Changes

A Small But Irritating Change

~ beetleypete ~ 71 Comments

This morning, I noticed a different style in the email notifications I receive for comments on my blog posts.

They now appear as shown below. However, when I click on ‘Reply’, it no longer goes straight to the comment as it did before. Instead it takes me to the top of the post itself, and I have to scroll down to locate the comment. Another small change from WordPress, and a minor irritation in my blogging enjoyment.

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Stevie Turner

commented on A Real Spy Story: Part Twenty-Eight

In response to beetleypete:

This is the twenty-eighth part of a fiction serial, in 897 words. Helen was ready for me the next morning, reasonably well …

Hurray! She’s free!

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Plan Changes: The Official Word From WordPress

~ beetleypete ~ 45 Comments

Thanks to Audrey for the link.
https://wordpress.com/blog/2022/04/05/introducing-wordpress-pro-one-plan-infinite-possibilities/

WordPress breaks its silence on the lack of information concerning new plans, and also makes some changes since announcing them last week.

You can read the full post from the link above. Meanwhile here are some sections that might help us all calm down (again).

No changes to paid plans already in place, and now 1 GB of space on any new Free plans. (Up from 0.5 GB last week.) Traffic limits scrapped.

We’re listening to your feedback, and want to be clear that it will, as always, shape the future of WordPress.com.

With that in mind, we’re committing to:

No traffic limits on either the Free or Pro plan. You’ll enjoy the same unlimited traffic you’ve always had.
The new Free plan storage limit will include 1GB of Free storage, and existing Free users will keep the 3GB they already have on hand.
Additional storage will be available for purchase at a very reasonable price, very soon.
As-you-need them add-ons for both plans, to give you a la carte upgrades. Coming soon.

Existing users before 1/4/22 keep the current deal.

How This Affects Your Current Plan
While we’re making a few changes to the Free plan, rest assured that if you’re already signed up, nothing will change for you. Ditto, if you’re on one of our legacy plans, nothing will change unless you want it to.

Going forward, new signups and sites will integrate smoothly into our new Free and Pro plans.

So, new bloggers have either 1 GB on a Free plan, or the option of Pro, prepaid at $15 a month. Everyone else who was blogging before April this year should remain unaffected.

Now we have to wait and see if they stick to those promises.

Much Ado About Nothing?

~ beetleypete ~ 15 Comments

Another view of the WP changes. This might calm us all down!
(Well, maybe…)
HOWEVER! Other bloggers have been told that once their paid plans expire, the new Free or Pro will be the only available options.
Watch this space…

This, That, and the Other

Yesterday there were some posts going around, including mine, suggesting that WordPress was consolidating down to two plans: a scaled-back free plan, and a professional blogger-level Pro plan at $180 a year. This created quite the brouhaha among us casual, hobby bloggers.

I opened up a help ticket on WordPress asking if this were true, but as of this morning, I have not received a response. But my blogging buddy Jim Adams, who must have more clout with WordPress than I do, contacted WordPress, and he was told that “that the Personal, Premium, Business, and eCom plans are not being discontinued. The Pro plan has been introduced in addition to these plans and is currently only available for the FREE sites.”

So it seems that we were all up in arms over something that won’t adversely affect most of us. Thank you, Jim, for giving us the real skinny…

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UPDATED! Pricing And Functionality Changes Regarding WordPress

~ beetleypete ~ 14 Comments

A great post from Maggie on the changes to WordPress plans!

NOTE: There seems to be some confusion about what plans are available. The documentation I see only shows two plans, others have been told that is not the case. I will update here if I learn more.

These two available plans seemingly impact only free users.  Click on upgrades in your WordPress leftmost menu. If you are currently a paying customer, you may see other plan options. If you have a free blog, you may only see the two options described below. Is this WordPress trying to discourage free accounts?

By now, many of you have read about WordPress pricing structure and functionality changes recently put in place without notice. As a person who has a history in IT, I do understand the cost of staying in business. Disk storage cost money. So does staffing. I do not think any of us would argue that point.

