Bend Over Bloggers, WordPress Wants Your *ss

~ Bookstooge

If you haven’t heard, WordPress now has a new set of plans for us bloggers. HERE is the actual wordpress page, which is so much propaganda. Think 1984 and getting a raise of your chocolate ration, up to 8oz (when the reality is that yesterday you got 12oz). The upshot is that there are now only 2 types of plans going forward. A free ad supported plan and a Pro plan which will cost you $180 a year. THAT IS IT.

Before this, WP had 5 levels of plans. A free plan with 3gb of space, a personal plan with 6gb of space for $48 a year, a premium plan with 13gb of space for $96 or a business plan with 200gb of space and a lot of bells and whistles for $300 and then an Ecommerce version which is basically a fully loaded store for about $550.

For the big players, this new change to Free or Pro probably won’t be a big deal. But for the free, personal and premium members, this is rape, plain and simple. I tried the personal plan last year with a domain (bookstooge.com) and it went so badly that I quit after 6 months and went back to free. However, the ads and inserted posts by WP were getting so intrusive that in January of this year I signed up for the personal plan again, but without the domain (so I stayed at bookstooge.wordpress.com). It was mainly to get the extra space and to get rid of the ads.

When I heard about this plan change, I sent off an email to WordPress’s Infamous (un)Happy Engineers. I asked what would happen to my site when the personal plan expires. I’ve quoted the pertinent part of the email.

When your Personal Plan expires, your site will switch to a free plan with free features.

1). The storage space will be 3GB instead of 6GB.
2). No ability to upload audio files.
3). No ability to add payment buttons.
4). No ability to offer premium content.
5). bookstooge.wordpress.com will be your site’s address.

All the features of a Personal Plan will stop working.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any doubts.

So, once I reach 3gb, I either cough up $180, EVERY YEAR, for a casual hobby, or I end my time at WordPress.com. Also to take notice of, the Pro plan is annual only. You can’t pay on a monthly basis.

I called it “rape” in the paragraph above, but really, it is extortion if you have the personal or premium plan. If you’ve been on the Premium plan for years and have used up 10gb of space, what happens to you when your premium plan runs out this year? You either pay through the nose or you lose. I have reached out to WordPress asking what happens if I have more in my media library than I have space for. I don’t have an answer yet but I will find out.

Another thing to note is just how badly WP botched this rollout. Many long time users woke up Friday morning with a notice that they now only had 0.5bg of space (that’s the new limit for new users who join up after today. Us old guard still get the 3gb). WP forum staff admitted this wasn’t correct, that it was a bug and that “other people” were working on getting this fixed. What kind of idiot coder affect long time users?

Stupid Code Monkey, that’s who!

If you are an existing free user who isn’t near the 3gb limit, this change by WP won’t affect you at all. But it does affect all their paying users, which is what boggles my mind. I know I am not going to be upgrading to PRO when my plan runs out. If my media library gets close to the 3gb limit and I can’t cheaply upgrade, I’ll just leave. Whether that means to another platform, to a self-hosted site (oh dear lord, I hope not. That’s a lot of work and a lot of nightmares and nothing working right, at least from what I’ve seen of other amateurs like myself) or just in general, I don’t know.

I’m going to be spending the rest of the year looking into alternatives to WordPress. Even if I stick around, WordPress has just shown me that they are predatory pimps who will shank me with no warning if they want an extra $150 out of my pockets. There is no guarantee they won’t do something like this again. In fact, this move pretty much makes it certain they WILL do something like this again in the future.

I’m done ranting.

UPDATE 1000 (GMT-5)

I received the following email response from WP about midnight:

If a site uses more than 3GB of storage space and switches to a free plan, some of its content, including photos, will be removed because it does not have enough space.

WordPress.com has changed its plans recently. I understand your concern. But you can keep using your Personal Plan as it is. The price will remain the same for existing plans.

ps,
just so this isn’t a completely hate filled post, here are 2 solutions for storage space, one of my own posts and another I found while searching for space solutions. I hope they can be helpful to you.

126 thoughts on “Bend Over Bloggers, WordPress Wants Your *ss”

      1. I’m on the personal plan now, and under 3GB so busting me down from 6 wouldn’t immediately affect me. But what about being ad-free? I take it that if I go from a paid plan to a free one then the ads come back.

