Phasing Out Old WordPress Version Support

As the WordPress theme review process gets really strict about what WP functions are permissible in themes and what are not, it becomes more and more difficult for theme developers to support older versions of WordPress. Most developers have already taken the step to stop supporting anything older than version 3.0.

I have always been pro-backward compatibility and Suffusion works for any version of WP starting from 2.8. But with the complexity of code and the stringency of approval criteria rising, this will not be sustainable. As a result I have decided to phase out support for older versions of WordPress.

I will start by first removing any code that is specific to version 2.8, then remove 2.9 support. I would like to make this post a formal announcement of this decision. If you are a Suffusion user on a version of WP older than 3.0, now is a great time to upgrade. Version 3.0, which came out in early June has been stable for a while now and has some great features. If you haven’t upgraded you are missing out on a great number of goodies. And if the only reason you are not upgrading is because some plugins that you are using have not been written to work with 3.0, you should start looking for alternative plugins for the same task, or else you will run the risk of having a very inefficient system, or one where your theme and plugins will support different versions of WP.

With regards to version 3.6.8, I have already released version 3.6.9 with fixes for all the reported bugs in there. It has been approved, but not made live yet by the reviewers, so please sit tight.

4 Responses to “Phasing Out Old WordPress Version Support”

  1. I know that you are thinking on how to make suffusion better, i was wondering would it be possible to add a feature similar to the “header widget” were we can “Enter the number of pixels” for more widgets?

    • Perhaps the widget above header, widget below header, widget above footer.
      would benefit greatly if it had the option to enter the number of pixels.
      ads, are usually place in these positions, and there is a big empty space where there rest of the ad do not fill. for example, a 728×90 ad. or a 468×60. etc. just a thought. perhaps you can integrate that option in the future release.

  2. […] Selective removal of backward compatibility I have removed the following as per my previous announcement: […]