Top marks LCN, epic fail WordPress!

17 & 18 December 2014

On Wednesday I returned to work feeling about eighty percent better but still weak and slightly wooly headed. The best I can say is that I got through the day and there was some walking. Sadly the walking was through drizzly streets. There were no photos, just one foot in front of the other and willpower to get there.

Thursday was little better. At least it wasn’t raining, well not quite. There were some vaguely pink looking clouds in the distance as I crossed Cobden Bridge and squealing gulls circling overhead. It wasn’t the best of days. One man told me to shove the phone up my arse because his bus was late. Apparently he had made ten million complaints about this very bus being late and we hadn’t answered any of them. As he wouldn’t give me his name I couldn’t check. He also wanted the phone number of the control office, “so I can swear at them.” He rang twice.

Things took a decided turn for the worse when I got home. When I logged onto my blog, WordPress was telling me I needed to update to version 4.1. Back in September, when my old blog was hacked I was told by my domain hosts, LCN, that this had probably happened because of something I hadn’t  updated so obviously I pressed update quick smart. Call me paranoid but I worry about these things.

As soon as the update had installed I got an error message. This was a mass of technical terms I didn’t understand and I couldn’t access anything. It all felt very familiar. My stomach lurched. When I checked, the blog was off line displaying the same error message. I’m not ashamed to say I cried. Toys were thrown out of prams. There was no way I was going to start over for a third time.

When things go wrong WordPress are not the most helpful or user friendly people. The only way of contacting them is through their forum. Even then you are not contacting them, you are contacting other members who may or may not be able to offer suggestions. This only works if you can actually find anywhere to post a question in the first place. Someone seems to have hidden the post now question button. Either that or I am way more stupid than I think I am.

Eventually, after much weeping and wailing, plus a little swearing and name calling I remembered all the help I’d been given by my domain hosts back when the old blog was hacked. Ok, so this problem was not with the domain but maybe, just maybe, they would be able to help me. It was worth a shot. I called them.

A wonderful angel called Emma answered my call. She was calm in the face of my babbling panic. She remembered what had happened with my old blog even though I’d not spoken to her before. Maybe I’m famous for being a crying panicky mess amongst the LCN helpline crew, who knows? She took a look, read the error message and immediately began to make suggestions. She was pretty sure the problem lay with my 2014 theme not being compatible with the 4.1 upgrade. This sounded rather too technical for me but she said she could get in and disable my theme if I liked. Of course I liked.

Less than a minute later I had my dashboard back.
“Your blog is still off line because it doesn’t have a theme any more,” she said, “but if you add a new theme it should work again.”
She even waited while I tried it and suggested a few other things I could do to stop it happening again. It worked! I could have kissed her. In fact I may have told her that I loved her.

Now call me nit picky if you like but I would have thought if WordPress were going to develop and release a new version they would want to make it compatible with the most recent theme. Obviously not! Maybe they should consider a warning with their message about upgrading to tell you you could lose access to your blog if you do? It would also be quite helpful if there was someone to talk to or at least email when it all went pear shaped. How many other people out there have the same problem I wonder? If you use WordPress and you haven’t updated to 4.1 yet, be warned!

All in all it was a very stressful experience and one I didn’t need after a very stressful day, worse still there is no way I can send any feedback to them about what happened or how badly I feel about it. LCN, on the other hand, were absolute stars once again. They do have a feedback facility and I was more than happy to send a very glowing report and a huge thank you to Emma. Top marks to LCN and epic fail to WordPress as far as I’m concerned.

So, if anyone is wondering why my blog looks different, now you know. I promise I will try to make it prettier over the weekend, in between all the walking and Christmas shopping I have to do. And if anyone from WordPress is reading this, your customer services leaves a great deal to be desired. Please take note!