This month, UMass Amherst IT will be upgrading and performing maintenance on WordPress, the software behind Blogs at UMass Amherst. The work will take place in two stages.
Stage 1: Blogs at UMass Amherst Unavailable, Tuesday, February 13, 2018, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
Blogs at UMass Amherst will be unavailable while we upgrade our blogging and website software. This upgrade will keep your blog/website current with the latest improvements from WordPress.
- Your blog’s content (e.g., blog posts, pages, images) will be automatically transferred from the old version to the new.
- You will not need to re-learn the software. While there are new features, the administrative interface has not undergone significant changes in the new version.
To find out about the new features available in WordPress version 4.8, “Evans” and version 4.9 “Tipton,” see Blogs at UMass Amherst: What’s New in WordPress 4.9.
Stage 2: Apply New Theme & Plugins Before Thursday, March 8, 2018, 8:00 a.m. (Certain themes & plugins only)
To avoid information security risks, certain themes and plugins will be removed on Thursday, March 8 at 8:00 a.m. No downtime is involved. Replacement plugins and themes are already in place, but migration is not automatic. If applicable, you will need to apply the new theme and plugins to your blog before March 8.
Themes to be retired:
- Expositio
- Grid Focus
- Sight
- Very Plain Text
- Tarski
- Twenty Ten
Plugins to be replaced:
- CalPress Calendar
- Display Widgets
- Easy Fancy Box
- Flickr Widget
- ICS Calendar
For more details, including new plugins and the themes and plugins that will no longer be available, see:
Blogs at UMass Amherst: What’s New in WordPress 4.9
Blogs at UMass Amherst: Plugin Replacement Guide
A Guide to Blog Themes
For questions or to report a problem, please contact IT User Services at 413-545-TECH (8324) or it@umass.edu.