Just tried to upgrade from 5.4 to 5.5.
It seemed to go ok ... but then the calendars on the site that use the events module were all empty.
All the rest of the modules and pages looked fine ... but the calendars are the heart of the site and without them it is nothing.
So I tried restoring my site ... now its broke.
Bad.
The behavior now is:
Every menu selection gets me a site error ... I can't even log in.

This is the second time this year that a DNN upgrade has led me off into hair pulling territory.
The first time I started over from scratch.
This time I don't know if I want to.

I've been running my site for over two years and I think the site has a good reason to exist (comnunity events calendar) ... I just don't know if dotnetnuke is the right platform or not.

It's not as if I'm doing anything special. The site is pretty much vanilla DNN with only two 3rd party extensions.

It's just that DNN looks simple on the surface ... but when it breaks you gotta be a techie to fix it. Or be willing to pay the money or time to get one or turn into one.
And I spent years being a techie ... mostly that system tweaking urge is gone - I just want to do neat things and not spend my time fixing and tweaking.
Put another way: I want to go places in my car not spend my time fiddling with it.
My website should be the same - let me get down to business.
And most of the time it is just like that.
Until you need to upgrade ...

IF my site was generating revenues I could see paying for tech support but it's just a community service for my little town and doesn't bring in money.
So I'm it.
I don't want to be it ... haven't for a long time.

I really hate to kiss of 2 years of effort but it's looking like I'm going to do that. At least the effort I put into learning DNN.

The last time my site was down it lost visitor numbers ... I can only think that this time may help me decide to kill it off.
Should I give it up (DNN)?
Should I move from a do everything yourself host (godaddy) to a DNN centric host? (and start yet over again)
Should I just move on to something else (another CMS)?

Why was I upgrading?
To stay up to date.
The last incarnation of the site was 'just left alone' and somewhere during its lifetime a security hole was discovered and patched - but not in my site because it was just left alone.
I found out about an intrusion after the fact because they left behind a signature file.
(godaddy told me about it 2 days later)
I decided to do the upgrade at that time so I'd know the site was 'secure-wise up to date' and did it in baby steps ... which kind of worked right up until it went over a cliff with the last step.
Start over. Fresh install.
Not that long ago there was the ASP_NET flaw.
I patched my web_config file and waited a while.
I also plan on adding some paid-for extensions in the near future and would like to give them an up-to-date DNN to install into.
So ... Next time I do an upgrade - bang.

Admittedly my quick and dirty restore broke.
I'll try doing it the right way this time.
Follow all the steps ... my bad for not.

I've got a backup with Evotiva's software ... right now godaddy's filemanager interface is breaking so I've got to wait to unarchive the standalone restore and get my site back.
I'm hoping it will be back up and running sometime later today ... I hope.

Hours later ... it is up and running.
As far as I can tell it's working ...

Thank you Evotiva for giving me backup options beyond having/needing a running DNN site.

Now I get to put more effort into it ... hoping it all won't go away in a poof someday.

Not that it's a great site (haven't even made use of any skins) - it's just serving a purpose.
www.whatsupingrandforks.com
if you're interested

Guess I'll try schooling up on IIS/SQL Express so I can try making a dev/torture site locally.
(I did have one for the previous site on a very old machine running VWDExpress 2005... not a nice experience but a good test of patience)

See this is kind of what I was getting at with my initial post.
It's not that I can't find the tools and figure them out eventually ... it's that I have many other things I'd rather be doing with my time.
If I was a better capitalist then there'd be revenue to pay for support or better, CMS-centric, hosting.
But revenue streams come with their own overheads and mindsets and ... I'm just too busy to go there.
(If I wasn't a pensioner I might be more money hungry and a better capitalist ;)

Still every time I think about this aspect of operating a DNN site I find myself wondering if there's something out there that's easier and serves my needs just as well ...

Now I have to go and produce some video (late again :( )