Logging into WordPress for the first time in 7+ years

A lot can happen in 7 years.

You could have 7 birthdays.

You’d probably have time to get married, divorced and then re-married again.

It’s really quite a long time.

Seven years ago was the last time I made a post on this blog. Do I remember making the post? You bet I don’t. That’s how long 7 years is, you forget the important things in life like what you posted about on a low traffic blog.

The reason for posting today is actually a rather mundane one. For months I have been getting emails about spam comments being posted on this blog and like any good webmaster I’ve been ignoring them.

But it’s half term here in the UK, the kids are at home (yeah, I have real life human kids now, a lot can happen in 7 years) and faced with the choice of an afternoon playing snakes and ladders or fixing up a really old WordPress website….well, here I am.

What did I learn after logging into this WordPress site for the first time in 7 years?

• If you use a custom admin URL it would be very beneficial to make a note of what it actually is. I spent a good 5 minutes trying to remember it and in the end I ended up disabling the plugin and am now back to the default wp-admin (do your worst bots).
• Akistmet doesn’t like old API keys. Spam was an issue 7 years ago and its still an issue now. It turns out that my 7+ year old Akistmet API was no longer valid and as such the spam bots were having a comment orgy on my website. Updating the API should put an end to their shenanigans.
• Any user of the website that isn’t me has been binned. Apologies if you have been quietly sitting there for 7 years as a registered user of the website just waiting to make a comment with your pic next to your name but you’ll just have to be anonymous from now on. I had a TON of spammy users sign up so I decided the best option was to wield a very broad axe to my user list.
• My WordPress theme doesn’t hold up too bad. I mean it’s not going to win any awards (who likes awards anyway, not me or Will Smith that’s for sure) but if you view it on a desktop computer and look at it from a certain angle with a slight squint it doesn’t look half bad…a bit like seeing your half cousin at a wedding after a few drinks (incest joke). But for gods sake don’t look at it on a mobile device, that’s a big no no.
• The *new* WordPress block editor is still god awful. I come across it all the time in my day job (web hosting – D9 – buy stuff – good support – fairly cheap – still going strong – etc) but when you actually try and write a simple text based post using it my word what an animal.

The kids have gone to the supermarket with their Mum. Peace.

See you in 2029.