Wordpress released version 2.3.3 after releasing version 2.3.2 just two months ago. Wayne Liew Dot Com is now running on Wordpress 2.3.3 as I always upgrade the plugins, softwares and blogging tools once there is an upgrade available.
Discussion on Wordpress "Frequent" Upgrades
I surfed through a few forums and blogs discussing this new Wordpress upgrade. I find that some of the Wordpress users are complaining about the frequency of Wordpress upgrades.
Wordpress is the best recommended blogging software around but still, the development pace and the release of upgrades left many of their users stay put at a few versions back, after being tired of all the upgrades.
Be honest with me. What version of Wordpress are you currently using to run your blog?
Upgrade and Don’t Blame Wordpress Development Team
I am on the "upgrade as it comes out" side and what will you be reading in this post is on why you should upgrade your Wordpress blog to the latest version.
Appreciate Wordpress development
Wordpress is undoubtedly the best blogging software available and best of all is that it is completely free of charge! The development has been marvelous if you have been following its progress over the years. New features are being added in every major upgrades and security fixes are done from time to time.
Finding any other blogging softwares that are listening what problems their users are facing and constantly adding the features offered is very hard. Thus, when there is an upgrade, perform it. If not, don’t whine about it. These are just for your own good.
Wordpress upgrades pushes everything
If there is a new major Wordpress version being released, you will find every plugin and theme developers curious to find out the compatibility of their masterpieces. Also, new Wordpress plugins and themes that are coming out after the upgrade will be suited to the latest version and it is rare that they will cater for the old versions.
If you want to enjoy the most out of Wordpress, which is the availability of various useful plugins and nice blog themes, you will need to keep your Wordpress updated.
Minor security flaws can kill your blog
I find this response a usual one among bloggers:
Is this upgrade offering a new feature? A security upgrade does not add any new things to my blog and thus, I am not upgrading.
Minor security fixes are meant to keep your blog away from hacking hazards. I can see the frequency of blogs being hacked is going up recently. Hong Kiat learned his lesson for not upgrading frequently and found his blog hacked in June 26th, 2007. This is just one of the few accomplishments by Wordpress blog hackers
The consequences of getting hacked is disturbing and if you don’t frequently backup your blog, you will find yourself losing your whole or a large chunk of your blog contents. Don’t neglect security upgrades. It should be the first thing for you to pay any attention if there is a release of Wordpress upgrades.
Avoiding the gap
Say, you are now blogging on Wordpress 2.1 and you did not upgrade it for ages. However, the introduction of tagging into Wordpress blogs is to your favor in Wordpress 2.3. Can you take the easy route by upgrading right from version 2.1 to version 2.3?
Yes, you can but this is not recommended by me. Apart from the tedious tasks of going through a lot of guides to look out what files are needed to be modified, added or taken out, some versions might have contradicting issues, MySQL issues and sometimes, your server is an issue for you as well. This will be another reason that you should upgrade the version of your Wordpress whenever a new one is out.
Tips On Wordpress Upgrades
Upgrading your Wordpress is not easy sometimes and it can take an awful amount of time if you own a few blogs. I have a few tips below which I believed can help you out in performing your Wordpress upgrades.
Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin
Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin or WPAU is a great plugin which I used to upgrade my Wordpress since my first Wordpress upgrade. It can really save a lot of time in upgrading. You basically will only need to read the step-by-step instructions, clicking buttons and the next moment, your blog will be running on the latest version!
It basically does everything that is needed to upgrade your blog to the latest version of Wordpress. It backups files and your MySQL database, put your site into maintenance mode, deactivates your plugins, upgrades the relevant files, deactivates your plugins and everything will be done within 10 minutes!
Don’t feel negative about Wordpress upgrades
Statements like "It is tough", "It is troublesome" and "It will kill my blog" are excuses to me. Upgrading Wordpress is nothing compared to traffic building and making yourself an authority blogger because upgrading your Wordpress blog only consists of technical issues.
Photo by: SMN
If you had done the steps needed to prepare your blog for the upgrade, you must be confident. Trust me, I have gone though all the upgrades without fail. Think about this, after you have upgraded, you will not have the disturbing reminder in your admin panel and you will not have the worry of your blog being hacked because you are not upgrading.
Upgrade when released
Don’t ever put upgrading your Wordpress version in the "low priority" category in your blogging to-do list. Don’t delay it until it moves into your backlog. Wordpress upgrades, if done with the plugin above or if correctly performed, will not eat up much of your time.
If you just upgraded to version 2.3.2 last week (7 weeks after the release), of course you will be stressed up when you read about the release of Wordpress 2.3.3 a couple of days back!
Backup your blog
You should be doing this all the time for your blog and this is a must-do task before every Wordpress upgrade. Backing up your blog creates a set of files which you can return to if something goes wrong, such as a sudden disconnection from the Internet when the upgrade is only partially complete.
Many have the fear to upgrade because they fear that the whole blog will be lost if anything goes wrong. Thus, backing your blog up will give you the confidence to upgrade your Wordpress blog.
Discussion - Upgrading Wordpress A Fuss?
