In case you missed it there has been a change made by the Theme Team to the display of Author bylines on WordPress.com free hosted blogs. Previously, there were theme specific variations. Many but not all theme displayed an Author author byline in the post metadata. Some themes displayed Author bylines and some also displayed Author profiles below their posts. Regardless of the theme, bylines will only display now if there are at least two authors who both have at least one published post in the blog. This post announced several theme enhancements from November 2011 and includes why when there is only one Author publishing in a WordPress.com blog you are no longer seeing Author bylines.
Our most popular themes now have better comment labeling when comments are turned off and better author highlighting for multiple author blogs — making them perfect for blogs that are more like small business sites or magazines. (Italics added.)
Work-around for single Author bloggers who do wish to have a byline display on their posts
While logged out of WordPress.com create another username account with a different email address. Then add the new username as an Author. Then log-in as the new author and publish one post and backdate it to the date you started the blog. Log-out and clear your browser cache and cookies.
Log in under the original username and you will have an Author byline.
Author Profiles
In some themes there will also be an Author Profile displayed below each post. The data for the Author byline author profile is from this page > Users > My Profile > “About you” section . If you do not wish to have an Author Profile appear then remove the information you previously provided on this page > Users > My Profile in the “About you” section and click “Update Profile”.
Currently Chateau, Choco, Duster, Elegant Grunge, Enterprise, Liquorice, Matala, Mystique, The Morning After, Next Saturday, Pink Touch 2, Selecta, Skeptical and Twenty Eleven, Twenty Ten, Vertigo and Vostok display the author’s profile and gravatar when viewing a single post at the end of the post.
Small details can result in big differences, and there can be changes made so be sure to read Author Profiles and Multi-Author WordPress.com Blogs for more information.
I just tried this trick with my wp.org blog and it TOTALLY worked!!! Thank you so much!
That’s good to hear. Happy blogging.
You solved my problem :) Even though I host my own WordPress blog, creating a second author worked for me too.
Thanks!
It’s good to know this article was helpful. Best wishes with your blog.
Thank you for this most perfect fix. I thought I was a going a little crazy. I could swear that the byline was there before but, as far as I know, there wasn’t any notification and I haven’t found any information anywhere about the change except here. You have made this slightly OCD blogger a happy man. Kudos.
You’re welcome. Happy blogging!
Thanks so much for the information Timethief! I changed my “contributor” to “author” so I should be good to go with the byline now.
Take care!
Hi Joe,
I’m happy you found what you needed. Best wishes with your blog.
Remember, I pondered over this, when I was using Twenty Eleven. :) You were great on my forums-question on this topic.
I remember that thread and thanks for the compliment. I like answering forum questions. :)
TT, I wondered about having a user name only. Now I see from what you say that it is possible to register a user name only without a blog.
Yes, you can scroll down and there is a spot on the registration form that states “Just a username, please”.
Good post, TiTi. I hadn’t noticed the changes, probably because of the theme I’m using, but it’s good to know anyway.
One thing though: if info is removed fromt the ‘About Me’ section it also removes it from the Hovercard.
It was a really fantastic addition. Loving having a byline even as a single author.
TT your new theme is very nice :)
Thank you for this. I did it and kept thinking I must be doing it wrong (was I in, out, in with the right identity, etc.) but it all worked out.
The only thing is that I feel a lingering sympathy for the new author who will probably only ever get to publish that one post.
I think it is akin to the feeling I get when a cartoon character gets splattered – I know it is just drawings on paper – but these characters have heart.
One thing – I now have a new blog under this new author name. I think that was a necessary step in the proceedings? And I realise I can keep logged in in a different browser and post under this dopple-ganger identity…
I publish 2 blogs. My primary blog has always shown my name (Dan Woog). For the other, I had to always change my “show name publicly” in my profile to an alias, then change back again for my primary blog.
Sometimes, however, I forgot, so there have been two authors listed over the course of the years (Dan Woog and Alias). Does this mean that my second blog will now continue to list an author byline, and I’ll have to continue changing my “public name” in my profile when posting to that one? Is there any way I can simply not have any author listed — permanently — for my 2nd blog?
When we register a username at WordPress.com we provide an email address and it becomes our unique identifier. http://en.support.wordpress.com/email-address/
When we are logged into WordPress.com under that username all blogs we register are registered under that username. We can change the display name and that will apply to all blogs registered under the same username. http://en.support.wordpress.com/change-your-username/#change-display-name-nickname Then when we are logged in the original username will appear in the support forums only. The display name will appear then on all blogs registered under that same username the display name will be appearing as the author and the party leaving comments.
If we wish to compeletely separate two blogs then we have to log out of WordPress.com and register another username with a different email address ie “Just a username, please” (no blog). http://en.support.wordpress.com/register-a-blog/ Then we can invite that second username account to be added to the blog we wish to transfer to them. http://en.support.wordpress.com/adding-users/ After the inviting and adding users process is complete we can then transfer the blog to another username account. http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#transferring-your-blog-to-another-user-or-account
THANKS — much appreciated. But for the record, I wish there was a way we could have separate usernames for separate blogs!
For the record you must direct that to Staff. :)
It’s all news to me– no surprise there, where would I be without La Thief d’Time??
Thanks so much for the info, your work-arounds are ingenious and delightfully sneaky!! : )
Hmm . . . Is it me, or is this change for its own sake, just because they can, rather than because it actually confers any benefit?
Mind you, having checked my blog, my by-line is where it’s always been (MistyLook theme).