WP Reader Changes – Worse to Come
The Lesser Known Problem: According to the Announcement ⇒, WordPress will be putting their recommendations into our reader lists. From the WordPress Blog announcement:-
“There are millions of amazing posts flowing through WordPress.com every day that you never see, and we want to bring a few of them to your attention, so we’re adding a bit of serendipity. We call it Recommended Posts.”
“This new section will show up in Reader intermittently — more for new members, less for existing members who already follow a lot of sites. You can also see Recommended Posts on the Search page.”
If this is allowed to proceed, how long before we start getting emails of the recommendations which appear in our reader.
From the WordPress Forum on this topic.
“Recommendations will hopefully work to help to connect more people with more blogs they like. More are shown to people who are new to using the Reader and less are shown to people who already follow a lot of sites. if you don’t like a recommendation, click the X icon to dismiss it and we’ll keep that in mind.”
That is, we are coerced into following more blogs in order to reduce this intrusion.
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Update: It now looks as if WP will try to push their recommendations into our emails. Here ⇐. The Fix ⇐
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Further:-
There are many bloggers who do not like the new format which misrepresents/distorts/crops pictures, minimizes samples and lacks respect for their work.
For those without super-fast broadband, the reader has become much slower.
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Why Push Content: One can only conjecture. There seems to be a need to stimulate activity. (i.e the number of recorded views). This may be an attempt to retain the WordPress image in the face of those blogs which have been abandoned or are rarely used. I think this approach is likely to make the situation worse.
Another possible reason, for the new format, is so that it fits cell-phones and creates more space for the “recomendations”.
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Censorship: There are a number of complaints that adverse comments have been excluded from the WordPress Blog on this subject and at least one from the WordPress Forum on this topic. That will be another post later, with screen-shots of the items reinstated on the forum after complaints.
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Solution: For everybody to enter a comment on the WordPress Blog ⇒ and the WordPress Forum ⇒ (which every WordPress blogger has a right to use) and thus spill outside of those forums to the ears of those who bear influence. There is a further mass of dissent at Cindy Knokes post ⇒.
The WordPress Blog seems only to accept very short comments. Please report anything short that is rejected.
Complaints are numerous, these are mine. Pick as you will or add you own. One does not need to justify or argue, only state.
As a paying customer, I (also) object to:-
The intrusion of unsolicited posts into my reader.
The intrusion of my unsolicited posts into the readers of others, causing them annoyance.
Any prospect of unsolicited emails from the reader.
The misrepresentation/distortion/cropping of my photographs and lack of respect for my work.
The reduction in sample size.
The slower reader speed.
The high-handed manner of this action without any prior consultation.
The poor competence in its implementation.
Any form of censorship, being contrary to the stated views of WordPress, the precepts of the free-world and the free-press. Particularly of dissenting views and the marginalisation of dissenters.
The more we accept without protest, the more we will be used without respect.
“Merely exist on our knees, or take the chances of being fully alive on our feet.”
Making an effort does make a difference. Imagine how bad it would be if we didn’t.
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More News and Articles on this Subject ⇐
And, on a lighter note, A Christmas Ode to the WordPress Reader ⇐ 😀
Freed From Time 