Why The URL Links On Persona Paper Are Nofollow?

Did you know that all the links you add to your Persona Paper posts automatically have the rel="nofollow" attribute?

You can see this by clicking on the source code <> icon or button in the Persona Paper text post editor. For example, I'll add this link about what happens when you reply to the comments on your Persona Paper profile page here. If I click on the source code icon, I will see this:

<a href="URL link here" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a>

The rel="nofollow" is automatically inserted. You can try to remove it, but it won't make a difference. The next time you look at the source code, you'll see the nofollow tag again.

Well, some sites do this while some only add this tag to affiliate links. On my own blogs, I add rel="nofollow" to the affiliate links. But on sites I write for (like Persona Paper, HubPages, Writedge, Daily Two Cents, etc) and on my own blogs, if I interlink or link to my articles, I don't add this attribute.

I can see why Persona Paper would do this, and, I don't know, I guess I don't really mind all that much (okay, maybe just a little 😃 LOL. But, really, not all that much, I guess, since I usually interlink Persona Paper articles anyway), but what I wonder about is why Persona Paper would add rel="nofollow" even when you're linking to a post that is on this site? Isn't that odd? I mean, why nofollow links on your own site? Is there a reason for this? Just curious and confused, I suppose. What do you think?

Note: see, all the URL links here go to articles on Persona Paper, but if you check the source code, they're all nofollow anyway. Odd and strange, isn't it?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

GemstonePink wrote on February 24, 2015, 10:28 AM:
Thank you for alerting to this situation. I am very appreciative of those who help the newbies with their informative articles.

FreyaYuki replied to GemstonePink on February 25, 2015, 4:59 PM:
You're welcome 😃. Happened to notice the nofollow links and wondered why even the links on Persona Paper were nofollowed, which is odd, to say the least.

MaeLou wrote on February 24, 2015, 10:48 AM:
I'm not sure but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that when elitecodex did the programming, he didn't limit specific websites, including ours. It was just a basic nofollow for all links.

FreyaYuki replied to MaeLou on February 25, 2015, 5:01 PM:
Ah, I see. I understand why he'd want to nofollow links to external sites though I wonder why even links to Persona Paper would be nofollowed.

arthurchappell wrote on February 24, 2015, 10:50 AM:
no idea what the no-follow means - if we were to click on the link would it not still take us to that page?

FreyaYuki replied to arthurchappell on February 25, 2015, 5:04 PM:
Owlwings explained it correctly below 😃. Yes, for people, it doesn't matter even if the links are nofollow. If you click on them, you'll still be taken to the site or page where the link leads.

Feisty56 wrote on February 25, 2015, 5:30 PM:
I appreciate you bringing this to my attention and for providing a place for Owlwings and elitecodex to explain "nofollow" for a non-techie such as myself.

Feisty56 wrote on February 24, 2015, 11:26 AM:
I know I should absolutely understand what "no follow" means, but I'm coming up empty-headed here. Can you help me out?

FreyaYuki replied to Feisty56 on February 25, 2015, 5:07 PM:
Owlwings explained it correctly below 😃. Basically, it's best to add rel="nofollow" to your affiliate links and to the sources for your pics while it's best not to include this attribute or tag if you're interlinking your own articles or linking to sites that are relevant to your own content.

Owlwings wrote on February 24, 2015, 2:13 PM:
I just looked it up (to be sure I had it right).

'Nofollow' links contain an instruction to search engines not to 'follow' that link and thus add 'Google kudos' to the site specified. You have to know a little about Page Rank to understand this. In brief, Page Rank for a site is calculated based partly on the number of sites that link to it. If someone seeks to gain financially (or in other ways) by spreading links to their site over the Internet, it can be flagged by Google as 'spam' and the site linked to may be removed from the Google database. A site, such as Persona Paper, which allows the posting of links which can be 'followed' by Search engines could find itself in trouble, too, especially if they have an Adsense account. Even though many of the links here don't need to be 'nofollow', it is safer for the site if ALL links are automatically 'nofollow'. It DOESN'T stop ordinary users from clicking on the links to take them to the page: it simply tells search engines (and particularly Google) not to count those links when calculating Page Rank for those sites.

