Need help? Check out our Support site, then


WordPress.com Forums » Support

12

no shows in topics you've tagged

  1. cyberator
    Member

    My post's ability to show in the topics that they've been tagged for is intermittent at best. Some times they do and some times I cannot find them after going through dozens of pages which really is unecessary since I only just posted them minutes prior.

    This may seem insignificant in the scheme of things but isn't that why we're all here in the first place? Othewise why waste the time?

    I have already posted this in the support forum and thus far no one has responded.

    thanks

    The blog I need help with is psychpoet.wordpress.com.

  2. robrubin
    Member

    I've had that problem too and contacted support. They claim it might have been some sort of glitch. I notice the problem more on posts in which I do cartoons and have little to not actual text. But I've seen other blogs on the pages that have the same thing and ARE in the pages.

    There are also other reasons documented as to why it may not show up such as your blog being marked as mature, or an overuse of tags, but those are less common I think.

  3. timethief
    Member

    They are posted automatically to the global tag pages in order of the original date and timestamp. If they aren't appearing do not approach Staff unless or until you have assured yourself none of these apply > global tags> missing posts
    1. The most common mistake new bloggers make is spamdexing. That is assigning an excessive combined number of categories and tags to any post. Keep the combined total of the two under 10.

    2. The second most common mistake new bloggers make is assigning unrelated categories and/or tags that the text in the post does not support.

    3. The third most common mistake new bloggers make is changing datestamps on post by editing. See my first sentence and note the software will post only under the original datestamp and timestamp. editing them will not change positioning.

    Note: I'd like to add that the flow of traffic to blogs from the global tag pages even the more popular tags page such as this one > http://en.wordpress.com/tag/poetry/ is negligible.

    P.S. See here also > wordpress.com search > missing posts

  4. timethief
    Member

    @cyerator
    These may be helpful:
    Writing and Formatting Poetry
    Promoting Your Writing or Poetry Blog (note the comments as well)

  5. cyberator
    Member

    There is only text in my posts.

    I understand about editing not changing timestamp and I wouldn't expect it too. I don't excessively tag I don't think but really I could cut them down to 3 or 4. Poems, poetry, creative writing , writing is really all I need and I tage them every time. So if it doesn't show up in "poems" then it's not because I tagged the wrong thing or didn't tag it at all.

    This is very irritating for me because I spent allot of time on the formatting on this one poem and that was one that never showed up anywhere even though tagged. Also, this is the sole reason I'm here in the first place or I could better spend time and energy elsewhere if it's going to be a random crap shoot as to whether my effort even shows where it's supposed to.

    Really, why am I here if no one sees what I do?

  6. timethief
    Member

    I don't excessively tag

    Yes you do. This is the block of tags you assigned to your most recent post./ Count them please:

    Tags: poetry, creative writing, writing, poem, poems, wisdom, insight, writer's block, envy, comparison, self esteem, individuality, self expression, patience, trust, faith, talent, frustration, worry, competition

    Regarding our frustration please note that we Volunteers are willing and even eager to provide technical assistance. We were all begineers once too and we survived frutration and learned how to blog on this software and how to be resourceful enough to use the support documentation and search utilities so we could answer our own questions as well as the quesions opthers ask. We do not provide emotional support.

    If you have feedback for Staff on the software, features, function and/or support documentation then please use the Help link on the top right hand corner of your Admin page to contact them.

    And if you would rather invest you time and energy elsewhere then please make the choice that makes you happy ASAP. Blogging at WordPress.com is a hobby and we are each in charge of our doing what it takes to make ourselves happy.

  7. timethief
    Member

    I forgot to close a blockquote tag above - sorry. :(

  8. cyberator
    Member

    TT you're always saying I'm expecting emotional support. Let me just clear that up and say No I'm Not. I don't expect it. Nor am I looking for it here. I may make some comments about how a particular thing makes me feel but it's only in the context of that's why I'm looking for an answer and that is all.

    I hope you can believe me when I say this.

