The current version of my WordPress SEO plugin has a new feature: it supports post type archives in several places. It also has a bug: if your version of WordPress (ie. everything before 3.1) doesn't support post type archives, it'll break. Now, this is annoying and something I will fix in the next release, but I'm absolutely astounded by the number of people that seem to upgrade to a new version of my plugin religiously (thank you!) but do not upgrade WordPress.
You see, the plugin is in beta. WordPress is not. Why, please do tell me, would you not upgrade WordPress first but instead upgrade the plugin and then decide not to upgrade WordPress? I've had 10+ threads on the WP forums about this same topic now (which actually is another issue in itself, people don't search and I can't close threads).
Common reasons not to upgrade WordPress
Let me list some standard reasons for not upgrading and my response:
- "I'll loose my customizations" - I'm sorry to say that you've done it wrong and should've built a plugin, which is your fault, not mine. At some point I will drop support for 3.0, so you really should go and fix it.
- "My theme doesn't work with 3.1" - for starters, I don't believe it. WordPress 3.1 hardly broke anything that was built using normal WP standards. If it's really true, you've got a crappy theme and you should either fix it or change themes.
- "I can't tell you why but it's not an option to upgrade WordPress" - if you can't tell me, I can't help you, but the above reasons probably apply.
- "My developer says it's not safe to upgrade" - fire him and get another developer. If he / she thought it was safe to use beta software (my plugin) but doesn't think it's safe to upgrade WordPress, he has too high an opinion of my coding and too low an opinion of the WordPress development team. You're in luck though, apparently there are 20,000+ of them.
- "Other plugin X-Y-Z breaks when I upgrade." So, instead of complaining to the developer that doesn't update his plugin to work with the latest version of WordPress, you decided to complain to the developer who did do that, in fact updated his plugin to let you benefit of all the new functionality? Wrong way round.
- "This plugin I paid for breaks when I upgrade". This is he worst of all. Read the line above and then add to that in your head that my plugin is free.
Now, I'll point everyone here who has one of these issues. If you feel I'm too harsh: I'm sorry. That won't change my opinion though. If you really need my plugin and are at a loss at what to do, you can always, you know, hire me.
Upgrade WordPress, then upgrade plugins! is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!