        Liked by 2 people

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        1. Correct. You’d get ads again.
          Now, I’ve been in contact with Davekay, another blogger in Australia, and he’s been on the forums (he’s not banned like me) and it appears that they will be adding more options later on, but I bet they will be more expensive.
          It feels like WP is forcing a cash grab.

          Liked by 1 person

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      1. It really is. And if you read the forums, you see nothing but canned responses from the staff. Which means those people don’t know what is going on either. That is not good…

        Like

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  4. This isn’t the only thing they screwed up lately.

    I hate their new block editor. It sucks. I could have lived with that though but now they are expanding this block editor so that, on some themes that supports it, you can edit the entire site.

    What they don’t tell you is that they have silently REMOVED most of the good themes that doesn’t support this new crap INCLUDING the ones that you PAID for and which where supposed to be yours for “lifetime”.

    So if you, like me, sometimes switches between themes, once you have moved away from a theme, that you PAID for, it goes away forever.

    What the f…? That is, as far as I am concerned, a blatant disrespect for their long time users and borderline fraud.

    Just to add insult to injury the new bunch of themes that support this new crap really sucks and they are all more or less the same with some minor differences.

    Liked by 5 people

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    1. Yeah, the so-called FSE (full site editing). Bloggspot had that from 2005 onward as long as you were willing to dig into the guts of your site.

      I agree, WP has been removing stuff and then when they bring back about 1/4 of the old functionality, they praise it to skies as “improved”.

      Sorry to hear you’ve lost some themes. I don’t muck around anymore (I’m just too tired and “want things to work out of the box”) and so this type of doesn’t affect me. But I know more bloggers are like you than me in these terms.

      Do you have any suggestions for alternatives? I’m ready to move if I could find another place.

      Liked by 1 person

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  5. The good news is that my blogs should be fine both under the 3GB limit and the 10,000 visits per month limit (assuming the later applies to existing users).

    I will need a business website soon. I have zero desire to use WordPress. They have steadily gotten worse over the years.

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. The obvious question with the 10,000 visits limit is how that is counted, since WordPress stats show us “views” and “visitors” not “visits.” I poked around the forum and the answer is literally . . . they don’t know yet. Heck of a way to run a railroad.

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. Yeah, the “visits” is so vague and undefined that it is impossible to figure anything out. I use the free statcounter tool and the numbers I get from them are QUITE different from the numbers that WP calculates.

        This whole rollout has been a fiasco. Nobody knows anything and that’s not the way to keep people…

        Liked by 2 people

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    2. The issue for the free blogs is that 3gb going STAY at 3gb? Since they’ve shown they’re ready to act like this, I can totally see them saying one day that ALL free blogs now have a 0.5gb limit. I did expect a certain level of professionalism from them and this move has destroyed that.

      Yep, if you are going to pay, use somebody else. Film-Authority has been having problems on his comment section for months now and they haven’t fixed it and he’s on the business plan.

      Liked by 2 people

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  6. Inwas hoping thos was going to be an April fools joke, but sadly it was already the 1st of April. Im about 36% of my 3gb on WP but each time i review a 40K legends book it goes up by 2% I guess it’s really time i start figuring out what to do with my posts, which ones are good enough to stay on the blog and which ones aint… delete those pics and do it on a yearly basis. What money grabbing cash junkies these fucks are. Ffs

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. I thought it was a joke too, seriously. But then it became evident that it wasn’t. It is just so wrong.

      Like I wrote to you in response to your other comment, investigate dropbox or blogger/google. Since I’m already using dropbox for my big pix, I’ve already got a routine. But we shouldn’t have to deal with workarounds like this. It makes blogging “not fun” 😦

      Sadly, I tend to agree with the sentiments in your last sentence….

      Liked by 1 person

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  7. Glad other bloggers are picking up on this and calling it out. I’m not a happy camper.

    What about those of us with auto renewal? I was under the impress that as long as I don’t let my plan expire, I would automatically renew at the same cost with the same features as a legacy plan. If that’s not the case, then I, too, will need to be making plans to move.

