Rainsystems · Editorial operations
R
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.

All · 4 Commissioning web work · 14 How we work · 12 Strategy · 7 Web and product · 4 Audience strategy · 3 Field notes · 3 About the studio · 2 Editorial strategy · 2 Sustainability and funding · 2
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
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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
Product Thinking · May 23

Belonging Is a Design Problem

Most nonprofit news sites are built for strangers. That is a design failure, not just an editorial one, and it costs you members.

By Akel Aguad·1 min
Tech · May 8

How to Fix PageSpeed Scores With srcset

If your PageSpeed score drops when you add a hero image, the problem is usually straightforward. srcset tells the browser which version of an image to load based on the device, with no CDN required.

By Akel Aguad·1 min