WordPress issued 3.1.1 as a is a necessary update to fix a couple security issues recently discovered and to.
Just a note, when WordPress sends out an update, it usually has been tested before being released. This is different from plugin development as each developer has their own methods of testing (usually it is just them and maybe, if lucky, a couple friends.)
Even if the updates are every month, keeping your site up to date prevents it from being hacked, or poor performance (if plugins conflict with it.) I hear people grumbling from time to time about the updating, especially those hosted at places they cannot do an automatic update. It might be a pain to do a manual update, and for some, you are not yet comfortable with doing this, but it is necessary.
I am going to just put it out there – if it is the updating and you want an easier solution, move over to HostGator (by the way, not an affiliate link, but I love their services – I am a dedicated server client of theirs and have been for half a decade.) Keep it simple and easy.
Nice tweeak, this one you made that enables us to show the first article full and the rest as excerts.
Is there any way to manage that the comments from the first article be also exibited on the first page after the article itself?