Questions regarding "Follow Button" and "Follow Blog" legacy widgets
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Is the “External Follow Button” described in the support page of that title one that can be used internally (on one’s own site), or externally (on another site)? If so, shouldn’t the External Follow Button support page make this clear. If someone’s looking for a follow button to use on their site, aren’t they likely to be confused by finding only a support page for an external follow button? Am I the only one that finds this confusing?
I’ve been using a follow button widget on my sites for over a decade. It’s been transformed into a legacy widget, but it’s still titled “Follow Button.” There appears to be no “Follow Button” support page. I also have a “Follow Blog” widget (now legacy) on my primary site that’s been there for ages. I don’t find a support page for this widget either.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hello there,
Is the “External Follow Button” described in the support page of that title one that can be used internally (on one’s own site), or externally (on another site)? If so, shouldn’t the External Follow Button support page make this clear.
The follow button is a small button that you can add to any site.
There appears to be no “Follow Button” support page. I also have a “Follow Blog” widget (now legacy) on my primary site that’s been there for ages. I don’t find a support page for this widget either.
I believe this is the document being looked for: https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/subscription-form-block/ – this is the block that would replace the older follow blog widget.
I hope this helps thus far.
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Happy holidays! Thanks for the response, and sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
The follow button is a small button that you can add to any site.
Yes, I’d read that exact statement in the Follow Button Creation page of the WordPress.com Developer Resources site. Also, under the Learn More section header of the External Follow Button support page is a link to the Embed a Follow Button for Your Blog, published at The WordPress.com Blog on Oct 30, 2013, and that article says, “this Follow Button can be added anywhere on the web,” and indicates that you may “copy and paste [the code] wherever you’d like the button to appear.”
If the button may be added to any site, wherever I’d like it to appear, then perhaps I’m doing something wrong. I’ve made multiple attempts to create a new Follow Button for both my primary site and another site in the same account, and to place it in a widget. I inserted the code generated at the Follow Button Creation page into the Custom HTML block, and have also tried inserting it into a code block and a paragraph block. Each attempt has failed to produce a Follow button that is visible in a sidebar widget area.
I believe this is the document being looked for: https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/subscription-form-block/ – this is the block that would replace the older follow blog widget.
Perhaps so, but my follow blog widget is a legacy widget, and I’d no intention of replacing it. The question was why do I find no support page for either this widget or the Follow Button widget? Are there support pages for any legacy widgets? Or a support page providing any information regarding legacy widgets?
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Clarification regarding my original post:
I said, “I’ve been using a follow button widget on my sites for over a decade.” It’s been many years since I created one of these buttons, and quite a while since I’ve given any thought to them. It appears that I might have misremembered how the button was created. Was it created by code pasted into a text widget? If so, then the code isn’t reachable now. At least I’m not seeing any way of reaching it. I find no option to view the HTML or code version of the widget. The only relevant option appears to be to change the block type or style, and the options available there (if I’m understanding correctly) seem to be to transform it to a Columns, Group, or Widget Group block, none of which seems appealing to me. -
Please delete the paragraph beginning with “Also, under the Learn More section header…,” from the previous post. I forgot to delete it there after moving it to paragraph two. : )
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Hi @musicdoc1,
. I’ve made multiple attempts to create a new Follow Button for both my primary site and another site in the same account, and to place it in a widget. I inserted the code generated at the Follow Button Creation page into the Custom HTML block, and have also tried inserting it into a code block and a paragraph block. Each attempt has failed to produce a Follow button that is visible in a sidebar widget area.
The external follow button contains
scriptcode, so it won’t work on a free WordPress.com site.You can create such a button for your WordPress.com site, but it’s not meant to be used on your WordPress.com site. It’s meant to be used in other places on the web where you’d like to include a call-to-action for people to follow you blog, for example, if you had a WordPress.com blog and a separate website somewhere else.
To use a button like that on a WordPress.com site, you use the Follow Button Widget you mentioned, which looks the same, but that gets configured automatically for whatever site you add it to without the need to touch any code.
The question was why do I find no support page for either this widget or the Follow Button widget?
There doesn’t appear to be a support page for that widget, but there’s also not really much such a support page could contain – the widget only has two options that can be configured, and it’s pretty obvious what each of those do :)
Are there support pages for any legacy widgets? Or a support page providing any information regarding legacy widgets?
As far as I know there should still be pages for all legacy widgets that still exist. But when we retire a widget, the support page for that widget is also removed.
In the case of the Follow Button Widget, it doesn’t look like we’ve ever had a separate support page for that particular widget, though.
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The external follow button contains script code, so it won’t work on a free WordPress.com site.
Thanks. : ) I thought so, but the response from @aleone89 seemed to suggest that the External Follow Button and the Follow Button were one and the same. I still think the absence of any mention of the WordPress.com Follow Button on that support page is likely to confuse many.
Why would they start a page with “While there are several ways visitors to your site can follow your WordPress.com blog” without mentioning any of these several ways, or at least providing some hint as to where one can find information about these several ways? Or information about a single way that one can assist visitors with following your free WordPress.com site by providing a button or link.
To use a button like that on a WordPress.com site, you use the Follow Button Widget you mentioned
Thanks.
Regarding the “Follow Blog” widget, which is a different widget altogether, a problem remains. I don’t find it among the available widgets, legacy or otherwise. While I was able to copy and paste the one from my primary site into a widget area on another site, and then edit it accordingly, others might not be so clever. This widget appears to exist in a kind of limbo. It exists, but WordPress.com doesn’t publicly acknowledge it’s existence, or make access to it available to everyone.
But when we retire a widget, the support page for that widget is also removed.
Has the Follow Blog widget been retired?
Thanks for the help. : )
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Has the Follow Blog widget been retired?
Yes, as that functionality now lives in the Subscription Form block:
https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/subscription-form-block/
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Thanks, again, and Happy holidays. : )
To whom it may concern: The Follow Blog widget, though retired, still works. I just used another account to follow my primary site using the widget. Also, as I noted above, it can be copied and pasted it into the widget area of another WordPress.com site.
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Aside from the Follow Blog Widget, Follow Button Widget, and Subscription Form Block, another option is the Blog Subscription Shortcode. This was evidently designed to provide a means of inserting a subscription button into a post or page, but it can also be inserted into a widget area via the Shortcode Block.
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