HELP! Viewers can't view my private blog!!
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I changed my whole blog to Private last month and sent people invitations to become viewers. Several people accepted those invitations. I can see their acceptance of those invitations under “Users>Invite New” however, not all of those names are also listed under “Settings>Reading>Users allowed to access this site”.
Those who have accepted the emailed invitation to become “viewers” YET are NOT listed as “Users allowed to access this site” have STILL received a confirmation email stating “Congratulation, you are now subscribed to the site Dear To Me (http://deartome.wordpress.com) and will receive an email notification when a new post is made.”
BUT when I publish a new post (not page): 1)they do NOT get emailed notifications about the post, and 2) when they go to the website directly to try to read the post (after I tell them via Facebook or something) they are forced to register for a wordpress.com account complete with website just to read my blog!
This seems like WAY too much to expect a reader to have to go through just to view a blog and until now it was my understanding that this wasn’t necessary. They don’t want their own webpage they just want to read what I posted.
At this point I realized that ONLY those few people who had actually gone through the hassle of creating a wordpress.com account were listed in the “Users allowed to access this site” section. I have no idea why.
My readers aren’t getting the information they want so they are getting frustrated and I’m about ready to pull my hair out trying to figure out what is going wrong here. This shouldn’t be this complicated. Can someone please help?!
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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At this point I realized that ONLY those few people who had actually gone through the hassle of creating a wordpress.com account were listed in the “Users allowed to access this site” section. I have no idea why.
If they did not have to register an account then how would the software know they were not hackers? Think about that please.
Please type modlook into the sidebar tags on this thread for Staff help. How do I get a Moderator/Staff reply for my question? https://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-help-in-the-forums/#how-do-i-get-a-moderatorstaff-reply-for-my-question Then please subscribe to this thread so you are notified when they respond. To subscribe look in the sidebar of this thread, find the subscribe to topics link and click it.
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You can have either a public or a private WordPress.COM hosted blog and there is no limitation on the total number of contributors to any blog. If you’d like to invite others to publish posts or help approve comments on your blog, you can invite them to be a Contributor, Editor, or Author. If you want users to receive updates each time you publish new content you can invite them to be a follower/viewer.
To change blog visibility to Private go to > Settings > Reading scroll to Blog Visibility and choose option 3. See the guide here http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings
See here please:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/adding-users/ and here http://en.support.wordpress.com/user-roles/The person will have to register a username account which requires an email address only, but does not need to register a blog. That requirement is because the software has to be able to differentiate between hackers and official users and allow access only to those with username accounts and official roles on the blog.
Upon receipt of the invitation the invitee will need to click the “Accept Invitation” button in the invitation email. If the invitee is logged into their WordPress.com username account, he or she will be taken directly to your blog. If not, he or she will be taken to the log-in screen, where he or she can either log in, or can register a new WordPress.COM user account.
Note that invitees who do create a new WordPress.com account at that point will still need to return to the invitation email and click the “Accept Invitation” button after doing so.
Lastly, there is a built-in spammer prevention so send out only 10 invitations at one point in time and then wait and manage those before sending out 10 more.
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Timethief thank you for your reply. I have added the tag you suggested. As for them being “hackers” that is why they use their email address and create a password, sure, but it is not giving them the option to NOT create a blog and go through all the numerous steps people go through when creating a fullfledged WP account. THAT is my issue.
Regarding your second reply:
As I said in my OP, I already changed the settings on my blog last month. The blog is now private. That is not the problem.Also, I have already read those links about adding users and user roles several times over before turning to the forum and I am confident that I have followed them.
Nowhere does it state that someone needs to create their own blog/webpage to read my blog, yet there is no option for my readers to register withOUT creating a blog/webpage. THAT is one of my problems.
The other problem is that even those who have a confirmation email telling them they will get email notifications are NOT getting them. And this is true of BOTH people who have a WP account AND people who do NOT have a WP account. They are both getting confirmation emails with the wording I quoted in my OP yet STILL do NOT receive email notifications.
