Private blogs, invitations and password protected blogs.

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  springerztest · Member · Sep 30, 2012 at 7:35 pm

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  I have a lot of questions about privacy. I have a private blog. Originally, I only invited one person to view it. The status on that says “waiting” so I assume he has not accepted. Still, my views were going up during the night when I am not there. I check my totals before I go to bed and then again when I get up, so I know something is going on. Is there some way that someone who has been invited but has not hit accept can view the blog?

  Next, I sent another of my email accounts an invitation to view my blog so I could test it. I learned that I needed to 1. create a WordPress account and 2. accept the invitation. I first created the WordPress account, but it still wouldn’t let me view the blog. Next, I hit accept. From that point, it took me directly to the blog and I could view the entire thing… even the “password protected” blogs.

  Which leads me to my final question. What is the point of having specific blogs password protected if they can all be viewed by anyone who has been invited to view the blog, whether or not they have the password?

  Thanks in advance for any advice. I am new to all of this and am finding navigating this privacy stuff to be beyond frustrating.
  Blog url: http://springerztest.wordpress.com/

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

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  raincoaster · Member · Oct 1, 2012 at 2:54 am

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  There is no way for someone not invited to view a private blog. But private blogs count both the blog admin’s views AND anyone who goes to the landing page of the blog, ie gets to the URL and sees the notice “This blog is private” and can’t read the blog.

  Your computer is storing the password cookies, so it’s autofilling that. That is why you can see the password protected posts from the second ID.

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  springerztest · Member · Oct 1, 2012 at 5:00 am

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  But I AM the blog admin, correct? As I said, there would be new views when I woke up in the morning that weren’t there the night before. And views of specific posts, not just views of the main page, if that makes sense. And it happens every day. People just happen upon a private blog every day and are somehow able to create a change in the stats of individual posts?

  The invited person absolutely has to hit “accept” in order to view the blog, correct? Even if they were invited, that second step is necessary? I understand the landing page thing, I guess, but I don’t understand why the numbers go up for the individual posts. The stats clearly delineate the difference between the landing page and the individual posts, and yet the individual post views have been going up almost every day. Not by many. Just by one a day, as if someone is reading each post. Someone who I know isn’t me. Sorry to belabor the point, but I don’t get this.

  Thanks again.

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  raincoaster · Member · Oct 1, 2012 at 5:05 am

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  Well, give me a direct link to one of hte posts and I will report whether or not I can see it. Note that if you posted links to your blog somewhere like Facebook, people can click through and will be counted as a hit, but won’t be able to read it.