Life can be so complicated
Yesteday I found out that not all WordPress blogs are created equal. It caused me a lot of frustration.
Jim and I have six WordPress things going on, three hosted by WordPress.com and three self-hosted at Bluehost, whereby we simply downloaded the WordPress software from WordPress.org.
We like the WordPress.com sites much better than our self-hosted sites. I never understood why until yesterday when I was trying to set up Classical Street. If you look at that site, you’ll see that there is no FOLLOW link at the top and there are no LIKE buttons at the end of each post. I worked furiously yesterday trying to get them to show up. I got FOLLOW to show up but only as an obnoxious button at the borrom right corner, inconvenient at the least. I mean, who ever looks at the bottom right corner? That’s almost the last spot on my screen that I ever look at. I never got the LIKE button to show up.
I went to the WordPress support forums and didn’t find an answer so I started my own thread. Finally someone said that self-hosted WordPress software doesn’t have those two functions and there are no Plug-ins or Widgets to provide them. I thought that was interesting. Seems like someone out there would have created by now a Plug-in or Widget to provide them.
Having discovered that, I left the original Classical Street sitting there and created a new Classical Street that is hosted by WordPress.com. Now I have FOLLOW and LIKE. Once I figure out how to get my domain name away from my host, I’ll give it to WordPress.com and I’ll be back to having a FOLLOW & LIKE site with just the classicalstreet.com URL.
There were other issues, too, which I addresses a few months ago in a blog post about navigating around blogs, previous and next buttons/arrows, etc. All the things I was complaining about are indigenous to the WordPress.org downloadable self-hosting software but not the WordPress.com software. Looks like I’m going to be a WordPress.com person from here on out.
Life can be so complicated.
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Posted on August 21, 2012, in Did you know? and tagged wordpress.com, wordpress.org. Bookmark the permalink. 30 Comments.
yes it can be
Now I’m following lol
Thanks for the info. I had wondered what the benefit would be. Or not.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I’ve been wondering if a self-hosted WordPress site would be worth doing. For what I want to do with blogging, it sounds like sticking with wordpress.com is the best approach for now, especially given your experience.
I think if you’re looking for Google juice, WordPress.com is the way to go because they do it all for you. If you go the self-hosted route, you have to do it all yourself.
Hi Russel,
As to that “follow” button in the bottom left corner: normally, when I try to use that for the lack of any other option, I get the answer “put in a valid e-mail address”. It never accepts mine, whatever I do.
As to the various buttons, there was a posting in a different blog [Apronhead] lately. Maybe you want to check that out here: http://apronhead.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/thought-for-the-day-we-need-a-system/
I wrote quite a bit there. Let me just quote my reply here, as it deals with various problems I (sometimes) have:
“Now that is, basically, a sound idea, but impossible to accompllish, I think, as there are way too many different designs out for blogs. Plus, much of it depends on the settings the author/owner of the blog has. Plus on the settings for the browser of the visitor to a blog.
I, for my part, can “like” some postings directly in Firefox, some only in an IE-tab [add-on] in Firefox, some only in MS IE and some not at all: really frustrating. Sometimes there is a bar at the top of each post where I can “like”, sometimes it’s at the bottom of the posting, sometimes both. With some blogs, I have to comment first to be able to “like”, btw. What I don’ t see why it’s necessary, btw, is that I need to log in to WordPress to “like”. Oh, as to logging in: why is that necessary for every single “like” anew? Why can’t WordPress recognize that I have already logged in?
To my mind, that’s a pity as because of that – I sometimes simply give up – some blogs never get my “likes”.
As to your other suggestions, viz. making it easy to find/follow links plus navigation to previous postings, that is really something many bloggers don’t seem to be interested in. Apart from links to the oprevious/next page(s), there should be an archive and catagories. To my mind some bloggers don’t really seem to be interested to make it easy for newcomers to find older postings.
Well, that being said, I hope my blogs are not too bad in all these categories. If so, I hope someone will mention that to me.”
Best regards,
Pit
All of your comments are the difference between WordPress hosted and self-hosted, as I found out yesterday.
I, for my part, can “like” some postings directly in Firefox, some only in an IE-tab [add-on] in Firefox, some only in MS IE and some not at all: really frustrating. — Those are the self-hosted sites. One really has to work on a self-hosted site to make it work in all browsers. That can be a full-time job in and of itself.
What I don’ t see why it’s necessary, btw, is that I need to log in to WordPress to “like”. Oh, as to logging in: why is that necessary for every single “like” anew? Why can’t WordPress recognize that I have already logged in? — Those are the self-hosted sites.
As to your other suggestions, viz. making it easy to find/follow links plus navigation to previous postings, that is really something many bloggers don’t seem to be interested in. — It’s not that they are not interested in it, it’s that they don’t know because they went the self-hosted route and have never seen what the WordPress-hosted blogs can do that they can’t.