Most hobbyist bloggers do…

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A sudden, unannounced change

~ beetleypete ~ 36 Comments

Another blogger’s view of the new WordPress plans. Keep yourselves informed about what’s happening. I for one had no idea!

Scent of a Gamer

In between articles a line on my blog stats suddenly went from being halfway full to being full and red:

The free WordPress option used to come with 3GB for storage space.

Above is an image I found on a WordPress page that already seems to have been deleted while I was writing this. It shows what the limit used to be.

That has now been reduced to 500MB. At the moment, I can still upload new images, but I’m expecting that to stop soon.

There has been no announcement that I can see, but this is the new ‘free’ option. It has been drastically reduced. I also notice the 10,000 monthly views limit. I’m getting more than that, and so are many others I know.

At some point, something is going to happen, as in I won’t be able to upload new images, and people won’t be able…

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Free Or Paid Plan on WordPress? Read this!

~ beetleypete ~ 84 Comments

WordPress is about to change the variety of plans available to bloggers. In their ongoing quest to pander to business users, (and to make more money) only TWO plans will be offered in future.

Free
or
Pro

https://wordpress.com/support/plan-features/

*There will also be a monthly limit on views of your blog! So much for expanding your community!

https://wordpress.com/pricing/

The Free plan will allow ONLY 0.5 GB of storage space. If you use more than that, WP will potentially delete the photos in your media library. The Pro plan allows 50 GB, and retains the features of Premium, with some extras. Bloggers already getting the free 3 GB allowance on the Free plan, or 13 GB on the Premium plan will retain that.

For now.

But the cost of the Pro plan will be $180 a year, paid in advance. This is going to impact millions of WP bloggers around the world, at a time when the cost of living is increasing to levels not seen since WW2.

Read this post from Bookstooge, for a detailed explanation. Then get angry!
https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/2022/04/02/bend-over-bloggers-wordpress-wants-your-ss/

Ambulance life

~ beetleypete ~ 14 Comments

Reblogging a 2012 post that nobody (except A) has seen. It is about my early days as an EMT in London. It is all very different now of course.

beetleypete

For those who read my posts on a regular basis, you may see a pattern appearing in my ‘Ambulance Stories’ category. That pattern is that many of the calls we were sent to, differ greatly from the description given to us by Ambulance Control. This may seem fanciful and affected to the outsider, though I can assure you that all these stories are 100% accurate. Perhaps some explanation of general life as an Ambulanceman in London (at least when I was still in it ) will put some of this into better context.

At the time I joined, the London Ambulance Service was a very different organisation to the one it is today. It was short-staffed, under-funded, and the staff were poorly paid, and did the job with very little equipment. Many of the operational managers were ex-military types, and the uniform reflected this, in being totally unsuitable for the…

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Lyrically Evocative (33)

~ beetleypete ~ 46 Comments

David Bowie’s 1971 album ‘Hunky Dory’ probably ranks as the one record I have listened to more than any other during my lifetime. It was a “You had to be there” moment, when this amazing album was first released. I know every track by heart, and still enjoy listening to it as much as I did when I was only 19 years old. Fifty years ago!

As I got older though, I resisted change. Even now, small changes to my routine can frustrate and annoy me, and I constantly find myself raging at the need for change in almost every single aspect of daily life.

I forgot what it is to be 19 years old, yearning for change.

But David reminded me, when I listened to this song again last week.

Here are the lyrics, written by him a very long time ago.

Changes
David Bowie

Oh, yeah
Mmm
Still don’t know what I was waitin’ for
And my time was runnin’ wild
A million dead end streets and
Every time I thought I’d got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I’ve never caught a glimpse
How the others must see the faker
I’m much too fast to take that test
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Don’t want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
There’s gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
Mmm, yeah
I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re goin’ through
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Don’t tell them to grow up and out of it
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Where’s your shame?
You’ve left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you can’t trace time
Strange fascinations fascinate me
Ah, changes are taking
The pace I’m goin’ through
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Ooh, look out, you rock ‘n’ rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Pretty soon now you’re gonna get older
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can’t trace time
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: David Bowie
Changes lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG Rights Management, DistroKid

And here he is singing them. Reminding me of the constant need for change.

