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My Blog Broke Again And What I’m Doing About It For Now

Shelley

As I get closer to climbing on a jet plane for my vacation, I find myself in a plain and simple coddiwomple situation with my blog. If you’ve been following me for years, you know I somehow messed up my blog. That mess-up blessed me with two gifts.

  1. This is the best part of the mess-up – I found followers and blogging buddies through my account at WordPress.com via Reader.
  2. Somehow, I figured out how to use my WordPress.org and WordPress.com accounts interchangeably.

Due to the WordPress.com powers that be, the #2 blessing above (which I feel kind of sh*tty about) ceased to exist this week when I rebooted and ran the Microsoft updates on my computer. Bloggy things broke.

Even though I can still see the connection between the two, (here’s proof). . . sort of.

That virtual link to WordPress.com is gone and no longer works. If I click any of the menu buttons, I get this message:

So that means, the world of blogging buddy communication in the convenience of Reader shared with others on the WordPress.com platform is out of reach for me. It’s hard to see what I’ve been missing out on. Sigh.

I’m at a crossroads and need to decide what to do. Am I okay with that? I’m trying to decide if I enjoy the workaround enough.

After digging around and learning more about the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com, I determined the sly foxes at WordPress.com are now charging for use on their platform whereas WordPress.org comes free when you own your website domain hosted outside of WordPress.com.

They subtly nudging everyone to transfer their websites to WordPress.com. They’ll also put ads on your blog that you don’t benefit monetarily from while they charge you for blog posting on a monthly/yearly basis. Digging into more pocketbooks, I guess. I’ve noticed on other blogs that there are suddenly a lot of ads on them. I don’t know which plan is causing that, if you do, let me know below!

I already pay every year to have my www.quaintrevival.com via my hosting service on Bluehost. It was luck for me when I could get two blog platforms for the price of one.

We have a local fox digging holes to find gophers!

Now I have to choose to pay for both .com & .org, or keep just the one, ditch the other option, and forgo the world of WordPress.com.

Ironically, it feels like the ruffled feather status I had when I first started my blog using WordPress.org and stumbled upon WordPress.com by accident. I’m on the fence if I felt lonely or not. I hadn’t met many bloggers back then.

If I go back, I’ll be all alone to wonder if other bloggers will want to share some nibbles of information by subscribing to my blog via email. How will they find me if they don’t? 🤔

I wonder where all the other bloggers have gone. I’ll search the skies for answers while flying on a jet plane. Plain and simple little ol’ me wondering how I’ll solve this mystery of where my blogging adventure will take me when I return from my trip.

When I return revived from Vitamin Sea exposure, perhaps I’ll be ready to open up the possibilities of a budding experience using WordPress.org as my only platform.

It has all the functions I need to create blog posts. I can reply to comments in the comment menu. Sadly, I won’t see the blogs I followed in WordPress.com. And, they won’t be able to see me in Reader either.

Thank goodness I kept a spreadsheet of blogs I’ve followed. I can use that so I can peek in on them. I hope they’ll find their way here to my blog too.

It’s a tad blurry how I’ll switch everything over. I’m guessing it’ll have to be via email subscriptions. Sigh…but, it’s a workaround.

For now, I’m high-tailing it to pack my bags and get ready for my travel adventure. See you back here when I get back here. 😉 Happy Easter all my blogging buddies, you’re a blessing to me and a key reason I’m still blogging all these years!

Post Inspiration: Linda G. Hills’ Stream of Consciousness Saturday: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “plain/plane.” Use one, use ’em both, bonus points if you get ’em both in your post. Have fun!

PS – If you’ve found your way to my blog, please help me understand how by sharing your technique in the comments. What WordPress.com plan have you found to be the best for your blogging experiences? Do you think we’re right that it’s a fox digging those huge holes in the field?

Published by Shelley

Letting my quirk out one post at a time.

47 thoughts on “My Blog Broke Again And What I’m Doing About It For Now”

  1. “Found my way?”

    Shelley, if you recall, I battled an army of demons to finally get regular updates from your blog. I always subscribe to the blogs I follow via email. I don’t really like the Reader, as it doesn’t show the theme and sidebar – the very things that WordPress dangles in front of prospective buyers are suppressed in the Reader.