FreyaYuki replied to Owlwings on February 25, 2015, 5:12 PM:
Yup 😃. Thanks for providing the info for those who didn't know about rel="nofollow". I use it on affiliate links and pic sources on my blogs and on the other sites I write for. On some sites, you can choose if you want the link nofollowed or not.

Feisty56 replied to Owlwings on February 25, 2015, 5:29 PM:
Thanks for this down-to-earth explanation. Between you and elitecodex below, I think I have a decent understanding.

elitecodex wrote on February 24, 2015, 2:24 PM:
Actually, we do not put that attribute on links that link internally... however the links in this article for some odd reason start with a ../../ and doesn't contain the domain personapaper.com anywhere in that. So since we can't find the domain, we assume it is an external link and add that attribute.

Like Owlwings indicated, we do not want to be responsible for content on other sites and if we link to them then we have a link to those sites in the eyes of search engines. Most of the links here are perfectly fine and don't really need it, but like they said it is better safe than sorry so we just add it to all of them. Users don't even see it and doesn't prevent anyone from clicking on them. Just tells search engines "yes, we are linking to this page but do not go there because of us".

At least they SHOULD do that... can't really say what they are doing in all honesty :)

Owlwings replied to elitecodex on February 24, 2015, 4:47 PM:
The "../../" is HTML shorthand for "use the same root directory path as the current page". As the current page is at the (public) root "www.personapaper.com/" the "../../" stands for that and is interpreted as such by the browser. In fact, if you hover the mouse over the link in the article above, the 'tool-tip' or prompt at the bottom of the page shows the FULL URL because the browser has already recognised and replaced the "../../". It looks as though the script which adds the 'nofollow' attribute just parses the HTML literally. Depending on whether you have appropriate rights, you may be able to modify it to recognise "../../" as a valid pattern for an internal link (it isn't a pattern that means anything else, so it would be quite safe to do so!). On the other hand, it may be such a minor issue that it's not worth the coding and testing time :)

elitecodex replied to Owlwings on February 25, 2015, 11:13 PM:
Your right, and I was aware of that. But we do not analyze the attribute that much... we simply take it as-is and do a few simple string checks on it. It covers 99% of use cases and it sufficient for me.

I do not know why it would automatically put the ../../ in there as I have not seen it elsewhere. I have used that same icon that FreyaYuki is using and have not had that happen to me.

FreyaYuki replied to elitecodex on February 25, 2015, 5:21 PM:
Yes, I understand why you'd want to nofollow the external links to other sites but I'd wondered why you'd nofollow links to Persona Paper. I add links, including Persona Paper ones, to posts using the link icon on the text post editor. I add the full URL link address but it automatically removes the Persona Paper part of the link and adds that .../.../

elitecodex replied to FreyaYuki on February 25, 2015, 11:15 PM:
That is strange that it is adding the ../../ in there. While it is true that those characters do evaluate themselves to the right domain, the script on the server side does not validate those same rules. It simply takes the attribute at face value. So when it sees ../../article/123-my-article-here, it doesn't see the personapaper.com domain and assumes it points externally.

I am curious as to why those characters are being inserted using that icon, I had not heard of this before and not the way it should be working.

Kasman wrote on February 24, 2015, 2:26 PM:
I believe the 'nofollow' is a kind of default position for links. This is probably why PP has it included.

FreyaYuki replied to Kasman on February 25, 2015, 5:35 PM:
The default is actually just the plain regular link, which is naturally followed. You add the nofollow attribute to affiliate links and links that aren't related or relevant to your content, etc. Owlwings provided a good explanation about nofollow links and what they're for 😃. I understand why Persona Paper would add nofollow to all external links but didn't see why they'd want to do that to links to their own site.

