Update WordPress

Posted on by under WordPress

Here is an update I’ve received after posting the same question in the Blogging101 course today. For me this is enough of an answer. I hope it is okay for you guys to. Thought I let you know:

“Hopefully, I can clarify a few things. No blogs have been shut down by wordpress.com. There are a few bloggers whose ability to like and follow other blogs has been paused, in these cases because the volume of likes/follows was quite high — in the many thousands a day. The bloggers are considering shutting down their blogs themselves, but our support team is also working internally to figure out the best way to respond to the issue of non-spam bloggers using likes and follows at a volume typically associated with spam accounts.

I’m happy to answer any questions to to clarify anything that’s unclear about this — let me know. Again, these blogs haven’t been shut down.

Please know that even in the case of terms of service violations, we just don’t shut down blogs; if there is a violation that requires changes to your access/features, you’ll be notified, and we have a whole Terms of Service Team made of more awesome Happiness Engineers to work with you on whatever the issue might be. If WordPress was founded on the principle of democratizing online publishing, and we take that really, really seriously.

As a further update, these bloggers have now had their ability to like and follow restored.

The follow feature was intended to help you read blogs that you enjoy, not as a means of promotion. When an individual blogger follows hundreds of blogs in a very short time frame, our automated systems see that behavior as that of a spam bot. Since these are bloggers, not spam bots, the features have been restored, and we’re figuring out the best, leas invasive way to deal with this going forward.”

85 thoughts on “Update WordPress”

  2. I think that response answers any concerns. I can’t imagine following more than half a dozen blogs a day. Keeping up even with the iOS app would be difficult without a good filtering strategy.

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      • Yeah, but I had to pass on that, I really am so far behind on my writing, but with the way the weather is at this time of the year, when you get a sunny day or two, for me at least, I’ve got to get out and get those pictures taken. So then everything else falls behind. And then on Monday, I’m in for a little day-surgery, so there goes some more down-time. But it still is nice when people think of you and send a nomination your way.

        Liked by 2 people

  6. Thank you! As a newbie I’m glad this happened because it shows me what the Word Press community is made of

    The fact that so many people mobilized to make this right is not only impressive, it should serve as a model
    for other online social networking communities.

    Liked by 4 people

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  10. Oh, so this affected Om and Harsh reality, two blogs that i tap into about twice a week because I like that they ruffle peoples feathers which cause them to speak up. Glad it got straightened out.

    Liked by 2 people

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  11. someone should let storytime with John know, this is good news, both OM and John are fantastic honest bloggers who didn’t deserve this, and it was awe inspiring to see the word press blogging community rally around these 2 great bloggers, maybe with all the ruckus that everyone kicked up WordPress and it’s think tank will think twice about suspending blogs or features without notice , a simple note or letter asking the blogger to explain what they are doing or why they are doing it would have probably worked a lot better than just making false assumptions .

    Liked by 3 people

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  12. A heads up would still be good … with so much thing to read a gentle reminder won’t hurt 🙂 and is there a feature that one can like posts by the thousand because I can’t believe one can do that enough to be blocked — just sayin’

    Liked by 2 people

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  15. Thank you for taking this action and for the update.
    I heard about that and saw his blog was off, but didn’t grasp what really happened.
    This answer is not saying the whole truth though and we still don’t know what the limits are in numbers.
    The best would be if both sides would come clean and objectively share what happened. There are always two sides to any story.
    Thanks momma! At least you, did the right thing. Bravo!

    Liked by 2 people

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  21. OK, something interesting in that reply from wordpress, now I am not saying that any of the blogs involved in this little drama are spammers, but look at the comment that says in these cases because the volume of likes/follows was quite high — in the many thousands a day. Many THOUSANDS per day.

    Assuming you have a life outside of wordpress, I think I would find it impossible to like/follow THOUSANDS of blog posts every day, and I am guessing that they didn’t throw this ban out there after one day but over a period of time.

    How can someone follow and like that number of blogs on a consistent basis and actually read them or getting anything out of them? I am glad the restrictions have been overturned but I am also glad that wordpress monitor this stuff. Now they just need to let us remove people from following our blogs that we don’t want following out blogs and we will be sorted.

    Liked by 3 people

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  23. Reblogged this on lindaghill and commented:
    Thanks for this. I’m actually relieved to know that WordPress realizes there was a problem in their system and rectified it … even if it means my petition meant nothing in the course of events. What my petition did do was show me what an amazingly strong community we have here. Seeing so many people pull together was encouraging and inspirational. My faith in WordPress is restored. My faith in the real people here never wavered.

    Liked by 1 person

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  24. For those who don’t know, OM is back. As for WordPress, it’s good to know they don’t just shut down blogs that they think violate the Terms of Service. The Terms of Service is quite ambiguous in parts, and I was getting nervous about my own blogs, one of which pushes that envelope with nearly every post. I don’t follow or “like” thousands of bloggers, so I guess I’m safely under the radar for now.

    Liked by 1 person

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  26. aMommasView, it’s a pleasure following your blog despite not being able to read all you write.
    Let me share one encounter I had with WP. I opened a new blog on a different topic and re-posted a long article. Instantly I got blocked. After communicating with WP officials they told me that “this long blog post looked like spam”. I asked if they could clarify their reply was that “they do not communicate such a detail as this would otherwise make it easy for spammers to know the limits”. Fair enough I thought.
    Put this experience into the like/comment issue I can well imagine that WP will NOT communicate details where they draw the line. This is to make it difficult for spammers to to always go just before reaching the threshold of being blocked.
    Just thought to share this.

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