A former freelancer sends a message to a programming email list, explaining his full time job doesn’t give him enough time to update his former client’s website. And it’s on an obsolete and soon-to-be-unsupported version of the web application framework (which framework is irrelevant).
The main gotcha: he didn’t write any test code.
Most likely, the client was unable or unwilling to pay for the test code when the site was first created.
Most likely, the client will not be interested in paying for test code now.
The irony here is that had the developer originally written test code, he would have much more confidence updating the site.
The client pays regardless: either someone comes and cleans it up, or the client pays for a new web site. At this point, not writing test code increases developer time as the new developer reverse engineers the existing code. Might as well test.