I was ridiculously busy for months with planning my wedding, then I was on my honeymoon, and then I had the misfortune of sustaining a severe head injury which is only now finally fully healed so that I can finally get back on the computer.

As such, I’m crazy behind in all of my work and emails, so I’m playing catchup and look forward to being able to get back to blogging in the (hopefully) near future!! I do miss writing as well as keeping in touch with all of you guys!

Wish me luck in getting my business back in order sooner rather than later so I can start bringing you more blogging tips as soon as possible!

I’ve missed you all. Thanks for continuing to be loyal readers of How to Blog!!

Hello all,

I’m getting a rather large number of emails related to WordPress 2.1, so I figured I’d send this short notice.

Subtle yet very real changes occurred in the Database schema. Anything that relies on a post’s status (page/post, draft/published), in particular, is subject to hard to spot bugs. e.g. post lists, comment lists, etc.

A couple of options also disappeared with almost zero notice. Plugins that rely on them (and many do) will invariably be broken. Again, this may or may not occur with obvious bugs.

In the end, do NOT upgrade WP 2.1 immediately! There is no rush, as in security issues in need of fixing. And this update can potentially break many blogs if not dealt with properly.

A Semiologic Pro update with WordPress 2.1 will occur next week or so. But not before I feel things are stable enough for a proper release.

Thanks for reading!

Denis

He gives good advice…

In the meantime, a number of minor WordPress releases have come and gone - but today the next major revision of WordPress, version 2.1 (aka “Ella”), has been released. In addition to some 500+ bug fixes, it is purported to have more efficient database code which basically means “it’s faster” (a good thing!). On top of that, WordPress 2.1 also includes a bunch of new features and enhancements, including autosave, a tabbed editor for easy switching between WYSIWYG and coding, the ability to make pages private (or save them as drafts - finally!), search engine privacy options, spell checking and much more. Get the details over at wordpress.org.

They finally updated the upgrade instructions in the Codex to reflect the latest version — but you should probably wait before you upgrade to WordPress 2.1!

If you do updgrade, please let me know how smoothly it went for you. Thanks!

What gives? I have no problem creating new posts. But the one post I need to edit the most frequently won’t let me update it!

Update: I found numerous posts about this problem in the wordpress support forums, but no real solutions. Of course, wordpress.org is currently taking another lunch break so I can’t link to them for ya at the moment. HOWEVER, on the plus side, I did finally get wordpress to allow me to update my theme list (made a few slight mods to the html for the page — really shouldn’t have made a difference and frankly I don’t know why it didn’t work and why it does now…I’m just glad its working finally!)

Way to go to all of the wordpress theme authors!!

Now if only WordPress wasn’t giving me a blank page when I went to publish my updated theme list…if I can’t get it sorted out so that you can actually access the updated list at the old URL by tomorrow, I’ll create a new page for the theme list..

This is not the first time that a WordPress upgrade has been released only to have it introduce new bugs and require another update shortly thereafter to fix the first upgrade’s bugs. See here, here, and here for examples of history repeating.

Given this history of WordPress upgrades sometimes introducing new bugs and headaches, I’d recommend waiting at least a week after an upgrade comes out before installing it. This allows some extra time for the developers and the community to discover any bugs that crop up and provide you with more information as to whether upgrading will be simple and smooth — or a pain in the rear that makes that interferes with your otherwise blissful WordPress experience.

Lorelle (a brilliant woman who provides spectacular WordPress advice) shared her thought process in deciding when to install a WordPress upgrade She writes:

The first thing I always ask myself when considering an upgrade on anything, not just WordPress, is “Are you sure?” I think about the changes, improvements, and new features, and consider if it is worth it. I always upgrade in the end, but I give myself time to debate about it.

This debate time spent on answering the “are you sure” question benefits me in several ways.

1. Waiting helps me decide if the upgrade is worth the trouble by taking time to learn more about it.
2. Waiting to upgrade allows me to schedule the upgrade when it’s convenient to me, and not upgrade in panic mode.
3. Waiting to upgrade forces me to check with the various WordPress Plugins and tools I use to produce my blog to see how this upgrade will impact them. Usually, it doesn’t, but sometimes it does. I’d rather check first than have things bork during the upgrade because a Plugin isn’t working with the new version.
4. Waiting to upgrade usually gives the developers time to fix the upgrade and clean up bugs and problems found in the upgrade before I get to it, as today’s example proves.

I think Lorelle has come up with a wise and well thought out plan that should be adopted by all when deciding when to upgrade Wordpress.

Now, having worked as a software quality assurance engineer for Borland International for some years in the past, I know how ridiculously hard it can be to ensure that your release is genuinely stable before it goes out to the public. It is even harder for the wordpress team as I don’t think they have any specific QA team or test plans (like regression testing to make sure that everything that used to work still works once the latest bugs and enhancements have been added in). And let’s not forget that WordPress is free and that the developers are donating their time to make this awesome software available to you. Not only that, but I can tell you with certainty that retail software, no matter how expensive, always ships with known bugs — there is no such thing as bug-free software.

That said, while the developers are likely more frustrated about the bugs in WordPress 2.0.3 than any of us are, I think it is irresponsible to continue to offer WordPress 2.0.3 for download given the known bugs. Furthermore, I cannot fathom why the 2.0.3 upgrade is still presented in every WordPress dashboard and that the official post for 2.0.3 release has not been updated at all to reflect that users should hold off on installing the upgrade as some bugs slipped through and they are working on fixes at the moment. The bugs in 2.0.3 have been officially announced on Planet WordPress, yet most users wouldn’t know to check there — they see the WordPress 2.0.3 upgrade link in their dashboard and upon clicking it they are taken to the official WordPress development blog and told that the upgrade is, “The latest in the stable 2.0 series” — with no mention of the bugs or that it actually turned out not to be so stable after all. I know the developers are busy working round the clock trying to fix the bugs so that they can release an upgrade that resolves these new issues, but come on, can’t someone take the time to update the dev blog to let users know to hold off on upgrading??

