A few questions about managing followed blogs
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I’m feeling a bit baffled by how difficult it is to manage the list of blogs I follow.
In “manage blogs” I see only two settings for each blog: follow/unfollow, and how often I want emails from them. Why can’t I add a blog to a list from this page? In order to make a list of blogs I follow, I have to go to the edit list page and manually type in the url or topic. I definitely do not know the names of all the 152 blogs I’m following at this point and I don’t want to spend an afternoon trying to organize them all. It would be better if there was an efficient way to assign my blogs to groups/categories (from the manage blogs page) and adjust email settings for each group in bulk.
Am I missing something or is it really this inconvenient to manage followed blogs?
Also, how does one actually find a specific blog? I tried to search for the title of my friend’s blog in the “search” section on the reader, but it looks like that can only search for titles of posts. I only know how to get to a specific blog if I have a link to it or if it comes up in a google search. There MUST be a better way to reach a specific blog via WordPress.
Finally, is there a way I can reduce the size of post previews that show up in the reader? I don’t need to see big pictures there. I’d rather view condensed previews of posts and save some scrolling.
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Hi,
In “manage blogs” I see only two settings for each blog: follow/unfollow, and how often I want emails from them.
I’m not familiar with that page. Could you provide a link to it? It sounds like you might be referring to the Manage Followed Sites page, https://wordpress.com/following/edit.
Why can’t I add a blog to a list from this page?
You may add a new blog to follow in the box at the top of the Manage Followed Sites page.
In order to make a list of blogs I follow, I have to go to the edit list page and manually type in the url or topic.
Where’s the edit list page? The page I’ve referred to above will display a list of sites that you follow. I believe they are displayed in reverse chronological order according to when you followed them.
I definitely do not know the names of all the 152 blogs I’m following at this point and I don’t want to spend an afternoon trying to organize them all. It would be better if there was an efficient way to assign my blogs to groups/categories (from the manage blogs page) and adjust email settings for each group in bulk.
You might wish to present your ideas regarding organization of followed sites at the Ideas Forum. Or you could add a “modlook” tag to the sidebar of this topic to call for staff attention, if you’d like to see if a staff member might address the ideas here.
Am I missing something or is it really this inconvenient to manage followed blogs?
You’ve made some valid points. Why shouldn’t you be able to organize them by category, or according to some other convenient system? However, the order in which they appear in the Manage Followed Sites page is not completely random. There are two options regarding order: “By Date” (reverse chronolical order), and “By Name” (alphabetical order by site title).
Also, how does one actually find a specific blog?
Select the order option “By Name” and they will appear in alphabetical order according to site title. That should help you to locate a site fairly rapidly. I don’t find a search option at Manage Followed Sites. That’s would be a good idea to suggest at the Ideas Forum.
Finally, is there a way I can reduce the size of post previews that show up in the reader? I don’t need to see big pictures there. I’d rather view condensed previews of posts and save some scrolling.
I don’t know about post previews in the Reader, so I’ll defer this question to another responder.
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Correction:
I should have edited this out of one response,I believe they are displayed in reverse chronological order according to when you followed them.
because I later discovered that there are two order options, as I mentioned in another response:
There are two options regarding order: “By Date” (reverse chronolical order), and “By Name” (alphabetical order by site title).
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Hi, thanks for the reply.
You may add a new blog to follow in the box at the top of the Manage Followed Sites page.
I was asking about how to add a blog to a list from that page, not about how to follow a new blog. I’m referring to the custom lists you can make in the Reader.
Where’s the edit list page?
In the Reader there is a button at the bottom of the left column of the page. “Lists”. It’s just above “Tags”.
From here (still on the Reader page) I can either “Add” a new list, or “Manage” an existing list. This is what I was referring to by “edit list” page.
Select the order option “By Name” and they will appear in alphabetical order according to site title. That should help you to locate a site fairly rapidly.
You have to admit this is still a rather inconvenient way to find something. Suppose I can use ctrl+f…
So how would I find a specific site if I am not following it yet?
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Hi, boy I really messed that up didn’t I? I guess that’s what I get for never using the Reader. Although, it would have helped a lot if you mentioned that you were referring to the Reader.
From here (still on the Reader page) I can either “Add” a new list, or “Manage” an existing list. This is what I was referring to by “edit list” page.
