Automated or Manual?

[Spintax]

I have a really good friend who insists on doing most things manually. I'm talking manual backups, manually site moves, manual updates. He's a much stronger webmaster than I am and the running joke between us is the old tortoise and the hare competition. I depend on automated processes because I'm prone to screwing things up if I do it manually , and my mistakes end up making things take twice as long as they should. Where do you guys stand? Manual? Automated? or Hybrid?

 

[Yorozuya]

Well, I always choose automatic updates because honestly, I don't even know how to do it manually. However, I do my backups manually. I don't know why, thats the way I first did it and I couldn't bring myself to change this habit I also move my sites manually because I don't trust any person or software to handle my entire site. I mean, what keeps them from getting your personal data or even worse, your clients' data? Exspecially on wordpress sites, they are very easy to figure out.

 

[Nymph]

If I can manage to set something up automatically, backing up server and website files for instance, where I know there is important data I may overlook or forget, I find it is much more efficient to have this automatic process than it is to do it manually. I only have to do it thoroughly once, then it's set and forget. It allows me to have more time for the other important things like content creation. I would only ever do things manually if I need to switch servers or do something else that's very important that I absolutely cannot risk losing.

 

[Canadian Lover]

I prefer doing things manually. I like doing my own backups and installing scripts manually. I does take a little bit of technical knowledge but doing things by hand but it reduces problems that may arise from script errors and corruptbackups. Leads to less headaches down the road.

 

[Teekay]

I use a mixture of both but I tend to opt for the automated process more often, simply because it does the same job and probably less chance of it going wrong since am no expert on it, although I do like to do manual installs though rather than using Softaculous or any of the other auto-installers.

 

[chelsie]

I don't generally mind doing stuff manually, but if the same process can be setup automatically then why not just go with that way? To me, time is important and I will outsource a lot of my work to spend more time on things I personally want to do. When it comes to installing scripts, bots, etc... I generally go with the automated way and then go in the back end and set up the security.

 

[Svedren]

I prefer to automate as much as possible. Not only does it save me time on a recurring basis, but I tend to put off repetitive tasks. That goes in the same bucket as taking out the trash or doing laundry. With things like backing up sites, there usually isn't a funky smell to remind me that it's time to do xyz task.

With that said, I do try to check periodically to make sure the automation didn't break without telling me. I also have calendar items to remind me to do periodic manual backups, just to be safe.

 

[SimplySidy]

I would opt in for the Hybrid thing. There are tasks like taking backups - which I feel are done best when done manually. Then there are things like updates (like upgrade a plugin or even the other scripts) and if they come with an upgrade button, I would prefer using them. I will still not favor the 100% automatic thing as I do need to know when and what the upgrade is going to effect.

 

[crazycroc]

I have a really good friend who insists on doing most things manually. I'm talking manual backups, manually site moves, manual updates. He's a much stronger webmaster than I am and the running joke between us is the old tortoise and the hare competition. I depend on automated processes because I'm prone to screwing things up if I do it manually , and my mistakes end up making things take twice as long as they should. Where do you guys stand? Manual? Automated? or Hybrid?

It depends on what...

I do somethings manually and others are automated. Backups for example are essential to be automated because that one time you forget is liable to be the time where you need it. For updates I'm not sure how you would do it automatically unless the software you are using supports it like Wordpress does.

 

[CodeMaster67]

For business sites I think most or all of the stuff should be automated because doing things manually and then being busy with something else never gets you nowhere. Automating and Manual all depends on what you are doing and how you plan on doing it.

 

[crazycroc]

For business sites I think most or all of the stuff should be automated because doing things manually and then being busy with something else never gets you nowhere. Automating and Manual all depends on what you are doing and how you plan on doing it.

Yes, that is another thing I forgot to mention in my previous post. SCALE!

If you have only a few clients it probably isn't worth licensing expensive billing software, however if you have dozens of clients all the paper work and emails can become cumbersome and disorganized without a good way to organize it so some automation might be a necessity.

 

[danealegana]

I always set everything to automatic, backups, repair and optimization.
Its really helpful and less hassle for me.
I still havent experienced any major negative issues or problems with automating these things but I am also checking it out manually from time to time.

 

[Darth-Apple]

Honestly, I have to admit that if I can get away with being lazy as a webmaster, I'll take my chance with automated updates, backups, etc... However, I've learned not to really trust all "automated" systems.

I recently had the task of restoring a forum that had been deleted by the webhost. The new hosting had been restored by the forum's owner, but the only database backup I had was corrupt, thanks to MyBB's ACP tool doing a bad job on the backup. I had quite a task figuring out how to import a corrupt database. Luckily most of the important data was restored, but not until three days of downtime had past.

Ever since, I've been a bit more careful. It's better to be safe than sorry, especially when it comes to backups.

 

[fancy]

I always set everything to automatic, backups, repair and optimization.
Its really helpful and less hassle for me.
I still havent experienced any major negative issues or problems with automating these things but I am also checking it out manually from time to time.

I am bit like you. Personally I don't like the bothers of overworking myself on a manual settings. I haven't tried manual checking though. I don't know why but am too lazy in haling things manually since i was a child.

 

[ABM House]

I do it manually because I am not sure how automation works.