I’m probably one of the few people who wasn’t impressed with Wordpress 2.5. I personally believe that Wordpress 2.3.3 was alot user friendly. At first I thought I’d appreciate Wordpress 2.5 when I get used to it. But then, three weeks of using it gave way for more problems (messy Wordpress theme, errors with plugins, troubles with widgets etc.).
After using Wordpress 2.5 for about three weeks, I decided to revert back to Wordpress 2.3.3. From switching to Wordpress 2.5 and back to 2.3.3, I noticed a potential problem with using Wordpres 2.5. (Note: This is just an observation.)
Right after updating my blog from Wordpres 2.3.3 to Wordpress 2.5, I noticed a sudden increase in the number of spams in my comment and trackback. Before the update, I usually receive about 20-50 spam (comments and trackbacks). Also, before I updated my blog to Wordpress 2.5, the total spam caught by Akismet was nealy 4,500, which was accumulated since I started using Wordpress in November 2007.
Since I started using Wordpress 2.5, on its first day, I received more than 600 comment and trackback spams. I didn’t mind it at first as Akismet is doing a great job in catching spams. On average, I receive about about 150 spams everyday, which is a 200% increase than when I was using Wordpress 2.3.3. Today, the total spam caught by Akismet is over 12,500 (comments + trackbacks).
I experienced receiving tremendous amount of spam after I updated to Wordpress 2.5 so it was my primary suspect. All my plugins, including Akismet, were all updated and yet I still receive lots of spam. It should have not been a big problem if Akismet was able to catch the spam comments and trackbacks but on the third week, spams started to show up in my comments and trackbacks that I needed to manually delete them.
To satisfy my curiousity, I reverted back to Wordpress 2.3.3. Guess what happened? After 24 hours, I just received 24 spams (14 comments + 10 trackbacks).
Was it Wordpress 2.5? Was it Akismet? Or it’s just some circumstances?
I would really appreciate if you share your experiences after you updated your blog to Wordpress 2.5. Did you have the same observation?
Thank you for your time. 
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Link Building Bible responded on 27 Apr 2008 at 12:32 am #
I haven’t noticed an increase but I don’t have nearly the traffic you do either.
Could you do a post on the steps to downgrade back to 2.3.3 ??
Link Building Bibles last blog post..Sponsor Contests to Get Backlinks and Traffic
Martyn responded on 27 Apr 2008 at 1:54 am #
I’ve found spam to have increased slightly. But not to the relative amounts you have found. Don’t really understand how or where the extra spam would have come from just by upgrading.
Overall I have one major problem with 2.5, is the new widgets interface. Give me the old one, which was much easier to use, any day.
Martyns last blog post..The Secret Power of Viral Videos, You’ve been Rick Rolled
Clement responded on 27 Apr 2008 at 5:45 am #
I did not even join the WP 2.5 bandwagon. I remained with the 2.3.3. Actually I do not why the WP guys keep on releasing one version after another in a very short period time. In his recent posting, John Chow poins out that now there is version 2.5.1
Sire responded on 27 Apr 2008 at 9:50 am #
Not having any problems at all with 2.5. So far all themes and plugins are working fine. It took awhile to get used to but I OK with it now.
Sires last blog post..Watch Out For Studio Photographer Scams
sylv3rblade responded on 27 Apr 2008 at 12:59 pm #
well WP 2.5 didn’t attract spammers on my end. It’ broke my RSS feed =_=
Got around it somehow… just waiting for Feedburner to pick it up.
sylv3rblades last blog post..Save yourself from Procrastination
BloggingMix responded on 27 Apr 2008 at 7:43 pm #
@LinkBuildingBible,
All you need to do is download Wordpress 2.3.3 and upload it to your host. It worked well for me.
Cheers.
Wakish responded on 29 Apr 2008 at 12:14 am #
The Wordpress.Org community is getting frustrating now and the 2.5 WP series is a big flop from my point of view too..
