Why is it so difficult to invite people to view your private site!?

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  stellanetcomm2012 · Member · Aug 12, 2012 at 2:31 pm

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  This is driving me nuts!!! Is there a way I can just invite someone to look at my blog by going to their blog? How do I find their username out from their blog page? Is there a way of doing this because there are people I want to invite and I have no idea to go about it because it’s difficult to find their emails/usernames. Also, it doesn’t show up on my notifications when someone asks for permission to view my blog. Is there a reason why it’s like this? Does wordpress have incentives to discourage private blogs?

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

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  thegiddygoat · Member · Aug 12, 2012 at 2:36 pm

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  You can only invite people to view your blog by using their email or username. Why would you want to invite strangers to a private blog? You may as well have it public. You will get an email when someone request to view your blog.

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  stellanetcomm2012 · Member · Aug 12, 2012 at 2:43 pm

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  Well, actually I’m using my blog with a specific community of people (school), and it would be impossible to find out all their emails/usernames. Also, I wanted to add a blogger with similar content and goals as mine…which makes sense to me. I wanted it to be private and choose who I want to be able to view it. I didn’t realize that this would be such a hassle. I do want my content to be private and if I wasn’t REQUIRED to use this site I honestly wouldn’t. It’s clearly not very user friendly…
  Also, when someone requests to be able to view my blog, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have ‘followed’ me…should this not be an option for people when requesting to view private blogs?
  I feel like sure, wordpress must have incentives for wanting blogs to be public, so it’s more accessible to more people and they will get more hits and more money or whatever. But people use blogs for different purposes, and want different levels of privacy options available that are easy to navigate.

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  thegiddygoat · Member · Aug 12, 2012 at 2:48 pm

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  You will have to ask those people for their username or email, or get them to request to view your blog, that is the only way to do it as far as i know. WordPress have nothing against private blogs, that’s why they allow you to have one!

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  stellanetcomm2012 · Member · Aug 12, 2012 at 2:55 pm

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  Yeah… well, all the solutions to my problem seem to be a little more difficult than the process should be. It’s 2012, I mean, c’mon, make your website more navigable!!

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  thegiddygoat · Member · Aug 12, 2012 at 2:56 pm

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  I’m just a blogger like you love, don’t shoot the one who tries to help you!

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  1tess · Moderator Emeritus · Aug 12, 2012 at 4:21 pm

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  @stellanetcomm2012

  I’m sorry that you find the process of inviting users to your private blog frustrating. The method wp uses to keep track of who is allowed to view a private blog is to verify identity with username or email. This is not so different from facebook or other sites which require you to provide similar information to use them.

  It is up to you to invite your readers using that method of identification.

  This question has been addressed here:
  https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/allowing-users-access-to-private-blogs?replies=7#post-968479

  I’ll close this thread. If you have further questions on this topic please feel free to post in the original thread noted above.