    Now what I mean about excessively tagging is compared to what I've seen on other poems that are showing up. I really don't know what excessive is being new here until I find out. I have seen other poems with far more than the examply you provided and they're on the pages. Including some of mine. Right now the average is about I shows up for every four posted. That is not a good average. Nor does it make it worth my while to continue going through the effort and time to post especially if I'm carefully and maticulously taking the time to format it. No emotional support needed here just explaining my reasoning.

  9. cyberator
    Member

    now that I know about the "excessive" tagging, I can reduce it. You can't really know what to do in some situations if you never know. I don't know. I don't see how I could have known.

  10. absurdoldbird
    Member

    @cyberator A few thoughts. First off, do you have your privacy settings set to the first option 'Allow search engines to index this site' or to the second one 'ask search engines not to index this site'? If the second, then your posts won't appear in the global tag pages.

    To check on it, go to your dashboard, then scroll down til you see 'Settings'. In Settings, click on 'Privacy'.

    Next, you'd do better to use one or two categories like 'poems' or 'poetry' or even 'creative writing' and leave the tags for content of the actual poems and consider what the average person will be looking for. So, for instance, in your current poem 'au fait' you've got the following tags: poetry, creative writing, writing, poem, poems, wisdom, insight, writer's block, envy, comparison, self esteem, individuality, self expression, patience, trust, faith, talent, frustration, worry, competition

    You need to delete all the tags whose words aren't actually in the poem and leave the ones that are. Not all the words, obvously, otherwise you'll just be replicating the poem in tags, but the most important ones that give the poem its context.

    And there are too many tags. Together with categories (which are counted by the global tag pages in the same way as tags) there should be no more than ten in any one post. I know it's difficult and a pain (I find it so, too) but you're going to be your own worst enemy if you don't take this into consideration.

    What are the particular formatting problems you're having? Is it with spacing? That's a total pain, but it's not just WordPress. I had that problem with formatting poetry on at least three other bloghosts over the years. HTML (done direct or via the WYSIWYG formatting) is just not designed for poetry. But here in WordPress, the thing to remember if you want to avoid double spacing is - when you come to where you want to break the line, to just hold down the shift key when you press return. That makes it single-spacing rather than double. Do a double space by hitting the return key once.

    As for indents... there is some info in one of the links that Timethief gave, which is helpful but it takes time and I'm a bit like you and couldn't face going through it all!

    If all else fails, you can always do something entirely different, and type out the poem as you like it on your own computer, then take a screenshot of it and post the screenshot to your blog as an image file. That works quite well, and you have the advantage of preserving not only the formatting but the text colour and font, etc, that you want. If you do that, keep the image small enough not to take up a huge amount of space in your media library and so that it will load easily, but large enough to make it legible.

    Good luck and I'm sorry you're finding all this such a pain, but I do sympathise.

  11. absurdoldbird
    Member

    Sorry, I posted this as you were posting your replies to TT.

  12. timethief
    Member

    @absurdoldbird
    Understood and not to worry. :)

  13. cyberator
    Member

    @absurdoldbird

    That's a long one. I'll have to read it tonight. Thought I would say one thing though. Some are showing up but others are not. So If I had a setting set a certain way shouldn't it treat all posts the same? I don't know what those terms mean though. You see, I don't know this stuff as you all do. Does that mean I should go away then? Please let me know. Looking for an answer not emotional support. Whatever that is.

  14. absurdoldbird
    Member

    @cyberator - this is a long one too, but that's just the way I explain things. So -

    If some tags are showing up, then no, it's not the privacy settings.

    No need to go away, however you should be looking in other places than the forum first or at the very least look in them as well as coming to the forum for your info and, for that, you need time which I really don't think you're allowing yourself.

    So, let me try and get you started as I think you need this basic info.

    When you don't know how to do something on WordPress, your first stop should be the Support pages:

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/

    When you're there, you have two options. You can either look at the categories on offer there and try to find your info that way, or you can enter a word or some words in the Support internal Search field and find it from the lists that will then be presented to you. Then take your time and read carefully through the info. If you can't take it in first time round, go back to it again. Or go to Google and do a search on one or two of the terms to see if anyone else has written about it. (Many of us find Google more helpful than the Forum search).