Furthermore, for new users, why hasn’t the WordPress download page been updated (or rolled back) to list 2.0.2 as being the current stable release until the issues with 2.0.3 are worked out? Why are new users being told that the latest stable release of WordPress is 2.0.3 when its not, and that 2.0.3 is the version they should download and install? Why not give new users WordPress 2.0.2 (a truly stable release) to download given that it is now known that 2.0.3 is problematic?

For those who already upgraded, Mark Jaquith has released what’s being called a “WordPress 2.0.3 Tuneup Plug-In” which should help with some of the more annoying bugs…

Also annoying is that the WordPress.org website is currently “taking a lunch break” — making the support forums completely inaccessible for the moment.

“For the curious, this release includes:

• Small performance enhancements
• Movable Type / Typepad importer fix
• Enclosure (podcasting) fix
• The aforementioned security enhancements (nonces)

Upgrading is fairly simple, just overwrite your old files with the latest from the download. When you go to your admin it will give you a link to update your database.”

Here’s the link to download the newest WordPress.

I’ll report more once I’ve upgraded myself

The Wordpress 2.0 Theme Competition Winners:

Best Overall Designs
1st Place - Durable by Andy Peatling
2nd Place - Kurtina by Gail Dela Cruz
3rd Place - Ambiru theme by Phu Ly

Most Creative Design
Foliage by Derek Punsalon

Best 3 Column Design
Tiga by Shamsul Azhar

Best 2 Column Design
Disconnected by Adam Freetly

Best Use Of Colours
Dapit Hapon by Gail Dela Cruz

Best Liquid Design
DarkPad by Sreejith Krishnan

Best Use of Wordpress Theme Options
TBD by People’s Choice and Sponsor

Best AJAX Integration
TBD by People’s Choice and Sponsor

Congratulations to all of the winners, and thanks to all of the participants for all of their hard work in creating innovative wordpress themes. I’ve obviously got a lot of updating to do to my comprehensive wordpress theme list — hopefully I will be able to get it completed within the next day or so. How exciting! New wordpress themes! I can’t wait to go and check them all out!

Firstly, I’ve been in migraine hell again — its been really bad. I feel like a human guinea pig with all of the different medications that neurologist has given me and am extremely frustrated with how poorly they all work. There are two different kinds of medications that migraine sufferers take: a) a daily preventative medication and b) a medication to treat a migraine when you’re actually having it. The biggest zinger is that the preventative medications all have possible side effects of actually triggering more migraines (which has been my experience in 3 of the 4 preventative medications I’ve tried thus far, making things WORSE rather than better for the time being). To add insult to injury, the migraine medications that you take when you have a migraine are VERY expensive. $20-$25 a pill!!! And as if that weren’t frustrating enough, they don’t work. Every time I find something that works (Migranal, Axert, Maxalt, etc) it starts decreasing in its effectiveness so by the time I am on dose 5 or 6 it no longer works. I’m losing my mind a little bit here because when you have a migraine you can’t do anything - in addition to the pain you have sensitive to light, inability to concentrate or focus at all, you can’t even do anything to distract yourself from the pain like watch tv or read because that makes your head hurt worse - it is hell. And forget about trying to get any work done, never mind any blogging.

Which brings me to reason number two as to why I haven’t posted in forever: I’ve been busy on a contract job for the last two months, and every spare moment where I’ve been fortunate enough to not have a migraine and be able to think and use the computer I’ve had to devote to the contract job. While I’ll still have some contract work through June, it won’t be as much as over the past two months so I hope to have some more free time to devote to How to Blog. I have so many articles that I want to write and so much news that I want to report, but it is very time consuming and I need to earn a living so I can pay my mortgage, etc, so until blogging can help pay the bills it has to play second fiddle to my contract work (bummer).

On the plus side, I actually don’t have a headache today (which is VERY exciting!) and I have an appointment tomorrow to go to an acupuncturist to try an alternative method for preventing my migraines — I’ve had at least 4 different people suggest that I try acupuncture for my migraines b/c they know someone who was helped tremendously by it, and I found some studies on the internet that actually claim acupuncture is more effective than medication for preventing migraines, so keep your fingers crossed for me that this will finally be the thing that helps me with my migraines so I can get my life back again!!!! Wish me luck - I need it!!!!!

I know everyone is anxious to see the new designs, and they’ll be available in two weeks for download after the judging panel has reviewed all the entries. A screenshot of each design will be available later this week for a sneak preview of the designs that have been entered. I’ll also complile a list of all the new partcipants and come up with a final number of theme entries within the next couple of days

As of April 17th, there were 34 Theme Participants listed and I’m sure that list has grown as the competition deadline drew nearer. A big thanks to everyone who participated, and best of luck to all of you in winning some of the great prizes being offered up!

Personally, I’m uber excited to see all the new WordPress 2.0 themes that have been created! I hope that some designers really went to town with incorporating WordPress 2.0’s new Theme Options, which allow wordpress bloggers to customize the theme without touching (or knowing) a single piece of code.

I also can’t wait to see how much larger my comprehensive wordpress theme list will grow once all of the themes that were submitted to the contest are made available to the public. We’ve recently crossed the 800 themes mark — think there’s a chance we can make it to 900??