Failure to Launch
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Guys … really?
I just created a blog that’s going to serve as a hangout for some of my followers on another site. Or rather, it would have, had Automattic not sabotaged it, just now.
When I went to launch the new blog, I discovered that the system would not let me do so unless I registered a domain name. Not only would be an extravagant expenditure for something I don’t really want, but it would be a damaging addition to the blog. I’ve given that blog a long, random looking url, quite deliberately making it hard to find, unless one goes to my profile on that other site, which I’m not going to name, and follows the link. That way, my followers could relax, have conversations, and not have to worry so much about trolls dropping by, if only I were allowed to launch the thing.
If I were to attach a domain name to the blog, that would completely defeat the entire point of creating the blog. That domain name is not merely something I would find useless, and which somebody at your company seems to be trying to twist my arm into getting, it would be harmful unto the point of being a deal breaker.
Please. stop. doing. this. One shouldn’t have to get a domain name just to launch a blog. But above and beyond that, the user should not be surprised with the need to register such an url at the time of launch, after he’s taken the time to customize the blog and write its first post. That’s more than uncool. It’s unethical, because when you do that, you’re taking the user’s work and holding it hostage.
Please find the employee who came up with this bright idea, and give him his severance check. Don’t talk to him, just fire him and end his career. Then, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, would you please just let us launch our blogs, and stop playing games with us?
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I found a workaround. I entered the full url for my blog, minus the https://,
into the domain search box, and that brought up the “skip purchase” option. This is usually where somebody from the company says “glad that it all worked out,” but it didn’t all work out. I had to waste a chunk of my day to get past an issue that exists, because somebody at Automattic chose to make it exist. I did a searchhttps://www.google.com/search?q=wordpress.com+can%27t+launch+blog
Here
https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/free-plan-wont-launch-site/
and here
https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/why-cant-i-launch-my-site-for-free/
we can see exactly the same issue I just mentioned being reported. This was back in 2020 – that’s about two years ago. Back then, your staff was describing it as a “glitch,” but here were are in 2022, and the same thing is still happening. After two years, you don’t get to call that a “glitch,” any more. Two years later, that’s a choice and it’s an obnoxious one.
How many people have had chunks of their day taken away from them during the last two years, because somebody at Automattic decided that passive aggression was a useful tool for Marketing? Let’s cut the fertilizer. This isn’t a glitch, this is your way of getting more people to pay Automattic to register their domains. While your staff pretended to care about the headache they were creating for their users, two years of no movement destroys the credibility of any such claim. You guys clearly decided to drag your feet on address this deliberately created “glitch,” because you figured that if you made the process of creating a free blog frustrating enough, that a lot of people would take the more expensive short cut.
In other words, you’ve decided to boost your profits by “loving over” users who, unlike you, have been dealing in good faith. That’s terrible, and you should feel bad about yourselves for sinking to that. Going forward, please develop at least a modicum of personal integrity, and stop playing games like that with your users.
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By the way, I just archived my post, so if somebody was thinking of deleting it, and then telling “little white lies” about what I wrote, don’t even try. This is all now in the permanent record, and you will merely damage your own reputation if you go there.
Sorry this has to be so unpleasant, but you guys did choose to play games, so here we are.
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Hi there,
The Skip Purchase option appears at the bottom of the Pick a Domain page when you first click the Launch Site button. There’s no workaround required to get to it, and it’s not hidden by default.
If it wasn’t visible to you that points to a bug, but I’m afraid there’s no way to check on it now that the site has been launched. I tried to replicate this on my end by creating a new site in a test account, but I can see the Skip Purchase button as expected. But I’ll keep my eyes open for more reports of this.
Please let me know if I can help with anything else.
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Just a thought…
Did you search for your free address on the domains step?
The different options, including the Skip Purchase option, only appears once you type something, anything, in the search box. Once you do, you should see that option, regardless of whether or not you searched for your free address/site title, though that’s what most people tend to do.
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