- Wakish -
Jenny responded on 30 Apr 2008 at 7:44 pm #
You were right about 2.5. There were lots of security issues with it. I have now upgraded to 2.5.1
Jennys last blog post..Word press themes lag behind word press upgrades
platinum wedding rings responded on 30 Apr 2008 at 11:59 pm #
I think is a no win situation. I like to hold off on install new versions until that iron the bugs out. But by holding off, you are exposed to vulnerabilities with the old.
Alex Schleber responded on 01 May 2008 at 2:39 am #
I think there is a good number of people who won’t be upgrading to 2.5 for a good while if ever, and the reasons are many:
1) The admin changes are mostly annoying and detrimental to power users, while not addressing many of the real issues (wpautop function messing up peoples custom HTML, wasted vertical screen real estate in admin, etc. etc.). Basically 2.5 admin was just dumbed-down to a lowest common denominator in many ways.
Check out this WP forum thread.
The one thing that actually worked like a champ, the Widget drag/drop screen, got the ax for a less elegant solution… why?
2) It is horrible to have to break your install as far as plugins, etc. just to keep up with WP’s crazy roll-out schedule. They should be making people’s lives easier, not harder. Speaking of plugins, auto-update of plugins is a very bad idea from a security stand-point.
See what TechnoSailor had to say about it
3) Rather than tying security improvements in with whole-sale changes and upgrades, they should offer those as single file patches so that you can stick with your current version, especially given how manual and relatively dicey the WP “upgrades” are in the first place (that’s been the #1 complaint on the wordpress.org forum forever, still not really addressed at all).
Despite the rant, I do like/use Wordpress and have in fact made many custom changes to it, my theme, and some plugins. Maybe a group of coders should get together and insure security updates for 2.3.3 well into the future.
Best - Alex
Alex Schlebers last blog post..Micro-hoo: A Bad Idea - Branding and Positioning Issues
Alex Schleber responded on 01 May 2008 at 2:46 am #
BTW, here is another big 2.5 foul up i just found:
The Widget screen “upgrade” causes your text widgets to get lost! You’d think they might take stuff like that into account…
http://www.accmanpro.com/2008/04/18/big-gotcha-in-wp-25/
I have said for a while that rather than using the text widgets to store your custom stuff (with poor overview/readability/editability as they are all just called ‘text[#]‘ and throw up that mini edit-window), it’s much better to store them in your functions.php as your properly named own widgets.
I’ll be writing a post soon with the code example on how to easily add this. It’s NOT rocket-science, I’m not that great of a coder myself…
Best - Alex
Alex Schlebers last blog post..Micro-hoo: A Bad Idea - Branding and Positioning Issues
ivonson responded on 01 May 2008 at 12:10 pm #
I have upgrade to WP 2.5 3weeks ago. Personally I dont like it at first but soon got the hang of it. My favourite one is the plugin upgrade. save me plenty of time. Notice that the dashboard theme is simmilar to one of the fomous paid theme use by the gurus. What is it call can’t remmember.
On the spam issue, i don’t experienced an increase .
Have a great blogging day
ivonsons last blog post..Using Autoresponders Responsibly
Larry Elam responded on 01 May 2008 at 10:32 pm #
What i find funniest is that within a week or so of 2.5 (which was supposed to solve security issues) they release 2.5.1 to resolve new security issues. Is WordPress a MS product
@LinkBuildingBible
Why would you want to downgrade back to 2.3? That version has LOTS of security holes - especially witht he different plug-ins.
Carla responded on 06 May 2008 at 4:23 pm #
I have noticed an increase in spam comments, specifically ring tones (you have to wonder if the spamming really works for anyone), but I had been hoping it was because my blog was getting out there. If it was just because of the upgrade, that would really be a bummer.
The big problem I’ve had is my RSS feed not updating with Feedburner. I spent half a day trying to figure the problem out. I have a valid feed now; however, it doesn’t have the customized categories that I had before.
Carlas last blog post..Save On Marketing and Advertising
WhyDoWork responded on 06 May 2008 at 7:04 pm #
@ Carla:
Have you tried contacting Feedburner?
I’ve always found them to be extremely helpful.