Spent some time this morning to upgrade to WordPress 2.5 for my blogging software - shouldn’t be any obvious issues, but let me know if you see any problems reading articles. (I am using this post as a test to make sure everything is set up, so feel free to ignore this :) )

Not so bad to upgrade, but a couple of key things:

• The documentation says to use the Maintenance Mode plugin while you upgrade - don’t! It doesn’t appear to be compatible with 2.5 yet, so it was blocking my access to upgrade.php which you need to run to update the database. I had to hack the script to turn it off from running to get through.
• Most of my plugins work - the only one with problems is Popularity Contest (I use this to track which articles people read most) - it had a Fatal Error. Apparently I am not the only one - see http://wordpress.org/support/topic/164349 for more.  (Update: the fix at http://blog.evaria.com/2008/wp-plugins-1-fix-and-1-update/ works great!)
• What is annoying is that while the plugins work, a lot of them make you go through and re-click save options to get them to kick in again after the deactivate/activate cycle. While not a big deal, it does make you figure out the new dashboard a little quicker than I would have thought of.
• Set up automatic backups as part of this - BackupWordPress is a fantastic plugin for this - well recommended.

Related posts

• WordPress Plugins?
• Using Averbuch.net
• Some moved, some not
• Averbuch.net: Making the transition

(Note: I plan on this being my last post for a while on the act of blogging and hosting engines; I’ll be back to posting about my life starting next.)

In moving over to the new blog, I had a choice to make: move everything over, move nothing, or figure out what’s easy to do.

WordPress has some options for transferring between hosting engines built-in, but unfortunately, Spaces is not one of them.

So, easy it was, but not everything - I used www.blogbackuponline.com, which has a really nice backup and restore service that happens to cover Spaces, but as I found out, only the 20 or so most recent articles.

Since I already started, I figured it’s good enough - so only the 20 most recent articles have been moved to the new site; visit the old one for any previous postings. Hope it’s not too much of a hassle!

Related posts

• Averbuch.net: Making the transition
• WordPress Plugins?
• Using Averbuch.net
• Geeky: Upgraded to WordPress 2.5

This post is more for the geeks out there - if you have any favorite WordPress plugins (or a site you trust that reviews them), please let me know… I’d love the advice!

(also using this post to test Windows Live Writer interaction with WordPress)

Related posts

• Using Averbuch.net
• Averbuch.net: Making the transition
• Some moved, some not
• Jarsenal of Democracy
• Interesting Articles in the Blogosphere

<This post is cross-posted between my old blog at Windows Live Spaces, and my new one, at Averbuch.net>

With my transition to Averbuch.net, a few key settings will need to be updated on your end, depending on how you follow my postings.

1. If you just visit the web site: Change your bookmarks to point to http://averbuch.net
2. If you follow the RSS feed: Change (or add) http://averbuch.net/feed/ to your RSS reader
3. If you like receiving email when I post, click here to signup.
4. If you read my postings on Facebook, I already updated the link, so you have nothing to change here.

Please contact me if you have any questions about changing over or something doesn’t work for you.

NOTE: I will no longer be posting at http://averbuch.spaces.live.com again; all new postings will go to http://averbuch.net only.

Related posts

• WordPress Plugins?
• Averbuch.net: Making the transition
• Some moved, some not
• Jarsenal of Democracy
• Interesting Articles in the Blogosphere

<This post is cross-posted between my old blog at Windows Live Spaces, and my new one, at Averbuch.net>

I’ve been thinking about moving off of Spaces for a while, for a couple of reasons:

1. More flexibility in hosting (i.e. stats tracking, plugins, etc…)
2. A lot more theme choices
3. I wanted to host fully on my domain name, http://averbuch.net, rather than just having it as a redirect.
4. Microsoft locks down a bunch of functionality in the name of security, but this significantly impacts my ability to explore and play with various technologies.
5. I wanted a server to do some exploration with Ruby on Rails.

During the President’s Day holiday yesterday, I spent time exploring various hosting options, and ended up setting up a plan at http://hostingrails.com, which had the price I was looking for (including coupons), along with providing Ruby access, WordPress, ssh/shell access, and a bunch of other exploratory needs.

I’ve got the new site up, so I am going to switch everything over there; you’ll just need to switch over once, but don’t be surprised if I change the look and feel a bit over time as I explore various options and plugins.

My next post will describe how to get setup on the new server.

Related posts

• WordPress Plugins?
• Using Averbuch.net
• Some moved, some not
• Jarsenal of Democracy
• Interesting Articles in the Blogosphere