AliCanary wrote on February 24, 2015, 4:21 PM:
So, um, sorry to be so ignorant, but what ARE "no follow" links? Are they bad?

FreyaYuki replied to AliCanary on February 25, 2015, 5:47 PM:
Owlwings provided a good explanation about this in his comment above. You should add nofollow to your affiliate links but you wouldn't want to add them to your own articles or on your blogs or site when you interlink or link to them from other sites. So, for example, if you're interlinking your related Persona Paper articles, you wouldn't want to add nofollow to these links, which was why I wondered why Persona Paper automatically did that.

AliCanary replied to FreyaYuki on February 25, 2015, 7:29 PM:
Oh, I see. Thank you and also thanks to Owlwings and elitecodex for the explanations!

crowntower wrote on February 24, 2015, 5:00 PM:
I am not a programmer genius but I don't think that is the meaning of that. I mean if you can see the target is blank... it is more on I think to have a smooth flow of program, sometimes programs has that whenever there will be an interruption in the system so views or whatever can still be counted. I think you have to see the whole flow of the program.

FreyaYuki replied to crowntower on February 25, 2015, 5:53 PM:
I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say here? The attribute target="_blank" means that the URL link will open in a new tab. This is good if you don't want your readers to leave your page/article/blog/site and go elsewhere.

For the nofollow attribute, Owlwings provided a good explanation in his comment above. Basically, you'll want to add nofollow to affiliate links but if you're linking your own articles on your blogs or the sites you write for or if you're linking internally (like linking your Persona Paper articles to your latest Persona Paper post), you wouldn't want to use nofollow.

MakeMoneyOnline wrote on February 24, 2015, 5:59 PM:
I would imagine it's to prevent spammers to use the site only for links. Sad part is that I'm one of the guys who sometimes reference some of my work and now I see it doesn't benefit me much. I never stopped to check, LOL. I don't do it solely for that reason, so it's OK. As for "Nofollowing" internal links, I really don't recommend that. It takes away the power of those links and could make the posts rank not so well as they could...

FreyaYuki replied to MakeMoneyOnline on February 25, 2015, 5:57 PM:
Yeah, I sometimes link to other sites too. Upon checking the source code, I noticed the nofollow. Oh well, I do understand why they'd do that and I don't mind all that much either. But I agree with you about nofollowing internal links, which was what I wondered about. I interlink my related Persona Paper articles and I noticed that even those links are nofollow which is odd, isn't it? I don't recommend it either and don't add this attribute to my own blogs or the other sites I write for (unless the links are affiliate, etc).

Kungfu123 wrote on February 27, 2015, 8:40 AM:
Wowww, I don't know much about this. Thanks for sharing this with us.

FreyaYuki replied to Kungfu123 on March 1, 2015, 11:53 AM:
You're welcome. I just wondered why Persona Paper would nofollow links to their own site, which is odd, though I understand why they would nofollow links to other sites.

scheng1 wrote on March 1, 2015, 3:01 AM:
I have not paid any attention until you mention about it. It is not a big issue for me, since there is no author resource box for me to put link to my blog.

FreyaYuki replied to scheng1 on March 1, 2015, 11:56 AM:
I don't mind so much either though I do sometimes add links to other sites on my articles here. I do get why Persona Paper would nofollow external links. But what I wondered about was why they'd nofllow links to their own site.

cheri wrote on March 2, 2015, 7:10 AM:
This is a good information and very relevant one. I would have never find it out if I have not read this one.

*Notes:
- Image is by FirmBee (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere

What's Wrong With The Ads On Persona Paper?

Who else has noticed these ads on Persona Paper? Those moving and bouncing ads featuring women. Who likes these ads? Why are they here? What do you think about them?

