Our forum automatically goes into maintenance mode when a new version comes out and everyone gets a message Sorry, the forum is temporarily unavailable while it is being upgraded to a new version.
It may take a few days until someone notifies me of the issue. Is there a way to turn off the auto update when new versions come out?
Afraid there is no such thing as auto upgrades of plugins. At least not in stock WordPress or Simple Press – only WP core updates are auto for minor releases.
Upgrading Simple Press is a manual process. So if you update it, you run the script.
Unless you have a plugin or something doing auto upgrades of plugins. If this is the case, you need to check with it on how to disable for specific plugins.