I have a few bones to pick with WordPress. Well, at least they finally seem to have resolved the on-again/off-again pingback issue. Good for doing whatever they had to do to fix, after a week, whatever they did to break pingbacks in the first place. That’s the good news.
But on to the not so good news. I just realized that at least one blogger I have been following for quite a while, I was no longer following. Apparently, unbeknownst to me and with no action on my part, WordPress has been arbitrarily dropping blogs I follow from my follow list. Because I follow around 170 blogs, it sometimes takes a while for me to realize that posts from bloggers I follow are not showing up in my Reader anymore. So if you notice that I used to like and comment on your posts, but I haven’t for a while, let me know. It’s very possible that WordPress arbitrarily purged your blog from the blogs I follow.
If you’ve been following my blog for a while you may also know that since November of 2020 I’ve had an issue with commenting on blogs that do not have “.wordpress.com” in their URLs. WordPress admits that it’s a bug, blames it on Apple’s iPhone security settings, and is doing nothing to address it. As a result, even though I’m logged into the WordPress iOS app, if I want to comment on someone’s blog, I have to enter my name, my email address, and my blog’s address. That takes me to another screen where I have to enter my blog’s password and offer to sacrifice my first born child in order for my comment to be posted on the blog.
That’s a real pain in the butt. But even worse are those blogs that warn that I must be logged in to comment. I am logged in, dammit, to the WordPress iOS app, so I don’t get what the problem is. And yet, for bloggers that have this setting under Discussions, I can’t leave a comment.
So, for those of you who have checked the setting, “Users must be registered and logged in to comment,” and you know who you are, even after I attempt to re-login (though I’m already logged in), I cannot comment on your posts when I visit your blog. I can only comment when I find it in my Reader if I’m following your blog.
But now, if I want to contact a happiness engineer to report these issues, do I do it via WordPress or Jetpack?
Many of us who have been blogging on WordPress from our smartphones or tablets are being told to delete that mobile app and install the Jetpack mobile app if we want all to keep using all of the features of WordPress. Why? Because as of March 8th, WordPress is “simplifying” its mobile app and dropping functionality that most of us use, such as stats, the Reader, notifications, the activity log, menus, and themes.
What? Everyone knows what WordPress is: the worlds largest, most popular web hosting site. Who the hell knows what Jetpack is? Why would the owners of a well known, highly regarded brand (WordPress) push most of us off to something few people have ever heard of? I don’t get it. Do you?
This, That, and the Other 
Nope. It’s crazy. A new issue that Sadje and I noticed this week is that we can no longer conveniently grab an image from the free library. We have to go to pexels.com on a browser, save the image to our device, then upload it. What new thing will they break next week???
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Oh, they’ll break something else and call it an enhancement.
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It does seem that WP is deteriorating Day by day. One day i can access the free photo library and not on another day! Why
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Is it possible that WordPress is getting a commission from Jetpack?
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I think it’s possible they actually OWN Jetpack.
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Yes, both WordPress and Jetpack are owned by Automattic. But why take features away from their flagship brand and force people to migrate to a sister site that no one has ever heard of? Makes little sense to me.
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They’ve been pushing Jetpack for years. You probably don’t see it because you work on a phone, so you lose a lot of the screen. Which is why I won’t try to work on a device that small. You can’t see side bars, of the bottom bar, or even the left sidebar. You kind of miss a lot. And anyway, I don’t see well enough to work that tiny.
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Jetpack is owned by Automattic, the same company that owns/runs WordPress.
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I noticed a while ago that my list of people followed seemed to drop by about half. I’m assuming it’s happened to them, too, so I try to remember as many as I can but I think a few are in the ether, one way or another.
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While I’ve had a WordPress website/blog for many years, it’s only been since around the first of this year that I’ve actually engaged seriously with other bloggers, and I’m experiencing every single problem you wrote. After all this time of having a blog and virtually ignoring its existence, now that I’m blogging daily and interacting with other bloggers, these WordPress issues are disheartening.
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Ha ha same with me!
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Disheartening and frustrating.
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WordPress is only the most popular because the other platform were driven out of the market. They are not the best and right now, they aren’t even good. I don’t even bother to try to get anything fixed. It’s pointless.
For what its worth, I’ve heard that Jetpack works, but I haven’t personally used it and I don’t blog from my Mac or my phone. You might consider getting and iPad. I’m told that they work very differently and usually better. My son can’t comment on my posts anymore because HIS iPhone won’t work either.
I wish there were a viable alternative to WP. There are other outlets, but none are for the kind of blogging we do. But hanging in there has gotten really hard and for those of us who remember when we actually knew what we were doing, I’m sure we aren’t the only ones who feel like we aren’t even blogging on a platform that makes any sense. That’s why I edit everybody’s work, because even though I don’t really understand it, I can mess with it and eventually make it work, even if I don’t know what the hell they’ve done this time. But each time, it’s worse. Harder, more confusing.
I wish there were something we could do to make it better.
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I think it’s like beating your head against the wall. They “hear” you, but my experience when I’m having issues is, more often than not, “too bad, so sad.
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The USED to fix things. Now, I think the whole platform is such a mess, they wouldn’t even know how to start.
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I’m experiencing all the same problems as you, Fandango. And not just on my iPhone, but also on my iPad and PC. I don’t like getting pushed onto the Jetpack app, but it seems as far as phones and tablets go, we have no choice. It’s a little easier using my PC to post, and I have more options regarding formatting blocks with it, but I prefer using my iPad. In the past, I’ve tried other blogging platforms, but always return to WordPress. Despite its many faults, it’s the best available.
