New updates

  • Unknown's avatar
    behindthewillows · Member ·

    Hi,
    I love wordpress and I know you all work hard to make it the best it can be.

    But…

    I used to be able to view my blog just by clicking up in the left hand corner. And I did it ALL the time. Every time I posted. Right click, blog open in a new tab to double check format of old posts, widgets, what have you. And I know, that I can view my site by clicking and scrolling down. So I’m ok, it’s not a big deal. I just miss it.

    It makes me feel a bit like more communication could have gone into the upgrades. They seem like they are probably fantastic for people who post on and manage multiple blogs, but for those of us who only use one (and I realize that when I look at all my sites I have 7 so it probably seems like I’m one of those but I’m not. Many of those are wordpress U sites!) it’s not helpful. And I suspect there are many people like me who seem to have multiple sites that they would like easy access to but in reality just post on one.

    There are upgrades I suspect I will come to find useful. There are many that annoy me because I have to learn a new way, but learning is good so I’ll try to get over it. And there are a few (the new stats page layout and the blue colored comment notifications) that I think are worse.

    And so now, after being yet another thorn in your side, is when I would like to thank you from the very bottom of my heart that we are still able to use the old dashboard (even if I did have to search out where to find it) and stats page and post writer. I love them, I’ll change to the new if I have to but I love them, and I’ll continue to recommend wordpress, I’ll continue to love blogging with you all. But next time we are ready for upgrades can we do them a little slower? A little more communication with users?

    Thanks for your time and your work!
    Jessie

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    alexjgustafson · Member ·

    Hi Jessie,

    I really appreciate your well-stated post here. A lot of folks think we dismiss feedback entirely, and it’s just not true. All the Happiness Engineers do everything we can to make sure the users’ voice is heard and that feedback is seriously brought to the attention of our developers.

    We’ve tried to make changes in ways that allow our long-time users to still access things the way they’re used to, like the /wp-admin/ dashboard. But I apologize that some features you used heavily have changed. I personally have also clicked on My Sites dozens of times, expecting to view a site instead. Old habits die hard. :)

    I also appreciate your understanding that we’re trying to make all of WordPress.com better — even if we’ve made changes that you don’t agree with.

    I’m letting multiple teams know of your feedback, regarding the changes to the admin bar, how/why you have multiple sites, stats, notifications, and how these new changes can be better communicated.

    All of these will continue being developed and improved — I wouldn’t pretend to know what those changes will be or what the timeline is, but we’re working harder than ever before and all these elements are continuing to grow into their own. So please believe me when I tell you that the feedback is indeed welcomed and considered.

    If you have any other specifics beyond what you’ve shared here that you’d like me to include, please let me know and I will add those to my reports.

    If nothing else, feel free to reply here at any time about these or other concerns and I’m happy to help personally.

    Best,

    -Alex G.

  • Unknown's avatar
    behindthewillows · Member ·

    Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

    And since you did ask about specifics…

    :)

    I have noticed that in addition to the hard to see light blue coloring of comments in the notification drop down, I can no longer tell at a glance in my notifications if I have replied to a comment. Added to the fact that we can’t reach a archive page anymore I think that’s a few small changes making big problems!

    The notifications are *so* important, it’s how we all easily interact with visitors to our sites and other bloggers. If I miss a comment on my post because the light blue color of the new notification doesn’t pop out at me I’m missing an opportunity to connect to my readers. If I miss a reply to a comment I made on another blog I’m cutting a conversation short. If I think I replied to a comment but didn’t actually do it (I’ve three young girls, I think about doing all sorts of things that don’t get done!) it’s no longer apparent. And again I’m missing connections and conversations and therefore a huge part of what it means to be a blogger.

    Now, I’m not saying that the changes that you have made make it so that I never notice comments and that the notifications are a mystery to me. Not at all. But I am saying that the notifications are harder to read at a glance and that, since they are pivotal in blogger relationships, the changes made need to be reexamined.

    My dissatisfaction with the new stats page is that it’s an example where less is not more!

    The new stats look cleaner. But they show so much less information at a glance. My old stats are organized so that all of the information that is important to me is at the top available at a glance. Now it’s scroll, scroll, scroll…
    I love the new options on the stats to change the bar graph from views to visitors to likes to comments. But there are so few days shown! And I’d rather see views and visitors in the same bar graph – that was a recent change I loved! (As an aside is there a way to still visit the charts with the summaries of views on your page from the new stats?)

    In conclusion:
    -When it comes to admin pages for a blog, less is not more.
    -(As per my original comment) we don’t all mange 7 blogs even if it looks like we do.
    -And comments,notifications and all that are connected with them are what makes wordpress (and blogging) a community rather than strangers shouting into a void. We need them to be the easiest thing to view.!

    Thanks again for listening,
    Jessie

  • Unknown's avatar
    rachelmcr · Member ·

    Hi Jessie,

    Thank you for that detailed feedback. I agree that being able to easily keep track of your notifications (especially when you’re involved in conversations with your readers!) is very important. I also understand your desire to see more stats at a glance, whether it’s viewing the stats that are most important to you right at the top of the page or viewing stats from more days at once.

    Our team is already working on some of those issues, but Alex and I will be sure to report your feedback to our team so we can take them into consideration as we continue working on these features. :)

    (As an aside is there a way to still visit the charts with the summaries of views on your page from the new stats?)

    Yes, there is. :) In the “Posts & Pages” section, you can click on the title of any post or page to view the summary charts. (You might want to switch to one of the longer-term stats views like “Months” or “Years” instead of “Days” to see a longer list of posts and pages there.) Clicking on “Home page / Archives” will give you an overall summary like the summary view at the top of the old stats.

    Please let us know if we can do anything more to help!

  • Unknown's avatar
    behindthewillows · Member ·

    Thank you!

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