Tag Archives: Wordpress

Webstuff

Its a long way back – Part 2

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So, I had a site up and running, I entered my first post, and then had a look around to see what was new. I had installed an older version of WordPress, and a new version was on offer – 4.9.8, and it could be downloaded and installed automatically. Well, that I had to try, and sure enough, it worked fine. So now I had to come to terms with the changes in the new version – some of them quite surprising, I don’t find anywhere to log in, for example.

In addition to that, there is a new editor being touted – Gutenberg, they call it. I decided to give that a try, (the last post was written with that), and hurriedly went back to the old system. When I looked at the result of Gutenberg, I was rather disappointed. Every block has a label round it defining its start and finish. We don’t need the labels – we can see if a piece of text is a paragraph or not, the same as we can see if a picture is a picture. A lot of extra work to learn a new system that doesn’t make life easier than before, and bloated files as a result.

Gutenberg? – No thank you!

I had downloaded Gutenberg as an optional editor, but after deciding not to use it, and downloading the standard editor as an option, Gutenberg was no longer to be found!

Back to the saga. I was really unhappy about the password for MySql, and tried to change it. There seemed to be a way of doing it via WordPress itself, but unfortunately the communication failed because of a setup problem. I haven’t found what that is yet. In the meantime, I found another way of changing the password directly via the PHP control for MySql. Although that appeared to work for a short time, it wasn’t long before I could no longer access the site at all.

If I couldn’t access it, why did I need it? Obviously I didn’t, so I decided to delete it and start again. This involved removing one database from MySql, and making another new one available for a new installation. Apart from a hiccup where I forgot to update the database name in wp-config.php, everything went smoothly. It is called the “5-minute Installation, but in fact takes far less time than that with an empty site to load.

Its taken about a year and a half, but I am now back to the state that I was in early last year. I have my site at home for experimental work, and can refine any posts I want to put on my blog before they actually go anywhere.

Welcome back, WordPress

Webstuff

The “Follower” problem.

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For those of you running a straight blog, with no fancy technical additions, there will actually be no problem visible, for the simple reason that you don’t have one.

If, however, you have had the temerity to aspire to the next Geek level, and have added your Twitter feed to your WordPress blog, you will be seeing the same problem as I do:-

The Follower count is never updated!

What happens when the two systems are merged is that the Follower count for the blog is added to the Follower count for Twitter, and the combined count is displayed.

For Twitter users, the Follower count is quite dynamic. I am seeing increases of up to 10 per day, only to be followed by a decrease of 5 the next day, for example. You would expect the combined account to follow the same pattern, but it doesn’t:- it remains completely static as the count calculated when the two systems were merged.

The problem has been reported, and I am awaiting developments.

In the meantime, if you are absolutely desperate to display the burgeoning number of your followers, you can always disconnect Twitter, and then reconnect it – at which time your follower count will be updated to the latest status.

Webstuff

Commonsense Prevails!

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WordPress has now removed the requirement for 2-step authentication, thank goodness!

I would like to think that this is a rational decision on WordPress’ part, but I get the impression that there were a lot of unhappy bloggers apart from myself who contributed pressure to get this removed, (see previous post).

I note also that there are requests from people on how to remove 2-step authentication once it has been implemented, so I guess that there were other problems involved with it anyway.

Be that as it may, I now find I have access to both Zero to Hero and Blogging 201, which certainly gives me a problem. The application forms certainly were screwed up – I didn’t expect that both would be available. This may be due to the fact that response to an application was not instantaneous as we now expect from email.

While I am on this subject, I would like to give you my philosophy on sharing personal information on the Internet:-

DON”T!

 

If someone wants your email address before they let you access a free download, walk away from it. They are collecting email addresses for their own purposes, which usually involve money for them, and annoyance for you.

If someone asks for your mobile phone number, this will be tied into your personal profile, (yes, of course there is one), it enables others to follow what you are doing more easily, and increases the value of data they can sell on.

If someone asks for details of your credit card, and wants direct access to your bank account, you are putting your life in their hands – and you don’t even know who they are!

What are you going to do if you have an account with Paypal, for example, and Paypal gets hacked, and all its customers’ data stolen?

Its down to you to save yourself before your account is drained by persons unknown!

From experience I can say that there are more sharks on land than there are in the sea.

Don’t get bitten – it could be fatal!

Webstuff

WordPress Privacy Invasion

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I take invasion of privacy very seriously indeed, and use all available measures to prevent it happening to me.

Sometimes this means sacrifice on my part, for if I refuse to impart a piece of personal information to some request from an Internet entity, I may well be excluded from certain functions. So be it. I can live without them!

Furthermore, with a little ingenuity, there are usually workarounds that enable me to do most of what I want, and how I want it, instead of having to acquiesce to demands that are just not reasonable.

Imagine my surprise when I found that I was having problems of this nature with WordPress!

I had signed up for the Zero to Hero challenge, (which was actually a mistake, as I wanted the other one, but there was a cock-up with their forms), and patiently waited for information to arrive in my In-box.

It got there soon enough, and I immediately set to work. A section of WordPress.com has been set aside for this purpose, and can be accessed at 101april2014.wordpress.com.

However, what they didn’t tell me at the start was that to access this section, I needed to enable 2-step Authentication. If I had known that at the outset, I would not have bothered to register for the challenge.

IMPASSE

I absolutely refuse to give my telephone number out to people on the Internet.

  • That is Private.
  • That is Personal.
  • That enables Direct Access.
  • That is nobody else’s business unless I decide otherwise!

2-step Authentication, assuming that it is at all necessary, (and I am by no means convinced of this), can be done perfectly well using an alternate email address. Other people use that system, and it is one that I am willing to sign up for, albeit grudgingly.

I looked for somewhere to complain about the problem, but WordPress has this well-covered. Forums, comments,(when open), yes – but an email address to send a complaint to?

Not for the unwashed!

If you have paid for an account, the situation is apparently somewhat better.

Oh well, it looks as if I will remain a Zero after all!

And yes, WordPress, consider yourself reprimanded!