I did it first to another site and had experienced no problems. So I was feeling good about doing the same here and getting rid of the nagging notices that a newer version was available.

I did the upgrade by the book, including running all the backup scripts for the posts and data. Then let the script disable all the plugins I didn’t need for the upgrade. It upgraded the site and it all looked good. Until I tried to log in to the admin page.

For some reason, all the admin stuff was no longer working very well. I could log in, but only part of any page would show up. It was like it stopped partway.

I figured it was some problem with either a theme or a plugin. There are two ways to disable them. One is to go into the admin control panel and turn them off. But I couldn’t do that. The other way is to physically remove them from the file structure of the site. That I could do. I moved all the plugins and all the themes except for the default one to a different folder on the server.

The site worked and I got the admin pages back. So I thought it must be a particular item. I decided to move the plugins back one at a time. I never found one plugin that caused the problem. What I found was as more were loaded, the admin pages started stopping at different points as they loaded. It was like the more I added back the worse the problem got.

It turns out that there is a memory allowance setting in PHP on the server that needs to be increased. In some cases, it’s just a matter of editing a line in one of the site files. I tried it but it didn’t do anything. I needed to have it changed at the server, which meant a call to tech support at the host. I wasn’t sure yet if I wanted to do that, so I left the site running with a different theme and most plugins disabled while I thought it over.

Well, the next time I checked, everything worked fine. Did the change in the setting automagically work after some time? Did the tech guys at my host get swamped by calls about this from everyone who runs WordPress and change it globally? Did someone read a server log and notice my plight? I don’t know. All I know is things started working again and I’m glad.

I put the normal theme back and enabled all the plugins and everything is working fine.

It seems to have worked, and I got through it without much trouble. I use a plugin, WordPress Automatic Upgrade, which does most of the heavy lifting for me, so it didn’t take long.

Ther plugin used to work really well, but the last time I used it, there were a few glitches with the database backup. That uses another plugin. I found out that by disabling all other plugins and changing to a default theme first, it all works and the upgrade proceeds smoothly.

The problem is, they do disable all the plugins during the upgrade process, they just do it automatically at a later point. If they would just move it up sooner, it would work without my intervention. They also put the site into a maintenance mode, which probably accomplishes what using a default theme does too.

But that’s all minor. The main thing the update seems to do is change the Admin interface, the part of the site nobody else sees except the privileged few. The screen shot shows part of the new Dashboard. They did clean it up and organize it really well. I like it, but there isn’t much for the user to see.

There has been a definite surge in traffic here since the 23rd of October, which you can see in the chart. I almost never check this and I don’t have a page counter on this site. They’re tacky and unreliable anyway. Most of the time, I don’t care if I have 3 or 3,000,000 viewers. But this is interesting.

This chart is Unique Visits, in other words individual people, no matter how many pages they read. We hit a peak of 1,930 raw views on the 28th. Wow!

Another interesting statistic is what people are using to look at the web page. This chart is for the past year. Internet Explorer is still the top browser, with Mozilla (Firefox, Seamonkey) the next most popular. Netscape, Safari and Opera are distinctly in the minority.

But the biggest platforms, right up with IE, are the webcrawlers. Most people don’t think about it, but all those search engines are out there visiting web pages and gathering information about them. Mine is no exception and the custom software used for that shows up here.

Another interesting stat, although I didn’t copy the chart, was Referrers. This tells me where people are coming from. Needless to say, search engines are a big source of traffic. Google and Ask.com were big statistically. Other blogs and forums were also a significant source. Several names of sites I know link here were prominent.

No point, just that inquiring minds want to know…

I often add comments to my own posts. Not just a reply to someone else’s comment, but stand-alone comments. The reason I do that is to be clear that what is in the comment is an addition to the post, not an original part of it.

I often correct my posts – spelling, grammar and unclear syntax – but I’m reluctant, once published, to alter the actual content. By putting something I’m adding into a comment, it’s clear it was added later.

Actual corrections to content of any significance, such as when I make a mistake (I know, that couldn’t happen) will be made in the article, and duly marked. I like strike-outs for the old, wrong stuff!

You might not care, but there are purists out there who think blogs are just like mainstream media and should follow rules like they do. I’m not under any illusion that my ramblings fall in that category, but I still aspire to some higher standard.

But don’t sit there waiting to see what I add as comments, add you own! I’m happy to have anyone reading my blog add their thoughts to any article. Just go to the bottom of the whole post, or click the little comments icon with the little cartoon talk-balloon symbol, and use the Leave a Comment box. You’ll have to leave a name and email and answer a captcha so that the site doesn’t get spammed into oblivion, but don’t let that scare you away. First posts are held for approval, but subsequent ones are automatic.