Spam! There is no single accepted definition, but I think most bloggers will agree, spam is unwanted commercially motivated electronic communication (not limited to email), that’s a likely a source of malware.
I think most bloggers will also agree on what isn’t spam. No commenter should be shut out of discussion on your blog because you disagreed with their point of view and inappropriately marked their comment as spam. Continue reading
One of the largest hosts of third-party speech is the site WordPress.com. With over 38 million sites all over the world, the site has empowered users to speak their minds and comment on each other’s creative content.
We spoke with Paul Sieminski, General Counsel of Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, about the importance of CDA 230 on free speech online.
Without prior warning Staff changed the default setting on WordPress.com comment notifications. Many WordPress.com bloggers found their email overflowing with comment notifications re: posts they had previously commented on and weren’t impressed by the change. Staff responded to user feedback and the default has now been rolled back. Continue reading
WordPress.com hosts many types of blogs and you can determine if the kind of blog you want to establish is allowed or not allowed very easily. These are the characteristics of successful bloggers: Purpose, Passion, Productivity, People Skills and Persistence. You don’t need a domain to become a successful blogger but it helps. Blogs on their own domains communicate the message that the blogger is serious about blogging, serious enough to purchase a domain. Continue reading
At the Web 2.0 Summit today, Federated Media Publishing and Automattic, parent company of WordPress, announced an agreement to provide advertising rights for U.S. WordPress.com bloggers. Over 24 million sites are hosted on WordPress.com, and users will now be able to opt into a topically targeted advertising program. via Federated Media Offers Ad Rights for WordPress Bloggers.
I disabled my AdBlocker 3 weeks ago so I can witness ads. Here’s an example of what I see on the posts on the front page of a single blog > Ecopressed, Shaking Ads & Other Animated Ads
Will we experience an influx of opportunistic make money bloggers with low and no quality blog content polluting the blogging platform and community? Blogger has long been their home and the following article by another WordPress.com forum Volunteer I link to below contains a link to an excellent reference in that regard. Moreover, there’s indication of interest in this adverts scheme being posted into forum threads by people with usernames like click4us.
So, it looks like “high-end bloggers” based in the US will be the target for this program and, of course, this is an incentive for those same high traffic sites to stay on WordPress.com … Are advertising changes really coming to WordPress.com?
Perhaps we will find we prefer the old Google Adsense ads to these new animated, video and/or shaking ads. Only time will tell and in order to have our blogs shed of them we have to purchase No-Ads upgrades. WordPress.com benefits no matter whether or not we purchase the upgrade to get rid of the ads or we choose to put up with the ads.
WordPress.com has been running advertising on our free hosted blogs since 2006. Many bloggers do not know this because despite the fact they ticked the box required to get a free blog, they did not read the ToS. Many also do not read features page, or advertising entry in the support documents after registering their username and blog(s). Also note that as the ads do not display to us when we are logged in, and as many use browsers with ad blockers when logged out, they may not realize they are there at all. The only way to get rid of all advertising on our free hosted WordPress.com blogs is to purchase an annually renewable No-Ads upgrade.
Read also: WordPress.com Blogs Get More Advertising
Federated Media Publishing Partners with Automattic to Provide Exclusive Representation for WordPress.com Community of Independent Publishers – Federated Media Publishing, Lijit Networks and WordPress.com Trifecta Gives Brands Access to the Largest, Scalable Audience on the Independent Web
links to related forum threads
inappropriate ads
How to get rid of “poppressed”
strange things poping up
Unacceptable Spamming BY WordPress
The Other “Poppressed Ads” Problem – The Shock of Seeing Actual Ads
Discussion
Does anyone care to comment?
Related posts found in this blog:
WordPress.com social networking features are being added continually. If you are one of those WordPress.com users who has eagerly been awaiting a Facebook like box you can use on your blog — the waiting is over. Look at you widgets page and discover a new addition that’s bound to make you smile. Appearance > Widgets
I must have missed the announcement. Does the Facebook like box widget now operate on WordPress.com blogs without the software stripping the code out? Yes, we now have a Facebook like box widget that can be used on WordPress.com blogs. Note that the Like Box only works with Facebook Pages (and not Personal Profiles).
