As suspected, WordPress is now using A.I. for customer support.
The Happiness Engineers have now become Happiness Bots.
For confirmation, here is part of an email reply I received.
Happy Bot (Automattic)
Jan 3, 2024, 18:40 UTC
Hello there! As an AI support for WordPress.com, I’m here to help you with any questions you have about the platform.
Just so you know…
Following on from yesterday’s post about issues with replies to comments, this appeared to be fixed (for now) just after 8pm last night.
Thanks to everyone for your advice and suggestions, I am sorry I was unable to reply to most of them.
What made me enraged yesterday was that I pay £84 a year for a Premium Plan. As well as giving me extra space for images and no ads on my blog posts, it is supposed to provide me with instant ‘Live Chat’ to resolve problems.
In the past, this has worked reasonably well, but recently the format has changed slightly, and it now seems to be generated by AI, not humans. As a result it doesn’t work, because it fails to recognise the issue you are asking for help with, or directs you to routine WordPress information pages that most bloggers are very familiar with. Then it declares ‘No issues found’, and deletes the request.
I think this is bordering on fraud from WordPress, as it is one of the major selling points of a paid plan.
All of this made me so angry and stressed yesterday, I have decided to take a couple of days off to calm down, and have a rethink. The last episode of the serial ‘Julia’ has been published, and I am currently able to reply to comments and to comment on most blogs I follow.
So I will hopefully be back as usual next Monday.
Please send some supportive comments to Arlene in the Philippines. Her and her family have all tested positive for Covid-19, and she is very scared. Arlene is one of the first bloggers I connected with when I started, and she is a great blogging friend to so many people.
Please pray for us. Josef, Jovy and I all have Covid. Mom is beginning to show symptoms too.
I had a big moan about dodgy comments and fake blog followers the other day.
So I thought I would counter that with something really positive about our great blogging community.
Little did I imagine when I started this blog in 2012, that eight years later I would be part of a huge worldwide community of bloggers. Just taking into account the smaller community of my own followers, and those who I follow, it is still an amazing thing to feel included in.
I have followers who comment from over 30 countries around the world. Most of those countries are ones I have never visited, including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, The Philippines, America, Canada, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Thailand, and Cambodia. (Among others) Yet I am able to connect with people who live there, in English, and learn something about their lives, thoughts, customs, culture; even their hopes and fears.
It has taught me a great deal, especially that wherever we live, we often are just the same. Separated by oceans or continents, most of us are trying to connect, to be decent people, and to share our life experiences, writing, photography, poetry or culinary skills with anyone who might be interested, irrespective of where they live.
The current Covid-19 pandemic in particular has highlighted our similarities, as bloggers write about their experiences of the virus, and how they fear the impact of it on everyday life, and their own future. I have found out about countries where there has been little or no social distancing, and others with far better reactions to dealing with the crisis than we have seen here in England.
With the George Floyd incident bringing racism into the spotlight once again, it is just wonderful to see that this is virtually non-existent in the world of blogging, where tolerance is our watchword.
Bloggers are rarely concerned with the colour of a person’s skin, their religion, or their wealth and influence. Blogging gives you a blank sheet of acceptance, whatever else is going on around us in this troubled world.
Whenever you might be close to losing hope, just think about Blogging. It is not an exaggeration to say that it can ease loneliness, help to combat depression, and offer true friendships from complete strangers who you will almost certainly never meet.
** Update WP has stopped letting me comment, even on my own blog. They are sending codes to my phone, then telling me they have expired It looks like I will be ‘incognito’ until I get this sorted.**
At midnight, Microsoft withdrew all support for Windows 7. No more security updates, and no support for any virus or Malware intrusions.
I knew this was going to happen, and have posted about it before. Like most people, I had long-ago installed reliable software to protect against viruses and Malware.
When I opened my PC this morning, I got a full-screen warning from Microsoft. This repeated the ‘doom and gloom’ scenario from last year, and urged me to buy a new computer running Windows 10.
I skipped this message, and continued. I didn’t expect anything drastic to happen on day one of the demise of Windows 7.
Then strangely enough, I had to fully log in, to be able to access WordPress. I did this, and when it didn’t open, I got a pop-up window telling me that a security code had been sent to my mobile phone. Once that was entered, it allowed me to progress to the site.
I then left a comment on another WordPress blog. Once again, I was asked to log in all details and password to allow the comment to be posted.
This may just be a WordPress glitch, as we all know they can happen frequently.
But I cannot help but think it is an interesting coincidence.
In quite a long life so far, I have met many nice people.
I have also met just as many who were not at all nice.
Outside of my close circle of good friends, it has become harder to meet people now I am retired. I do encounter other dog walkers of course, as well as some people my wife meets through work. Mostly, they are very nice, though some locals around the Beetley area can be a little stand-offish. And being my age doesn’t help, when many of the local residents are significantly younger, or much older.
But I do know a great number of very nice people. More than a hundred of them in fact, from countries all over the world. In many cases, they are counted among the nicest people I know, and treasured as friends.
But I have never met any of them.
That is because they are my blogging friends. Some who have been with me since 2012 when I started blogging, and others who came along more recently. The people who inhabit our WordPress world, and regularly feature in the community we share, are all genuine and lovely people. They are kind, considerate, thoughtful, and caring too. They help other bloggers, worry if you are not around, and rush to offer advice, suggestions, and encouragement. They support you when you are unwell, or feeling down, and it is my experience that nothing is too much trouble for them.
They are helpful when you are stuck on something, and display a loyalty that is hard to find outside of our electronic acquaintance.
They are the nicest people I have never met.
beetleypete 