    I’ve stuck with WP.com, because WP.org reminds me way too much of the work I did before I retired. We also suffered some catastrophic failures when one provider and one Theme provider disappeared. Also, since I host Thursday Doors, I like offering the ability for people to use Pingbacks, which only work on WP.com.

    I don’t know which option is more or less expensive or more or less work. If I want the features I have on WP.com, I have to pay somebody something. I can say, since I follow a lot of people, the depending on who the host behind WP.org is, blog response can be slow and even spotty. One blog that I follow was unreachable for two days this past week.

    WP.com has certainly shrunk the serving size on the free plate, and inserted several levels of price-pain on the way to a combination of features and storage that works. For me, the fact that they are doing the work behind the scenes makes it worth it.

    I hope you have a wonderful vacation. You can always deal with this later. If you need help spreading the word that “My blog has moved.” Let me know and I’ll be happy to mention it to my readers. I’m sure you have other followers who will do the same.

    1. Yes, I remember how hard it was for our blogs to stay connected way back then. I’m eternally grateful that you took all those steps to figure it out. I’m soaking in all your words of wisdom as I ponder my next directions with my blog. Your points are intriguing and I’m thankful to have them to help me as I navigate what’s next for my blog. Thank you again for your encouragement, it means so much to me!

  2. Have a wonderful vacation and don’t worry about this too much. It will all still be here when you get back. I had to go look to see if I was a WP.com or a WP.org. I’m a WP.com. I’ve been blogging since 08 or so…and have so much content I have to pay for a business level to have enough memory. It’s kind of expensive, but at least I don’t get ads any more. I can’t pretend to understand your problem…it’s way over my head. But hopefully someone that reads you (I get notices in my email when you post) will know some important stuff and share it with you.

    1. Thank you, Dawn, your reply helps me sort out what direction to take. I appreciate the feedback about how you pay for a version that eliminates the ads too! I’m guessing if I connect with a Happiness Engineer soon I’ll be able to figure it out. First, I have to get my brain back from the vacation I let it go on and my typing fingers too! 😉

  3. Dan and Dawn make good points. I would choose to remain on the .com side of WP because they do the work for you on the back end of your site. I had a blog on WP.org years ago, it’s just not as nice as the .com side except for the ridiculous way they (WP.com) have rearranged the plans and pricing.

    I think you can use the Jetpack thing on the .org side so that your followers can still find you but I’m not 100% sure on that. my Business plan, now called something else, has been working great for at least two years now. It’s nice to be able to use the plugins.

    I still use the legacy editor thanks to a plugin, to heck with that stupid block editor. I hope you have a fantastic holiday down here, Shelley! I am flying home to Las Vegas Tuesday, my dad and sister are flying home to Michigan the same day. Our flights leave about an hour apart. I miss my Mojave Desert house and home!

    Be well, happy Easter! ❤️

    1. Thank you, John, I appreciate your feedback on what works well for you. You’ve jumped through a lot of WP hoops, so hearing your adventure helps me figure out what direction to take.
      I’m glad you had a wonderful time in FL. You were heading home the same day I was heading down to FL. I lucked out and had a perfect week of weather. It rained one night, but the rest of the time, low humidity and upper 70s low 80s temps. It’s a fun place to escape to indeed!
      Thank you for your words of wisdom, they’re much appreciated.

      1. You are welcome! Too bad we couldn’t wave as we passed each other up there! WP is still the best blogging platform out there regardless of the quirks.

        1. Thank you! Yes, that would’ve been fun. I did see a few planes passing by in the sky. It’s amazing how they all can be up in the air at the same time and not collide!
          WP does have it’s pluses that I’ll focus on as I figure out what to do next, I appreciate your vote of confidence in this platform!

          2. Wow – that’s a LOT of planes! Can you imagine being an air traffic controller?! 🤔 Thank you for the link to learn more.

  4. I have the WordPress.com Creator plan, where WP acts as my ISP and I have full access to my blog to write Javascript applets, plus I can access the database directly so I don’t have to keep a parallel system on my local computer.