WordPress.com provides:
You can post a Facebook badge in your sidebar.
You can also enable sharing buttons on your posts, pages, and index pages.
Also note you can have Facebook like and share buttons on your posts.
You can use a Twitter widget.
You can post a twitter follow button.
You can set up Publicize and publish to your Facebook profile page.
Alternatively, you can use Networked Blogs or RSS Grafitti for posting to Facebook walls if you prefer.
I’ve been a WordPress blogger for 5 years and I’m really frustrated by this change. I have experienced many changes here at WordPress.com and although some have been frustrating none were an actual barrier to me using the editor in both modes — this one is a barrier. :(
I can read and quickly scan the font in the Visual editor with ease. Thankfully, it has not been changed but the Consolas font in the HTML editor is a completely different story.
The font stack use in the HTML editor is Consolas, Monaco, Monospace. If you computer does not have Consolas, then your browser will use Monaco. If it does not have that, then it will use Monospace. If it does not have that, the browser will use another font.
Consolas is a new Microsoft font.
Consolas is aimed for use in programming environments and other circumstances where a monospaced font is specified. All characters have the same width, like old typewriters, making it a good choice for personal and business correspondence. The improved Windows font display allowed a design with proportions closer to normal text than traditional monospaced fonts like Courier. This allows for more comfortably reading of extended text on screen. OpenType features include hanging or lining numerals; slashed, dotted and normal zeros; and alternative shapes for a number of lowercase letters. The look of text can be tuned to personal taste by varying the number of bars and waves.
I’m visually challenged and I normally use the HTML editor a great deal of the time. The font change is so terrible that I am being forced into using the Visual editor. Therefore I posted into this WordPress.org thread titled Return the html editor back to a sans font instead of the new Consolas font, begging that the font change to Consolas in the HTML editor in the WordPress 3.2 version be reversed.
I also submitted the following for consideration:
I am looking towards the future as well. I would like to see inclusion for WordPress.com users and parity with WordPress.ORG users when it comes to BETA testing new WordPress versions in developmental stages.
When the 2.5 upgrade was in development and being BETA tested by WordPress.ORG bloggers there was a demo site set up that we WordPress.COM bloggers could use and post feedback to. Is it possible that Staff and the our WordPress.com developers would consider doing the same for WordPress.com bloggers prior to upgrades in the future?
I’m suggesting this because most WordPress.com users are not to my knowledge conversant in coding and geek speak. In fact WordPress.com has always emphasized that we do not need to be conversant in code we can just blog. WordPress.org also emphasizes one click installs and implies one does not need to be code conversant to run a WordPress.ORG install. I think it’s unlikely that most WordPress.com users would be inclined to set up and run a WordPress.ORG install site simply for BETA testing purposes of WordPress version upgrades in development.
If WordPress.com users were provided with a demo site they can “test drive” what’s proposed and provide feedback from their non-coder non-geek speaking POV. I think that would be valuable feedback that would create party between the different types of users. Then the claim that the core WordPress upgrades are built on the feedback of millions of WordPress users will have more integrity, because at present the feedback from millions of WordPress.com users is not being facilitated.
Thank you, in advance, for reading my submission.
P.S. If this is not the correct venue for submitting my BETA testing parity for WordPress.com users suggestion please inform me where the correct place to post this is and I will post it there.
I would like to discuss two related issues with my readers in this post.
1. I’m wondering what my readers think of this font change in the HTML editor. Do you find the Consolas font to be more or less “readable” than the previous font?
2. Do you support my parity between WordPress.com and WordPress.org users suggestion? Specifically, I asked for a BETA testing demo site to be set up so that millions of WordPress.com users can experiment with new WordPress versions in development and provide their feedback to WordPress developers along with WordPress.org users?
3. If such a demo site were made available to you as a WordPress.com user then would you use it and provide your feedback to WordPress developers?
UPDATE: If any of my readers would care to cast a vote, there is a poll on the change to the font in the HTML editor at the top of the right hand sidebar on WordPress Tips.
Please vote!
HTML editor font: more user-friendly and readable before or now? …
