mhdoc

About six months ago, after seeing lots of enthusiasm for WordPress as the basis for building websites, I put up several of my own. Six months later I see a few issues.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/web-design-discussion/636711-dealing-with-wps-rate-of-change.html

The installation is easy, the free form nature of WP makes it easy to build content on the fly, without much of a plan. It's relatively easy to add users so customers can make their own changes without risk to the site.

I chose to use the Thesis template because of the respected bloggers who were recommending it.

Six months later I see that:

1. I get a WP nag message on the dashboard telling me I need to update. The WP blog says there will soon be another version after that.

2. Thesis has been updated. It's apparently not really hard to update, but you have to back up files, learn new locations for some of them, tweak a few settings.

3. A Thesis evangelist had written a very helpful plugin which I used on all the sites. As frequently happens, he got crosswise with the developer so that plugin is toast.

If you have 5-10 sites none of this is a really big deal. However, I considered building several hundred sites this way. Had I done that I would have a big problem on my hands. With 500 WP based sites it looks like maintenance would become a full time job.

I am curious how developers with 100+ sites deal with the update issue.

copper

If you are thinking about having 100s sites, why don't you just make them static html site?
This way, you don't have to worry about upgrading to newer version.

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RazorNF

Check out WP Hive

I have not personally used it, but it looks promising.

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mhdoc

I agree it looks promising. Unfortunately, the last blog entry on his support forum is a message saying he will be out of touch for a week - Dated Nov. 1, 2009. Not a good sign