I know at least one other person has noticed these ads: crowntower and a post was written about it here. I agree about not liking these kinds of ads :-(. I don't like them either and wish they weren't being displayed here of all places.

And there were some complaining about the ads on Bubblews, but I've just been to Bubblews (briefly, just to see if there were new updates and changes. There were none, just so you know, but is that surprising?).

I've seen some of the ads there and none of them were like the ones here on Persona Paper. Even those AdBlade ads didn't seem all that offensive or bad, compared to the ones here. Sometimes, even refreshing the page doesn't get rid of the ads.

I talked about that moving Statue of Liberty ad in an earlier post and I don't exactly like that either, but I'll choose that ad over these kinds of ads any day. Come back Statue of Liberty ad. I don't really hate you. Much.

I mean, I can put up with you. Really. So, don't go. And replace these annoying ads with yourself, okay? So, what about you? What do you think about these kinds of ads?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

Prophetess wrote on March 5, 2015, 2:45 PM:
I have read several complaints about this. The world we live in is all about sэx and all things disgusting. There is a new tv show called Schitz Creek. That says it all. I hope they take away this offensive ad.

FreyaYuki replied to Prophetess on March 6, 2015, 4:11 PM:
:-( Yes, I do hope they get rid of these offensive ads. Unfortunately, I'm still seeing them occasionally. :-( Are you still seeing them as well?

erikalui wrote on March 5, 2015, 3:25 PM:
I too don't like the adult ads being shown here. It does not seem decent and should be removed.

FreyaYuki replied to erikalui on March 6, 2015, 4:13 PM:
Yes, I completely agree. Persona Paper shouldn't be a site where ads like this are displayed.

MakeMoneyOnline wrote on March 5, 2015, 3:44 PM:
This could easily be fixed. At least with Adsense, you can block certain ads from displaying on your site. It's meant more to not show your direct competitors on your site, but it can easily be applied here. Persona Paper doesn't use Adsense but some other ad service, but they probably have the same feature.

If anyone catches the ad and notes the web address where it forwards, then MaeLou or elitecodex can manually block that address. Alternatively, there's probably a filter to disallow x-rated ads. I'm not sure if I saw these ads here, but I had some "маlз oгgаn эnlargеmеnт" ads shown and I really don't like them. I know I constantly get them on StatCounter and maybe here too. Mostly, the ads with half-naked women are for weight loss and the season for that is on.

FreyaYuki replied to MakeMoneyOnline on March 6, 2015, 4:24 PM:
Yeah, I heard about the possibility of blocking AdSense ads. I see lots of forum posts about that. I do hope that Persona Paper admins block these ads. I don't like them either. It seems that many others don't as well.

j2jworkz wrote on March 5, 2015, 3:54 PM:
I think I have developed the ability to not really see the ads anymore, anywhere!

AliCanary replied to j2jworkz on March 5, 2015, 7:47 PM:
Unfortunately, if you use ad blockers, you are not giving any of us credit for viewing our posts :-(

FreyaYuki replied to j2jworkz on March 6, 2015, 4:29 PM:
I usually ignore the ads too and don't really pay much attention to them but, some ads, like those that popup, auto-play or those that are offensive and inappropriate are pretty hard to ignore since it seems like they're trying to get in your face, trying to catch your attention or something. Very annoying, to say the least.

j2jworkz replied to AliCanary on March 5, 2015, 8:43 PM:
AliCanary I don't use adblocker or any other ad blocking program and since I'm not familiar with those programs, I have no idea who the competitors are. I mean the ability to visually ignore the ads.

antoniowestley wrote on March 5, 2015, 5:21 PM:
I have not seen anything like that on here yet but I have seen that crap on cgp and I always felt any site that had that couldn't be trusted and look what happened there

FreyaYuki replied to antoniowestley on March 6, 2015, 4:45 PM:
It's good that you haven't seen these kinds of ads here yet. I wish I didn't have to see them either. I hope these ads can be removed/disabled.

bestwriter wrote on March 5, 2015, 6:29 PM:
I have one coming. You could alert Admin about it, attaching a screen shot.

