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What you put people through just to unsubscribe from one blog

  1. inkazar
    Member

    I did not have a WP account but clicked some link to receive notifications of posts on someone else's wordpress blog. I have since decided I like scanning new posts to all the blogs I follow across all platforms in an RSS reader and do not want emails anymore.

    So at the bottom of emails that are coming in, is a link that says "Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions". Clicking that link brings me a wordpress log-in screen. BUT I DON'T HAVE AN ACCOUNT, I ONLY WANT TO STOP EMAILS FROM COMING TO ME FROM ONE BLOG.

    I tried clicking Lost Password and entering the email address to which notifications are being sent, only to be told there is no account with my email address. No sh*t, Sherlock!!

    So I decided, OK, I will temporarily create an account using the same email address to see if I can unsubscribe from notifications from this one blog i no longer wish to follow. So I skip the blogname field because I DO NOT WANT A WORDPRESS BLOG, I only want to unsub from notifications!! And I fill in a username and my email etc but I cannot get past the form unless I make up a blog name!!

    the funny part was, this blog name is not available:

    idontwantawordpressblog.wordpress.com

    LOL. Clearly I am not the first person being put through this rigamarole.

    So i make up the following blog name:
    ionlywanttounsubscribe.wordpress.com

    and the registration goes through. Now I have to find a confirmation email. Click the link. NOW AND ONLY NOW CAN I GO TO A PAGE WHERE I CAN UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THE BLOG.

    Let's review what people go through in order to unsubscribe from email notifications, when they do not want or need a wordpress.com account:

    1. Click the unsubscribe link. Notice that some sort of log-in is required.

    2. Click the Lost Password link, enter your email, and get an error saying you do not have an account.

    3. Click a Register link, create the name of a blog you do not want to use, be sure to enter the same email address at which you were receiving notifications, type in a password.

    4. Check your email until you get the verification link. Click on it.

    5. Navigate to your subscriptions page where you will see the blog you have been getting notifications from. Change the setting to Never.

    and the most important part is this one:

    6. After you unsubscribe from notifications, and post a lengthy rant to the WP forums about what this silly platform puts casual readers through in order to stop notifications from coming into their inbox, TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO CLOSE YOUR SHINY NEW WP ACCOUNT, *never* to be revisited.

    Thank you for listening. And, no, I will not be so stupid as to click "notify me of followup posts via email" on this post. Oh yes, that reminds me:

    7. NEVER EVER CLICK TO GET EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS ON ANYBODY'S WORDPRESS BLOG BECAUSE IT IS HELL TO SHUT THEM OFF AGAIN.

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

  2. inkazar
    Member

    Oh this gets even better. Isn't it illegal to not let people delete an account? You have my freakin' email FOREVER now? If it's not illegal it should be.

    Not only that I can delete the site but I can't free up the blog name for the next poor sap who has to go through all this. This is just incredible. I have friends who love using wordpress for their blogs but the WP development community sure did not think through how to be polite to casual readers of those blogs.

    Bye, WP. Enjoy permanently hosting the resources for a whole bunch of blogs and blog names that will never be used and cannot be freed up. EFFING BRILLIANT. This has eaten up an HOUR of my time today JUST TO STOP YOUR SPAM.

  3. designsimply
    Staff

    Sorry you had so much trouble with this!! We want you to be able to unsubscribe easily if you want to, so something's amiss.

    If you don't have a WordPress.com blog, you should be able to unsubscribe using the following link. You don't need a login, but you do need to enter your email to get a key to get in:
    http://subscribe.wordpress.com/

    I will also look into how the unsubscribe link at the bottom of post subscription emails is set. Sounds like there's some bug or change that's causing trouble.

  4. designsimply
    Staff

    You can delete a blog any time using the Tools → Delete Site page inside the blog. http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/delete-blog/

    We don't allow the usernames to re-used, so you can't delete the username itself, but you can edit your profile and delete or change everything else. Please also see
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/deleting-accounts/

  5. gabroy5
    Member

    I am a school teacher and have a bunch of parents asking me to remove them from the emailing list...I've wasted a few hours on trying to figure out how to remove them. It seems the manage subscriptions thing will end it for me with WordPress...I'll have to use a different service if I can`t figure this out soon.

  6. gabroy5
    Member

    I figured it out.

    The above link: http://subscribe.wordpress.com/
    works to remove the email notifications for your personnal subscriptions.

    I will explain it to my ex students' parents.

  7. timethief
    Member

    If you don't have a WordPress.com blog, you should be able to unsubscribe using the following link. You don't need a login, but you do need to enter your email to get a key to get in:
    http://subscribe.wordpress.com/

  8. inkazar
    Member

    @designsimply -- thank you for your polite response and wanting to help after i spewed my total frustration all over this page the other day.

    There is definitely a bug in the process. The link at the bottom of emails only is for "managing subscriptions" for people who have WP.com accounts ... it brings us to a log-in page, not to http://subscribe.wordpress.com. I have since deleted the notification email from which I was clicking the Edit/Manage Subscriptions link, so I cannot say what the actual URL was that the notification email provided.

    It gets worse for blog followers, for the only way to ask a question on this forum is to first create a wordpress.com account including naming a blog! Therefore i would also
    strongly suggest that WP devs either create a "Skip" option when it comes to creating a blog, for wordpress blog _readers_ who need to use the forums.

    Lastly, in case a non-wp-blogger ends up on that log-in screen in the future, why not just add this below the log-in fields:

    "Not a blogger? Just want to manage your subscriptions to other people's blogs? Click here: http://subscribe.wordpress.com"

    @ others, thanks for the responses. But I'd like to point out that the only way to have even asked a question on this forum, since the unsubscribe link in notifications is NOT http://subscribe.wordpress.com, is to go through all the rigamarole of creating a full-fledged account complete with blogname.

    Hopefully this thread might prove useful to others who find themselves in the same situation

  9. ecoleddo
    Member

    I'm having the exact same problem except I own the blog and some subcribers are complaining.
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/unsubscribing-whithout-wordpresscom-account?replies=5#post-715652

  10. whitetrashgal
    Member

    Hm. Glad I read this, Don't think I'll add the "notifications" widget to my blog. Appreciate the heads up.

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