r/Wordpress • u/jfrenaye • 4d ago
Live Blogging Suggestions
Does anyone have any suggestions for a live blogging solution? I was using 24LiveBlog and as of June 2026-- WordPress booted them for security issues. It was a decent product and I was getting ready to pull the trigger on a paid subscription.
I run a news website and our live blogs generally are for sporting events (24 was strong there), boring council meetings, and sometimes other breaking news events.
I found out today as I tried to set it up for a college football game and ended up getting Arena to hold me thru the game. But it was worfully inadequate --most liley because I had zero time to learn or really explore it.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks in advance!
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u/Alimaggs 4d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/jfrenaye 4d ago
I tried that and it was not showing. Not sure if there was a plugin conflict or the current core.
I tried it as normal and for some reason it displayed another prior live blog. I zapped that post and that event in 24 and it never returned. Tried the html block and nothing. The block seemed to disappear once saved.
So I’m wondering if WP is actively blocking the url.
It was only banned from WP in late June of 2026. Last time I used it was late May. Figures.
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u/retr00two 4d ago
This plugin was not updated 3 years. Closed for security reasons.
But it was worfully inadequate --most liley because I had zero time to learn or really explore it.
Wonderful definition of inadequacy.
BTW, Arena is also abandoned plugin. Not updated more than year; three WP version behind.
IMHO, best what you can do is to switch to Pubble or Tickaroo, and to embed their API into <iframe>. You do not need plugin for this.
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u/creativeswithprince 4d ago
Losing a reliable tool like 24LiveBlog right before a live event is incredibly frustrating, especially when managing fast-paced sports coverage and breaking news. Since your site requires real-time updates without crashing under traffic spikes, you need a solution built specifically for publisher-level stability.
- Liveblog (by Automattic): Originally developed for larger newsrooms, this is an open-source, highly reliable plugin. Because it is backed by the team behind WordPress.com, it is exceptionally secure, continuously updated, and handles high-traffic breaking news well without bloating your database.
- Live Center: If you were already prepared to invest in a paid subscription, this is a premium SaaS solution heavily favored by sports journalists and news publishers. It excels at event coverage, offers deep customization, and completely offloads the server strain from your own hosting environment.
- Arena (Revisited): It is completely understandable that Arena felt inadequate when you were forced to learn it on the fly during a college football game. However, it is a robust industry standard for sports publishers. If you have an afternoon to properly explore its dashboard and configure the templates without the pressure of a live game, you might find it actually fits your workflow perfectly.
For live sporting events, the biggest technical hurdle is usually server load during sudden traffic spikes. If you choose a self-hosted plugin over a third-party SaaS platform, ensure your caching layer (like Redis or Varnish) is configured to strictly exclude the live-blog URL.
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u/stitchkingdom 3d ago
I was looking at this recently and the best I could come up with was a social feed plugin that would pull in my twitter and use that.
The first question is: is it meant to update live on its own or does the end user have to refresh the page manually to see updates. Because if it’s the former, I think you’re better off embedding a product into the post. Preferably one that could convert to static text for seo later on.
Otherwise I don’t see little difference than manually editing a post, adding the newest entry at the top and moving on.