    Liked by 5 people

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    1. I am really surprised there are not more people up in arms at the forums. I guess people aren’t paying attention?

      As for the auto-renewal, I got a reply from WP and I’m going to go update this post, so refresh this in about 10min and hopefully that will answer your questions.

      Liked by 2 people

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        1. I’ve thought about other options, but am not sure what else is close. I’ve been using blogger since ’02 or so but the social side just doesn’t work well.

          If you find some good alternatives, please be sure to post about them.

          Liked by 1 person

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          1. Will do. I’m currently looking at Dreamhost – but I’m also very comfortable with self hosting WordPress as I did it for years (and still do) before eventually settling on a WordPress.com hosted site for this main blog.

            Liked by 1 person

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            1. Ahhh, see, I’m not comfortable with self-hosting. And from the bloggers I’ve seen who have used it, and all the forum users, it seems complicated, ungainly, unsafe, never works correctly and so much work, that I stopped considering it quite a while ago.

              But if I have to, I guess it’s not too late to learn a new skill…

              Liked by 1 person

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              1. It can break if you’re doing funky things with themes and odd plug-ins, but overall, it’s not that bad. I’d suggest considering a webhost that specializes in a WordPress package and that includes support in the hosting deal – that way if something does break with your blog, you have specialized WordPress support to fall back on. Dreamhost seems to have this from what I’ve looked at.

                Liked by 1 person

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                1. Thank you.
                  With the two links, space isn’t an issue for me now, so it’s all about the ads. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how things develop.

                  I’m going to go bookmark dreamhost now so I don’t forget about it.

                  Liked by 1 person

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        1. Thanks Aywren.
          Unfortunately, I am banned from the forums. When the block editor was introduced and forced down peoples throats back in ’18 or ’19, I said some things there to the staff about their shilling of it and got banned 😀

          But I still read the forums at least every other day, most times every day. That’s how I find out about stuff like this :-/

          Liked by 1 person

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    1. What site do you use now? The Bad Driving site listed here doesn’t seem to have been updated since 2015.

      If I do find alternatives, I’ll definitely be posting about it. This is making me feel like I did with Booklikes back in ’15/’16, sigh….

      Like

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      1. Yep, haven’t updated Bad Driving in a long time, trying to be less critical these days, since I’m far from perfect, but driving sure hasn’t gotten better! This one is active and I’d appreciate you taking a look: https://theworldofoleria.wordpress.com/. There’s both the main site and a blog there, but the blog is mostly just comments on content updates.
        Also, slightly less active but maybe more amusing: https://returnofthevadhagh.wordpress.com/ – one of my campaign blogs.

        Liked by 2 people

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        1. Thanks for those links. You might want to think about updating your gravatar to show those them, as they were nowhere evident from your name.

          But I agree, driving has not gotten any better 😦

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  9. I actually got kinda scared after seeing the new plans! I’m a free user atm and I feared seeing my available space cut down to 0.5 GB. Nut luckily it seems we will still have 3gb

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Yep, at the moment, we still get the 3gb. But if you go through the forum and read the responses by the staff, almost every statement is couched in such a way that they COULD drop ALL the free sites down to 0.5gb. No guarantee that we will stay at 3gb.

      I’d contact WP and ask them out right if you will keep your 3gb forever.

      Liked by 1 person

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    1. Hey Pete,
      Yeah, I disabled the reblog button as a jerk was reblogging my stuff several years ago and that was the simplest way to deal with it.

      Thanks for the link and I hope more people are made aware of this issue. WP has dropped the ball 100% on this and like I said in another comment, I think it is part malicious greed and part utter incompetence on WP’s part 😦

      Liked by 1 person

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  11. Pingback: Free Or Paid Plan on WordPress? Read this! | beetleypete
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  13. Since I don’t have many images on my blog, I never really cared about storage. If I get close, I’ll just delete them *shrug*. I, too, did upgrade … about two years ago? maybe three and reverted back within…. a couple of hours, I believe. Just not worth it for what I do.