FreyaYuki replied to bestwriter on March 6, 2015, 4:48 PM:
Unfortunately, I don't want my mouse anywhere near these ads. Who knows if they contain malware or viruses or something when they're accidentally clicked? They all seem very suspicious like something's not right with them. But, eh, who knows?

AliCanary wrote on March 5, 2015, 7:46 PM:
We've had problems from time to time with objectionable ads as the admins have tried different ad agencies to see what will pay best. Best thing to do is report the ads to elitecodex -- he can flag them to the agency that provides them and tell them we don't want them on the site.

FreyaYuki replied to AliCanary on March 12, 2015, 1:49 PM:
Ah, I see. Maybe they are still experimenting with the best ad agencies. I hope they can find one that doesn't play objectionable, inappropriate, spammy-looking and annoying ads.

luisga814 wrote on March 5, 2015, 9:31 PM:
Well I do not like those ads either. I just read your articles and not checking those ads. Pretending they are not there in my eyesight. But we have to think of it. Those ads, are the one paying the Persona Paper, and later on the one who will pay to us.

FreyaYuki replied to luisga814 on March 12, 2015, 1:45 PM:
I ignore them too. I don't even look at them but, sometimes, they really make it hard for you to ignore them like when the ad just auto-plays and starts moving and bouncing. I wonder if these ads pay per click or per impression and if there are people here who visit Persona Paper and interact or click on these ads?

cheri wrote on March 11, 2015, 8:52 AM:
I have grown accustomed to them but what is really annoying is the bouncing ъооъs of some women in the ads! LOL

FreyaYuki replied to cheri on March 12, 2015, 1:42 PM:
I don't think I can get used to these kinds of ads. I just don't think they fit in a site like Persona Paper. After all, aren't there some topics that we're not supposed to write about? Ugh, I've seen those ads too. Very annoying.

grandma20121 wrote on March 11, 2015, 11:54 AM:
I don't think I actually seen these ads yet so I really can't say much on it, I'll let you know after

FreyaYuki replied to grandma20121 on March 12, 2015, 1:42 PM:
Ah, it's good that you haven't seen them. They're annoying, they look spammy and they don't look nice at all.

AdGoggleKo wrote on March 13, 2015, 3:20 AM:
I am on mobile I don't see that ad you are referring to. Only ezmob ad keeps popping up on my screen but it's just fine. :)

FreyaYuki replied to AdGoggleKo on March 13, 2015, 12:28 PM:
Ah, I don't like popup ads either. Very annoying and intrusive. :-)

crowntower wrote on March 13, 2015, 5:12 AM:
I already wrote about this in the support team at persona, but they want me to send the url but I can't because if I click one of those ads it might have viruses. I hope MaeLou and the rest of the team will check on it. This is a site that рoгпograрhy is not allowed then why there are ads looking for sэx partners and with this kind of live photos.

MaeLou replied to crowntower on March 13, 2015, 11:40 AM:
We're asking for a screenshot, not a url. We cannot do anything without a screenshot.

FreyaYuki replied to crowntower on March 13, 2015, 12:29 PM:
I agree with you. I don't want to click on those ads either. You never know if they contain viruses or malware or other dangerous scripts and programs that can harm your PC. It's good that you contacted Persona Paper about this already. I hope they can do something about this soon. I'm still seeing these ads. How 'bout you?

crowntower replied to MaeLou on March 13, 2015, 11:52 AM:
Hi MaeLou that the support team told me or maybe I got confused because I did gave them two screenshots... and after a few days that certain ads add another ads that saying they were looking for a xxx partners.

I already e-mailed the support team with two attachment of screenshot... thank you.

CalmGemini wrote on March 17, 2015, 11:16 AM:
Yes, I do see the ads frequently.But you know we cannot use ad blockers.

