WordPress.com Has Been Destroyed.
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(excuse if there was another post of this title, my finger slipped on the post button. :P)
Okay, so lets get something straight here. Prior to a while ago, WordPress has been free. Now it’s no better than TypePad, or Blogger. Why? Paid features. WP is breaking the thought of giving features to those who need it the most, for free. No way will I spent roughly twenty of my Canadian dollars for CSS Customization. I can get about three months of actual WordPress hosting for that price. If you absolutely needed your money, you may want to think of making things priced appropriately. Hell, customization could be a dollar.
Until WP can get back into the spirit, I’m plenty happy defecting to a host.
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This is what I see but as I’m a newbie perhaps my vision is not clear.
The frustrated geeks and geekish prospects who were unable function as creatively as they could have in the past will flower. They get to pay money and to alter and construct their themes and share their css theme alteration and construction results with each other to a degree that exceeds what they ever did before.
They will be impressed with one another’s creativity and happy with their newly acquired creative “freedom”. Consequently, they will develop closer bonds with one another and with the WordPress developers as well. This will lead to a betterment of their attitudes and loyalty to WordPress because their levels of will satisfaction increase.
Some bloggers will migrate to wordpress.org expressing the sentiments you have shared. Others remain on wordpress.com as free bloggers. They will be contented with the basic themes they have and any improvements they benefit from. An influx of new bloggers and defectors from other blog hosts will take place as well.They will be attracted by the new “flexibility” for theme customization and personalization.
The acid test will be whether or not those who are busy with css theme development will ) be able to support one another without, over running those who took WordPress at their word when they said all you have to do is blog for free and leave the geekery to us, in terms of support delivery to the latter user group.
Like I said this is a newbie view of things and it may prove to be a wrong. But IMO the fact that Podz is not going to be providing support for the CSS crowd, and that their concerns and creations will be dealt with on the same forum us those who blog for free and don’t code at all is a key factor.
In the end I predict both an inflow and an outflow of bloggers will take place and in short order WordPress will begin to resemble Live Journal.
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excuse if there was another post of this title, my finger slipped on the post button. :P)
Okay, so lets get something straight here. Prior to a while ago, WordPress has been free. Now it’s no better than TypePad, or Blogger. Why? Paid features. WP is breaking the thought of giving features to those who need it the most, for free. No way will I spent roughly twenty of my Canadian dollars for CSS Customization. I can get about three months of actual WordPress hosting for that price. If you absolutely needed your money, you may want to think of making things priced appropriately. Hell, customization could be a dollar.
Until WP can get back into the spirit, I’m plenty happy defecting to a host.
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Just curious, are you really a newbie to blogging TT? It seemed like you know everything (well you sounded like you’re one anyways) with CSS, wordpress and LJ. I think a newbie connotes to as “DON’T KNOW ANYTHING” and always find themselves on a FAQ.
Don’t get me wrong, you’re helping a lot of newbies around in this forum and that makes you a PRO. Hat’s off to you!
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@knoizki
Sheesh I’ve only got 4 months blogging behind me and 3 years with a computer. Moreover as my handle states I am keenly aware that I’m living on borrowed time so I’m giving it all I’ve got.You’re an old hand at WordPress and blogging so I do appreciate the compliment you delivered as being genuine. I’m also wondering if you could give me some help here figuring out a mystery in triplicate.
Do you think it’s possible that devlinpalm and ahlis are clones. I mean they said word for word the same thing in this thread, didn’t they? Now is that weird or what, eh?
Another interesting tidbit is that the first one has been with us only 5 days and is already into the Sandbox, despite his protestations. Weirder still, eh?
No doubt he’ll cheer from the rooftops when there’s an announcement made (probably tomorrow) that advertising can be done on pay for service blogs.
Perhaps the complaining is a put on like well you know – a joke.
You see the other one has only been here since yesterday and yet look how he parroted my humorous entry in this thread not just once by twice over http://wordpress.com/forums/topic.php?id=3229&replies=10
Triple weirdness, eh?
So as an old hand what do you think? Have we got a pair of jokers here or just one having double the fun while the WP boys are busy with the camp BBQ?;)
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Eh. >shrugs< WP is STILL free, with all the features that were free before custom CSS. So they add a paid feature. What does this take away from what already existed? These people need to eat, too. Custom CSS is not a vital feature by any means–it’s just kind of nice.
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no big deal, just some very melodramatic ppl reacting to the news that wp is considering payment for custom css, or something like that.
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Not ‘considering’; it’s been implemented already (see ‘Upgrades’ in your admin menu) though they’re keeping it on the down-low.
I agree with the OP that $15 just to add your own CSS is a bit steep compared to the cost of hosting, but then wp.com isn’t aimed at people who are comfortable going it alone. And if you didn’t think paid features were ever going to be added you were living in a dreamworld. What, you thought this site was built on top of a bottomless pool of investors’ money?
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Slow down. In WordPress, everyone was one equal, which is the way it should be. Just because a person is too young to have a credit card, or doesn’t have $15 to spare, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be able to get just as much as a person with those.
Wank, if they needed money, they could do it the nice way where it isn’t virtually required (of a developer). Donate button?
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@devlinpalm
I’m not interested in upgrades and think the dirst of the two very best things about WordPress was that it was freely offered to those who don’t code so they could just blog. This created a level playing field between bloggers of all kinds. (Setting aside a couple of exceptions.)I loathe and despise advertising on blogs. This was the second best thing about WordPress. It deistinguished WP blogs from all the other commercially cluttered blogs in an over-commercialized world. I immediately click out of blogs with advertising.