    I don’t remember how we managed to run across one another, but I’m glad we did. Happy Easter!

    1. Thank you for sharing, John, I wondered what plan you had. I don’t pretend to know how to do any Javascript applets 😆 but I love hearing that you’ve found a way to do what you want for your blog. You blog daily, and it all appears to work seamlessly, that’s great news in my opinion.
      I’m trying to remember back to when we crossed paths, I’m remembering that I was intrigued by the title of your blog and clever reply when I saw your comment on Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday post pre-2018 (I have you listed on my spreadsheet back then). I am glad we crossed paths too!
      PS – I hope your A-Z challenge is going well!!

  6. Well, first I’m sorry you are having issues with your blog Shelly – stupid MS updates anyway. I did a Service Pack update once and it crashed my computer – even Geek Squad shrugged their shoulders and moved on.

    For the record your post today appeared in my Reader and Notifications area. I don’t know why some posts appear in both and some appear in my e-mail. I tried toggling the button to just get it in Reader but it doesn’t work. I may eventually just go to having all new posts in my e-mail and filter them into a separate folder.

    I knew I read a blog post by Word Press on the differences between .org and .com and so I searched for it – I’ll put it in a separate comment as it will go to SPAM as it’s a link (at least it used to how your blog was set up).

    I have .com and a paid version, the simplest one and I admit I’m clueless on the self-hosting and Jet Pack and other things. I subscribe to the KISS method.

    I love the bunny pics. I haven’t seen any bunnies in the ‘hood or the Park in a while and it worries me as there are too many hawks flying about – look at the large one in the neighborhood recently glaring at me from his tree.

    I hope you have a wonderful vacation … leave the snow, the blog issues behind for a week.

    1. Thank you, Linda, I appreciate reading your thoughts and what works for you in WP.com. Whatever plan it is that you chose, it doesn’t put ads on your blog and you’ve been able to keep the theme you like too. That’s a win-win in my book. I love the KISS method too, I need to find my way there for my blog. Thanks for the link, I’ll read that soon. Your support means so much to me.

      You’re welcome for the bunny pictures. Our new batch of 6 or 7 little bunnies are giving the Sharp-Shinned Hawk here in our yard a flight(run) for his money. They keep dodging the attempts by running under the Tea House. It’s amazing that at such a tiny size they’re smart enough to dodge for cover.

      1. I hope you find a simple and good solution Shelley … you don’t need the aggravation of dealing with this. I no longer can do a “post preview” which I find annoying. There are two ways to do that and neither work, so it’s a crap shoot if everything looks good or not. For Sunday’s post I tried something different … it was a WP block for setting off your quotation nicely in a different font from the rest of the post. So I did that and when the post published, it was this horribly large font, double-spaced and looked bad. So I went in there, removed it and made it regular font. Annoying.

        Poor bunnies – I wonder how their mom teaches them that? Is it a natural instinct. I hope your Sharp-Shinned Hawk takes a hike.

        1. Me too, Linda! That’s odd that you can’t do a preview now. Double Ugh! I read your post and it looks familiar to me on how your posts normally look.

          Yes, I’m feeling a bit sad about the bunnies. We saw one tiny one hopping along the edge of the fence trying to sneak in the spaces he/she could when it was a bit smaller. The wind was crazy and loud, I think it finally disappeared under the Tea House for safety. It seems that they just naturally learn to hide, but I’m not expert on them. The hawks have been quite prevalent this year. 🙄

          1. If I reply to comments, I keep getting “you cannot reply to this comment” so I have a Word document open and copy my reply so I don’t have to retype it because half the time if I try to use the same language, even though I looked on my actual site and see the comment really didn’t go through, then it says “duplicate comment – you already said that!” That has happened to me all evening and we must have some wind issues because my internet has gone out momentarily a few times.

            I hope they stay aware and don’t get snatched up by the Hawk. Poor bunnies … the grass isn’t lush enough yet to give them much sustenance, although ours is pretty high, but we’ve had a ton of rain the last two weeks, so that’s why.

          2. Sorry for the hassles to comment. Just another reason for me to get my act together and figure out what has gone wrong on my blog! Thank you for enduring the challenges.

