Image via Wikipedia
That’s the sound of my head hitting the monitor when I saw the new ‘follow’ button which replaces the ‘subscribe’ button; and the sound I made when I went outside and bellowed at the world because WordPress can’t hear me.
I HATE it. What are WordPress thinking? And why so secret about it? It just appeared. Why not send us their usual email? Did they know we would hate it, or did the prompt, Would you rather be a leader or a follower? indicate so many followers that they thought they could get away with it, without too much fuss? Are we going to let them get away with this? We are not!
What d’we want?
A subscription button!
When d’we wan’it?
Now!
Which reminds me of the joke Spud told me:
What d’we want?
Procrastination!
When d’we wan’it?
Next week!
This is not Facebook or Twitter; this is my own, personal space to say what I like for free and with no monthly charge…erm, well, okay, it is a bit like Facebook and Twitter. But that doesn’t mean I have to like everything about it. And I don’t like that possible new subscribers will now stay away in their thousands (what? I’m an optimist) because they never hit ‘follow’ like I never hit ‘follow’, and don’t realise it’s a subscription button.
You just made my blog a flop, WordPress. Thanks for nothing.
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To shout at WordPress, go here. Thanks, Piglet in Portugal, for the tip-off.
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The Laughing Housewife 
AGREED!! Why did WordPress ‘fix’ what isn’t broken? TSK.
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No, I don’t like it either. Initially, I thought it was something in addition to the subscribe button and realized it was a replacement. This is Blogger style stuff, not what I’d think WordPress would do.
Well, I’ll shout about it. Thanks for the link.
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I’ve had my shout. Thank you Tilly for the link. How do you find these things?
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Piglet in Portugal showed me the way.
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Good rant, Tilly (and PiP)!
I read through the forum comments and it appears that people are rather unanimous about NOT liking the new button. I put links to the thread on the WP Daily Post since it appears that no one is “moderating” the discussion on behalf of WP.
It will be interesting to see what happens as the result of the outcry . . .
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It didn’t take long for them to fix it, did it?
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hmmm. I never pay attention to such things. But, I do like my stats:
424,541 hits since November 20, 2006. (does not include my own visits to my blog)
1,622 – most hits ever (March 11, 2011 – day after tsunami in Hawaii)
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Wow.
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It looks like the Twitter button doesn’t it? Most confusing.
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Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??? *bangs head against desk and reaches for another glass of wine*
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Tilly ~ You can go into your widgets and “personalize” the widget from “follow me” to something more in line with your personality.
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I didn’t have time to check and now WP have fixed it for me. Sometimes it’s good to procrastinate 🙂
Thanks Nancy.
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Sounds like WordPress has been taliing to Facebook. They just made the ‘friends of friends’ button “Public.” Apparently, you can choose how to designate each message. How tiresome.
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Tilly Bud, you just have to learn to stop beating around the bush and say what’s on your mind. How will anybody know your serious with such namby pamby remarks?
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lol! Big Al, you always brighten my day 🙂
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Oh my gosh, how annoying!!! And you’re right, they didn’t tell anyone (they knew we’d be upset). Well, Facebook just removed my Share Link button with their latest update, so I’m pissed with them too. Why break something that’s not broken?
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I tried out the Follow button. What happens is, it’s still an email that followers/subscribers get and you’ll also get an email stating the person who subscribed, as in the past.
I added this comment above my Follow button so people would know what it is exactly:
Click to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
You’ll do that in the Widget/Follow box.
Hope that helps.
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Thanks, TM 🙂
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That is a pretty heinous button image.
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Chuckles! I just realized I don’t have a follow button or do I? I better go look!
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I was a bit confused to find I was ‘following’ rather than subscribing and I hadn’t noticed my blog now had a ‘Follow Blog’ button but thanks to suggestions here, I’ve changed that to ‘Follow this blog’ – seems perfectly clear now.
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But I think you could also just put ‘Subscribe to this blog’ or whatever was there before… or, as Nancy said, you could put ‘something more in line with your personalit’ !!! 🙂
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sorry – personality.
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This too shall pass and they will correct it soon; as we all expect to see it change back to subscribe… it is annoying. 😉
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Thanks for the link Tilly and Piglet. I have added my own ‘I want my subscribe button back’ comment.
I don’t like it all.
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I noticed this, and thought it was some stupid mistake I had made – as usual! Thanks for the link to the comment board. I have duly added my two cents! Why weren’t we given an option? Stupid WP!
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So I tried something today and it may have done the trick. I went to Appearance, Widgets. When I expanded this “changed without my knowledge” widget, I unchecked the box “show number of subscribers” (it didn’t show it anyway!). By doing that, I removed my Follow/Following box and I’m now back to a blank box where people enter their email address.
Try it out!
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WordPress really underestimated our strength of feeling, didn’t they?
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See what happens when I go on holiday? Hurrumph! (I was guided her by Nancy when I saw what had happened with the number of subscribers being shown on my page)
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So it’s your fault?
And why aren’t you catching up with all the posts I wrote while you were away?
And you call yourself a follower…
😀
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