Sometimes, I wonder

~ beetleypete

I am a well-organised blogger. I work hard at it, I enjoy my main hobby, and I love the community.

But recently, I have started to wonder if WordPress is actually worth our custom and our dedication.

Too many glitches. Too much rubbish about the Block Editor and business customers. Too many comments gone to Spam, or found in Spam.

There are days when I just think about bowing out, saying farewell, and finding something else to occupy my time. And with every glitch and annoyance, that feeling becomes stronger, believe me.

Today is one of ‘those’ days.

How hard can it be for WordPress to just run our blogs easily? If they spent less time pandering to business customers and phone users, I am certain that we would have less problems as bloggers.

As I approach my tenth year of blogging, I am growing weary of paying for a Premium service that they cannot be bothered to provide, just because I am a private, ‘hobby’ blogger. I feel close to breaking point, I really do. After a happy week, WordPress has pissed me off completely this Sunday.

Anyone else as fed up as I am?

92 thoughts on “Sometimes, I wonder”

  2. I have felt like you (not this week), yet the bigger picture is our pleasure of writing and having a community. Pete, if you stopped blogging I would have a hole in my heart. WP can be a big pain in the neck, but bloggers make up for that pain.

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  5. I’m not working at blogging as hard as you, Pete and if I was it would probably be just as irritating for me. I get annoyed – but then I remember the convenience and how easy it is to read and like and comment when so many of us are on the one service. Some of the prompts I follow, the blogger uses a different service and it is sometimes impossible to like or comment. And so they miss my patronage.
    Breathe, and continue to enjoy the parts you can 🙂

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  6. I shudder every time they send me an e-mail about some “improvement”. I just want to be left alone to do everything the inefficient way I do it, thank you very much. I hope you keep feeling a bit better, Pete, but they are very trying.

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    1. Thanks for that, Sue. That day was a ‘perfect storm’ of numerous small glitches that added together to make me furious. I have managed to calm down since. (Well, calmed down a bit. 🙂 )
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  9. No, I’m not fed up with WordPress blogging! I love writing about my vintage subjects. There is no other place really that would suit this type of content. And give WordPress their due they don’t suddenly wrongly accuse one of spamming or making content “violations” and remove one’s page like Instagram do. I do wish more people would engage with blogging as much as they did 10 years ago though.

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    1. I just want it to work smoothly, WN. I pay a fair amount for a Premium Plan, and I think they should just stop messing with WP, and leave us hobby bloggers alone.
      Best wishes Pete.

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  10. Yep, Pete, I’ve also been at it ten years, and WordPress has got on my last nerve. The Premium membership should allow you more than a free one, but they constantly press their business membership to obtain the latest widgets and improvements. Whenever I contact them about a problem, it’s ” oh, we didn’t know that and we’ll get back to you later,” which they rarely do. How hard can it be to offer a simple blog site without all the block crap beyond my technical knowledge?

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  11. Given the number of people who regularly leave comments on your posts, I suspect you would leave a holes in lot of their days if you stopped posting. I for one, hope you hang in there regardless of the glitches WP inflicts upon you. Warmest regards, Theo

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  13. Hey Pete, I so far haven’t had any problems but I do understand where your annoyance for WordPress comes from specially when you are paying for it. 10 years is a long journey and I do hope you’d stick around and I do really wish you’re problems are sorted in time. 🤗

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  14. I really don’t know why I’m uploading a comment about Block Editor. Every time I think about this abomination of coding I get a headache. I’ve just struggled to upload an alteration to one of my widgets in CSS, now I feel like laying down in a darkened room for an hour.

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  15. The glitches take me by surprise, so I do get annoyed by them, but I have had good luck by listening to the Support Team and Dan Antion who has 40 years of computers under his belt.

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    1. I lost the reblog button for a few weeks in 2020. I contacted the Happiness Engineers at the time, and they replied that they could see it on my blog. They suggested logging off and then on again, cleariing the cache, and running my antivirus programme. Of course, I had already done all of those before contacting them. 😦
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  17. I’m sorry to hear you’ve had so many problems with WP and I could see why it would be frustrating for you. I do hope it doesn’t have you throwing in the towel, though, because.. Ten years? What an accomplishment.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, Sheri. I was being ‘bombarded’ by so many small glitches yesterday, it took all the fun out of what should have been an enjoyable day of blogging. So far so good today, we will see what happens later on.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. You’re very welcome, Pete.
        I have a lot of personal experience with how seemingly small but repetitive issues can drive you insane so.. I hope today went more smoothly for you. It would be a shame for glitches to take away your ability to enjoy blogging.
        Thank you and best of luck to you in the future!