To my mind some bloggers don’t really seem to be interested to make it easy for newcomers to find older postings. — Self-hosted sites. It can be a chore to set everything up nice and neatly, and if one doesn’t even know what nice and neatly is, then they won’t make the effort.
Hi Russel,
Thanks for the explanations! I hadn’t realized that most of my “problems” were due to the self-hosted sites.
Take care, and have a good one,
Pit
P.S.: I’m managing one worldpress.org site, btw, for the LBJ 100 Bicycle Tour [http://lbj100bicycletour.org/weblog/]. But since I don’t do much work with that, and since I’m not a “customer” of that blog, I don’t know if there are the same problems.
What an excellent blog, Russel.
Were you dissatisfied with wordpress to be looking for other ways to blog?
No! I love WordPress. However, I wrongly thought that a self-hosted WordPress site and blog would be more powerful. I still think that it can be, but I also think that it’s just way too much work. Look at some of the heavyweights that are WordPress, like CNN. They are not hosted by WordPress because WordPress can’t, and sometimes won’t, allow one to do what one wants to do. Inserting slide shows is a great example. WordPress only supports one slide show, its own, and it’s a horrible little slide show. On the outside world, a self-hosted WordPress site, one can use all the slide show software that is out there to do many great things. Then we get into videos, etc., which is why CNN hosts its own site.
We too had those problems with a self hosted blog. Everyone said it was best to keep control of your own material so we went that route. The frustrations were enormous and we gathered that most of the things we wanted in the blog either didn’t exist or were far too complex to achieve. We’re more than happy with WordPress.com as they gradually bring out more and better widgets, and the glitches do tend to iron themselves out.
For me, trying to get the site to do what I want it to do is “far too complex to achieve” on my own. Now when I become a big boy with millions of dollars, I’ll hire someone to do it for me…….lol
Had been thinking that in the future I would like to change mine to a self-hosted version but have now changed my mind. Thanks for the info
The community is the biggest advantage of wordpress.com… I’d rather go self hosted to have full control but right now don’t see the need… will do maybe in the future.
The community brings that all-important Google juice, and it’s easier to let WordPress do all the work rather than me doing all the work on a self-hosted site.
I found the same issues as you. I ended up coming back to wordpress for my other blog and paying for the .com domain there. Much, much easier than self hosting.
I only wish there were more features when you pay, like there used to be, but isn’t anymore.
I love your blogs by the way.
Hey, Roxy.
When I did this blog, I paid $88 to upgrade it so I could have the .com domain and all the goodies.
Yesterday, when I paid the upgrade for Classical Street, it was $99, an $11 increase in just seven months!
I self-hosted my blog on Blue Host using the WordPress software for a couple of years; I had an RSS feed button for those who wanted to follow that way, and a subscribe by email button – both widgets available in the software. I do not now recall whether I had a “like” button, but I was new to it all then and didn’t pay attention to all of it. I ultimately decided I did not need to pay the fee for the domain or the hosting, and switched to WordPress.com.
Exactly my inquiries on my recent post. I dread that if I make my blog a .com site, I will lose the Follow and Like buttons as I see it from other bloggers. I also find it hard to comment on other blogs because I have to provide all crap of info before making a reply. So far so good with me changing it to .com site. Glad I didn’t have thatroblem.
A free wordpress.com site has a url that reads something like myfreeblog.wordpress.com. That one also comes with interesting advertisements sometimes.
If you upgrade that free wordpress.com site, like I did with this blog you’re at right now, Russel Ray Photos, you can use your own doman URL. For example, mine here is russelrayphotos2.com. I am not self-hosting it. It’s hosted by WordPress.com but is an upgrade for which I think I’ll be paying something like $88 (or more) annually.
Nice to know. I’ve wondered what the difference would be for self-hosting, but never have got the time to figure it out. I’ve like WordPress.com so far, so think I’ll stay…if only for the follow and like buttons. Those are good reasons.
Sounds like you are drowning in a world of detail, Russell
Lokk for the ‘simple’
be good to yourself
David
Good of you to post this because it is probably going to save others from the frustrations you experienced!
‘Less is More’ – but really just wanted to say thanks for all of your visits to art rat cafe – your interest is much appreciated. Have been away and am trying to catch-up on missed posts and comments – when I do I will return and explore your site in more depth…
Blogging is pretty complicated for me. I just do what I can and skip the rest. lolol
This was interesting as I’m currently looking at the differences and what’s possible.
Thanks for the info. This will help with an assignment of mine.
Very timely read for me. I was starting to consider whether to self-host or not, but leaning on not as my blog is really a casual affair where I can’t even post as often as I’d like, as it can be a struggle to find the time. And now that I’ve read about your experiences about how complicated it can be, it’s a definite ‘no’ as I’d rather spend the time to write as well as to read other blogs. Thanks!
Oh No! Big mistake. I pressed LIKE and you’re bringing your 100 foot RV this time
There is a site called: Add This. It provides a turnkey widget bar, ready to go-go-go!! I used this service when I self-hosted.