Ramifications of Closing an Account

  • Unknown's avatar
    gardeningsoul · Member ·

    Hello,
    The same name I used here for my ‘domain name’ when I opened this account many years ago, I actually subsequently used for a purchased/registered domain, registered through Bluehost. I do not have WordPress set up for it yet so there is no published website, as I do not have time to work on it yet, but I had decided that if I ever did start blogging, I wanted to do so on a self hosted WordPress site rather than on a free WordPress site.

    After purchasing and registering the domain name, I then tried, 2 or 3 years ago, to delete this free WordPress account and was told at the time that it could not be deleted/closed. I decided that maybe that was ok, as I thought that would keep anybody else from being able to use that domain name to set up a site here on WordPress.com. I see that this account CAN now be deleted/closed, so I would like to know more about the pros and cons of doing that.

    Since the ‘domain name’ I used for my website here on this free WordPress.com site is now a registered domain name that I own, if I were to close this WordPress.com free account, would anyone else be able to use that name here on the free site as their domain name, since it would not technically be the actual name of the website, that is the url would be (domain name)wordpress.com?

    For example, let’s say the domain name I started out with here on WordPress.com is ‘cottontails’, making my site url cottontails.wordpress.com, and then I subsequently purchased and registered through Bluehost the domain name ‘cottontails.com’. Then if I deleted my WordPress.com account, could someone else (after the 30 days from my closing my account) set up a ‘cottontails.wordpress.com’ domain name here in WordPress.com? Or does WordPress.com recognize that domain name as already being in use, even though it’s not being used here on this site?

    I did originally select a theme for the free site, and put up a banner and a few images, but I never published the site, so, it’s not like I would be losing any customer information, blog comments or anything like that. I’ve already removed the few images I had uploaded to my media library and I also deactivated the Theme.

    So, other than wanting to find out about the protection of ‘domain name’, are there any other ramifications of closing a WordPress.com account you think I should consider, given that if I do start blogging under my registered domain name, I plan to do so on a self hosted WordPress.org site?

    Thanks for your help!

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

  • darciemg · Staff ·

    If you delete this account, no one can use the address of the site you created or the username in this account ever again, including you. They’re permanently removed, never to be used again. That won’t affect the custom domain with the same subdomain that your WordPress.com account has.

    The addresses cottontails.wordpress.com and cottontails.com (to stick with the examples) aren’t the same and one does not affect the other to any extent. The address cottontails.wordpress.com is only part of this system and no other. Buying a custom domain name is separate. The address cottontails.wordpress.com will be permanently deleted from here and not able to be registered because it existed in the past, and not because someone owns cottontails.com.

    In general, deleting this account won’t affect a self hosted site. There are reasons to have a WordPress.com account if you don’t host here, however. You would use it for:
    -Creating a Gravatar, the profile picture on your own account on your blog
    -Using the Jetpack plugin
    -Using the WooCommerce plugin
    -Following other blogs
    -Commenting on some WordPress.com blogs that require you to be logged in

    Hope that answers your questions! Let us know if you have more.

  • Unknown's avatar
    gardeningsoul · Member ·

    Thank you for clarifying the situation with the domain name. That was how I thought it should work, except I didn’t realize that even I would never be able to use the name again within WordPress.com.

    And, thank you for listing some other reasons to keep the account. However, could you clarify a few things, please?

    – Regarding “Creating a Gravatar, the profile picture on you own account on your blog”, wouldn’t that only be an issue if I were actually going have my blog on the WordPress.com site? Would I need a WordPress.com Gravatar if my blog is on WordPress.org? Is the Gravatar used for anything else than as an “identifier” to other WordPress.com users, either here in the Forum or in comments on other WordPress.com bloggers’ sites (which kind of overlaps with my question below regarding “commenting”)?

    – Regarding “commenting on some WordPress.com blogs”, is it that WordPress.com itself makes it a requirement that ANYONE who wants to comment on ANY WordPress.com blog site must have their own WordPress.com account and be logged in before they would be allowed to comment, or is it at the discretion of individual bloggers as to whether or not they will only allow comments to be made by people who have a WordPress.com account and are logged in at the time they want to make a comment on that person’s blog, or is it that if the blogger’s site recognizes that the person who wants to comment already has a WordPress.com account, then the blogger has, at her discretion chosen to set up her blog to make that requirement?

    – Regarding “Using the Jetpack plugin” and “Using the WooCommerce plugin”, are you saying that I would not be able to use either of those plugins on a WordPress.org site unless I have a WordPress.com account?

    – What do you mean about “Following” other blogs?

    Thank you for taking the time to help me with these questions! I appreciate it!

  • darciemg · Staff ·

    Sure! A WordPress.com account is used as the login for Gravatar, Jetpack, and WooCommerce, so if you want to use these products I would suggest just leaving this account as active. It won’t interfere with your WordPress.org powered blog in any way. It’s somewhat like having one login at Facebook, but you need to open a new one at Instagram to have an account there. In some ways they’re linked, but they don’t conflict.

    -Gravatar is managed by a WordPress.com login. You need to add the image here to create a profile picture that would appear in comments on your own site. It might be possible to add a plugin that brings in a profile image another way, but Gravatar is the default.

    -Having a WordPress.com account isn’t a requirement of all blogs hosted here to comment. WordPress.com blog owners have the option of setting that requirement.

    -Jetpack is a plugin made to bring WordPress.com features and stats to self hosted blogs. You need a WordPress.com account to use it. You would login to WordPress.com to see stats and manage other options of that plugin.

    -Additionally, if you used WooCommerce and needed to add extensions, that site uses a WordPress.com account as a one-click login.

    -Following: You can follow other blogs by subscribing, and there are features in WordPress.com that make it easy to follow other blogs hosted or not hosted here. You can use Jetpack to enable following on your WordPress.org blog.

    I mostly use my WordPress.com account to manage my self hosted blogs, but I keep one blog hosted here also. :) You’re free to delete this account, but you might come across a situation where you need one. For that, I recommend just keeping it.

  • Unknown's avatar
    gardeningsoul · Member ·

    Thanks! Once again, very helpful information!

    Another question: Over on our WordPress.org site, we are responsible for its security and use SiteLock. What about security on a WordPress.com blog site, well actually, should I be concerned about security for my WordPress.com account itself? Am I supposed to put some kind of security in place myself for the account, to protect it from malware/hackers, or is it automatically protected through WordPress.com’s system?

    I can see the possible need to, benefits of keeping the WordPress.com account, but I just don’t like having to keep up with two different accounts. I could live with not being able to make comments on certain blogs, and isn’t it possible to run a store/shopping cart on a WordPress.org site with tools/plugins other than WooCommerce? Do you have to have the Jetpack plugin installed on your WordPress.org sites to be able to check “stats” – I don’t even know what it tracks that I should be interested in… would there be certain stats I should be interested in keeping track of on a WordPress.org site that I could not get any other way than having the WordPress.com Jetpack plugin?

    Sorry for all the questions – as you can tell, I’m pretty bamboozled by all of this!

  • darciemg · Staff ·

    Having a WordPress.com account is totally optional. There are definitely other options than the plugins that Automattic runs. You can use Google Analytics for stats, and WooCommerce doesn’t require the account here to run on your site.

    Here’s some information on security here: https://en.support.wordpress.com/security/

    Your own login here is as safe as you make it, and keeping your password to yourself, not reusing passwords on other sites, protecting your email login, adding two factor authentication to this account are all tips I might give.

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