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To clarify: I have both checked that my readers went through all the prompted steps when they got the invitation AND I have gone through the process with my spouse’s account information as if I were him AND I have created a dummy email account, invited myself at this dummy email account and tried to accept the invitationonly to find myself roadblocked (as my readers have been reporting) by the requirement that I create a blog/webpage I do NOT want.
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Username accounts are required but registering blogs under them is not required.
If the person being invited to contribute to your blog does not already have one, he or she will have to register a WordPress.COM username account. Note that he or she does not need to register a blog. There is a just a username please option.
Upon receipt of the invitation the invitee will need to click the “Accept Invitation” button in the invitation email. If the invitee is logged into their WordPress.com username account, he or she will be taken directly to your blog. If not, he or she will be taken to the log-in screen, where he or she can either log in, or can register a new WordPress.COM user account.
The invitees who lack username accounts select the “username only” option here: https://signup.wordpress.com/signup/?user=1
Note that you would have to log out and clear your browser cache https://en.support.wordpress.com/browser-issues/#clearing-your-browser-cache and cookies https://en.support.wordpress.com/browser-issues/#clearing-wordpress-com-cookies to witness the process as the invitees without accounts would experience it.
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Okay, so I figured out what was happening with the account registration process. My readers were zeroing in on that big “Accept Invitation” button and completely skipping step one in the invitation email. When they do that it asks them to log in or register. When they try to register from that page it requires them to create a blog and does NOT give the option to create a simple reader account the way it does if they follow the link in the email’s Step 1.
Feedback for WordPress.com Staff:
I think this tendency to skim an email is a pervasive one and WordPress should allow people the option to create *either* account from the page they land on when clicking through the “Accept Invitation” button.Additionally, I do not think they should be receiving confirmation subscription emails if they haven’t completed both steps in the invitation email. It’s very misleading. Why would they get a confirmation email saying they are subscribed if they can’t even access the site and then do NOT receive email notifications?
In the meantime I have provided my readers with this link: https://wordpress.com/start/account/user and explained why they’d been having the trouble logging in to directly view the site.
****HOWEVER!!!**** This does NOT explain why those who ARE listed under “Settings>Reading>Users allowed to access this site” are STILL not receiving email notifications for new posts – posts that were published AFTER they completed all the steps and were listed appropriately.
Can someone please help me get my full-fledged readers/viewers the email notifications they are supposed to be receiving?
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“If not, he or she will be taken to the log-in screen, where he or she can either log in, or can register a new WordPress.COM user account.”
Timethief, please see above post. I used a completely different computer (my kid’s computer) which no one had ever used for WordPress before. I was not logged in nor were there any cookies to pre-identify me. The option to do anything other than register for a full-fledged account complete with blog/webpage simply did NOT exist if I skipped the link in Step 1 of the invitation and just clicked on that eye-catching “Accept Invitation” button. It is my opinion that this is confusing and frustrating for readers who are in a hurry and just trying to accept the invitation sent to them.
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Please remain calm while waiting for Staff member to work their way forward to this thread and assist you.
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Other than being frustrated by your unhelpful and condescending replies, I am perfectly calm, thank you. The capitalization is for emphasis in place of italics and the stars are to grab the attention of anyone skimming who may think my problem has been solved based on the beginning of that particular post.
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I truly attempted to help you and I’m sorry if you don’t perceive that. My suggestion with regard to remaining calm is based on over 9 years of helping bloggers here, and noting that many do become frustrated, angry, and insulting those trying to help, prior to Staff being able to work their way forward through tagged threads to help them.
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Hi heartmama,
Users do need to create an account to view a private site. Otherwise anyone with a link could access it, which isn’t very private. If you don’t care about letting others see the site and would just like to discourage search engines, we have an option for that. Let us know if you’re interested.
Site viewers are different from users who have some authority to add to or change the website . You can see your view-only readers under WP-Admin > Settings > Reading. The ones that would appear under Users can add articles and what not.
Let us know if you have more questions about this.
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