There's no reason I should still be posting about wordpress.com. I guess I'm just annoyed that I ever thought it was a good place to blog/journal/post. The exclusion of anyone who's not a child or a christian has reached a fever pitch. They've just released the following guidelines1:
- No inappropriate titles. Do we suppose this means that if you're posting about the really hot sex you had last night, you should make sure the title is "fluffy kittens for everyone"?
- No profanity or nudity. This means that my cuss-like-a-sailor-because-it-makes-people-respond-not-just-think-about-it tactic is definitely outlawed. I hate to think what it means for ICHC.
- No extraneous categories. I'm sure my 2.0 category was causing serious consternation. let alone "cult-of-matt". In fact, only the officially sanctioned categories are allowed. Anything else and you'll be relegated to the dustbin, because then you won't drive traffic to our ad-laden tag pages.
- And really, you should only post to one category at a time. nevermind that wordpress.com categories can't be used as categories, since the links lead out of your blog2. if you use categories as tags (meta information), you're definately going to be banned
Basically, if you're not an aspiring member of the web 2.0 a-list-aspiring echo chamber, you're not welcome on wordpress.com. fantastic. glad i left. now I'm off to find the 11 most relevant tags for this post.
- taken to their logical extreme, with commentary
- do I really need to explain what a horrific user experience it is to click on someone's category in post meta and find no posts at all?
10 Comments
No posting in multiple categories? I will be banned on get go if I were on it. Wonder how that makes a good business model.
because single-category posts do much better at collecting revenue from targetted ads, i’m sure. how it encourages users, i have yet to figure out. maybe they figure they’ve already got enough users.
as usual, wank has much better written commentary.
You know, I run a WPMU installation, and the amount of work they’ve done to wp.com to do that is… scary actually. And rather useless in the end, like you said.
They seem to cater far too much to a small handful, and ignore a lot from the community, which is really sad.
I need chocolate now.
Every now and again I wonder if our persistent anti com commentary is over the top. Not now. This is really spooky.
@andrea-
absolutely. and as a commenter points out, serving the few is exactly the last thing they should be doing. but given the work they’ve put into it, I’m sure they’ll keep it up until they meet their ROI.
@root-
i do to. lloyd’s comment about “using the tool you think is best” is part of the reason i’ve been commenting less on wp dot com. but this is just to absurd to let slide.
The biggest problem I’ve had with wordpress.com after blogging there for so long is that it completely cuts out what’s easily the two absolutely strongest features of wordpress:
- plug-n-play themes
- plug-n-play plugins
Complete pain in the but most of the time.
I know, here’s an idea for those having to deal with one category per post, make a new category each time you post something along this:
“New WordPress Theme Redux with Google Adsense Widgets and 3 Columns by hso”
That’s one category right?
works for me! hell, since the category links lead to the tag pages instead of your own blog, at least NWPTRwGAWa3CbHSO would guarantee you wouldn’t have anyone else cluttering up your tags!
Over the top, yes, you are. There is nothing logical about your extremes. You went right off into terra incognita. Please come back to reality.
You totally missed the word “gratuitous” which means “not called for by the circumstances” and implies that reasonable amounts of nudity and profanity are acceptable. Please use a dictionary.
To say that we designed the departments for increased ad revenue is way off the mark and totally irresponsible. We don’t even put ads on pages reached via the front page. Please do your research.
One category per post? Pure hyperbole. I never said anything of the sort. Please stop reporting lies.
And the “censorship” tag? You have no idea what censorship is. Again, use a dictionary. Those guidelines are not preventing anybody from publishing. You aren’t required to publish unwelcome links or commentary on your blog. If I publish a “Featured Blogs” list, don’t expect me to publish what I consider unwelcome. Please curb your overgrown sense of entitlement.
The hot sex you had last night has no place being featured in any list I publish. Please stop acting so dignified.
When it comes down to cases, the News Departments are causing more and smaller blogs to get featured, not some conspiratorial A-list. Please quit provoking hostility.
I’ve seen you ride the soapbox before but this is just too much. Please make good on the oath in this post’s title.
And FFS, chill out!
“And this isn’t my nose. It’s a false one.”—Witch
A large part of my “logical extremes” is based on the chilling effect. “Gratuitous” is not a definable quality in a post. Similar to US indecency laws, it would not be possible to know whether your nudity or profanity were gratuitous until you’ve crossed the line. Except you don’t have any notification mechanism in place, so users won’t even know then.
I’ll have to take your word on this one. Although Matt having said that you guys don’t check the ad serving that happens on wp.com, does leave your assertion a bit suspect.
No, you didn’t. But you said 10 was a lot. which sounds like something under 5 is what you’d consider acceptable. again, with only an idea of what’s not acceptable, anyone who’s concerned with getting on the front page will be using less and less categories. My point here is just that 10 is not a lot.
There are no sidewalks on the internet. Free speech does not apply here. There are no laws protecting it because the entirety of the the thing is held up by private owners. Unless private owners are accountable to their user’s sense of freedom, the internet will never be about the free flow of information, only the free flow of advertising revenue. (Ok, that’s a bit disingenuous, I’m not one of your users.)
And yes, erotic stories might be another extreme. Perhaps a better one would be a post about the g-shot. Important, valid sex information, not on wp.com, but you’ve scared of many of the people who write that kind of stuff (good vibrations, sex in the public square). I refuse to accept that every discussion of sexual information is lurid and gratuitous. Again, explain where the side of your line is.
Indeed, featuring more blogs does seem good. One of the things I liked about wp.com when I first started using it was that top- and recent- posts were much more attainable than the “things posted in the last .001 seconds” list they had on blogger. There is hope for this thing, but it needs more tweaking and less telling people how to post.
I’m really hoping it will be. Well, ok, no. I’m only reading the wp.com blog these days to see when the sandbox will be updated. When that happens, I will post about the hosted versions of my entries for the SDC. that will probably include a link to your post on the subject
3 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
11 Aug 2007 at 8:04 pm
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13 Aug 2007 at 5:44 pm
JAWW (beta)
Comments on Global Tags Are Mess…
what I am actually concern
with is the fact that GT in
its current implementation
breaks WP.com’s blogs
navigation (and therefore
usability) even more than it
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around GT is actually just
on the modest line located
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15 May 2008 at 3:38 pm
Quod Licet Iovi? « JAWW (beta)
[...] notice the links right above and below the link in question: Adam was the first who noticed this horrific user experience. Also of note: this blank (well, except the AdSense and partner’s affiliated links) [...]
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