…oops!

I had a commenter ask me if I could do a tutorial on custom pages the other day. I’d've approved the comment, save for the fact that I royally screwed the pooch here, and lost a lot of stuff - including any comments that were awaiting moderation.

Believe me, I apologize for the way things are around here right now. I half-expected it to happen, but my luck with WordPress has been great ever since I started using it a little over a year ago (March 16 was my 1 year anniversary - amazing!) - it was bound to catch up to me sometime!

So, here’s what happened, if you’re interested… (and yes, mysterious commenter - to whom I profusely apologize for losing your question! - I shall do a tutorial for you!)

So, basically, I tried to revert.

Yeah, when 2.1 came out, I figured I’d choose one of my blogs (I have three) and upgrade to the new version. As part of the Install4Free team, I figured I should know what I was doing when it came to the new version. When a new one comes out, I download it so I can install for people - but since this one was so new, I figured I should give it a try as well.

Needless to say, I really liked it. Truly, I did. I have never been a fan of the TinyMCE “Visual Rich Editor” that comes with a WordPress installation - at least the one in the 2.0.x series. It was always more trouble than it was worth. But I discovered that the 2.1.x version was greatly improved. Not that I’d use it (I don’t like WYSIWYG editors), but for future clients, it’s wonderful. A lot of the issues that were present in past versions were eradicated. Plus the other cool doo-dads that came with it were things only a geekazoid like me could love. Like being able to run PHP code in your posts if you want, rather than display it. Or the new backup system - that would allow you to import Wordpress-to-Wordpress. Fun nerdy stuff like that.

But after a month of “trial-run”, I found out that 2.1.x wasn’t without it’s issues, either. I have to bite my lip and lean to the right here - I think maybe they did release it a little too soon. (Yes, yes, I know - many of the WP Forum mods will beat me for saying that - but I swear, it’s only my opinion!) 2.0.x had it’s bugs, but at least they seemed to be easily fixable bugs. 2.1.x has some doozies, I tell ya. Bitty annoying things - nothing major - just little nitpicky things that, when you tried to fix them, rolled into a ball of frustration that made you want to become a civil servant so you could vent your anger with an AK-47.

So, I tried to roll back because I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore. And, well, that’s why you’re now looking at the Kubrick theme, and yesterday half my links were gone. The BIG issue was that 2.1.x combines some of your database tables together. Once you do that, it’s pretty difficult to break them apart to what they once were. I actually managed it though - it’d be hard to do with a very large site (luckily mine’s not so huge yet) but I did do it. However, the idiot that I am, I accidentally deleted my theme from the server and - d’oh! yes, I will admit it - I didn’t back it up. So I had to upload the ancient, original form of the theme, and it was just shot all to hell because I’d made so many changes since I’d started…::le sigh::

Anyway - learn from me. If you’re not sure that you want to upgrade, or if you’re not sure which version to use (for the record, 2.0.x series is still very much supported - they are not just dropping it and rolling along yet), then pay attention here.

From my experience, I’ve developed a “rule of thumb” for figuring out which one you want to use. If you’re a standard blogger who doesn’t know code so very well, and you want something that just works right out of the box, stick with 2.0.x. If you’re a geekazoid and love new buttons and knobbies, and you don’t mind having to utilize a tweak or two when you come across something weird (again - nothing major at all, I swear it!) then go for 2.1.x.

If you’re not sure which side you fit in there, then try it out. But, for the love of all that is holy, try it out separately from an existing blog. Otherwise, you’re gonna have some fun trying to fix it.

And for the record, I figure I’ll post how I did manage to roll it all back without losing anything more than 2 comments that needed moderation. I guess I’m not the only one who wants to revert, and there’s not many people who have done it successfully (in fact, I believe I’m the only one - the only one I’ve heard of, anyway. That doesn’t mean I am the only one, but I’ve yet to hear of someone else who’s done it successfully.) So I figure I should share how I did it.

But this post is long enough, and it’s late (and believe me, it’s a process!) and I need to get to bed. So chalk that one up to “coming soon…”

Posted by admin
March 29th, 2007