Christmas Yet To Come

~ beetleypete ~ 44 Comments

Inspired by the novella ‘A Christmas Carol’, written by Charles Dickens in 1843, I have dealt with Christmas Present, and Christmas Past.

But what of ‘Christmas Yet To Come’?

At my age, I don’t know how many more Christmases I will be around for. But I suspect they will start to feel very different from those that went before. I am not really predicting anything, but I do have some thoughts on how that difference might show itself.

Online shopping will dominate of course. It already does that, but there is every chance that physical shops will cease to exist. The sending of Christmas cards will be a thing of the past too. With younger people having little or no experience of sending letters and cards, added to the increased costs of posting them, that tradition will be consigned to history, I am sure.

Home TV screens are certain to get bigger too. Being able to stream anything on demand will put an end to the usual batch of TV ‘Specials’ that I grew up with, and are still around today. That might actually be a good thing. Those big screens will also allow more virtual contact with friends and relatives in real time, meaning that you could feasibly have a Christmas celebration electronically, without leaving your home.

And as Global Warming becomes more apparent, and the ‘carbon footprint’ of travelling has greater impact, flying around the world to see family members or enjoy seasonal holiday breaks will also become a memory.

Then there is the preparation and cooking of food. It can’t be that long before a turkey dinner with all the trimmings will be able to be delivered to your door in twenty minutes. Delivery companies will add extras like Christmas Cake, Yule Log, and Mince Pies to their menus, and probably even supply any booze you want too. You will able to click a few boxes on a Phone App, and set the table ready to hear the doorbell ring.

The virtual aspect of life might well extend to religious services too. Why go out in the cold to sit in a draughty church, when that can all come to you on your 100-inch TV? That’s if there is anyone left who still remembers it is a religious festival of course.

I won’t be around to see all of this, but I might still be alive for some of it.

What about you? How do you see Chrsitmas changing? Or perhaps you don’t think it will.

Let me know in the comments.

Block Editor Looming

~ beetleypete ~ 147 Comments

From the comments on my blog over the last few days, I have noticed that a large number of you have now been switched to the block editor by WordPress. Despite the provision of the so-called ‘Classic Block’ nobody seems to be very happy about having to use the new system. One blogger has already told me via email that she intends to stop blogging now, as she cannot be bothered with the learning curve necessary to continue.

I fear this may be the case with many others, in the weeks to come. I also have concerns that this will not be the last of the changes that WordPress intends to force upon us bloggers in their quest to satisfy their Business and Professional customers.

You will all remember my complaints to WordPress, and the issues I have had with them concerning critical blog posts I published. What you may not know is that I am not alone. Hundreds of other bloggers have been contacting WordPress over the past year, complaining that they want to retain the option of the old editor without having to pay for a plan that allows ‘Plug-ins’. For their part, WordPress continues to assert that the new block editor is ‘easier’ to use, and they have no intention of changing their mind about its forced introduction, obviously.

The plain truth is that WordPress could not care less about hobby bloggers, and those who blog occasionally for relaxtion, or to get their thoughts or writing down online. As far as they are concerned, we are old news, and have had our day. If we leave in the tens of thousands, they will not give a shit, believe me. This is mainly because they currently operate in excess of 40,000,000 blogs through their platform. So even if ten million of us abandoned the dictatorial WordPress, they could still make plenty of money with the remaining thirty million.

So far, I have escaped the mighty shadow of the Block Editor. But this morning while trying to edit my latest post, I received a worrying error message on the screen.
“You can no longer edit in this format”.
I ignored that and carried on, and it went away. But it is a warning of what lurks around the corner, I feel that.

At least I got to finish my serial.