With today’s release of WordPress 3.4, bloggers and other content creators are going to have several great new features to make life better. Like any WordPress update, this release will also kick off another round of activity that I’ve affectionately nicknamed “People bitching about updating WordPress.”
Let me hop onto a soapbox for a moment and ask those folks to, as they say, simmer down now. Updating WordPress shouldn’t be a hassle. If WordPress updates routinely cause you grief, then odds are that in the past you have made some poor choices. Thankfully, said grief can be relieved.
It’s Two Clicks
The software update process couldn’t be easier. Upon logging into the WordPress Dashboard, administrative users are presented with a banner that announces the update and contains a link to the update screen. From the update screen, there’s a big “Update Now” button that will download and install the new version of WordPress.
While it’s possible that something can break during an upgrade, it’s not that common and usually only occurs if you’re running some obscure or abandoned plugins. That said, it’s always a good practice to make a backup before updating.
If your web host has permissions or other things configured in a screwy way such that you can’t update WordPress easily, you need to find a better web host. Here’s who I like.
Self-Responsibility for Plugins & Themes
If you’re managing your own site and have installed various custom plugins and/or themes, you also need to manage those. That means that you should keep them up to date, and use plugins and themes that come from responsible sources that will support their products in an ongoing fashion. For example, premium theme provider StudioPress is ready to go with all of their themes, including the one I’m running here on this site. If you find that a plugin or theme has been abandoned, I can assure you that there’s an alternative with a developer who is focusing on keeping things current. I’ll even help you find one. Really. Just leave a comment.
If You Don’t Want to Manage, Don’t Manage
If you really don’t want to manage your WordPress install, there are a few options by which you can leave the gruntwork to someone else.
- You can do quite a bit with a WordPress.com blog. Managed by Automattic, WordPress.com is automatically updated to the latest version of WordPress and includes features that self-hosting bloggers need to manage via plugins.
- Managed WordPress hosting providers such as WP Engine take care of most of the system administration work. They invest in back end infrastructure and systems such that their users have significantly less blog management decisions and tasks than in a shared or VPS hosting environment.
- There are a lot of WordPress developers and consultants that would love your business. One option is to hire someone (often this is a monthly retainer) to take care of maintenance tasks like WordPress updates, routine backup, or plugin management.
I’ll step down off my soapbox now… I have a few blogs to update so that I can take advantage of new features, remain secure, and continue to publish my writing and photography to the world. WordPress used to be a bit difficult for a novice to update, but it really isn’t anymore… if updates are painful, that’s a red flag for something being wrong.
I find that the users complaining about WordPress updates don’t understand web/application development at all. If they want to run a CMS that rarely releases new versions they can always move to Drupal (zing!)
I am so with you on this… and the first email I get from a past client who frantically asks me about updating, I think I will just send them to this post : )
Seriously ? WordPress users with a failed upgrade are shouted at that they’re ‘whining’ incompetent losers and that it’s their own fault and they should shut the fuck up ? This is pretty much the standard modus operandi for WordPress advocacy.
For the record, I upgraded my blog a lot since 2007, right up to 3.2.1 when it became obvious the disgusting toolbar was here to stay, and hardly had a problem — any I did, perhaps twice, when the screen goes blank, was easily solved by googling and ftp — but many people barely know how to google and have never heard of ftp ( the latter perhaps encouraged by WP’s handy, and bloating, mechanisms for uploading into WordPress instead of ftpping to external directories ). This no more means they are stupid than I am for not being able to pilot a space shuttle; but if something does go wrong — due to to an update they have put their trust in — and their precious site is borked, perhaps beyond repair, well now, they have every right to panic. And quite possibly to blame the company.
I’ve never seen it suggested by Microsoft as a corporate response that when something goes wrong in Windows and it’s misfortunate users get a screen of death Microsoft got it exactly right and the users should blame themselves and shut the fuck up. All software is immensely complicated in total and things do just go wrong; in WordPress’s case those people have nowhere else to turn but to WordPress — and sometimes it might be the software at fault. Perhaps WP is now past it. Everything has a life-span.
I admire the volunteers at .org forums, particularly since the increase in failed upgrade posts over the last few iterations seems to swamp the forum and it must be overwhelming for them, but much of their advice has to be repetitive and barely helpful to people who’ve lost their site. So far though they’ve managed to avoid ‘Shut The Fuck Up’ as standard copy and paste.
hey AARON,
THANKS,,,i’ll stop my whining and bitchin now,,ha ha
after spending an hour and a half clicking through everybody’s bs,,,i found your site and 2 seconds later,,,i was ok!
wtf – read only 2 cap words