    I’ve noticed their recent ‘improvements’ and I knew that something like this would follow. It’s the nature of the game – they give you useless stuff, which makes them appear more appealing and then they charge you. While this change does not affect me right now, I’m sure that’s not going to last forever. One of my recent tags was censored (it disappeared after a second) but they found a workaround for me and acted like I didn’t know stuff (too many tags, or not hitting enter was their explanation. lol).

    Keep us posted on what other platforms you find. I worry there’s nothing out there at this time…

    I’ve also been trying to find a way to easily import all of my blog’s content, but it’s only available in blog reading types of files. I wish it downloaded to be viewed as a Word document…

    Liked by 5 people

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    1. I’ve been on a kick the last year to decrease my media library size, so between WP, dropbox and google, I’m all set for space. For right now. Until they change something else and won’t let us have the workarounds.

      That is what really bothers me. There was zero announcement, no staff on the forums actually has any concrete answers and yet they all talk about “other options”. That’s what the old plans had, other options. So I think we’re going to get all the old functionality back, but in bits and bobs and much more expensive.

      If I find anything out, I’ll be sure to blab about it.

      There are sites you can go to to get your blog “bookified”, but I don’t know what kind of file they produce or if they are free. you can transfer to blogspot, but that is the limit of my knowledge for this area.

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  14. I looked at the link you supplied. They said the “pro” would offer “Access high-quality support from our Happiness Engineers” Does that mean the free folks would no longer receive the hopelessly useless support that we currently “enjoy” and that only people willing to pay will be able to receive the “I don’t know, it’s probably your fault” default answers? None of this makes any sense to me. And I haven’t been notified of anything by WP.

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. I suspect that means that they will be doing away with direct chat and go to an email only system for paying customers and leave the free users still using the forums. And probably halve the amount of “staff” on the forums.

      Indeed it doesn’t make any sense, none at all! And nobody is getting notified, nor will they. Which is why we’re trying to spread the word.

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. I have never had any “direct chat” situation, only email. And that’s never helpful anyway. I get more from the forums because other users answering the questions is so much more informative than any “happiness” engineer. Honestly, I’ve seen people ask very specific questions and the answer is something like “hi! I use a computer for work!” and the answers from other users actually do the strange thing of answering the question directly. Thank you for spreading the word.

        Can I put your post on my blog so I can spread the word to my few followers too?

        Liked by 2 people

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  15. Oh man. Had no idea about this, but it’s… unbelievable. I was hoping to upgrade to personal once I started fully blogging again, but I suppose I’ll be staying in the free. *expletive of choice*

    Keep me updated on WordPress alternatives, Booky…

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. It is unbelievable, isn’t it? One of the reasons I grabbed that screen shot of the old plans is because I’m 100% sure WP will start releasing “add ons” that will do the same thing as the old plans, but be quite a bit more expensive.
      And I want to be able to check.

      If I find anything, I’ll let everyone know….

      Liked by 1 person

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    1. Yeah, this is the worst move that I’ve seen by WP since I started being active here in ’16.
      They’re not going to suddenly lose everyone, but man, new people have zero incentive to sign up and people like me now have zero incentive to stay. Time to start looking 😦

      Liked by 1 person

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        1. I’ve seen people refer to photobucket, as in, this occurrence is like what photobucket did in ’17. I went and looked it up and yeah, they (photobucket) really shot themselves in the foot. It feels like WP is doing the same.

          Google blogspot is still around and free, so blogging isn’t dead yet.

          Like

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  17. Pingback: Changes Coming to WordPress | Marla's World

  18. Well, it really is a disgusting company that used to offer nice product, and trapped a lot of people into what turned to be a shi*tty service. Now, our blog is covered for the year, as we renew each January, but we’ll have to think about the situation.

    What I now see on my account is information that I’m on a legacy plan that lasts through January 23 2023. The new plans are not there yet, I see Premium, Business and eCommerce still available.

    I still hate the block editor, but this is even more outrageous.

    I’d be happy to leave WP, if we could preserve the contacts we have here, make sure discussions continue and notifications are reliably sent… and that I don’t know how to do, it might be impossible. We’d have to re-start on some page, most of the current followers won’t have accounts on whatever service we join…

    And now I learned that the company behind all this, Automattic, bought my favourite podcast app, it’s clearly going to suck soon as well 😦

    Liked by 5 people

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    1. From what I understand from the email I got, if you had a “legacy” plan, you can keep on renewing that plan. But if you let it lapse, then you get bounced to free and then your only choice will be the PRO. We will have to see what actually happens though. It’s obvious staff have NO idea what they’re talking about, so anything they say can’t be trusted.

