3.11 broken – why update?

Hi @ba95472,

I’m sorry to hear it was a disruptive experience for you.

For most of our customers, however, everything seems to point to it having been a smooth update allowing them to benefit from a number of fixes and improvements.

The old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies.

Indeed, we don’t encourage blind updating: it is always best to review the changelog (accessible during the WP update process, via our blog and on the plugin page here at www.ads-software.com) before updating.

With that said, improvements are continually being made and we definitely wouldn’t recommend that anyone close there eyes to information about updates, either.

Accordingly, I’ve changed the version number to 999999 so that I won’t get pestered to update everytime I (or my clients) login. All this chronic plugin and theme updating is just a big time suck.

You’ve got to do what works for you.

For the benefit of other users coming across this topic, however, I’d strongly caution against this approach unless you are fully aware of the risks: if the biggest problem is that your clients may see update notices, remember that WordPress is nothing if not flexible and there are other, arguably far better ways to deal with this sort of problem ??

Hi Barry,
Thanks for the reply. I’m not sure I understand what you’re suggesting, sorry. I’m saying that there are serious bugs in the latest update which apparently went unchecked/tested. As an end user, I’m interested in what works. If an update is actually a step back into a nightmare of problems, don’t do it.

Hi @ba95472 –

I’m saying that there are serious bugs in the latest update which apparently went unchecked/tested.

There were certainly some problems – but it also resolved a large number of pre-existing issues and improved plugin robustness in various areas.

As an end user, I’m interested in what works. If an update is actually a step back into a nightmare of problems, don’t do it.

Absolutely, and though we’re sorry we disappointed you this time round I hope that you find you are able to return to regular updates for The Events Calendar at a future point.

The chief reason I wanted to comment on your post though was mostly for the benefit of other users coming across this: simply to highlight that your suggested strategy of modifying core plugin code (to prevent update notices from appearing) is not one we’d generally recommend.

Once again, our apologies that things didn’t go smoothly – and we appreciate your feedback as it reinforces just how crucial it is to get these things right.

Thanks Barry. Here’s the thing, if the Events Calendar (or whatever program you’re using) is already doing the job you need it to do, then “updating” to the latest version can actually put that functionality into jeopardy, and for what? That is my motivation for freezing things once I have them doing what I need them to do. The whole notion that the latest update is by default an improvement I take exception to. More often than not, it seems that knobs were turned with insufficient testing or a reason for doing so.

I’m sorry you feel that way as we do put a huge amount of effort into testing, but I’ll certainly feed your thoughts back to the team.

Thanks Barry. Just for the record, it’s not just your plugin that I’ve had update issues with, it’s several. For whatever the reasons, it seems plugins, themes and platforms are releasing updates more than ever these days.

Having spent many hours trying to undo problems directly associated with updating, I’ve come to conclude that unless there’s a significant security threat or conflict, that updating in most cases is simply not worth it. Again, if it already looks and works like you want it to, what really do you have to gain by updating?

Personally I agree. I turn auto-updates off, and have been known to block update rights to my client’s admin accounts if there is a risk of them updating without consulting me. If there are no new features they need, I don’t update their site.

But, this strategy does require that you monitor the changelogs even if you’re not interested in new features. There are of course the ever present security concerns. In our plugin we release a security patch once in a blue moon. Most of our input/output stuff is run through WordPress’ API and thus so long as that’s secure, our plugin tends to be as well. But, every few months it seems like WordPress releases a decent set of security patches, and those are worth updating for. And on occasion when WordPress releases an update it breaks compatibility with an older version of a plugin, and you must update the plugin as well to be compatible.

I am glad you found a strategy that works for you. And I am really happy that our current plugin does everything you need. We are making a heavy push right now to build new features as many folks are asking for some additions.

Thanks for the feedback ba95472. It’s always been valuable. Just for the record I want to mention that we do extensive testing. I don’t have the numbers in front of me but I believe it is about 100 man hours of testing every release, in addition to automated tests. We have ~10 people who help, and usually strive to test everything twice before release. I am sure many other large WP plugins do the same. But, even with all that testing at times conflicts and bugs can still happen. It’s an unfortunate but persistent issue with software.

Happy calendaring!

– Brook