WordPress.com

1. gprime
   Member
   May 28, 2006, 7:48 PM

   Now WP.com offers a very nice service, and its a good way to set up a free wordpress blog. Naturally, for security reasons, there are limits on the codes we can post, and individual users cannot upload plugins on their own. This makes sense, and I would expect nothing less. That being said, the inability to do so presents somewhat of an obstacle, as certain valuable tools for blog promotion and enhancement are not pre-installed. Thus, I am requesting the installation of all of the following add-ons:

   1) Footer links. Most of the useful ones can be found: http://3spots.blogspot.com/2006/02/30-social-bookmarks-add-to-footer.html
   2) Since proper Feedburner support is needed, please install the following officially recomended hack for optimum results: http://orderedlist.com/articles/wordpress-feedburner-plugin/
   3) In order to reach a more global audience, we must have the following: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/wordpress-plugin-automatic-machine-translation-for-your-blog-in-eight-languages-spanish-french-german-portuguese-italian-japanese-korean-and-chinese/

   Obviously there are other add-ons of merit too, though I feel that everybody here would benifit from the above, and thus, unlike many mods, there would be little reason not to install them.

   Should the number of buttons available in part one appear to be overkill, might I suggest considering the following: http://www.maxpower.ca/sociable/2006/01/26/

2. drmike
   Member
   May 30, 2006, 8:49 PM

   1 - That would probably kill the servers. Each one of those create yet another call to the PHP processor. Imagine 30 more calls each time a page is loaded scaled across each and every blog.

   2 - Feedburner takes the RSS feed fine and there are others who would rather allow those who want to pull their RSS feed directly to be able to do so. Many of us are using Feedburner fine without it so I seriously doubt that it is "needed" as you state.

   3 - You could probably do this with a text widget making the links. Again this would require more PHP processing that would overload the servers to do this on every single page.

   If any of these were "necessary" or the lack of these were an "obstacle" as you state, these forums would have been filled with requests for them.

   I seriously think you need to learn the word 'please' and to stop lumping all of us under your thought pattern. Just because you feel the need for these items doesn't mean that the rest of us do as well, even though you state that we do.

   Remember, if you feel the need to use this functions, there is always the ability to host a WordPress blog on your own.

   -drmike

3. generaldisarray
   Member
   May 30, 2006, 9:37 PM

   I fully agree with Dr. Mike. The admins are doing a really good job of including features with broad appeal. If there's anything that you absolutely must have, you can always get your own webhosting account.

4. timethief
   Member
   May 31, 2006, 12:47 AM

   I concur with the two opinions expressed prior to mine. Webhosting your own account is not an expensive proposition so I don't understand why you would barge in here like a *(cough)* and carry like a *(cough)*

   Perhaps you're one of those people who should seriously consider putting your own happiness first and how do that.

   Clue: No one else ever makes us happy or sad or imperious or bitchy. Those are choices we make between our own ears.

5. eteraz
   Member
   May 31, 2006, 7:11 AM

   Lessons in morality at 3 am.

   thank you all.

   i concur.

6. educatedeviate
   Member
   Jun 12, 2006, 1:47 AM

   Oh for goodness sake. gprime was just making a few suggestions. There was really no need to get all moralistic and pile on him.

   I'd like to see some of his suggestions implemented too. It'll definitely enhance the WP.Com experience and encourage us to stay. Right now, the "if you don't like it, get your own blog" attitude is a major turn-off; it's rude, and it's not giving WP.Com a good image at all.

   This especially:

   I seriously think you need to learn the word 'please' and to stop lumping all of us under your thought pattern. Just because you feel the need for these items doesn't mean that the rest of us do as well, even though you state that we do.

   is seriously uncalled for.

7. timethief
   Member
   Jun 12, 2006, 4:38 AM

   educateddeviate- I would encourage you to clearly and specifically articulate which of gprimes suggestions it is that you desire to have WordPress implement to enhance your free blogging experience, and to do so via proper channels by submitting them to the staff through feedback.

   I find it puzzling that you would devote valuable blogging time and effort to sifting through old forum postings to find one you feel drawn to make a comment on but I suppose you may have judged that late was better than never. Still I won't judge you harshly for that.

   Even though it's taken you twelve (12) whole days since May 31st to sort to locate a comment made to another person and state your judgment that it was "rude", I assure you I have registered your unhappiness.

   I send you my best wishes for a bright and happy blogging future.

8. educatedeviate
   Member
   Jun 12, 2006, 6:29 AM

   timethief - ????? What on earth was that all about?