In conclusion, I don’t think in any way Wordpress upgrades are causing problems to me. I love Wordpress and I enjoyed using it, anticipating features that are planned in the upcoming release (trust me, it will keep on coming).
Do you think upgrading your Wordpress blog is a fuss? What do you think has been keeping you away from upgrading? Is your blog currently running Wordpress 2.3.3?
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February 7th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
This upgrade is a must for me. Prevention is better than cure. Kekeke…
February 7th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
In general I upgrade quickly, but, I do consider what the upgrade contains and whether it would be relevent to me.
In this instance I have replace some files but not carried out a full upgrade, in others I have skipped them.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
G’damn lol, I just updated like a week ago.
Unless my blog is in serious danger of imploding without the update, it can wait
February 7th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
If a blogger only has one blog to manage, that’s okay. Tell that to one who has more than 10 sites to manage!
February 8th, 2008 at 1:30 am
i usually wait for some time and if there’s not too much rants on the new version, i’ll still wait
wakakaka…
February 8th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Usually I wait a couple of weeks after there’s a new upgrade available. Gives me time to read what people have to say about it. I definitely do think it’s important and not a fuss - sure, it’s a little bit of extra work, but hardly. And isn’t that what blogging is all about? This is an important responsibility, just like writing new content. It IS necessary. Thanks for the great post, Wayne.
February 8th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
You convinced me Wayne. I finally took the plunge and upgraded Sciencebase.com from 2.1.3!!! to the latest version (I’ve been putting it off for months). If you want more details of how I got on and the various minor problems that occurred, I’ve written a post about it here
db
February 8th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
@ Wing Loon
This is always the case. The cure always seems to be complicated.
@ Andrew
I have seen people doing so but since I am using WPAU, everything has to be upgraded.
@ Jason
This is serious if something bad happens. Anyway, if you perform constant backup, it will be alright I guess.
@ pablopabla
Use WPAU which I have recommended. Upgrading will never be a fuss, unless the plugin breaks.
@ Louis
The most I have heard of bad upgrades are occasions where the plugins used are incompatible or certain mods that a blogger used caused himself some troubles.
@ Tay
I have to say that if upgrading is a fuss, marketing our blogs and creating contents for it can be a fuss as well. We have to love blogging to willingly do all these.
@ David
Nice write up on the experience. Since Wordpress 2.3, the buggy reminder has been bothering me a lot and this is also one reason I upgrade it once I saw the message.
I am not good with codes (I have messed up things very badly with Blogger) and this is why I need the WPAU plugin very much.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I am an upgrader, although I do like to give it a day or two just incase something has gone stray.
February 9th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Wordpress upgrades have been smooth for me ever since my first. Hopefully, I will not get the chance to experience a rough time with them.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I’m behind. My concern is that I installed it using Fantastico a couple of years ago. Then I missed a couple of upgrades and when I finally did it, it had to be a manual upgrade because the version gap was too large for fantastico. Unfortunately, fantastico never did “recognize” the manual upgrade. I think this means I’d have to keep manually upgrading, and frankly, it scares the crap out of me to do it. I get as far as backing everything up, then I chicken out.
February 11th, 2008 at 1:39 am
I’m not really a fan of updates, most of my blogs run on WP 2.2, because I don’t have the time to deal with the hassle that comes with a upgrade. I’ll make time in weekend, but I’d rather wait for the “big” update in March.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Well, I am personally not a very keen person to upgrade as soon as new updates come out. It is just a hassle. It may be a necessity for the higher ranked blogs though.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
My principles is that it is always a must to upgrade to the latest version, because there might be some bugs that got fixed in the process. Or something like that.. Bearing any new bugs that is introduced in the new version, upgraded is always a good idea. More so, when it is a security release.
February 15th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
@ zoom
Using Fantastico is not recommended by me. However, since you are already using them, I guess you should continue with manual Wordpress upgrades.
Just do it. If you have everything backed up, the risk of losing your blog is near zero.
@ Tibi
Are you thinking of leaping across the big gap? Don’t you think there will be any trouble?
@ Fahad
Higher ranked blogs tend to be the target of most hackers and this is why they need to upgrade as soon as possible. However, hackers are always on the lookout for small victims as well. Beware…
@ kljs
Long time no see, mate. Security release cannot be skipped. Wordpress, by far, fixes bugs fast as soon as it is discovered by their users. Just stay tuned to those feeds in your admin panel.
February 25th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Do you think upgrading your Wordpress blog is a fuss?
No fuss at all.
I still cannot understand why folks do not update.
What do you think has been keeping you away from upgrading?
I think those who do not update are wusses. -_-
Is your blog currently running Wordpress 2.3.3?
Of course. Looking forward to Wordpress 2.5
February 25th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I am looking forward to Wordpress 2.5 as well.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:10 am
I used to completely agree with your train of thought. I would like to upgrade as often as possible. However, now that I have some more content and I am getting traffic, I am getting nervous about changing things. I am beginning to think that if it isn’t broke - I shouldn’t try to fix it.
Just my two cents.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Well, you better upgrade your blog to Wordpress 2.5 as it is widely known that versions before it had serious security loopholes which will cause you more serious problems like getting a hack from hackers.