            It is odd for us to see the bunnies too long after we first notice the little tikes. Sometimes the mom will move them and then we never know what happened to them. Let’s both hope they’re fine and off eating longer grass somewhere!

          3. I think the Comment part of my blog is not working at all now – it was a hassle trying to use it tonight, so I just go to the notifications area instead. Tonight it dawned on me I never updated my “About” page to say I was retired. So I updated it by clicking on my profile pic in the Notifications area, saved it and checked on the site under the About tab – it wasn’t updated. No words.

            I hope they make it – hopefully they learn grass is better than flowers!

          4. Your comment came through here in my comment section (which probably looks different from your comment section…or not, it’s so hard to tell right now!). I just checked your About page and you’re right, the changes didn’t update. Hmm…

            I hope the bunnies and the bees also find the dandelions and enjoy them together.

          5. That weird for you to get used to and yes, I looked when I got online as I thought it might take 24 hours (even though it updated in the place you edit) – nope. Responding to comments is a crap shoot – better to do it in the Notifications area from now on.

            Yes, they deserve to enjoy them together … munch them down to nothing.

  9. Oh, computers are so frustrating aren’t they? I used to keep track of the blogs I follow with Feedly, but it’s gotten less reliable lately. I always sign up for email notifications and that seems to work best. I hope you have a lovely vacation!

    1. Yes, they are, Michelle! Thank you for sharing what works for you. I’ve heard of others using Feedly too. And they say the same thing – the reliability isn’t always there. Thank you for sharing that you sign up for the email notifications.

      Thank you for the trip wishes – it was a wonderful trip, so much so that my brain and typing fingers seem to be in slow to recover from how great it felt to take a break! 😉

  10. What WordPress.com plan have you found to be the best for your blogging experiences? I have what is now called a “creator” account [formerly “business”] on WP.com. In the past month or so I’ve had difficulty editing some posts and have endless problems seeing new comments. Comments show up on the blog posts consistently, but not on the WP notification tab so I have to scroll through all my comments to make sure I find new ones. While this is frustrating it’s about par for the course with WP.com. There’s always something off.

    1. Hi Ally, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about what works and what doesn’t work for you. You’re the second person to say they use the Creator plan. I’ll have to look into it. I like how your blog doesn’t have the ads and your posts always seem to work well to me. Interesting that you mentioned the comments not being consistent in reader and having to scroll through comments in a different view to find some that have slipped through the cracks. I’ve noticed that as well. Yes, there’s always something with WP. Your persistence in enduring all the ups and downs in WP/blogging is inspiring to me. I’m grateful that our paths have crossed here!!

  11. I haven’t had your experience, Shelley, but recently had to begin paying $48/year for additional photo storage. I ran out of my original 1 GB in the middle of a post, so it was either pay up or delete photos connected to old blog posts. If it ever comes to me having to leave WordPress, I am not sure I would continue blogging. I’m comfortable here, know people here and because of WP, and would not want to feel lost if I went somewhere else. I hope you get this figured out and do what works best for you.

    1. Thank you for sharing your WP thoughts, Mary. I was wondering what plan you chose to go with. I remember several bloggers who gave up because of the cost of the photos or the choice to delete old posts. You have created a following of wonderful bloggers here on WP, I’m glad you’ve found a way to stay connected that works for you. I’m also glad that we crossed paths here, especially since we’re in the same state! I appreciate your encouragement!

  12. well first… just enjoy you trip. Hopefully this will all setting itself with your diligence when you get home. I found you when I typed Lens-Artists Challenge into the Reader. It still does show I am subscribed to your site, not that that always matters with WP.

    1. Thank you – my trip was grand and much needed to remind me that there’s more to life than WP issues. 😂 I appreciate hearing how you found the post – I think it’s hit or miss when those links work or not. I’m looking forward to figuring it out one of these days…

      1. ha. ya. I agree, when we are gone, I think how nice it is to …be gone. But there is such a vast and interesting community among all of us here. It is fun to come back…too.