However there is a great deal of pressure being applied from within for WordPress to become conformists – to become like all the other bloghosts and to allow people to hack away at their templates and to decorate their blogs with advertising.
This apparently is what Matt et al are responding to.
There is IMO also a strong desire among those who are geeks to be able to have paid services so they can tweak their templates creativly and admire one another’s geekery. Allowing this creates a second class of bloggers so I acknowledge where you are coming from.
My only concern is that this “conformity movement” (who ironically also seek unique individual favicons and templates) won’t eventually render WordPress as becoming the same as MySpace, Live Journal, Blogger, etc. over time. But what I think is not likely to change anything the train is already rolling, rolling, rolling ….
Are you aware of this feedback thread http://wordpress.com/blog/2006/08/04/paid-upgrade-ideas/
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Don’t think about “needing” money per se. It’s about business or it will be. It’s probably about getting a return on investors capital. In my experience time, effort, knowhow, skills and talent do not often come free, there is a price somewhere. You do not get that by donations. I too like free things. I like them a lot. It would be nice if every single feature on WP could remain free. That, however is not realistic. If you think a service (or aspects of that service) is worth paying for, then do so. If you do not, you have the option to not use them. As I understand it whatever is free now will remain free.
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I would gladly pay like a monthly fee if ads could be allowed like how people have to pay to blog at Typepad. Not just text ads but ads that they can upload a picture. I see this on all the other blogs I visit. And I think there are two types of ad companies out there that are html and not javascript. I think it’s AdBrite and CrispAds. I’m not talking about weird or disgusting ads. Like ads from other bloggers, television shows, and upcoming movies. They want to advertise on blogs because blogs have become the new front in advertising. I don’t care what others say or think about ads. If you don’t want them on your site, then don’t have them.
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if they needed money, they could do it the nice way where it isn’t virtually required (of a developer). Donate button?
I doubt very much that Automattic would have got VC funding based on a revenue model of donate buttons ;)
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WP.com is still free. Staff has stated over and over again that what is and was currently free will remina currently free.
Heck, they said this back in September of last year.
For your reference, they already have donate buttons. They’re on the http://wordpress.org and the http://mu.wordpress.org sites.
As to your comparison of getting three months of hosting for $15 for a year of CSS editing, I may not know my math (*chuckle* yeah right.) but a year is a lot longer than three months. But hey if you want to pay more money for less time…
Also, if you’re needing to do advanced features, than you should be on hosting elsewhere. Staff has said that over and over again as advanced hosting is not the purpose of WP.com.
Podz, staff and I have discussed CSS support in a couple of emails. We need to be doing it here in the forums, not via the feedbacks where a lot of folks ask questions already answered here in the forums and on the FAQ blog in in WP.com’s own blog. The forum here is a learning tool and needs to be used as such.
As to the method of alternative payment method, what would you like to see? I’m seriously asking here. I know I do hosting for myself and I have folks mailing in money orders to me a couple of times a year or helping out in my own support forums. Maybe offering a suggestion instead of just shouting at the top of your lungs about how cruel the situation is to you would be a better use of your posting ability.
As to the clone issue, I can’t tell since one of the posters is coming through one of those mislabeled AOL proxies that I hate dealing with.
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@drmike
You asked for suggestions – I can provide only personal feedback.
(1) I am not needy of advanced services.
(2) I lack the skills to be inclined towards taking the CSS option simply to customize and personalize a template via code tweaking.
(3) If I were to make a choice between CCS customization and blog hosting I would choose blog hosting hands down and without a moment’s hesitation.
(4) If I were to go to blog hosting I would prefer your services above those from any other blog host. This is because you have a sepcial talent when it comes to dealing with non geeky bloggers. You can understand our clumsy attempts to explain our needs and failures, and most of all, you can give us step by step instructions at a level that does not sail off over our heads into the ozones and make us feel stupid or lacking.
(5) If I did go to blog hosting with you then I would be pleased to pay you by way of money order. And at the rate of $8 American per month I would consider this to be a bargain. I would also be pleased to pre-pay for bloghosting services either on a semi annual basis or on an annual basis.
(6) Regardless of the foregoing I would still choose to have an ad free blog.
(7) In the meanwhile I intend to enjoy the free blog and excellent support service I have with WordPress. I have experienced the forum as a wonderful learning opportunity and I have learned several new things on the forum every day for the past 4 months. I will continue to learn and to grow. I will continue to try to give back when and where I can as an expression of my gratitude.P.S. And as wank has pointed out this site was *NOT* built on top of a bottomless pool of investors’ money. I don’t think we are really hearing shouting. I think we are hearing concern and confusion. People always feel threatened by change even though change is inevitable.
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As an alternative payment method, why not allow those who want to to use credit cards, rather than or as well as a paypal? Why a credit purchase system? Seems to complicate something that could be straightforward.
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Well said Timethief, and im completely agree with you. If you want to customize your blogs in every aspect you should get a blog hosting elsewhere or find another free bloghosting service with friendly admin ;) (you know what i mean) :P
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Paypal says that you can use a credit card on their site without creating an account with them. I no longer use paypal so I couldn’t tell you right off.
But that was my note saying that an alterative method of payment making is going to be needed. There are too many folks who can’t/ won’t use paypal, they live in coutries which Paypal doesn’t do business with, don’t have credit cards, or deal with banks who do not do business with Paypal.
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@britgirl and drmike
drmike hit the nail on the head. I will not use paypal and I will not use my credit cards either. Therefore there has to be an alternative method of payment for me others like me such as payment by postal money order in US funds. Perhaps other alternatives also exist that do not involve online transfer of money if so I’d like to hear what they are.
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