      I am with you completely about leaving but being unable to. I don’t know that I’ve got the oomph to start all over, again. Blogger is looking for attractive again though!

      I’m sorry. to hear that about your podcast 😦

      Liked by 4 people

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      1. I’m researching non-WordPress.com WordPress options, as WP is just a standard, all the evil resides within Automattic… it the ecosystem of notifications and comments is the same, and automatic migration is doable, I might choose to go to another hosting company. That requires further research. If anyone has any experience with that, please share 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

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        1. I’ll be looking at dotorg options as well.
          I’ve just had enough bad experiences with people who did that (comments not working mainly) that I’m afraid it will end up like starting all over again. But what wp.com is doing is bad enough that I’m seriously considering it.

          Liked by 1 person

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  19. Pingback: WordPress without WordPress.com? – Re-enchantment Of The World

  20. I moved from blogger to WordPress about 7 months ago when they got rid of feedburner. 😫
    I’m on the personal plan and I’d been tossing up whether to go on the free plan. Now I’m tempted to move back to blogger. Thanks for posting this.

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Thanks for commenting Carol. So, you’re in a bad situation too eh? Sorry to hear that. It does sound like if you’re on a personal plan that at least for a year or two you’ll be able to renew that plan. But there’s no guarantee of just how long that will last.

      Blogger is looking viable again to me too, sadly 😦

      Liked by 1 person

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  21. Pingback: April 2022 Reading Plans | Wordaholicanonymous

  22. Lucky me! My premium plan renewed 25th March. At least it gives me some time to research my options. (Unless they change the rules again before next March. They’re almost certain to change the prices. And why are we in the UK being charged the same amount of pounds as those in the US will be charged in dollars?)

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. Yep, I’d say you lucked out! If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to eke out another year by renewing, but who knows what they’ll do to the price between then and now, right?
      And you’re seeing the same numbers in pounds eh? That could get expensive quick!

      I think WP just committed sepuku with this move….

      Liked by 1 person

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  23. I heartily agree on your point about the inept way in which this changed has been communicated. I very recently renewed my business plan $300 only to find out less than a month later that most of those benefits are covered in the new Pro plan which is significantly cheaper. Am now in the process of changing to the new Pro option and getting a part refund. Thank you for highlighting this. because without your post I would have just been paying at the higher level,

    To add to your resources about managing file size, here is a post I did on this a while ago
    https://bookertalk.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=183927&action=edit

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Ohhhh, I hadn’t even THOUGHT about the business plan people getting shafted! Thanks for bringing that to my attention. So basically, this move on WP’s part is shafting everyone in every possible way. sigh….

      Thanks for the link. I’m always on the lookout for tips like this.

      Liked by 1 person

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        2. I’ve been wondering about this myself, as it seems to me WP has been becoming more a “website builder” than a “publishing platform.” I’ve seen more and more people’s similar views here and there, seeming to confirm.

          I’m looking at moving off my legacy WP Personal plan to either Blogger or write.as so far.

          Liked by 2 people

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          2. If blogger could get a notification system up and running, I’d go back in a heartbeat. But comments are a huge part of why I blog so for right now it’s a non-starter 😦

            What is write.as?

            Liked by 1 person

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            1. I don’t expect Blogger to add features at this point, and hope Google doesn’t deprecate any more. I think Google lets it live with minimal management/overhead. It’s comment system seems to work fine but sans notifications I guess.

              write.as is new to me, haven’t used it, still checking it out. Looks like a super simple blog platform…

              https://write.as/about

              Liked by 1 person

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  25. That is indeed an awful surprise, especially if you’re a heavy-image user for your blog posts. Clearly, they aren’t making it easy for people who just want to blog. For the time being, I should be ok under the premium plan… I hope you find a solution that satisfies your needs. Hate to lose you around here.

