Scary Wordpress 2.6?
I recently upgraded my Wordpress mirror blog to 2.6. Everything, thankfully, went well. I used an automated upgrade feature provided by my hosting service, which may explain why it worked without any problems.
But looking around the Internet today, I came across some horrendous stories from people who have had tremendous problems with the Wordpress 2.6 upgrade – to the point where the entire blog structure (categories, permalinks) has been destroyed.
This is the one thing that still keeps me from making Wordpress my main blog software. I have had my share of trouble with Typepad recently (they have been messing around with their coding and new features, which has precipitated all sorts of knock-on problems all over the place, not to mention repeated server failure), but seeing how things can go wrong, and so drastically and fatally wrong, with Wordpress, I am more than hesitant to quit Typepad in favour of Wordpress.
Mind you, this is not the first time an upgrade has wrought havoc on the Wordpress community. I think the problem is its open-source platform and the involvement of way too many third-party add-ons.
Take Wordpress themes or templates, for example. They are developed by independent designers who just love creating new looks and skins for Wordpress users. But they are third parties nevertheless.
I have had this happen to me a few times before: you finally find a theme you really like, but then a Wordpress upgrade comes along, and before you know it, your wonderful theme is no longer compatible with the new Wordpress version. If you are a CSS and coding whiz, you'll be able to fix those problems – even if it'll take you hours – yourself. But not me, uh-uh. I am quite proud of myself and the bit of CSS knowledge I have acquired for some basic to intermediate things, but that's it.
Unfortunately, even if you take the easy way out and stick to the Wordpress default theme, once you install an upgrade, any modifications you have made to the default theme (e.g., font, colours, etc.) will be lost after the upgrade.
In fact, and I am saying this based on personal experience and the many comments floating around there somewhere, no matter what you do, it seems, sooner or later Wordpress will come out with an upgrade that will render your theme (and possibly widgets and plugins) useless. And then what?
If you're like me and not a coding genius, you'll have no choice but to start from scratch. Find a new theme, one that is as new as possible to ensure it's compatible with the most recent Wordpress version, and start rebuilding your blog.
I think I'll stick to 2.6 now and refrain from further upgrades for the time being. But it is annoying to see these constant reminders in the Admin interface all the time, when your version is not the most recent, that keep telling you to upgrade.
This is why I still prefer – despite all the server outages and other problems – Typepad and Blogger to Wordpress. At least, when there is any major upgrade to Typepad or Blogger, your blog will simply be migrated to the next version, no questions asked. With Wordpress, you might find yourself in a position where you're seriously considering hanging yourself or slitting your wrists.
I hear you, loud and clear. My trouble is finding a template that works with the new version of WP. I kept coming back to the plaintxt template. due to its simplicity.
Posted by: Aaron | July 22, 2008 at 08:34 PM
For my Wordpress blog, I use the Cutline theme, which was actually created for WP 2.3, but it works just fine.
You can see it in action here. It runs on WP 2.6 and works just fine.
Posted by: Werner Patels | July 22, 2008 at 08:42 PM
As long as you remember to back everything up before hand no upgrade should cause any permanent damage... just temporary headaches.
As for themes and plugins, if you depend on them don't upgrade right away (the bleeding edge is always dangerous) and wait and let other run into any bugs that may exist. Wordpress typically continues to support old versions for a while, fixing any security vulnerabilities that may be discovered.
Posted by: ScruffyDan | July 22, 2008 at 11:07 PM
Btw, Aaron, I have changed to the Digg-3 Columns theme in the meantime, which also works just fine in 2.6 -- using it for my mirror Wordpress site, and seeing how Typepad is becoming crappier and crappier these days, it might soon become my main site.
Don't you just love the green and blue composition of Digg-3? So very Preston Manning, don't you think?
Posted by: Werner Patels | July 25, 2008 at 06:02 PM