Yeah, I know, there’s a bunch of you using WordPress.com as your platform for free blogging. Whereas I always preferred it over Blogger if someone had to have a free blog, now I’m not so sure anymore.
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The comment system used to look exactly like the one we employ, for the most part, on WordPress software oriented blogs. The issue was that we had to subscribe to comments by responding to that immediate email we received after each and every post if we wanted to know that someone had gotten back to us. Since I’m not a subscribing kind of guy, especially not every single time, I wasn’t doing it.
Then within the last few months, WordPress.com changed up some things. One, they changed the look, which wasn’t so bad since it kept everything we were used to. But two, they also changed the ability to just leave a comment and go on with your life.
I just had it happen to me again; tried to leave a comment on a WordPress.com blog only to run into this:
Please log in to post your comment.
mi***@tt******************.com
belongs to an account you are not currently logged into.
WordPress.com or Gravatar.com credentials work.
For the first time last week, I noticed the Gravatar connection and wondered about it. So I did some checking and realized that WordPress.com had purchased Gravatar back in 2008; nope, never knew that before. They had never connected the two services, and other than a press release there was no notification on the Gravatar site, so it wasn’t something commonly known to a lot of people, since I’d never seen anyone else write about it.
So I decided to try a different email address; nope, not happening. It seems that if I have a Gravatar account hooked up I’m not going to be able to leave any messages on any WordPress.com sites without signing in. Frankly, I know it’s a minor thing to a lot of people, but I’ve kind of stuck by this mantra since the beginning of blog commenting way back when and I’m not suddenly changing over now.
Just to verify this by the way, I finally left a comment with an email address that doesn’t have a Gravatar, and it accepted the comment just fine. I did get the standard email saying I had to subscribe to receive comments, but that’s okay because at least I got my comment through.
This is irritating, and I don’t know if WordPress.com users can change that setting, even if they know it’s happening. Overall, it looks like it’s another blog platform that I probably won’t be commenting on all that often, and that’s unfortunate. Why are these things so keen on restricting the ability to comment? Yeah, I know, worried about spam; bah!
That’s too bad. It makes it harder for people to leave comments, although it may cut down on spam. Overall I find the practice of requiring a sign in a bit heavy handed. It was one of the reasons I held back on my commenting platform until they allowed anonymous commenting.
I didn’t know about the Gravatar/wordpress connection. I was trying to use an OpenID with that email address that I supposedly had a wordpress acct with. Maybe I had set it up when I first tried to use Askimit with my site, but other than that, the only other thing I would have used that email for would have been a gravatar. Interesting.
Most of the blogs I go to I don’t have to log into, but I guess it doesn’t bother me as much.
Thanks for sharing, Mitch!
No problem Grady. It’s just irritating to me and I know it has to bother others as well when it does happen. I don’t know OpenID at all, so I can’t comment on that.
Oh yes, I have noticed this too. One wordpress.com blogger said there was no way to turn if off but you can leave the email address blank and the comment will be accepted.
Really? I’d have thought an email address was mandatory. Now I’ll have to try that out; then again, I guess you’d really be saying you didn’t want to know if someone responded to your comments so maybe that’s not the best move.
There is a solution, because you can add more email addresses to your Gravatar account at the same time, and also you can add several gravatar pics to these emails. So if you want to comment with an other email address and gravatar, which is assigned to your wp profile, you only have to activate it in the gravatar profile settings and assign the pic you want.
I went to the Gravatar site & didn’t see that so I might have to look around.
Yes I noticed it too and wondered what to do about it. I love CommentLuv and wish they had it on WordPress.com for those blogs I want to comment on. I already have several emails and the thought of adding a new one makes me a little crazy. I haven’t tried to leave it blank as Southpaw suggested, I may try that out. Thanks!
Lisa, I’ve yet to try that either, but as I thought about it realized that you then make sure you never get return notice of anyone responding to your comment. 🙂
WordPress as self hosted CMS is much more superior compared to blogger, but talking about free blogging, Blogger offer much more flexibility and freedom. I personally don’t like WordPress.com too, just because rules change very often.
Carl, I’ve never seen Blogger from the inside, but WordPress.com blogs are just like the WordPress platform as far as writing goes so I’m comfortable with that. Blogger doesn’t offer any options, as far as I’ve seen, to turn off mandatory signing in for comments so you can get responses like WordPress.com used to offer; not sure where they are now, but I do know the new system for commenting stinks.
Quite the opposite, there are no limits for commenting, you just need to change the option in blog settings at blogger, even comments can be do follow, as well there are many plugins and many 3rd party plugins can be used too.
As I said Carl, you might need to write that post because I’ve mentioned it to a lot of people and all of them say they have no idea how to change things around.
Actually, I did this partially as a reply to question in my forum, it started like reply, but it end up as step by step guide, but I guess you are right. Many bloggers that have accounts at Blogger don’t know about those options, the only downside of Blogger is that there are no categories, however posts can be categorized with a small trick using labels.
I understand that there are a few glitches here and there that you may come across when using wordpress but I find it more superior and better than blogger. I have been using it for a quite a long time now, and I really like it.
Maybe on the writing side Allen, but on the visitor’s side, nope, don’t like it one bit.
Yes you are absolutely true now a days the WordPress is not giving much privilege to the bloggers. Sometimes it bans the blog without informing to the moderator which is really frustrating. Thanks for sharing this post at least people will realise that WP is no longer effective.
Katherine, that’s always been the possibility with any free hosted blogs. Terms of service rules can be hard to understand, but many people know the rules and still mess up. That’s why self hosting is always the way to go.
oh I didn’t know about this! I’ve only ever used WordPress and Gravatar so I’ve never really had this problem, but that stinks for anyone who doesn’t use it. Is Blogger really a better platform? I’ll have to check it out. Hope you can figure it out!
Truthfully Paul, I don’t think it’s a better platform. It might be easier; that one I couldn’t tell you because I’ve never written on Blogger. But I love the WordPress software, so I will never change.
Have you tried emailing WordPress and/or Gravatar for help to see if they have any tricks for you? Or even if they’ll listen to your complaint and maybe reconsider their policy… I don’t know what else you could do… hrm :/
I would also choose WordPress over Blogger anytime. I used both of them and I simply find WP a bit easier.
Great insight Mitch! What I usually do? I just visit websites that looks more professional and skip some that can’t function well… Thanks for sharing!
John
Thanks Jon. I do skip a lot of sites that make me jump through hoops, but some of my friends use these other platforms so I give it up for them from time to time. Otherwise, I figure I’ll find what I need and like elsewhere.