The blue “Manage” button after a created list name doesn’t appear if you don’t have any lists created. Also the “Edit List” page doesn’t appear if you don’t have any lists. I didn’t have a list, so these things didn’t exist in my Reader. And, the only “Manage” button at the Reader, when I didn’t have such a list created, was the one at the top of my sidebar next to the Followed Sites icon. That button opens the list of followed sites.
Just tried to add a list and couldn’t figure out how to save the first list once I named it, or how to add a blog to the list. I tried dragging and dropping a link to a site but that didn’t work.
Select the order option “By Name” and they will appear in alphabetical order according to site title. That should help you to locate a site fairly rapidly.
The “By Date” and “By Name” order options I mentioned are options on the Followed sites list. I don’t find these options on the Edit List page of a created list.
In “manage blogs” I see only two settings for each blog: follow/unfollow…
I still don’t know what “Manage Blogs” refers to, but if you’re not referring to a followed sites list, why would it have follow and unfollow settings? The “Edit list” page of a created list doesn’t have follow/unfollow settings that I can see. The Followed sites list actually has the options “Follow” or “Following,” one toggling to the other.
Suppose I can use ctrl+f…
Good idea.
So how would I find a specific site if I am not following it yet?
I don’t follow you. Find it from all of the sites in existence? I suspect I would use a Google search if I had a site title and needed the URL. Or do you mean all of the sites represented in the Reader? All WordPress.com sites?
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Some reasons why I thought you were referring to the Followed sites list.
1. The title of your topic, or topic question: “A few questions about managing followed blogs”
2. The first sentence of the initial post of the topic: “I’m feeling a bit baffled by how difficult it is to manage the list of blogs I follow.”
3. The statement “In “manage blogs” I see only two settings for each blog: follow/unfollow…,” for reasons mentioned above.
And now that I know you were referring to lists of blogs which you created on the page. I have a fourth reason.
4. Why would those created lists of blogs necessarily refer to blogs that you follow. Couldn’t a list be composed of say blogs you like the name of, blog you dislike the names of, blogs you’ve visited more than once, or blogs you’ve heard of and one day might visit?
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I guess that’s what I get for never using the Reader. Although, it would have helped a lot if you mentioned that you were referring to the Reader.
If there is another way to browse new posts from the sites/blogs you follow please let me know!
If you do not actively follow and read other sites/blogs, why are you trying to answer my questions on this topic?
My original post was, in general, about managing/interacting with the blogs (or “sites” or whatever) that I follow. This affects things in both the Reader AND the Manage Followed Sites page. My initial question also had some sub-questions so yes my post referred to things that occur in various places around WordPress. I’m sorry that this caused so much confusion.
In “manage blogs” I see only two settings for each blog: follow/unfollow…
I still don’t know what “Manage Blogs” refers to, but if you’re not referring to a followed sites list, why would it have follow and unfollow settings? The “Edit list” page of a created list doesn’t have follow/unfollow settings that I can see. The Followed sites list actually has the options “Follow” or “Following,” one toggling to the other.
I suppose I should have said “manage followed sites” but I didn’t think that my phrasing would be totally incomprehensible. In the end you figured it out and then just restated what I wrote in the first place. The point was that there are only two settings for managing sites (toggling follow/unfollow and email settings), and I was simply commenting that it would be better if we could add to lists directly from the Manage Followed Sites page. I have suggested this in the ideas forum and it doesn’t require any further discussion here.
With regards to my search question..
I don’t follow you. Find it from all of the sites in existence?
I’m talking about finding WordPress.com sites/blogs from within WordPress.com. Let’s say I am logged in to WordPress and a friend tells me the name of her blog but can’t send me a url for whatever reason. There does not appear to be a way to type in the name/title of her blog IN WordPress and find it. From what I can see the only option is to actually leave WordPress.com and do a Google search for it. I think it is surprising and a bit odd that a blogging network doesn’t seem to have a way to find blogs by name, but I guess that’s how it is.
Anyway, I feel like we’re probably not going to get anywhere at this point so I have gone ahead and made some posts in the Ideas forum like you suggested earlier. Thanks for trying!
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You’re welcome. Hope I didn’t offend.
Thanks for the lively discussion! : )
If you do not actively follow and read other sites/blogs, why are you trying to answer my questions on this topic?
I’m leaning toward “ambition” as my answer, but sliding back toward “stubbornness.”
It’s true I’m not heavily involved in following, but when I do get the itch I’ll typically connect to sites I follow via email.
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