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Hello!
I would like to start a blog that is a private travel journal. How do I make my entire blog private? I looked under settings to find privacy options as suggested under support, however, privacy settings did not exist. Any detailed help of where I need to go to make my blog private?
Thanks!
The blog I need help with is lazydaisy101.wordpress.com.
Are you the Admin of the blog in question? http://en.support.wordpress.com/user-roles/#administrator If so then all 3 privacy options do exist for you. http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/
Click this link http://lazydaisy101.wordpress.com/wp-admin/options-privacy.php
Privacy Settings
Site Visibility
__Site Visibility Allow search engines to index this site.
__Ask search engines not to index this site.Note: Neither of these options blocks access to your site — it is up to search engines to honor your request.
__I would like my site to be private, visible only to users I choose
I am also confused on the point of privacy settings ie. setting my website as private from settings in the dashboard v whenever i edit my created pages by having to switch constantly between public and private.
For the present, I wish to keep my created pages private until I am happy for them to be published to other people. The point is this. If I do not publish the pages first, then I cannot add the pages to a Menu. So I must go through the hassle of publishing, then going back in to add the page to the selected Menu, back in to edit the Page and make it Private.
Am I missing a trick? If I do not do this and make the page private, the page does not show as an option to add to the Menu.
For example, while I experiment with WordPress and work out my Menus etc, I must make all my pages from Private to Public and then back to Private.
@stonecrowe:
1) What's the point of setting your pages to private when the whole blog is private?
2) Assuming you'll turn the blog to public, what's the point of adding private pages to a menu? If you do that, visitors will get a 404 (not found) response when they click on the menu tabs.
Justpi, I am personally inexperienced in creating a website and blogging (rather than actual writing). i find wordpress.com a learning curve and the material I am creating I want to keep private until I am ready to publish it. Basically, i want to get the hang of creating a website in terms of theme, layout, menus etc.
When I am ready, then I will publish and likely to switch some (but not all) the sites to wordpress.org in conjunction with independent webhosting.
My question remains to be answered about the Privacy Settings - the one via Settings on the Dashboard and the second by the menu on the right when a page is edited. Not everybody is on Idul Fitri holiday for Ramadhan so plenty of westerners out there who can answer my question which i think is basic but I just want to know from someone with expert knowledge.
When you set a page as Private ONLY you can see it. When you set a blog as Private only people you invite to be readers can see it. There is no need to do both just to protect private pages.
The #1 mistake I see most people make when they are beginning is to fart around trying to make everything look perfect instead of just blogging.
What is not clear to me, and perhaps to others, is that the privacy settinjgs for the blog itself and for the pages are two SEPARATE things - or are they?
Yes, I am 'farting around' to use raincoaster's joyous term but I would rather do that under cover of privacy and learn how WordPress.com works than publish material which is wrong, inaccurate, unchecked.
WordPress.com offers me the option of keeping my material published or private. I choose private but when editing pages, I must keep switching between published and private in order to see layout.
If I were merely blogging, then I take on board Raincoasters comments wholeheartedly and just publish it. Nobody has yet explained why there are two separate privacy settings though.
Let me put it another way. I go into Settings and set my blog as Private (having also changed the Settings for Reading it as a website not a blog). I create Static Webpages such as Home, About Us, FAQ and What we Do plus a Main menu in Appearances and a sub-menu of other stuff. So why do I (and should I?0 have to keep making those pages private if they are ALREADY private?
I repeat an earlier comment that by making pages PRIVATE, they disappear from the options when editing the MENUS for layout and design etc, so must make them PUBLISHED first, go in and edit on the MENU, then go back in and make them PRIVATE. Why should I have to do that if the Blog was ticked as PRIVATE in the dashboard Settings?
the privacy settinjgs for the blog itself and for the pages are two SEPARATE things
Yes. There are different settings because some people prefer nuanced privacy.
If you want to keep things Private forever until you find they are perfectly formatted it's up to you, but it will negatively affect your blog, both in reader loyalty and in SEO.