FreyaYuki replied to CalmGemini on March 18, 2015, 10:26 AM:
I don't use an ad blocker either. The problem isn't really with all of the ads. It's just with those that come across as offensive and inappropriate. Hopefully, the admin can do something about those kinds of ads since they shouldn't be found on Persona Paper.

CalmGemini replied to FreyaYuki on March 18, 2015, 10:38 AM:
Yes, I do know advertisements are necessary. But as you said we do not have to suffer seeing such inappropriate ones. Already many members have complained about this. Hopefully some action will be taken.

*Notes:
- Image is by kaboompics (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere

Didn't Know This Was Going To Happen When Replying To Persona Paper Profile Comments

Did you know this was going to happen? Like my title says (well, it was supposed to include the question, but it’s long enough as it is, so you get that kind of title instead), I didn’t know about this at all, so I was surprised when it happened.

So, what in the world am I talking about? Well, it’s like this: I received some comments on my Persona Paper profile page. I thought that was really nice and that I should reply to those comments.

So, I copied each person’s username on the provided text box, added the & sign before their username and then typed each of my replies. I added a space between the replies.

It looked something like this:

&username1 here – my reply here
&username2 here – my reply here

I double-checked everything before hitting the submit comment button. The entire thing looked perfectly fine. It didn’t last for long though. When my comment got posted, I saw that the entire thing turned into this huge block of text as all the spaces that I put in between my replies disappeared.

Now, my entire comment looked like this:

&username1 here – my reply here &username2 here – my reply here

If I’d known that was going to happen, I would have just replied to these people separately. Oh, well. But now I wonder why the spaces disappeared? Where in the world did they go? What do you think?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

bestwriter wrote on July 29, 2014, 9:23 AM:
I do it this way. If I have received a comment on my profile. I click on that user name and that takes me to the profile. Simple.

FreyaYuki replied to bestwriter on July 30, 2014, 4:02 PM:
I guess that can work too. I just thought that replying to all the comments at once would turn out all right since we can tag the usernames so it seems better and more convenient than replying to each of them separately.

MaeLou wrote on July 29, 2014, 10:05 AM:
The profile comments have always had a little bit of issues with it. We plan to work these things through when we go to remodel the front page and profile pages. I'm not sure if elitecodex knows about the spacing on the profile comments.

FreyaYuki replied to MaeLou on July 30, 2014, 4:05 PM:
Oh, I see. Thanks for clarifying that. I guess I'll just have to reply to the comments separately, so the replies can easily be seen and they won't all look like one huge block of text.

AngelSharum wrote on July 29, 2014, 12:42 PM:
I just asked about basically the same thing when doing a poll. All the formatting for paragraphs went away.

FreyaYuki replied to AngelSharum on July 30, 2014, 4:08 PM:
Do you mean the formatting for paragraphs disappeared on your poll? Hope you were able to fix that.

AngelSharum replied to FreyaYuki on July 30, 2014, 5:10 PM:
You can't edit polls as far as I know so I couldn't fix it.

FreyaYuki replied to AngelSharum on July 31, 2014, 3:17 PM:
Oh, I see. I haven't tried making a poll yet, so I didn't know that. If it's a new poll, then maybe you can just delete it and then try again?

AngelSharum replied to FreyaYuki on July 31, 2014, 4:19 PM:
It's already old news...lol. I do hope they fix that function though.

Ruby3881 wrote on July 30, 2014, 6:16 AM:
I personally prefer to use the little reply arrows at the right of each comment. If you want to respond, just click that icon and type whatever you want the user to read. No need to tag them, because they get a notification automatically.

FreyaYuki replied to Ruby3881 on July 30, 2014, 4:10 PM:
Yes, that's what I do when I reply to comments on articles. But I didn't see an option like that for replying to profile comments. So I just typed all the replies in the comment box, added spaces to separate the usernames and the replies and then submitted the comment.

