Rainsystems · Editorial operations
The newsroom · est. May 2024

Between commits.

A studio notebook. Essays on editorial systems, engineering field notes, the occasional rant about CSS. Published when there's something worth writing, not on a schedule.

Web and product · October 22, 2026 · Lead story

When Backend Work Goes Right, Nobody Notices: A PHP2Shell Story

On October 21, a critical flaw called PHP2Shell put most WordPress sites at risk. One of our clients, a news site with over a million page views a year, was patched the same evening. Nobody noticed, and that is exactly the point.

By Akel Aguad·October 22, 2026·1 min read
Read the story →
“

On October 21, a critical flaw called PHP2Shell put most WordPress sites at risk. One of our clients, a news site with over a million page views a year, was patched the same evening. Nobody noticed, and that is exactly the point.

From the lead story
Real life stories · May 7

Working With Nonprofits and News Organizations

A significant portion of our work has been with nonprofits and independent news outlets. That wasn't a deliberate strategy at first. It happened, and then it kept happening.

By Akel Aguad·1 min
Real life stories · Apr 27

Documented WordPress website development story

Back in 2020, when the world was upside down, I met Documented NY, a small nonprofit news outlet in New York telling the stories of immigrant communities. Their WordPress site was breaking. We fixed it, then built something that would last.

By Akel Aguad·1 min