Rebel Zero

I’m not sure why but WordPress users, especially those on the Planet Ubuntu feed, seem compelled to inform their readers that they just upgraded their blogs to the latest version. I can admit to doing the same a while back but couldn’t justify it afterwards, so I stopped. However, I feel the need to do so today in response to some upset and overly angry comments found in the WordPress support forum.

“I’m also going to move to Drupal. WordPress just violated trust with this upgrade, and I had 15 minutes of downtime, which is unacceptable, given how they advertise an easy upgrade process.”

“I feel that Drupal is the 2nd choice after WordPress. I love WordPress, but after this violation of trust, I can’t bank my blog on it.”

“You guys made a very shitty upgrade and should tell people to upgrade before testing it properly. I can’t do anything about it and I can’t continue working on my blog since nothing works properly. Thanks for ruining my blog! you’re the best! Have a great day!”

“Who’s responsible for this crap ? Did anybody do any honest and real testing on it?”

Of course, this is only from a few people so it’s hardly a representation of how well WordPress is actually built. I imagine that most WordPress users had no issue upgrading regardless of how they chose to initiate it. WordPress can always be upgraded manually but that can prove difficult for a novice user or one who doesn’t have direct access to the installation. WordPress has since developed an automated update which makes upgrading as easy as a few mouse clicks. Unfortunately, the easy way is hardly always the best way, so some breakage is expected.

While we can all agree that a site you’ve studiously worked on suddenly stop working is frustrating to see, attacking the developers really won’t solve any problems. Given that the developers have worked countless hours coding a simple, yet versatile, blog just to be given away to the masses for free, it hardly seems right to bark at them when things go wrong, especially when they’re more than willing to help solve the issues.

It’s hopeful, albeit unlikely, that all those who have had problems with the upgrade learn some valuable lessons from their problems:

1. Always expect the unexpected.
2. Even when they seem unwarranted, take a moment to create a backup.
3. Directions are written to be read.
4. Nicely ask and someone will nicely answer.

Now for the meat and potatoes. RebelZero.com has been successfully upgraded to WordPress 2.8. Have a nice day. Any if you have the means, check out Fedora 11 Leonidas.