Consider this the Suzanne-Bird-Harris.com’ version of a Public Service Announcement.

You might be in trouble if…the web dude you hired to build your fancy new WordPress site tells you upon completing your site, “Ok, now…just one thing: Don’t EVER upgrade WordPress, or your site will go away.”

This actually happened recently to someone I know. She contacted me about adding something to her site, and in the process of describing what she wanted done, told me that the reason she was running an old version of WordPress is that she was told by her designer that she couldn’t upgrade WordPress without blowing her site up.

My reaction: WTF???!!!????

It seems she paid to have a custom theme built. But when I logged in to her site and checked to see what was so special about this custom theme she was running – all I found was the default WordPress theme.

Then it dawned on me how her site would just “go away” if she ever upgraded WordPress. The guy used the default WordPress theme as the basis for the custom theme. In other words, he customized the default theme and LEFT IT CALLED DEFAULT!!!

Folks, when you use the handy, dandy automatic upgrade button that makes upgrading WordPress so darn easy these days, guess what gets upgraded as a part of the process? THE DEFAULT THEME!!

So, if she ever upgraded WordPress, that customized version of the default theme would be overwritten…gone…BYE-BYE!

And who among us would ever think that as part of our site backup strategy we’d need to backup the dang default theme? Particularly if we’d paid someone to supposedly build us a custom theme? Not many of us, I bet – including me.

This guy ought to be shot, in my estimation.

Warning…rant ahead…

On what planet do you call yourself a WordPress professional of ANY sort and do crap like that to unknowing, unsuspecting clients who pay you for your so-called expertise??

And how do you keep a straight face while accepting payment after you’ve told your client that you’ve just rendered their site useless as far as upgrading WordPress goes? (To be fair, there ARE other ways to upgrade WordPress that won’t overwrite the default theme. But I suspect the average person who hires someone to build them a custom theme doesn’t know how to do that, as this person did not.)

Now if this guy did this because he didn’t know any better, then he needs to stop doing client work until he learns more about web design.

If he did this because he didn’t know how to use the default theme as a starting place, but make the final product a new theme on its own, then he needs to stop creating custom themes until he learns more about WordPress.

But if this guy did this because he was just lazy or as a way to bind this client to him for the life of her site – then he needs to be drawn, quartered, tarred, feathered and shot where the sun don’t shine.

Bozos abound on the web, my friends. Beware.

This, among other reasons, is why I hold a monthly Free Q&A Call where you can call in and pick my brain for free…to karmicly counter some of this kind of bad mojo that unfortunately can be found in any industry, not just web design.

(P.S. I’m happy to report that I was able to finish the job of making a custom theme for this person, and she’s happily running WordPress 2.9.1 WITH her fancy, custom theme. She can now upgrade WordPress without blowing up her site.)

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