Follow Invitations: An Open Letter

~ beetleypete

*** Update! Just got another one! This it what the email looks like***

You’ve been invited to follow Social artist!
Monis has invited you to follow Social artist.

You can accept the invitation by clicking below:

Accept

I recently posted about the sharp increase in being sent ‘Invitations to follow’. Those WordPress-generated emails that go something like this.

“Rudeblogger 123 has invited you to follow their blog”
Then there is a box marked ‘Accept Invitation’.

One day, the same person sent me one of those no less than four times.

I am not going to repeat eveything I wrote before about why I consider this to be rude. I will just add this, for the attention of anyone considering using this feature to send me a request.

I WILL NOT FOLLOW ANYONE WHO SENDS ME ONE OF THESE, EVER.

I hope I have made it clear now?

54 thoughts on “Follow Invitations: An Open Letter”

  4. I was 12 days behind in reading and finally caught up!-no small feat! I must have missed this -and sure hope this is not a trend. As a sidenote, I worked on a simple post yesterday with the new editor-it was awful, and I sure hope practice does make perfect. After all that, the thing will not publish!! I will keep on though. The thing robbed me of the joy and peace, that writing gives me. Nothing is even remotely the same. What a shame!

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. We all have our pet peeves, Pete. One of mine it the blogger who randomly likes our post without ever reading it. There is no way of necessarily knowing, but when they “like” five separate posts in the same minute, what is one to think? I have the world’s fastest speed reader on my blog, or this person doesn’t even bother trying to fake it. 🤣

    Liked by 1 person

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    2. It may not always be obvious, but I’ve never commented on a post I haven’t read. For example, I read every bit of the Charles Dickens post to which Pete offered a link. But my comment may not have made that obvious.

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  9. I agree with you, Pete, on that issue – totally. But I don’t think a post like this will help. These … people wont’ read it at all or simply disregard it. Or maybe they even use a bot? So our only way is to simply delete that message.
    Have a great weekend,
    Pit

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. They almost certainly don’t read it, Pit. This was evidenced by my receiving yet another one this afternoon. But it makes me feel better to get the complaint off my chest. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Got it…I’m a professional account on WordPress, not self-hosted. I don’t have ads added to mine as a result, and can post and store all the pics and videos I want…I’ve been posting for more than 5 years and haven’t used 2% of my capacity yet!

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    2. You can opt out of those ‘Likes’ emails, I have.
      Go to your admin page, and select ‘Settings’
      Then select ‘Discussion’
      Scroll down to ‘Likes notifications’ and untick the box next to
      ‘Email me whenever someone likes one of my posts’.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. It sounds like a strnage feature for WP to enable.
    I have never gotten such an ‘invite’, though I do get a lot of bot comments that make no sense.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. If you click on ‘Users’ in your admin dashboard, it offers ‘Invite New’. Then WP will generate an email that is sent to the blogger you have invited. I find it impersonal, and it can also be annoying when they continue to send the same invitation.
      Best wishes, Pete.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  17. These are phishing sites, Pete – put them straight into your spam files, then delete them about one hour later, to give the email spam algorithm time to record them as spam.
    DO NOT CLICK THEIR ACCEPT BUTTON… doing so confirms your address is active and will lead to more issues.

    Liked by 1 person

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  19. I agree. Invitations are usually when blogs are private and only those invited can join/follow. When your blog is open to the public, it takes less energy to simply comment and ask if you will visit. That respects that after your visit, YOU decide whether or not to follow.

    Liked by 1 person

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