We just did a webcast on website tips & tricks for churches and non-profits. Don’t let the title fool you, a lot of this advice applies to any websites. Check it out here.

Chris Jean, the coding guru at iThemes.com, laughs at me because I won’t run any software version that ends in a zero. Call me paranoid, but I like to wait until they get all the big bugs killed before updating software.

Apparently I was right about WordPress 2.9 which released on Saturday. In less than 48 hours after release, they have already identified several serious bugs in the new version. In the software industry, it doesn’t matter how well you beta test something — it doesn’t really get tested until it goes out to the public.

How bad are the bugs? Not bad enough to shake my faith in WP as a platform, but serious enough to recommend my clients not upgrade until the WP gurus get a chance to patch things up a bit. I imagine by late January we will have a stable version that we can recommend to our clients.

There is some good stuff in 2.9. We’re looking forward to using it, but not this week. We prefer to let somebody else do the testing on their clients’ web sites.

Somebody give me a shout when 2.9.3 comes out…

A updated version of WordPress was released last week – version 2.8.6. This update fixes two security holes where someone with permission to post to your blog can exploit your site. This update is highly recommended.

Remember to verify your plugins and backup your database before installing any updates. MainStreetOpen can help you with these.