    What you probably need to know is that the forum here is mostly for technical help rather than for teaching people how to use the site. Some of us don't mind - on occasion - helping people learn to use the site, but this isn't the 'teaching centre' per se.

    Now you know where to go for info about how to blog here: the support pages.

    So, given that you can find info about stuff on the Support pages, here's a clue:

    If you go to the page for Global Tags, and look for their info on missing posts, which is here:

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/global-tags/#missing-posts

    you'll find that the Global Tags page displays the most popular tags. But if something isn't included there, you'll be able to find it this way (and I'm going to give you a link using one of your own tags):

    http://wordpress.com/tag/profound/

    Put that URL in your browser's address bar SOON and you'll see your tags. Try the same formula with your other tags, and you'll see them too.

    If you don't see them, it'll probably be because they've been replaced by other people's tags which are now newer than yours.

    And as for appearing on the Global Tags Page, you're obviously not using particularly popular tags, if they aren't appearing there. That's no fault of yours, just the way fashions for topics go amongst blog readers. And it won't be any different on another bloghost.

    The Support pages have the info you need about the basic functioning of this site. You can find this info yourself rather than having us do it for you. Come here to the forum when you don't understand something and think we can explain it to you better than the Support pages do or if you think something is going wrong (lots goes wrong on WordPress just as it does on any other internet site), but do try to learn more about the site yourself first.

    You're very welcome to ask questions here in the forum, but you do need to have more patience with both us and yourself, and you do need to learn more by yourself.

    NB: Please excuse me if there any typos or repetition in this, I'm not terribly well at the moment.

  15. cyberator
    Member

    I've just posted one with 4 tags that hasn't shown in "poems". It has shown right away in "poetry". This has happened several times now. I'm beginning to think I'm wasting my time. It is the same old harbinger that has dogged me around and well that's all I'll say before it's construed I'm soliciting emotional support. None needed. Just answers if there are any.

  16. cyberator
    Member

    I'm working my way through your posts bird and I have my settings at the first one. I suppose that's the default since I haven't the slightest Idea yet what they mean. I certainly didn't know to check them when I opened the blog.

  17. absurdoldbird
    Member

    @cyberator I just tried to find it under 'poems' and you're right, it's not there. There are posts there from 2 minutes ago and beyond, but not yours. So I'm wondering if this is a glitch. If so, you should probably contact support about it, instead.

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/

  18. cyberator
    Member

    @bird can I call you bird? on your first long one. I will eventually go through everything I've posted and eliminate all tags except for "poem,poetry,creative writing," only if that will post any poem that didn't post prior otherwise what's the point? I will just go forward with not using all those tags.

    I have found a solution to the single spacing issue. Now the spacing has to do with the arrangement of words but I've since learned the solution to that even though it's quite cumbersome thing to do but I did it the other night and it took a very long time out of my night and STILL it ended up not posting after all that effort!!

    I have just posted one with 4 tags. "poem,poetry,creative writing,writing" that's all. It has posted in poetry and not poems. This has happened several times now.

  19. cyberator
    Member

    hi bird. yes I'm not making this up. what kind of crazy person would think I'd waste all this time making this up on the forums. it's my luck following me around. it's very uncanny. I have brought it to support and they take hours to respond and then just give me a link and told me not to use more than ten tags. they're called happiness engineers you know.

    no, this is a problem and it's not with me.

  20. cyberator
    Member

    I'm just going to stop using the system until someone takes it seriously from support. I'm just wasting my time.

    thanks for all your help and support bird.

  21. timethief
    Member

    The solution to the single spacing issue is found Writing and Formatting Poetry where Staff have rpovided some good documentation for us to use.

    You can find a brief summary with relevant links in it too. > WordPress Formatting and Spacing

    P.S. On one hand, as raincoaster an I have previously stated the traffic flow from the global tags pages is negligible. On the other, every properly structured, accessible and frequently updated blog gets a significant traffic flow from Google searches.

  22. cyberator
    Member

    I've found a solution to single spacing TT. I've said that. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about something like this

    http://psychpoet.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/the-write-i-dance/

  23. cyberator
    Member

    that took allot of time to do and it never showed up in poems or poetry.

