So… yeah. I’m not particularly code-savvy, so I admit that I’m finding all this a bit anxiety-provoking. I’m an indie writer/novelist, not a site designer or dev.
So far, I’ve used the plugin to migrate 6 sites from WordPress 4.9.9 to ClassicPress. All worked seamlessly, no plugin conflicts, no errors at all. Since one of those is my primary site for my writing, it’s a relief, to say the least! It was much more painless and easy than I was halfway braced for.
I used gtmetrix.com to check the speeds before and after. There’s enough variation and a small enough average before-and-after difference to make it less than dramatic, but I can confidently say that they’re all running at least as quickly as before and possibly a bit faster. These are very minimalist sites - for the most part, they’re places for me to post chapters of serials - and that’s a comparison against 4.9.9, not 5.0.x.
I also apparently need to have a word with the hosting company since we’re at PHP 5.6.39 which I gather is bad? (Sorry, like I said, not great at the tech end.)
I have two sites left to migrate, and they’re both a bit more scary. One is a very old personal blog that has, over time, gone from b2evolution to wordpress.com to being self-hosted in WP, big and clunky and slow and relatively media-heavy, but if it crashes, well, the traffic is low these days. If that one has issues I won’t be surprised.
The really worrying one is over 6 years old and is a bit of a beast, in need of thorough housekeeping I’m not confident enough in my skills to attempt. I sort of accidentally ended up as admin of a site for a community that lost its previous home (it was “upgraded” to the point where some couldn’t even load it) and I’m pretty much on my own among a lot of friends who are mostly older adults and mostly not at all tech-savvy. If it goes down, they’re going to be rather distressed, although less so if I warn them I’m doing work. I’m going to have to do some thinking about that one and might hold off until the RC. (If you’re thinking that I have no business trying to run a site when I’m out of my depth, you’re probably right, but someone had to do it.)
I intend to keep promoting CP wherever I can. I’m no use for the tech side of things, but anything I can do, I will. I know what works for me, as far as the sites I use for my writing, and that is emphatically not the direction WP is moving in. So I am extremely grateful for the alternative!
Would a list of plugins that (as far as I can tell) are working just fine be helpful? It won’t be all that long - there are at most about 20 on any one site and the vast majority are repeats.