        One of these days my site needs a good cleaning and looking at. In time…

  13. A spreadsheet of all the blogs you follow–not this is smart and organized. I always feel like I’m one keystroke away from messing up something with my ol’ blog–or maybe my newer website, both WordPress.com sites. I try to save most of my blog posts somewhere else. But, WordPress does seem to not get the traffic it once did. Everyone’s out on Substack, but I’m thinking that might tank and then everyone will be back here?? Love your pics, as usual, and I’m hoping you had the best beach trip!

    1. The spreadsheet technique helps me, not that it’s fool-proof as I’m the one that updates it. 🤣 Oh, dear…did I miss that you made a new blog? I remember back to the days where WP connection was easier. It’s interesting to hear about Substack. I haven’t ventured there. Yeah, maybe they’ll all return to WP once Substack tanks.
      I appreciate your blogging friendship and I’m glad that you enjoy the photos. I had an awesome trip – it’s been hard to be back, I jumped so quickly into relaxation mode that it’s hard to bounce back. 😎😍

  14. Well, you’ve had a million comments, Shelley! Apparently you are on vacation, and why I hadn’t seen a Sunday Stills post from you last week. I read your sweet comment from my phone’s jetpack app but I couldn’t comment because I needed to log in (I already was). I can type better on my PC anyway.

    Looks like you got a lot of your questions answered. I pay for the Explorer plan on WordPress dot com which gives me 13G of media space. I keep my images to 800×800 and after all these years I have only used 4G so far. I pay $96/year, no ads to attack you (the free plans are full of ads and its annoying). I started with WP dot com, then was convinced to self-host (Blue Host) on dot org in 2016. I lost all my followers, had nothing but issues (and I’m pretty techie, but like Dan said, it was too much like my old job). When my images started to disappear I went back to dot com. They fixed everything for free and got all my images back.

    WP dot com has a lot of support and other features you don’t have to think about. I also withdrew my domain name from Bluehost and I now pay $20/year to WordPress dot com for my domain through WP dot com.

    I read one of the comments that he wants to stick with the classic editor and has a plug in for it. Why? Many bloggers are still stuck in their old ways and refuse to budge, or change their themes, which makes it impossible to read or comment on them.

    This makes sense why I can’t read your posts from an email subscription. You’re not the only one. Your blog is fun to read and you get plenty of engagement. I’m sure you will come to a decision that works for you, but if you’re alternating between the two platforms, you may still have trouble. WordPress and Automattic aren’t going anywhere so you will have support and good tech for years to come.

    Anyway, I missed you this week and hope your vacation was (or is) wonderful! Hope you can join me for Earth Day. Lovely pics of the bunnies and critters!

    1. Hi Terri, oh, my, thank you so much! You’ve given me much to ponder about the two platforms. I appreciate all the tips and the details about what works for your blog, you’ve been through a lot to get where your blog is today, that’s inspiring to me. The nuances of when things work or don’t work for my blog in the state it is remains confusing at best. Somedays everything works ‘normal’ and other days it’s like I’m starting all over. The line you mentioned about media storage and losing photos concerns me, I’ll make sure to ask that as I don’t want to lose what I have here already.
      Yes, my vacation was wonderful, I brought back a few sunny days before we tanked back to early chilly windy spring-like stuff that won’t last much longer. My FL sunkissed skin is back to Wisconsinspringkissed status. Thanks for missing me and for coming by to share your words of wisdom – you’re a wonderful blogging buddy! 🥰😊 I’m working on my ideas for the Earth Day prompt – see you there!

      1. I’m no expert about WP, but I learned what works for me. I think you follow Hugh Robert’s blog. He has some excellent tips for blogging and using WordPress. I know you share a lot of images on your posts. Hugh also suggested to do some housecleaning and perhaps delete really old blog posts and their corresponding media files. I’ve done that little by little. Most posts over 5 yrs old rarely get read IMO. Good luck with your blog and feel free to reach out by PM. Colleen Chesebro (Tanka Tuesday) also has some great blogging advice.

        1. I think you’re way ahead of me when it comes to WP! Yes, I do follow Hugh. I’ll have to search his blog to see if he has a post that will help me find some additional clarity. You’re right, it’s rare to have someone go back so far in the blog posts. Thank you for the advice, well wishes, and the open invite to PM you – you’re the best!

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