Wordpress

Blogging Observations

~ beetleypete ~ 77 Comments

2022 seems to be a rather quiet year for blogging. After the surge in new bloggers during the pandemic lockdowns, WordPress appears to have less new bloggers than ever before. Not that I am concerned, but this year has seen less new followers than I would have got in one month in 2021.

It could be that they tried it, and didn’t like it. Or the recent changes to WordPress plans with far less space allowance and higher charges for upgrades might be putting off potential new bloggers.

Perhaps it is just my blog that feels quiet? Is anyone else noticing this trend?

Luckily, we already have a well-established community, developed over many years. But it does seem a shame not to see so much ‘new blood’ appearing on WordPress.

With that in mind, if you are hesitatnt about staring a blog, or feel it is all too complicated to tackle, reach out and ask for help. Bloggers are friendly and helpful people, and most are hpapy to offer advice and tips, as well as supporting new bloggers with guest posts or features.

You can always contact me by email if you have any questions, so I will start you off with an email address.

petejohnson50@yahoo.com

If any others in our community feel they are willing to help new bloggers, please add a link or contact details in the comments.

Spam And Trash Folders

~ beetleypete ~ 45 Comments

It is only Thursday, and so far this week I have had to recover 17 genuine comments from either the Spam or Trash folders.

None of these comments contained any ‘banned words’, and none had any links, suspicious or otherwise. It appears that WP is dumping some comments randomly again, so you may all want to check these folders before deleting them in bulk.

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…

View original post 32 more words

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…

View original post 105 more words

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/

Comments, Trash Folder, And Banned Words

~ beetleypete ~ 63 Comments

After all the problems yesterday with genuine comments going into my Trash folder, when I logged on this morning, I found six more.

So I went straight to the Help option (A big ? in a circle) to chat online with a WP technician on Live Chat.
(This option is available to me as I have a paid plan, Premium.)

After some investigation, WP suggested to me that the comments contained some of my banned words, in particular a combination of the letters RV. This means that words such as ‘Deserved’ and Served’ containing those letters in combination caused the comment to be trashed.

Although this did not seem obvious to me, I have done as they suggested, and removed ‘RV’ from my banned list.

I originally put that on the list as I was being plagued with Spam from an American motorhome company using ‘RV’ (recreational vehicle) in their messages.

If the suggestion from WP does not improve things today, I will be straight back onto them and contacting the Live Chat again.

**UPDATE** Trash Folder Woes

~ beetleypete ~ 29 Comments

I have spent a long time today approving and replying to genuine comments in my Trash folder.
This has meant that I have not finished today’s serial episode yet.

They eventually totalled 50, and some are still being trashed as I type.

None of them contain any particular banned words or phrases (or parts of phrases) from my list.

I do not have a clue why this is happening, so please bear with me until it stops. If it doesn’t stop, I fear I may have to revert to approving every comment, something I never wanted to have to do.

Some followers appear to be unaffected by this, and from what Carolyn told me, it seems to have something to do with the Reader, or replying directly to Email notifications.

All it has succeeded in doing is to make me even more fed up with WordPress than I usually am anyway.

‘Trash Folder’ Glitch

~ beetleypete ~ 46 Comments

I was just looking to see where Jude’s comment had gone, and found 41 genuine comments in my Trash Folder.

This is a definite WP glitch, and it might be an idea for everyone to check their own folders.

Apologies to everyone involved for my late replies to your comments. I am going to have to wade through all 10 pages of my Trash Folder every day now.