Once Again, My Annual Unsolicited Appreciation Post, Regarding WordPress
Posted on October 14, 2020 Posted by John Scalzi 10 Comments
Every year around this time I take a moment out of my day to express my unsolicited appreciation for WordPress, which, in October 2008 and after a particularly rough year keeping my site up and running due to surging traffic, helped me transfer Whatever over to their tender care (specifically via their VIP service). In the dozen years since, I can count on a single hand the number of times there have been any connection issues with the site, and in each case, they were resolved quickly enough that sometimes the only person who noticed was me. That’s good service.
These days, more than ever, I think it’s important for creatives, journalists and anyone else who wants to keep control of their own online presence to have their own website. For a dozen years WordPress has helped me to do just that. If you are looking for your own site online (or looking to revive a site you once had but let lie fallow), I can easily and enthusiastically recommend WordPress, which has all sorts of options available to fit whatever your need and/or budget. Check them out. They’re really worked for me, and I look forward to keeping the site going for another year, and beyond, with their help.
— JS
Are you going to update any of your post/site photos to show the bared-faced version of you?
Good recommendation! They are a very good provider and don’t nickel ‘n dime their customers to death.
I love WordPress as well. I self host and I’m afraid of the day I might have to deal with a traffic surge. Thankfully(?) that hasn’t happened yet. I would freak out. I also support ljb173’s bare-face photo question.
I’m cheap, so I grafted two iterations of WordPress onto my existing hosting to form two different websites. It took a little knocking around under the hood to make them go, but I sort of figured that comes with being free.
I’m using their free hosted service at this time, and am constantly baffled at why if I did want to upgrade to paid service, why everything is denominated in Yen. I see no option to change anything related to that.
A good look at the culture of WordPress is found in blogger and writer Scott Berkun’s book My Year Without Pants. He was invited to be a team leader for WordPress, with permission to write about it.
Like kbunn, I too use the free service. My blog is not important enough to pay for any upgrades.
I’m charmed at how Berkun noted that users like to see their work right away after they post—like me immediately reading my comments on this blog.
Also, Berkun is aware of how, based on WP statistics, most people will get a blog but not post, or post just once. Writer’s block for normal people—not our host—is a reality. So WP built in supports. … So friends, before you start up your nice new blog ask: Why? What will you write?
Let’s hope WordPress wins their battle with Apple over having to pay a 30% cut for their free version in the ITunes store. For the time being, they had to add a pay version in order to get restored to the ITunes store (and I think GooglePlay, but I’m not 100% positive on that).
Well… it is better than Blogger… That is for certain!
Yes, super better, as of this year, when Blogger got unbelievably worse. Their parent who used to have a verbal motto of “don’t be evil” has given in to what Lord Acton called the “tends to corrupt.” Key word: “tends.” They could have resisted the tendency of arrogance. It’s not like they were called by a siren.
Here’s a quote from the Blogger Help forum that I have on my computer stickie notes. I don’t have the author, sorry:
They don’t care…I’ve been complaining about this new interface for months, I haven’t seen one comment on here from someone saying they like the new interface…I’m shutting down my blogs…I’ve been blogging since 2007…I’m not going to blog anymore..Or at least not on BLOGGER…I’m done as of today. I had four blogs that I published nearly daily…I enjoyed writing them…With this new interface, it is very stressful…Nothing is worth all of this..They don’t care about our complaints. And I’m tired of arguing with them.
Appreciation and recommendation seconded!
I’ve been using WordPress for nearly a year—partly because of its low hosting cost and partly because of Mr. Scalzi’s recommendation the previous year—and it has been wonderful. Having my own little corner of the internet to post my writings has helped me overcome that fear of sharing your artwork with a world full of random strangers. It has also had the unexpected benefit of being a wonderful place to post information for my Dungeons and Dragons players to keep them up-to-date on our adventures!
Thanks for the recommendation, Mr. Scalzi, and thank you, WordPress.
Cheers,
Ken