Performance Degradation & SQL Query Termination

The Molongui Authorship plugin is generating excessively large SQL queries that are being terminated by the server environment (WP Engine). These queries attempt to retrieve metadata for a very high number of user IDs simultaneously, resulting in query lengths exceeding 26,000 characters.

Technical Details:

• Source File: wp-content/plugins/molongui-authorship/includes/authors.php
• Trigger Line: 1275 (approximate, based on logs)
• Error Type: KILLED QUERY
• Query Pattern: The plugin executes a SELECT on wp_usermeta using a WHERE user_id IN (...) clause containing hundreds of unique User IDs.
• Impact: This causes significant slow-downs and timeout errors (502/504) on pages where the author box or author lists are rendered, especially on sites with large user databases.

Sample Log Entry: KILLED QUERY (26483 characters long generated in /.../plugins/molongui-authorship/includes/authors.php:1275): SELECT user_id AS object_id, meta_key, meta_value FROM wp_usermeta WHERE user_id IN ( [Hundreds of IDs] )

Suggested Fix for Developers:

• Implement pagination or batching for the wp_usermeta retrieval to keep query lengths within standard limits.
• Add a configuration setting to limit the maximum number of authors processed per page load.
• Introduce caching for these metadata results to reduce repetitive, expensive database calls.

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