**UPDATE**: After further research of the query below, I have found some additional information. The query was first introduced in WP 2.3 and is used for comment flood protection. I am currently running WP 2.9.1 and do not have the issue as the query has been modified and using a proper index to assist with the query speed. If you are using the latest version of WP, you won’t have this problem. I am still trying to find exactly when the query was changed so you all can know where you stand. However, I know that some people don’t upgrade their WP version due to changes they have made which upgrading will break. If you are on an older version of WP and have a large number of comments (tens to hundreds of thousands), this query will help improve your comment post times. If you are familiar enough with MySQL, look at the wp_comments table in your database. If there is an index on the `comment_date_gmt` column, you are ok. If not, read on, and run the query below as adding an index to the `comment_date_gmt` column won’t work as your query does not have that column in it’s WHERE clause.

One of daily responsibilities as a database administrator is maintaining the health of our shared hosting environment. In doing so, I deal with plenty of WordPress blogs daily. The one thing I have noticed is that many WordPress plugins are very poorly designed and can cause problems in a shared hosting environment. WordPress at it’s core though, is very well designed, although I have noticed some areas of possible improvement. As I come across common issues, I will post the fixes for them here for all to use.
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