   I looked through the tags for "themes" and "widgets" (I was wondering if anyone had already posted a thread about which themes were widget-friendly) and I saw a post asking for Sociable (the one with the links to the social bookmarking sites in the footer). Someone in that thread had linked to this one, saying the discussion had already started, so I cam here. And was very appaled at what I saw.

   It didn't take me "valuable blogging time and effort" - it was just a few clicks away.

   I didn't notice the dates, but I did notice the behaviour. And it's happened before - as an example, pointing out that WP blogs don't print correctly and asking why wasn't this already built in got the same curt "Get your own website" response. I mentioned it in feedback, but got no response.

   This is just another example of rudeness, and complete condescension. There was really no reason for that post.

9. wank
   Member
   Jun 12, 2006, 3:03 PM

   The point is: wordpress.com doesn't have plugins. Yes, there's Akismet, but since we can't turn it on or off it's not really a plugin here. The fact that wordpress doesn't have plugins is covered in the FAQ, so I can see why moderators get a little annoyed when people start asking for them.

   Maybe when paid services come in, plugins will be made available. However, now that Automattic has taken VC funding, introducing paid services is no longer a priority and wordpress.com remains what it was at the outset: a free, basic blogging tool with little in the way of customisation or extras. Most forum helpers wouldn't dream of hosting here exclusively -- it's far too limited -- which makes it hard for us to understand why people who want more features can't just go and get them. If you think this is bad you should try wp.org -- if you ask for more features over there you get told to code them yourself. It's just the wordpress way. They've never been any good at PR, you get used to it.

   And yes, it's true that blogs won't print properly. This is not technically difficult to solve (just add a print-friendly stylesheet and link to it from every theme) but not enough people complain about it to make it worth the developers' time. When you're blogging for free on someone else's server you're pretty much at the mercy of their set of priorities. It's the price you pay for... well, not having a price to pay ;)

10. timethief
    Member
    Jun 12, 2006, 3:17 PM

    educateddeviate - My response to you was in no way meant to offend you. In fact it was intended to do the opposite. It was meant to (1) acknowledge your feelings of unhappiness and (2) to help you by letting you know whom to direct your request to (staff through feedback).

    As I had already expressed my opinion 12 days earlier I did not take the opportunity when addressing your apparent needs (to have your feelings acknowledged) and (to be directed to someone who could help you)to state them again.

    I repeat I had no intention of offending you. May I suggest that we just let this matter rest now that you know where to direct your requests to?

11. drmike
    Member
    Jun 12, 2006, 9:36 PM

    Educate, maybe you need to educate yourself. Your post clearly shows that you did not read my response where I went point by point explaining why the ideas presented as being "needed by everybody" were 1) not necessary and 2) would probably make a worse environment around here. Instead you just made your own assumtions about those here.

    My "job" here is to moderate these forums. GPrime's post was uncalled for and showed a lack on knowledge of what goes on around here. I found his or her demand (and yes, I saw it as a demand) was very out of line. I'm sorry if you think that it was rude but I've got to admit that I thought it was one of the most unthoughtout and rather tasteless posts I've seen around here.

    Especially since he or she posted it within less than a couple of hours from getting his or her account.

    Maybe you need to take a look around these forums and see what goes on around here. Yes, we direct people to get their own blogs. Why? Because if they need the features that they are requesting, then they need to be somewhere else. If you don't understand that concept nor the one that we're not running the standard WordPress (which you've seemed to show in your previous posts), then I'm sorry but I'm not going to beat you over the head with it.

    What do you want me to do? Start lying to people? I've sent people in these forums to other platforms in the past. Why? Because I'll go ahead and explain to them why they shouldn't be here if what they're trying to do isn't supported here.

    Please remember I have over 300 WP installs on my servers. I also have over a thousand phpBB forums, about 700 phpNuke and PostNuke sites, a couple dozen Back-End sites, some Typo3s (yuck!), vBulliten, Invision, Movable Type, some Perl sites, etc. I can judge what will fit a client and I have no problem with tell people such. Why? Because I'm not going to stick them with something that doesn't work or won't do what they want.

12. cyberzeroun
    Member
    Jun 12, 2006, 10:19 PM

    Kind of executive summary :

    200 000 blogs here ... Avoiding IMPACTS, by implementing anything, is a big challenge.

    Free WordPress hosting is surprisingly stable, probably by avoiding «clutter» that could jeopardize the environment. Open page on some others spaces I will not name (...) and see...

    No one should «request», but «suggest»... particularly on a free ride! And what is the definition of essential ?

13. drmike
    Member
    Jun 12, 2006, 11:17 PM

    And what is the definition of essential ?

    What your mother in law tells you. :)

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