WordPress Reader: So This Is What It Has Come To?

/ Ally Bean
Screen Shot 2015-07-20 at 6.23.34 PM

Opus the Penguin reacts.

LIKE SO MANY OTHER WP BLOGGERS, for the last week or so I’ve fussed around with my Reader* account.  WordPress changed the thing and now it’s pretty whacked.

I’ve blogged hither and yon forever, so while I understand why people are upset about the change to Reader, I’ve shrugged it off. There are other ways to follow blogs.

For instance, now I’m using feedly.com to keep track of everyone until WordPress gets this latest kerfuffle under control.

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Bill the Cat opines.

BUT GETTING TO MY POINT HERE, as the above screen shot shows you, what I’ve found to be curious + hilarious about my current Reader account is that it tells me that I’m now following -11 blogs.

This, I’m sure, is a first for me.

Apparently Reader has taken it upon itself to carry out peremptory measures to make sure that I will not read the next 11 blogs that I think that I want to follow here in WordPress.

I’m becoming concerned about Reader.  It’s getting uppity.

Truthfully, I have to wonder if when the computers rise up and take over the world, we’ll all look back on this moment and realize that Reader was a leader in the revolution against the human race.

Be forewarned, people.  😉

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*  For those of you outside of the WP system, Reader is a way to follow WP blogs. It’s a free feature that involves minimal effort on my part to have access to a current feed of all the WP blogs that I choose to follow.  In theory, it’s useful. However, in practice… 

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{ It’s back! Images from Bloom County. More here. }

25 thoughts on “WordPress Reader: So This Is What It Has Come To?”

  1. Ha Ha Ha ! Love the old Bloom County pics! I think you’re right about computers getting together to take us down. Remember two weeks ago when the New York Stock Exchane, united Airlines and the Wall Street Journal computers all failed at the same time? Now it appears they’ve recruited Reader. How can we fight back if we communicate online? They know our conversations. Big Brother is watching.

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  2. I don’t think I ever used WP Reader. I’m considering heading back to WP this fall – I don’t think I can justify the money to host my own silly blog anymore. But reader? I admit, I’m not a big fan of feedly either. I vote for inoreader but I reckon that’s why there are so many options – something for everyone.

    Oh, and yeah, loving Bloom County being back. He’s posting it on FB which may force me to stay with FB forever. I read something about how he wants to stay away from the papers and anyone that is going to edit him. Now to bring back Calvin and Hobbes.

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    • Zazzy, I tried to use Reader, but found it lacking. So these latest changes just sent me into the arms of feedly.com. Haven’t tried inoreader, but will check it out. I’m always up for something better.

      I’m not on FB, but I can see the new Bloom County strips. I read the same thing about BB wanting to stay away from newspaper editorial control, which means, I hope, that Bloom County 2015 will be even more delightfully scathing than it was before.

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  3. OMG! That cartoon pic is hysterical! What I love is when they were doing the reading time and it was -2 minutes. I expected to have 2 minutes added to my life every time a read that blog post.

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  4. I normally go with the flow with WordPress changes, but the reader change really annoyed me. Luckily they’ve fixed some issues so we don’t get taken to white space that hides the blogger’s theme anymore. But I thought the previous reader was just fine.

    Enjoy reading your negative number blogs!

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  6. I use Bloglovin’, although the silly name bothers me. It works the way my old reader did and ease of use is my main requirement. WP blogs have become more difficult to comment on too. I used to just put in my info, but a while back, I had to set up a WP account in order to make my inane comments. Now I have to remember my log in if the computer decides to forget it!

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    • Margaret, I have a Bloglovin’ [stupid spelling of silly name] account. I stopped using it because they inundated me with emails about everything. It seemed like Bloglovin’ was all about promotions and not about connections. The system, I thought, was a mess.

      I know about the WP commenting policy. Sorry about that. It’s an impediment for those people who want to comment– and considering how difficult it is to get people commenting on a blog to begin with, I don’t like the policy. But what’s new, eh?

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  7. I was cussing all the changes to Reader as well… but I’ll give WP credit this time, it seems to have responded to what I’d imagine the obvious complaints were with the new version. I was upset that I once again had to click TWICE to get to a post rather than have it pop up with one click in a new window… an issue which was fixed within two days. Now teaser images are starting to show up again, another thing I liked about the old Reader. It’s almost like itself again…

    I didn’t read the original Bloom County (Our newspaper always paired it up away from the main comics page with Doonesbury, which was way too adult and political for my pre-teen mind to understand)… but I do remember the brief appearance of… I think the comic was called “Outland,” which seemed to start out as a completely different Breathed comic only to basically end up as a BC reboot as Opus and Bill and the other slowly got reintroduced. I enjoyed it a lot, but I haven’t read the comics page regularly in almost two decades. Or newspapers, for that matter…

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    • evilsquirrel13, I’m happy to learn that WP has fixed Reader, which imho did not need to be changed in the first place. However, I imagine that the WP motto must be something like: if something works, screw around with it until it doesn’t work– then make a big deal out of fixing it. But perhaps I’m being too cynical here.

      I enjoyed Bloom County when it was in the newspaper. I was at an age where I understood its humor and adored its characters. Always wanted a stuffed Opus but never got one. I don’t remember anything about Outland, except that it existed. I was too busy with LIFE to read it, I guess.

      But now, I’m in a calmer place and ready to get re-acquainted with Opus and the gang. Hoping it’ll be as spot on as the original one.

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  9. Good grief, have been away from FB for almost two years now, but might go back just to get my Bloom County fix. LOVED that comic (and have my stuffed Opus 😉 ).

    I too pondered the necessity of changing the Reader…it was FINE before. What ever happened to “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?

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    • Satin Sheet Diva, you can follow Bloom County 2015 on FB without being on FB. I deleted my FB account years ago, but am seeing the new comics there.

      I agree with you. I was happy enough with how Reader worked. But now? We’ll see.

      [Maybe these people have nothing else to do to pass the time, so they start messing around with things, like Reader?]

      Liked by 1 person

  10. My reader is a mess. If I’m commenting here, it’s because I’m subscribed by e-mail. I can’t find anything in reader these days. It’s been that way for a while.

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    • Andra, I’ve never been enthusiastic about Reader, but I know that some bloggers swear by it– and at it lately. 😉

      I’ve never tried the e-mail feature on it, instead checking in daily. Which, like you said, was/is confusing. So I’ve left Reader… at least for a while.

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