Tips Tuesday – WP News and Drama, AI Killing Us All, BackBlaze Backups
Tips this week include:
- WP 7.1.1 expected on Thursday
- Minimum PHP version debate
- Matt Mullenweg asked to step away as CEO
- Matt’s next move has us concerned
- Check BackBlaze backups carefully
- Turn off and unplug devices
- New Google Search Console AI report
- AI Could Kill Us All – that’s the headline, see the real story
WordPress Tips
WP 7.1.1 Expected on Thursday
There have already been a bunch of bug reports and fixes for WP 7.1. Most are minor or only affect a limited number of sites.
The bug fix release of 7.1.1 will start rolling out this Thursday.
This should be an automatic update for you.
But, if it hasn’t done it by the weekend, go ahead and manually update.
Minimum PHP Version Debate
PHP is one of the main coding languages that runs WordPress. And it is constantly evolving and dropping support for older versions.
The minimum PHP version that WordPress requires to run at all is 7.4.
The problem with that is support for 7.4 was dropped in 2022 – that’s 4 years out of date – and that’s a HUGE security issue for the sites running it.
But, 15% of WP sites are still running 7.4, and that’s why WP core can’t make full use of all the new features and speed in the current 8.4 and 8.5 PHP versions.
Here’s My Take on PHP
I helped my clients make the leap from 7.4 to 8.0 back in 2021 so that our sites would be safe and faster. Plus, we needed to root out any old plugins that were not keeping up with the new standards. (FYI, 7.4 was the last stable version before 8.0.)
Since then we have periodically upgraded our PHP versions to ensure we are on the most stable, supported version. Most of us are currently running 8.3, with a few new sites already on 8.4. The rest of us will be upgrading to 8.4 starting in January 2027.
Given the horrible security situation we have now with everything online, I think it’s ludicrous that WP does not mandate keeping pace with the supported versions of the underlying code.
And why in hell they are making PHP 8.1 the minimum is beyond me. Support ended for it in Dec 2025.
If that 15% of site owners still running 7.4, which is 1/5 of the web, doesn’t care about keeping their sites safe and fast, then let them break. Same goes for plugin and theme devs who are not keeping pace.
Maybe that will wake them up to the reality of online security in 2027 and beyond.
Matt Mullenweg Asked to Step Away as CEO
Holy cow! This caught everyone by surprise.
On Slack, Matt wrote:
“Mark Davies, current Automattic Chief Financial Officer, has “conspired” with Automattic Board of Directors members Ann Dunwoody, Toni Schneider, and Sue Decker “behind my back and they voted to put me on a paid leave of absence. I voted against that.”
Matt will still be a board member with voting rights, he just won’t be steering the ship.
They said nothing else will change at Automattic during this interim period.
And that makes me wonder if the board got wind of some new scheme Matt had planned either for WP or for the ongoing legal battle with WP Engine, and that removing him as CEO was a way to prevent that from happening. Or, maybe it was a way to shield Automattic from that legal battle.
I’m sure we’ll hear more about this in the coming months and I’ll keep you posted.
Matt’s Next Move
Just because Matt is no longer CEO doesn’t mean that he’s benched out of the game.
He was already scheduled to be the Release Lead for WP 7.2, which they are currently working on and was already scheduled to be out near the end of the year.
But, immediately after the CEO announcement, he posted on X that he is looking for a sys admin and security researchers to help him “get my stuff off Automattic servers.”
You don’t need high-level folks like that to simply move your blog.
So, we don’t know what he’s up to with this.
But do keep in mind that he owns WordPress.org and the repositories of themes and plugins – not those things, but the repository.
And for the first time in 42 years he’s cussing publicly about it with a lot of F*CK YOU TOO type posts.
So, he’s mad as a hornet and I just hope he doesn’t have a knee-jerk, “I’ll show you” reaction that causes even more strife for the WP community than he has already done with the whole WP Engine drama.
Security Tips
Check BackBlaze Backups
I use BackBlaze to do automated backups of my desktop. And I periodically get backup summary emails from them where the Subject line says my files are safe and then the first 2 lines of the email state that my PC is backed up. So, I did not read further.
But, I actually read the whole email this time and at the bottom, where it lists my computer, it stated that my PC had not been backed up in 100+ days!!!!!!!!!
I logged into my account and saw that it had not backed up anything because I was not on the latest version of their software.
I downloaded it and noticed that the desktop number is different on the new listing it has for me.
The original desktop number has the year 2020 in it, which makes no sense. It’s been 2 years since I upgraded my main hard drive, not 6 years.
It also says on the new one that I’m on a trial version instead of my paid subscription.
I contacted support about all of this. I got a reply within an hour with steps to fix the Trial issue. And while doing that, I had to access the settings. One of them is to issue me a warning when there has been no backup for 7 days. I asked why I did not get that warning, but they said perhaps it was just missed. Well, what if that email went to spam?
Considering how important backups are, why risk such an important notification to be handled once by email alone? They have an app on my PC, so you’d think they could have it do a pop up warning or such.
As for the email summaries stating all was well, support said that meant the last files it did backup were good – that’s not very helpful.
But, they did tell me what to do to get everything working again and it’s backing up now.
Let this be a forewarning to you.
Be sure you check your backup status no matter what company you’re using.
Turn Off and Unplug Devices
Lots of security updates have been rolling out for every smart device we have.
To ensure you’re getting those updates be sure to actually turn off, or better yet, unplug those devices so they do a complete wipe of whatever temporary info they are holding and that they refresh their software.
A restart does not have the same level of clearing that a full shutdown does.
And a restart will not always trigger software updates like shutting down does.
Devices to include are:
- Mobile devices
- Computers
- TV and set-top box
- Router and any boosters
- Security system
- Other smart devices that connect to the internet
AI SEO Tips
New GSC AI Report
Google Search Console has released a new Generative AI report that lets you see how many impressions your posts are getting in AI Search or AI Summaries.
I was surprised that I had 1600 URLs showing up from Heartwood Art!!!
There is a new tutorial in the DIY SEO course for it and I sent an email to all members yesterday with the link.
AI Tips
AI Could Kill Us All
That was the headline all over tech news this past week – along with resignations from big AI devs.
But that’s not the real news.
See my post Will AI Kill Us All or Just Itself? for the real story.