I just upgraded my Wordpress platform to the brand new 2.3 version. My work was quite easily done in less than 10 minutes time with the help of the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin which I recommended in “Wordpress 2.2.3 Upgrade”. It helps from the start until the end without any flaws but pelf from pelf-ism is contagious claimed that the plugin does not work for her blog so I guess there is still some problems with it but it works well with me!
I broke my promise for not being the first few testers as I have to study but at least I have done it now! Sorry… I scrolled around after the upgrade and found nothing special with it other than the new tagging system which helps yo define your posts in a more informal way than the previous “Categories” available. I won’t use it because if I wanted to, I will need to modify my theme to get a place for those tags. I am not that good with this and I don’t want to risk spoiling my theme.
It also offers a new row of tools in your WYSIWYG editor toolbar. You can have access to it by clicking the button on the right of the “Help” button. You can now format the text easier and change the colours or your text. For those who pre-write their post with Microsoft Word, you can now copy your words from their and paste it in your editor with or without formatting! Messy codes can be cleaned up, and special symbols from now on can be inserted! What I like most is that I can “Undo” and “Redo” the things I typed!
More comments on Wordpress 2.3 after the jump!
Another new function is that you can choose what URL that your blog redirects to when the address of where you uploaded your Wordpress is typed into someone’s address bar. It can be found and changed under “General” of “Options” in your Wordpress dashboard. This is not useless and in fact I am using a 301 redirect code on my domain so that every http://wayneliew.com requests will be redirect to http://www.wayneliew.com. Now, no more codings, you will only need to add or remove the www in your Wordpress address with this new function.
It pisses me off as well!
One thing that I really don’t like about this new upgrade is that the MyAvatar plugin I used can’t seem to be working properly! Some MyBlogLog avatars managed to appear but some it failed and will only show the word “MyAvatars 0.2″. Why am I so angry? This is because you all can’t even see the face of Wayne Liew now! I am sad with this. 
“I am now happy again because the avatar plugin is working again!”
I also find that my editors loads slower now, maybe due to the added tagging function but this won’t do much harm to me because this would mean that more posts on blogs out there will be read and being audited by me!
This upgrade is a big leap forward for Wordpress in my view. Did I missed out some new functions that you like? Any views on this new upgrade? Good or bad also a great thing because you are daring! Anyone haven’t upgrade it yet? If you guys are not daring to upgrade, try having an upgrade party, “more people, more guts”! 
Any complaints and SOS signs can be waved at me if you want to.
Other blogging tips that you might be interested in:
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September 25th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
i think now most plugins will update in corresponding the new 2.3. i never knew about this avatar plugin
sounds interesting. besides that, your other plugins worked fine ?
September 25th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
So what you did generally was:
(a) Backup your blog, and
(b) Download WordPress 2.3 and then upload the whole folder to replace the existing folder?
Am I right? I am still paranoid, LOL. It can’t be helped =(
September 25th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
@ satkuru
I knew about that but the avatar plugin is always late… All my other plugins has been updated and changed to be compatible with 2.3 and thus works fine.
@ pelf
With the “Automatic Upgrade” plugin, all I need to do is clicking but the plugin failed to work for you right?
September 25th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
oh whoa, the upgrade on the post editing helps a LOT!
alright i’m gonna upgrade now, wait for me XD
give my avatar some time, eventually they will fix it
September 26th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I tried today, but I duno how. After I update, my category gone! I have to re-insert again! and, my post layout koyak! 100 + post i have to re-locate!!!!!
September 26th, 2007 at 1:08 am
I’m nut with all this. wakakaka…last time my friend did it for me.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Liew…may i know..wat is the plugin for avatar one?
and.after I upgrade to 2.3, my permalinks cannot use already…if i change to default..it work fine for me..if i change to the rest..it come out..u should update ur htacess..why will come out this error ??
Liew….why u want to add with www?? wayneliew.com not good for u ma?
September 26th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
I don’t use upgrade plugins.
me prefer manual update way.
FTP everything and run upgrade.php
September 26th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
@ conancat
I think it is OK and running pretty good now. How was your upgrade doing? Good?
@ lukxiufung
Just went to your site, I guessed you must have done a good job on fixing it.
@ AceOne118
Is your friend still beside you to help you out?
@ Kenneth
The avatar plugin is featured in my blog post “Anxious Over 2.3 Upgrade”
I am not sure with why there is a problem with your permalinks. What type of permalink you wanted to use? The one you are using now is more SEO friendly.
It is because that I only want search engine spiders to read my page as http://www.wayneliew.com and this will prevents two PR for me, I want to focus all linking to one domain only. With http://www., I like it more…
@ goldfries
You are a coding expert, I am not. Need some help from plugins.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
i recover back to 2.2…
September 26th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
oh yeah, just updated.
but then, it kinda screwed up, because whenever i write a new post or edit comments or whatever error messages will come out. regarding missing files or pages that cannot be accessed.
but the comments can be edited, the drafts can be saved, the post can be posted. just that the darn error message gives me heart attacks. really.
do you have the same problem too??
i’ll try to write to wordpress regarding my problem nxt time i experience that. will send the error msg too.
September 26th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Grr….rrr…. Do I really need to update this thingy??
I am so so unwillingly to do it… Someone can do it for me??? muhahahahha~~!!!!
September 26th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
@ lukxiufung & conancat
I don’t have any problems they you all are facing. I upgraded mine using the plugin I mentioned above and upgrading don’t make me sweat with it.
Maybe you guys should give it a try.
@ Sean
The new features are great. If you feel lazy or something, you can try installing the plugin that I mentioned above, it can be really helpful!
September 26th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
really afraid the data lost again….
September 26th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Hmm, what I can suggest you to do is to install the BackUpWordPress plugin first, then the automatic upgrade plugin.
If anything goes wrong, all you need to do is to restore your backup with the BackUpWordPress plugin with just clickings.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Hey, my side bar got error…any solution for that?
September 26th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
yepp, wayne is right, install the backup plugin.
BTW, my blog is now 2.3! upgrade process completed, but, the Similar Posts plugin is causing errors.. i temporarily deactivate it and look for update version….
September 27th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
@ lukxiufung
If there is a parsing error, it may be caused by some non-working PHP script in your sidebar template.
I don’t see any. Maybe I am late because I am just back to my workstation after my exam finished!
Sorry…
@ jayhan
Cool! Maybe you should change your related post plugin to “2.3 Related Posts”. It is designed to find related posts by using the new tagging function! Hope this helps!
September 28th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
wordpress…..popular…..
but any advantage using wordpress over blogspot?
September 29th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
For me, the look is more professional and if you host a blog yourself, you have more control over everything. Don’t you think the comment system is better than Blogger?
These are the reasons I changed. Self-hosted blogs also made better money than Blogger.