Thank you for your explanation Raincoaster. 'Nuanced' is a new word to this native speaker, I had to look it up to know its meaning!
My blog will not be negatively affected because the content of the Blog has not yet been written. I distinguish here between the Blog which i see as dynamic and the web pages which are static. Again, I say I have no wish to publish until I am satisfed. It is not forever, it is only for a few weeks while I ;prepare my foundations for business banking, e-commerce, web hosting and the likely movement over to .org from .com due to the limitations which have been well explained on this Forum.
I do not see anything wrong in drafting content on wordpress.com in readiness before i also get it checked over by a website designer. I live in Indonesia and things are not as easy to set up outside of the country as you might think, though I am British. I fail to see how non-publication of non-blog material can be prejudicial to either reader loyalty or SEO, though I do take on board your point when I will publish.
In view of your comment, I do think that wordpress should provide an explanation of their own on the website distinguishing the two privacy settings. It still remains confusing to me
The two options are clear, you are making it more difficult than it is.
Private blog: One can choose to have an entire blog private. I have a test blog here, which is completely private. No one else can see anything on it. Those posts there are all open, there is no reason at all to mark the individual posts as private, since the entire blog is private. No one else can see it.
Private post: One can choose to have certain posts on an otherwise public blog, private. My blog is not private, but I do have some private posts on that blog. I mark those posts and pages as private as I create them. Some of them I later change to public, some remain private.
I hope that helps clarify it for you.
Sensuous, thank you for your reply. Gosh, I must be thick, I want to complete this learning curve.
What I understand is this. WordPress.com is essentially a blog which can be converted into a website via the Reading option on settings and can be set to Private. That I have done. I create the webpages and then also a Menu but I can only do that if the pages are set to Published not Private.
Sensuous, you say that the whole blog cannot be seen, which I would assume you mean the webpages which I create (but not yet want others to see) because it is a test/trial creation. In other words, I have the Blog set to private and it does not matter therefore if the pages are set to published or private?
I see the webpages and the blog as two separate things. The webpages are static, the blog is dynamic but neither do I want to yet publish. I can readily accept going in and having to declare my blog as Private but I just want to be sure that the webpages are not being published to others - if I forget when editing the webpages to change it from Published to Private.
Sorry if I am thrashing the point. Essentially its about privacy setting for the webpages created rather than the actual blog.
In other words, I have the Blog set to private and it does not matter therefore if the pages are set to published or private?
That is correct.
If you set the blog to Private that applies also to static pages. It only does not apply if you set each blog post to private.
Ok, so HOW do u set the BLOG to be private???? It is not an option under my settings icon
@littletngirl
I answered you here > http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/privacy-18?replies=2#post-981205
@littletngirl Privacy is the 6th item down for me under Settings between Media and Sharing. How many items do you have in your settings submenu? Do you have Admin privileges to your blog?
I am an admin on the blog but i have no submenus under the settings icon :( You mean the one along the left side of the dashboard, right?
Try this! Inserting your real blog name for yourblogname
https://yourblogname.wordpress.com/wp-admin/options-privacy.php
When I go to Settings, "Privacy" is not an option. All I see are "Sharing" and "Polls." Why is that?
Please post an active link starting with http:// to the blog in question. Also clarify if your are an Admin on the blog or not.
http://jewishgenetichealth.wordpress.com/
Yes, I am an admin. Thanks.
Hi - I have the same problem as brucelander - at http://www.skillnations.com - and yes, I am the administrator.
Thanks - I look forward to hearing the answer. Soon. I am building a website on a deadline. *sigh*
: )
Leisa
@itsleisa
We cannot help you here at WordPress.com with that site as it’s not being hosted by WordPress.com and we run on different software. This is the correct forum for your software http://wordpress.ORG/support/
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: The Differences
http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
Best wishes with your site.
@brucelander
reference link > http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/
Go here please and try again http://jewishgenetichealth.wordpress.com/wp-admin/options-privacy.php
This topic has been closed to new replies.
itsleisa