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. We’ll see what happens. Just saw something today where somebody else contacted WP and were told that the regular plans weren’t going away for current users. That may be the case, but for how long? At some point WP is going to force people into untenable position. I’d rather prepare now…..

      Liked by 1 person

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  26. Oh man, now I am worried.
    Things were just starting to pick up on here in terms of being a book reviewing blog and ranking on Google. I’d hate to lose the WP Reader community we have here and the idea of starting over again fills me with dread,
    My Premium plan runs out in August, so we’ll just have to see what happens.
    I guess I could try going self hosted *again* but considering how crappy it was last time, I’m not enamoured with the idea.

    And trust me, WP would *suck* without you.

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. We’ll have to see if the existing plans stay active under current users. Somebody wrote another post today claiming just that, but without official word from WordPress, I have to assume the worst. WP has done nothing but force me to assume the worst 😦

      Like

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      1. Yeah, no way I can afford a higher price and the free plan doesn’t include SEO or any of that technical guffin.
        After considering other hosts & options, might have to go the self hosting route again, it was actually pretty smooth last time I tried it. Just took more time to actually do the blogging side of blogging! (Time that could be spent reading.)

        It’s just really shady tactics from WP and I think that’s worse than the fact taht they’re changing things. If they were more open and transparent about what they’re changing and offering, it wouldn’t sting so much.

        Liked by 1 person

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        1. I agree. HOW wp is doing this is what is setting off alarm bells for me. This is a BIG change and there are so many unanswered questions, it does feel VERY shady.

          I’ll probably stick with the plan I have for as long as they offer it and don’t raise the price. But I’m going to be investigating other options, albeit, slowly.

          Like

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  27. Silver lining = “The price will remain the same for existing plans”?

    Truly depressing post. Oh well, capitalism, inflation, what have you. Lets not be to harsh though. All that electricity to run serves costs money, and Mr. and Ms. WordPress need to feed their children too, not?

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. We’re going to have to wait and see what the fall out is and just what WP actually plans to do. Personally, I expect 2 years of grandfathering for existing plans and then they will force everyone into the higher plan.

      Like

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  30. Okay, so.
    I spoke/live chatted to a WP representative earlier.
    They said that current plans are being honoured to those that already have/use them and they can be renewed when/before they expire. How long for, I don’t know and don’t want to predict.
    I hope this helps clear things up?

    (I also asked them about moving domain names and self-hosting, and they tried giving me the sales spiel about the Pro Plan, which I flat out can’t afford and self-hosting is cheaper.)

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Yeah, no one I have spoken with can or will tell us how long WP will honor the existing plans. I am counting on one year and hoping for 2. We’ll see what happens :-/

      I’ll go back to blogspot before I go PRO 😦

      Like

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      1. But Blogspot is just terrible!!

        I had a quick look at it and it just doesn’t offer anything decent. The templates are trash, the SEO side of things is just cruddy and I don’t even think it has a community behind it like WP does.

        I’m not sure what the future of blogging is at this point, tbh.

        Liked by 1 person

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        1. The only thing I care about is the community side of things. And it definitely falls flat in that regards 😦 But, you can write for free without worrying about space restrictions or ads being inserted into your site.

          I agree. It feels like hobby bloggers are being pushed to extinction.

          Like

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  31. Pingback: WordPress Changes | Nan's Notebook

  32. Updates from WP:

    ”
    No traffic limits on either the Free or Pro plan. You’ll enjoy the same unlimited traffic you’ve always had.

    The new Free plan storage limit will include 1GB of Free storage, and existing Free users will keep the 3GB they already have on hand.

    Additional storage will be available for purchase at a very reasonable price, very soon.
    ”

    Good news, not?

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thanks. Aywren Sojourner just linked to a post that has the official stuff from WP. Once I’m done with catching up on notifications, I’m going to go check it out.

      It’s definitely better than before. But the fact that they didn’t announce anything, had some bugs, didn’t have ANY answer for people and THEN came out with an official statement has me worried.

      I’ll stick around for as long as I can. Then we’ll see :-/ It will depend on whether they keep offering coupons for the personal plan….

      Like

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        1. In the past, WP offered coupons (ranging from 10-50% off) for upgrading to a personal or premium plan. So instead of costing me 48, it would be between 24-36. I just wonder if they will still offer those coupons.