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I’ve blogged on Blogger twice a month as a featured author type situation for many years, and Blogger is not at all user friendly. The ‘new and improved’ Blogger of a couple of years ago is anything but that.
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I’ve tried Blogger. Twice. And you’re right—it’s not user friendly.
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I’ve tried a few others, too, but you’re right, WordPress (or should I say Jetpack) is still the best overall.
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Sad, isn’t it? If this is the best, the worse has got to be really terrible.
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Believe me, it is. 🙄
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I hear you, I’m trying to keep up with bloggers, and read everything, but my inbox gets flooded and I might miss stuff. And Jetpak…no idea. I’m mildly savvy on WP, but I get stuck and ask my wonderful friend/IT guru Mason, to dumb it down for me.
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Well Fandango, I had to log in to comment here.
I used to go through the rigmarole of name website etc but I found the few buttons at the bottom RHS of the comments box. The one with the WP logo, click on that and you get logged in
I have to do it for so many random sites. Some wordpress.com and other self hosted ones.
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I’ve tried clicking on the logo, but it still doesn’t work on my iPhone.
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Oh well. I get straight on when using my phone to access through Reader
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No I don’t and I’ve had such problems for the past few weeks also 🤯
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
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No, I don’t get it either. WP arbitrarily removes followers with me too, and has made it difficult AKA impossible for a couple of non-blogging followers to follow me at all. Let’s see what happens on March 8th. I predict all hell will break loose.
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The only blogs I must login a second time to comment on are self-hosted or WordPress hosted blogs. I have also noticed I must do that login to get ping backs to work.
I quit using the app long ago and choose to login through a browser even on my phone or iPad. (I left the app because it was constantly losing my data.) Even so, I get constant pop ups trying to get me to use jetpack.
If ‘Prevent Cross-site tracking’ is on (iPhone) it caused problems with being seen as logged on at one time.
Blogs I follow have been dropped, too.
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The latest thing for me is the feedback form responses function, which, for some bizarre reason, now presents the information in a different way, and there are three things wrong with it: (a) the timestamp no longer shows the time as it used to, and as do the comments, though that’s a relatively trivial point, (b) the ‘delete permanently’ link no longer works, you have to ’empty’ spam or trash instead to get shot of them and (c) the responses no longer reveal the sender’s IP address, which I’ve been relying on to add to my ‘Disallowed Comment Keys’ to deal with the flood of the crap appearing in recent months. I’ve reported it to the ‘Happiness Engineers’; they acknowledge it’s a problem but as it’s ‘low priority’ they can’t say when it might be fixed. 🙄
<rant>
They (in common with almost all website designers and software engineers) are continually ‘upgrading’ [sic] things – clearly, without adequate testing. And what they all fail to realise is the impact this has upon users. Each and every one of them, I’m sure, believes that their intent is to ‘improve the user experience’… but they obviously fail to recognise that the users are constantly having to relearn how to do the simplest things (that they could do on autopilot the day before) on a great many different systems. It’s insane. And it’s getting totally out of control.
</rant>
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I’ve never used the feedback form, so I can’t comment on that, but I totally agree with your rant!
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t does seem that WP is deteriorating Day by day. One day i can access the free photo library and not on another day! Why
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I was very wary of switching to jetpack for these reasons, I’ve used the WordPress app for years, it’s recognisable, and I’ve never heard of jetpack. It was only when Hugh posted on his blog about them removing features that I use from the WordPress app that made me make the move. Seems a very odd business decision! KL ❤️
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I don’t get it either, but I switched, and so far, I’ve had no issues with the jetpack app!
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I blog on my PC as you know but I have got the WP app on my android phone so I can read posts when I’m out. I would not have the patience to write a post on the phone. I recently saw that they wanted me to install Jetpack but I haven’t done it yet. Guess I had better.
I have been aware of the habit WP has of culling people’s Follow lists. I usually check if I think I haven’t seen a blogger I follow post in a while but with those who only post infrequently it could take me a while to notice they were not on the list any more. I know I’ve been dropped off other people’s lists from time to time.
Last time I went to use Pexels it wouldn’t work properly but our internet was being weird that night so I put it down to that.
As I am typing this comment I see that WP is asking me to fill in my details in order to submit it. I get this with Marilyn sometimes, don’t think it’s happened here before. Clicking the WP icon did work though.
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Wow – I have been having the same problems.
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At least I’m not alone!
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I hear you, I have been experiencing all the issues that you pointed out (a couple of months ago, they deleted your blog from my followings, so I had to re-follow). And that thing with the Jetpack app is just crazy, why not just get rid of it and call it WP? Seriously, one review said “if you like green, by all means switch, it’s the only difference from the current WP app” LOL.
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No. Glad I’m not using a mobile device.
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I’ve had the same problems, Fandango–if that helps…
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It’s good to know it’s not just me!
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Constantly changing that which is not broken.
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I completely understand your frustration with WordPress and their recent issues with pingbacks. It’s great that they were able to resolve the issue, but it’s unfortunate that they continue to have these kinds of problems. And it’s even more frustrating that they are arbitrarily dropping blogs from your follow list without any notice or action on your part. Have you tried reaching out to WordPress to see if they can provide any explanation or solution to this issue? It seems like a major flaw in their system and it would be great to get some clarity on what’s happening.
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