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    1. Yes, paying for the Premium Plan makes it more irritating, but I think it should just work smoothly for everyone, including free bloggers. Yesterday was like a ‘perfect storm’ of ongoing small glitches that led me to boil over by the evening.
      Cheers mate, Pete.

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    1. Thanks, Beth. Yesterday was a bad day for me on WP. Lots of issues around comments, being unable to find other’s posts, and just being generally fed up with the effort to do something that used to be so straightforward.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  20. I have had few ‘glitches’….but I do at times think about throwing up my hands….but mine is more about my attempts to clarify issues that is met with indifference….please stick around I do enjoy your posts and Sue loves your writings……chuq

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  22. I haven’t had too many issues, Pete, even with the block editor. I’m on the most basic paid plan because I don’t like the ads that come with the free plan. Like Darlene, I use a superseded theme so I’m reluctant to change because I know there’s no going back to it if a new one doesn’t work for me.
    I agree with you that we small-scale non-business bloggers aren’t among WP’s most valued customers.

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    1. I have had this theme for years now too, Audrey. My main irritant is comments. My comments on other blogs just vanishing, friends comments on mine being dumped in Spam or Trash. I have had to resort to emailing bloggers to let them know I have tried to leave a comment. Yesterday was a bad day for that, and I boiled over!
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. If i leave a comment on a friend’s blog and it doesn’t appear, then there is no community engagement or conversation. The very reason I started blogging is one of the things most affected by WP glitches, Carol.
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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  24. I think I told you recently Pete that I suddenly have to “log in” again to leave a message – it happens with about half of my blogging comments left for others…while it only takes a moment to do, it’s annoying to the extreme…as I am about t have to do again!

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    1. Thanks, John. I am getting tired of those ‘small things’ that irritate like a blogging toothache. WP needs to sort out the platform and decide if it wants business customers and companies, or ordinary people.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  25. I must say, I have been using WordPress for almost 12 years now and moved to a paid account 6 years ago because I ran out of room for pictures. (and I like using pictures). But I have never had a problem with it. I´m using a very old theme which I thought might pose a problem but no, it all runs smoothly. Fingers crossed I haven´t jinxed it now.

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    1. I just want it to work, Susanne. I hate it when sudden glitches throw out all the comments, or WP just decides that it isn’t going to work properly today. I don’t know enough about computers to understand the issues, which is a source of frustration to me.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  28. While having countless hours of my time wasted this past year with the unsubscribing bug/debacle because WP couldn’t be bothered to fix it (presumably, it didn’t affect businesses?), I kept thinking that WP has us over a barrel because it would be a huge risk to attempt to transition to another platform.

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  30. Sorry to hear this, Pete. I’m happy to say that, with just a minor glitch now and then, WordPress, especially with the new block editor, works very well for me. Even transferring to a new theme was easy-peasy.
    I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you(t blog) and sincery hope wou’ll stay with us. You’d be sorely missed if you left the blogosphere.

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    1. Thanks, Pit. I find change in routine very hard to cope with. I just want blogging to work smoothly, and see no real reason why it can’t do that, if WP stops fiddling around with the platform.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. You’re welcome, Pete.
        ” I find change in routine very hard to cope with” – Same here, and all the more I’m happy that WP works for me with barely a glitch. [*knock knock knock* on wood] I keep wondering why some others have so many issues.

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  32. When comments get side-lined it is certainly annoying. Lost all together? Really annoying as I don’t normally dash them out on a Google doc, then transfer to the “Comments” box on WP. So, those ‘in the moment’ thoughts are quite literally “lost” forever because I can’t remember what I wrote 2 hours ago. Sigh. . .

    CT

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  33. Oh no. Sorry to hear this. I can be frustrating at times. I wonder are there forums where we can voice concerns with real people who work for WP. You’re a great blogger who would leave a MASSIVE whole if you walked away. Today is the start of a new week, think of the positives ☺️

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  35. You do put a lot of time and effort into you fabulous blog, Pete, so I understand your frustration. I’ve been frustrated a few times too with glitches, but I honestly don’t think there is any place better, and the community here is very nice.

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    1. Just lots of missing comments I made, genuine comments still appearing in my Spam and Trash, constant annoying small glitches. I just want it to work, and some days I get really fed up with all the niggles.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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