          That post did not show up in my feed. Good thing! Their speech is reminding me more and more of 1984….

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          2. I’d try to switch back to free, maybe if you do it now you’ll still get 3gb, and the only downside will be adds. For me, the adds are collatoral damage I’m willing to take since I know of no other service that provides the same social blogging experience. So I’d rather have WP with adds than migrating to somewhere else. I don’t see the adds that often anyhow as I don’t surf to my blog often.

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            1. Oh yeah, I’ll still have my 3gb if I switch back to free. If I didn’t, I’d leave wordpress and start all over at blogspot.
              THe social side is the reason I’ve stuck around too. The shenanigans pulled by WP have really tested that though. One more thing and I’ll seriously investigate self-hosting.

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              1. Yes, but mind that new free users will only get 1gb. So not sure you’ll get 3gb if you revert to free in a couple of days or even now.

                Could you selfhost and have the social stuff, appear in the WP reader, etc?

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                1. According to the email I got (which I think I quoted), if I revert back to the free, I’ll have the “legacy” free site. But if I do back to the free, I can’t go back to the personal plan but would have to go with the PRO one.

                  Yes. It’s called jetpack. but it’s a gigantic pain in the ass to make it work with wordpressdotcom users. I know because I’ve been on the receiving end of it not working on self-hosted sites. I’ve had enough bad experiences of trying to interact with self-hosted sites through wpdotcom that I had pretty much given up on it. my days of being interested in poking around in the guts of a website or application are done. Now I just want things to work.

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                  1. Yes you did say, sorry, forgot (a few days will do that).

                    And jetpack is free I guess. But from what you write not really an option.

                    Blogger/blogspot sucks viz. social interaction, comments etc not really handy it seems to me.

                    Do you have experience with Medium? Seems good for no hassle, text based blogging, but I don’t have an idea on its social side.

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                    3. No worries. I forget what “I” said too 😀

                      It is free and it seems to work but takes more work than I’m currently willing to deal with.

                      Yeah, blogger is not a good place to easily socialize on. You have to manually keep track of where you commented and remember to go back there.

                      I have not heard of that. I’ll have to go check it out.

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  33. I have been on the “old” premium plan and I am still reeling from this like what in the daylight extortion… Might have to consider the self-hosted route and there goes my dreams of immortality…
    Darn capitalism

    ~B

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    1. I’d see how long you can stay on the premium plan but definitely have a backup plan. I keep thinking about self-hosting but man, it sounds like a LOT of work.

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  34. Pingback: April ’22 Roundup & Ramblings – Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road
  35. Pingback: [reblog] WordPress: Starter Plan – Paying More for Less — Gaming and Geek Blog – Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road

  36. Hey all, I’m confused about all this, I’m not on any tier system, I get no ads or cr*p apart from what ads I put in a post. I run an e-commerce shop which is growing and self marketed.
    Are you guys paying WP for hosting?
    I pay £9 a month 10gb, domain, email and the who sha-bang, through a separate hosting company and that is the only costs apart from a few plugins to snaz things up. I’ve just upgraded my PHP memory recently as had a few timeouts from readers and customers.
    I’ll definitely be keeping my ear to the ground as I’ve read a similar thing across a few blogs now and haven’t heard anything myself, unless it’s because I’m hosted elsewhere

    Regards
    Bell
    AbsinthTears.com

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    1. Thanks for dropping by. As I mentioned in my previous comment, all this stuff only applies to wordpress.COM hosted sites.
      Self-hosting is one way to go if you’re ok with putting in the effort. Especially if something ever goes wrong.
      I hang out at the WP.com forums and see a LOT of dotORG users unknowingly asking their questions there so I know it’s a problematic experience for a lot of people. I’ve also interacted with quite a few self-hosters and only 2-3 out of over 10 have had a smooth experience.

      So I’m glad self-hosting is working for you. For a casual blogger who just wants to write a post a day, a week, etc, having the hosting taken care of by somebody else is what we’re looking for.

      Best of luck and hope you stay trouble free 🙂

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  37. Pingback: Bookstooge Reviews 2022 – Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road

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