If you are new to the internet ("newbie") and considering paying the ridiculously priced Semiologic Reloaded, then my advice is don't do it. Contrary to the developers sales blurb, Semiologic is certainly not for newbies and cannot be setup in a few clicks. My recommendation is to use WordPress and become comfortable with it, before even considering using Semiologic. I would also recommend people wanting  to purchase Semiologic, to reconsider their decision, considering it's exorbitant price, lack of support and it's constant upgrade and software problems.

Semiologic dances to the constant upgrades of  WordPress and when you have a few sites, upgrading all the time is a real pain. Learning HTML, XHTML and CSS is a much better option, where you can develop your own sites and not worrying about upgrading every time the WordPress developers have a brainwave, and who notoriously release the upgrades too early, and customers are left to deal with the problems of that too early upgrade.

I have left this site and Semiologic Reloaded Skins open for members to access the tutorial videos and Semiologic Reloaded skins. I am no longer taking members and will close down when this domain name expires. You can check on any latest updates through my own personal site Maxx Kremer dot com.

There has been a recent lull in the upgrade department, but just when you thought it was safe to assume there would not be another upgrade for awhile. Bam! There is now, yet another upgrade! This time it is something the guys at WordPress decided to do, not because of a security issue, but a "just in case", issue.

So, we all need to dust off the FTP agents for another round of upgrades to bring our sites up-to-date to the latest WordPress 2.8.5. But I would not be jumping on the line to upgrade, as there is going to be a 2.9 release in the not so distant future. But there is no use griping about it all, after all, it is the nature of the beast using WordPress and Semiologic.

I have updated this site, with apprehension, and it took me nearly all day to complete. If you have an established site, then please be careful when upgrading and DO NOT use the installer, just use SFTP, to uploaded the files. Problems I experienced with upgrading were:

• stripped some images (not all, thank goodness), which I needed to replace
• the new SEO plugin would not allow me to alter titles, keywords or descriptions in posts or pages (reinstalled the previous version as a temporary workaround)
• Can't move widgets around (example, menu items cannot be relocated)
• Mediacaster has no dimension capabilities (cannot be re-sized), nor any idea how to include into a post, page or sidebar

These are just some of things that I have experienced. But I am sure the developers will get things sorted in the next week or so.

Conclusion: There seems to be only cosmetic changes, where the widgets panel has changed for the better. I know the developer has basically rewritten everything, but I was expecting more. It has been a lack luster event, considering the rants and raves about its release. It has been a long wait that has been marred by bugs and problems from both camps of  WordPress and Semiologic.

Because of the bugs and the long wait for 2.8.1 to be released, Semiologic Reloaded v6 beta and Semiologic Pro will not be released until 2.8.1 is released. PLEASE DO NOT upgrade your version of WordPress now, as it will create problems, and more than likely, erase some files and folders.

The question is not, will you be hacked, but, when will I be hacked! If you haven't secured your site, then you will be hacked, it is just a matter of time. Hackers use many methods to break into your site and these areas need to be secured. Having security on your site is imperative. Secure it or lose it!

I have written an article about securing your sites, that is a must read. Read the full article…

To recommend a membership program is not an easy task, as each one does something more or less than the others. Plus, finding one that plays well with WordPress and Semiologic is another consideration. There are really only two that are any good, in my opinion, anyway.

Wishlist, that everyone cheers about, is no good if you want provide multiple downloads and it has an issue with some of Semiologic's plugins, which you only find out about once you have purchased and unpacked it.

Then there is aMember, which is a good program and will protect folders, and has a lot of great features, but it's biggest downfalls are setting it up, customizing it and it does not have an inbuilt shopping cart. aMember is also expensive, in comparison to other membership programs – you get 6 months of updates and then you need to purchase another 6 months worth of up dates to continue to get the latest version, which is just nickle and dime tactics.

But what I think is a real good all-round membership program, would have to be DLGuard membership software. This is a fairly simple script that has a lot of features. Plus, you can use it on multiple websites, where the others, are for one site only. One of the biggest pluses for me, is that it generates time limited download links, protects your folders and has a built in shopping cart. It is very simple to customize the "look" to blend in with your site.

DLGuard would be my recommendation for being the best all round membership software that is currently available. But checkout the three I have mentioned above and see for yourself.