    I also got word from staff. this is what they said about the poem I just posted with only 4 tags and it still didn't show up.

    "If you mean the latest poem, you picked some very popular tags. Results on popular tag pages are randomized, otherwise (out of 31 million blogs) they'd be nothing but posts made in the last minute."

    so in other words it IS a crap shoot on WP whether you post is ever seen or not.

  24. cyberator
    Member

    I'm sorry TT. I just don't know what this means.

    P.S. On one hand, as raincoaster an I have previously stated the traffic flow from the global tags pages is negligible. On the other, every properly structured, accessible and frequently updated blog gets a significant traffic flow from Google searches.

  25. absurdoldbird
    Member

    @cyberator - a question: are you concerned about tags because you think it's going to get you a readership? If so, there are better ways of finding readers and the best one is simply to comment on other people's posts. That way other bloggers will see your gravatar (picture and public user ID) and the blog you've linked to it, and they will surf into your blog from it.

    To get readers, you need to concentrate far more on building a community of blogs you visit and having those bloggers and their readers visit you, than on tags.

    Also, when people comment, you need to reply to their comments.

    These days, blogging is far more about community than about just putting ones stuff in a blog and hoping someone will find it.

  26. absurdoldbird
    Member

    @cyberator - if you like, I can let you have links to some other poets on WordPress to get you started.

  27. cyberator
    Member

    Hi bird. Thanks for your advise. It seems that would be the only way since WP refuses to adress this issue. I have pretty much proven to them that there is a feed issue with my one blog and their response is to give me a link to supposedly help me better shop my blog around rather than address the technical issue with their site. So this one blog which is for poems cannot show up in their category as poems. I don't know how it would ever get seen then. They closed out that thread. I wonder what they do for work? I wonder what does occupy their time.

    I cut down the number of tags as has been suggested to "poem", "poetry", "creative writing", "writing". Still none of my blogs were posting in "poems". Not ever yet all were posting in "poetry" every single time.

    They sent me the link to shop my blog around and told me they have 31 million blogs and you can't expect to show up all the time. I told them I'm never showing up and I see others show up consistently every day.

    I then figure on my own to change the tag I was using from "poem" to "poems" and it worked. Now two of my three blogs are posting there every single time. Every time. Every single time. So much for the 31 million sold. None for the third blog. None. Ever.

    I said they could easily track this by noting what day I told them I changed from tagging "poem" to "poems" and then tracking every single post that was posted from two of my blogs posted every single time. Every one. Every time. None for the third which was posting with the same exact "poems" tag. I also posted a few test posts with the same content on the third blog then posted the same thing right after on another blog and the third wouldn't post it but the other did. Every single time without ever failing to do so.

    They closed the thread.

    Speaks volumes to me.

  28. timethief
    Member

    I have been here almost 6 years and raincaoster has been here a couple of months longer than I have. This IMNHO is a tempest in a teapot issue because the global tag pages have never and do not now deliver any sigificant traffic flow to blogs. No sooner than we publish others from all over the world publish too and that means our posts fall off the front page of the most popular Tags pages in no time at all. It's Google that delivers traffic to blogs. It's our commenting on other blogs that results in traffic to our blogs. It's social media and social networking sites that we invest our time and energy into that result in traffic to our blogs. IMNHO you ought to invest your time and energy where it counts.

  29. raincoaster
    Member

    Showing on the tag pages has not been consistent and guaranteed for about a year now. We just have to get used to it, unfortunately; staff aren't going to change it back to where every post shows on every tag page.

    Also, I second what TT said: Tag pages are NOT a good source of views. I got something like 900 views from Google yesterday and not one from a tag page. Since they no longer confer SEO on our blogs, they are more or less pointless. I use them only so people can navigate around my blog the way they like.

  30. absurdoldbird
    Member

    @cyberator - the proof of the pudding is in the eating (as we say here in the UK). Has having had your tags show up on the global tag page got you any comments? If not, you need to address the issue the ways I suggested.

    @timethief and raincoaster: for me, hits count for nothing wherever they come from, unless they comment. Without comments, a blog sucks. Well, to me, it does, anyway.

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.

About this Topic

Tags