follow buttons on reader doesn't work
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Whenever I try to follow another blog lately, I get a red stripe telling me “there was a problem following X blog, please try later” I have cleared my cache, restarted my computer, tried different browsers, all to no avail. It’s important for me to be able to follow others – please help!
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there!
Here are a few more things you can try:
1. Check to see if your web browser is up to date: http://www.whatbrowser.org/
2. Enable third-party cookies: http://en.support.wordpress.com/third-party-cookies/
3. Temporarily disable all browser extensions or add-ons.
4. Enable HTTPS: http://en.support.wordpress.com/third-party-cookies/
5. Can you give us the names of the some of the blogs you’re trying to follow?
Let us know if any of these tips work. If you’re still having trouble, you can add the modlook tag for staff.
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I’ve done all of the above except 3, not sure how to do it. Do I have to enable 4 specifically, when cookies are already enabled?
http://jpmclean1.wordpress.com http://asnapaday2015.wordpress.com
http://asnapaday2015.wordpress.com http://blessedwithastarontheforehead.com
These are specific examples of blogs which I tried to follow but couldn’t.
Thank you very much for your help with this sticky problem!!! -
I’ve been having trouble following blogs for the last day or so too. I get a red stripe telling me the exact same thing. For example, can’t follow: https://brittahages.com/
I couldn’t follow any of the above that janowrite listed either.
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Oh and I followed all those steps too. I’ve tried multiple computers and browsers – still can’t follow anyone back.
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Yes, I am still having trouble following most sites. once in awhile one gets through but for the most part, I get the red stripe still.
These failed to work just now: http://coffeecocktailsandbooks.com http://everywhere-and-nowhere.com http://preethicuisine.comThank you in advance for your help.
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That would be great, Kokkieh – thanks for any help. I’m sorry someone else is experiencing the same issue, glad it’s not on my end. :) Millyschmidt, thanks for sharing – hopefully they can address this! :)
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That would be great, Kokkieh – thanks for any help. I’m sorry someone else is experiencing the same issue, glad it’s not on my end. :) Millyschmidt, thanks for sharing – hopefully they can address this! :)
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I know @kokkieh is working on your issue, but I wanted to respond to the following and if you’re still curious:
I’ve done all of the above except 3, not sure how to do it. Do I have to enable 4 specifically, when cookies are already enabled?
In regards to No. 3, it will depend on which browser you’re using. The site https://www.howtogeek.com/240090/how-to-uninstall-extensions-in-chrome-firefox-and-other-browsers/ will give you instructions on how to do so. Extensions and add-ons can sometimes cause problems when the page loads.
With regards to No. 4, HTTPS is automatically enabled when you created bookemjanoblog.wordpress.com. Therefore, you won’t have to “manually” enable it. Instructions on how to disable it is outdated. My apologies there.
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So, after some digging we found that both of you had repeatedly been hitting our following limits, and that caused our system to block you as spammers. If someone follows more than a certain number of sites in a given time period we temporarily disable following, and repeatedly hitting the limits can result in a permanent block.
The Following feature is designed to keep track of sites you want to read. It’s not a way to get more followers for your own site. Following sites just so they follow you back with no intention of actually reading them is something spammers do, and we have measures in place to protect our users against tactics like that.
A developer has helped me unblock your accounts, so you’ll be able to follow sites again, but I recommend that you change your following behaviour going forward, otherwise you’ll find yourself blocked again.
If you’d like some tips on how to increase traffic to your site, you can see here:
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Can someone please unblock me from following others? I followed a bunch of people the other night and didn’t know about the limit. This is affecting all of my blogs but I’m mainly concerned about my main one https://carolsartstudio.wordpress.com/
Thank you – Carol -
Thank you, Kokkieh, I appreciate it.
Please understand: I didn’t know I was breaking rules – and I see I’m not the only one. Clarifying WordPress rules for new bloggers like me would be helpful. Is there a link to policies for bloggers so we can educate ourselves and avoid future issues?
Thanks again,
Jan -
Is there a link to policies for bloggers so we can educate ourselves and avoid future issues?
No, because this isn’t a policy. It’s an anti-spam measure. You weren’t violating a policy. You were engaged in spam-like behaviour, abusing a feature for a purpose for which it wasn’t intended.
The purpose of the Following feature is clearly explained in https://en.support.wordpress.com/following/
When you follow a blog on WordPress.com, the new posts from that site will appear in your Reader, where you can view the latest posts published across the blogs you follow.
I’ve re-enabled following on your account, but please take note of my explanations here of why this happened in the first place.
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Kokkieh, I followed a bunch of blogs so that I could see their posts in my reader. That was my intention. So WordPress makes the judgment that not only was that not my intention but that what I was doing was spam-like activity? Then you throw the word “abuse” in there!!! How dare you!!!!!!! Let me explain something to you…For quite some time now, the ‘search’ feature has not been working for me for searching out new blogs. I’ve tried from time to time to search out watercolor artists because I am new to watercolor and I want to learn and admire other people’s work. The search would only let me type in four (4) characters so I could never search for “watercolor,” “watercolor paintings,” “watercolor artists,” etc. So I tried it again the other day and searched for “watercolor paintings” and to my amazement, it let me type the whole thing in and returned a bunch of new artists that I had never seen before…so I followed a bunch of them. I saw an opportunity and followed like crazy because the search feature finally worked. I wasn’t abusing anything! I wasn’t spamming anyone!!! And I don’t appreciate your assumption that we were doing something shady when, in my case, WordPress was not functioning properly. Make sure you’ve got the FACTS before you go accusing people of shady activity “Happiness Engineer.”
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I don’t appreciate your assumption that we were doing something shady when, in my case, WordPress was not functioning properly
Our logs show you followed between 4 and 8 sites a minute, and you kept it up for more than an hour. That is the type of behaviour we typically get from spambots that don’t read anything on a site before following them. The fact that you feel you had a legitimate reason for following in that way doesn’t change that you engaged in behaviour that our system is designed to monitor and block.
If you’re having problems with the search feature you’re welcome to start your own thread with more details and we can look into it.
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I teach a class, and for the last several semesters I have had my students develop a wordpress blog. I follow a total of 70 blogs and both me and my students have now run into this issue. This is a course of 35 students, most who are new to WordPress trying to follow each others blogs. You will have to excuse me if I believe that these limits are not set properly if you cannot follow 35 blogs when opening an account. In addition, most of us were only able to follow 3-5 blogs before we began getting the error message. That was 6 days ago, and the error message continues. Are you saying that each student is going to have to contribute to this message board to get their accounts unblocked? If so, this will be the last semester that I choose WordPress for my blog assignment.
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So, in the future, it is the quantity of sites followed in a very short (minute) time period that causes the problem? I have students post their links within our course level system on a discussion board that they can pull up and then copy and paste the links into the site manager without having to search for their fellow classmates. This would allow them to follow all of the blogs in a relatively short overall time frame. While it is very inconvenient, I could advise students to try to avoid this. As I mentioned, I was only able to successfully follow 4 student blogs before the error message started, and I can not follow blogs through manager or by opening the actual site and clicking the follow button. I have probably tried at least 100 times since then!
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