·Alex Harlan
Open Source Credit Is a Labor Practice
Opinion: props are not a gold star. They are how a volunteer economy tells the next person the door opens.
July 7, 2026·Alex Harlan
Open Source Does Not Owe You a Roadmap Webinar
Opinion: asking WordPress to narrate its future like a SaaS company is how you get slides instead of software.
June 29, 2026·Alex Harlan
Your Staging Site Is Not a Personality
Opinion: three stagings, a design preview, and a ‘final-final’ subdomain is not process. It is fear with a DNS record.
June 26, 2026·Alex Harlan
Why WordPress Still Needs Boring Defaults
Opinion: every year we add power. Every year a new user drowns in it. The next leap for WordPress is not another surface — it is the courage to hide more on day one.
June 20, 2026·Alex Harlan
Do Not Ship a Dashboard Widget Because You Can
Opinion: the WordPress dashboard is not your billboard. It is a room people are trying to leave.
June 13, 2026·Alex Harlan
Agencies Should Publish Their WordPress Defaults
Opinion: if every project starts from a secret stack, you do not have a practice. You have folklore.
June 6, 2026·Alex Harlan
Community Photos Need Consent That Survives the Recap
Opinion: a wave at a camera is not a license for a Make blog, a sponsor reel, and a slide three years later.
May 27, 2026·Alex Harlan
Performance Is an Editorial Problem
Opinion: the heaviest thing on most WordPress homepages is not PHP. It is a carousel of stories nobody edited for the field.
May 23, 2026·Alex Harlan
The Fastest Host Cannot Save a Theme That Loads Five Sliders
Opinion: you cannot buy your way out of an editorial decision. You can only hide the invoice.
May 15, 2026·Alex Harlan
Contributor Credit Should Be Boring and Visible
Opinion: if the only people who know you contributed are the people in the Slack huddle, the project will keep looking like a closed room.
May 4, 2026·Alex Harlan
Beginners Do Not Owe You a Figma File
Opinion: a first site can be a heading, a paragraph, and a photo that does not explode. That is still WordPress.
May 1, 2026·Alex Harlan
A Five-Star Directory Review Is Not a Security Audit
Opinion: stars measure feelings. Review measures whether the zip should exist. Do not confuse the two in a sales deck.
April 20, 2026·Alex Harlan
Local-First Is Still the WordPress Promise
Opinion: a CMS you cannot copy to a laptop is a landlord. WordPress should stay a suitcase.
April 18, 2026·Alex Harlan
