I can’t complain about WordPress in that it is a free program. However, I can’t say I enjoy the constant updates.
My assumption is that it is primarily for security reasons. I don’t know that matters because my real problem is that most hosts have an “auto-install” for this blog software. Generally the updates can be done automatically.
The problem for me is that even if I do a SimpleScripts, or a Fantastico install and use only these to update, I often get errors. That might be fine for programmers, but for those with a blog that are like me, and just blogging for fun, it is a real inconvenience to update and create a bunch of errors.
I recently encountered this on a couple other blogs and after a few hours of trying to solve the problem, I just dropped my theme and uploaded a different one. The strange thing is, that the theme updated on one of my other blogs with no problems.
This would lead me to it being a problem with a clash with a plugin. I tried many things like deactivating all plugins, and reinstalling but had no luck.
If you don’t have your own host updates shouldn’t be a problem. Obviously most bloggers have the version that is installed on a host if they have the host, just to have the freedom of more versatility with what they can do with the blog.
Another problem is that when I search the WordPress forums, I very often find that a problem that is worded exactly as my search, is unresolved. This makes it necessary to keep searching or wait for a solution to the problem.
Nearly as bad as that is that some of the errors require editing the files which operate WordPress. It is nothing for a programmer, or someone with a good amount of knowledge, but for a novice like me, it is a challenge that can result in completely reinstalling the blog. Naturally, one should never work on the blog, without backing it up first.
The good thing about the forums is that the information is generally there. It is finding what you need that presents the problem.
I keep reading that a person should have their own host because you will get more traffic. I can’t honestly say this is true. I do know many people promote hosting on their sites. If you promote hosting, you will naturally advise someone to get a host and do their own thing and not just sign up and get long url that is WordPress.com with a slash, then the title of your blog.
The traffic I get on my blogs does not indicate a straight “dot com” is better than the long url of the free blogs. In this case, a “free” blog just means one that is generated for you and you just plug in the information. The indication is, the title and content of the posts on a blog are what draw traffic from the search engines.
I prefer the free blog that I host myself. For those that aren’t more than slightly computer savvy, I just wish to warn you, that the updates will cause problems of some sort before to long.
I would still like to know how to get my sidebar back on two blogs I have as I much preferred the older theme I had. It just isn’t worth it to me to invest the amount of time it takes to find a nice, simple, direct answer to edit the file that is causing the column to move from where it is supposed to be.
Like with computers. Make a good model, change it only when it improves it, not just to sell more by making it obsolete.
I believe WordPress is the best “free” blogging platform. If you are a newbie, you will pay for it with your time trying to keep it running. Please don’t take this as something that is daily because it won’t happen daily, but occasionally you will develop errors from a plugin, or an update.
Tags: automatic install, problems, updates, wordpress