# Fatal error activating the plugin (/lib/utilities.php on line 23)
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/fatal-error-activating-the-plugin-lib-utilities-php-on-line-23/57988
**Category:** WordPress
**Created:** [February 26, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/fatal-error-activating-the-plugin-lib-utilities-php-on-line-23/57988 "2017-02-26T16:43:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Denki](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Denki)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/fatal-error-activating-the-plugin-lib-utilities-php-on-line-23/57988/1 "2017-02-26T16:43:46Z")
Hello,
I’m the one who couldn’t use this plugin because couldn’t update cURL. I moved the wordpress installation to another host with updated cURL, and now when I activate the plugin I get this error:
Fatal error: syntax error, unexpected ‘[’ in /var/www/vhosts/XXXXX/denki/wp-content/plugins/wp-discourse/lib/utilities.php on line 23
Do you know why this could be happening?
---
### Author:  [@Denki](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Denki)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/fatal-error-activating-the-plugin-lib-utilities-php-on-line-23/57988/2 "2017-02-26T16:58:03Z")
Nevermind. Used this beta version [https://github.com/scossar/wp-discourse/tree/beta-php-5.3](https://github.com/scossar/wp-discourse/tree/beta-php-5.3) that supports php 5.3.3, thanks. My apologies for not finding this sooner.
---
### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/fatal-error-activating-the-plugin-lib-utilities-php-on-line-23/57988/3 "2017-02-26T17:27:14Z")
The problem with that is that version won’t be getting any updates. I made it for someone who’s forum broke after upgrading the plugin - the plugin now requires php \>= 5.4. The plugin is supposed to give a helpful error message when it’s installed on anything less than that. I’ll fix that error message today, and also try to add a warning about curl when the forum URL begins with https. Php 5.3.3 is a very old version. It no longer gets security updates and really shouldn’t be used.