But I didn't know that the spaces were going to disappear so the entire comment just looked like one huge block of text. Now, I'll just reply to the profile comments separately.

Ruby3881 replied to FreyaYuki on July 31, 2014, 4:49 PM:
Sorry, I misread! I've always tried to reply to profile comments by going to the other person's profile. That makes it necessary to reply to each comment individually :)

FreyaYuki replied to Ruby3881 on August 1, 2014, 3:46 PM:
Okay, now that's what I'll be doing too when I get new profile comments. I guess it is better to reply on the person's profile page so they will surely see the comment :) .

Bensen32 wrote on July 31, 2014, 7:49 AM:
Yes, this same thing has happened to me many times and I'm not sure how to fix it so I have started to reply to each person one at a time.

FreyaYuki replied to Bensen32 on August 1, 2014, 4:03 PM:
That's what I'll be doing from now on when I get new profile comments. I was surprised since I wasn't expecting that to happen when I put all the replies in one single comment. I put all the proper spaces so I didn't think the formatting would disappear after you submit your comment.

*Notes:
- Image is by GraphBerry (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- This was previously published elsewhere

Why You Automatically Like Your Newly-Submitted Persona Paper Articles?

Has anyone else noticed this? Is this really how it works? I don’t really mind, I guess, maybe; I was just surprised since I'm not one to do this.

Okay, what in the world am I talking about? Right, yeah, let’s start from the beginning then. After I submit articles on the Persona Paper site, I noticed that there’s a blue check mark on the upper right side of the article.

When I hover my mouse on this check mark, it tells me that I’ve already liked this post. I don’t remember liking the post in question (oh, who am I kidding? Of course, I didn’t click on the like button), so the system must have automatically liked it for me.

It was surprising since I don’t use the like button on my articles . But, of course, I like those articles; I wrote them, didn’t I? I’m just not the type to click on the like button on my own articles since, well, shouldn’t that be left to the readers? Anyway, I guess I prefer to comment than to like.

Well, like I said, I don’t mind the automatic like since it’s our own article. It would be troublesome if this happened in other articles since, what if you didn’t mean to click the like button on that article, right?

Or if the article gets automatically liked before you even get the chance to read it. But I do wonder why this is the case. What do you think?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

Bensen32 wrote on July 27, 2014, 12:34 PM:
I have not noticed this to be honest, I will have to watch for that next time I write one. Maybe that is to prevent us from liking our own articles?

FreyaYuki replied to Bensen32 on July 27, 2014, 3:01 PM:
I think you're right; this probably happens to prevent people from liking their own posts. After submitting my latest article, I just noticed that, while the blue check mark does appear and it does say that we liked our post already, the like count actually stayed zero. So we didn't really like our post at all.

LoudMan wrote on July 27, 2014, 12:40 PM:
I've noticed it too and I'm guessing Bensen32 has it right. Of course, I don't know. Thanks for your entry.

FreyaYuki replied to LoudMan on July 27, 2014, 2:59 PM:
You're welcome. And, yeah, I think so too. Apparently, the blue check mark doesn't register your supposed like as a like. I just noticed this when I submitted my latest article. I saw the blue check mark, but the like count remained zero so I guess this is to stop people from liking their own posts, which is how it should be.

elitecodex wrote on July 27, 2014, 3:17 PM:
Yep you guys got it right. There are two states for the liking of an article... either you can like it (you see the button) or you can't like it (you see the blue check). Since you can't like your own articles you get the blue check by default. Although that is misleading, that's the reason. I should make it to where that isn't even visible if it is your own article.

Bensen32 replied to elitecodex on July 27, 2014, 4:24 PM:
Yay, I got it right :). It's okay cause sometimes I'm not to sure I like my articles anyways :) I just hope others do

FreyaYuki replied to elitecodex on July 28, 2014, 11:37 AM:
Thanks for clarifying that. I don't mind not being able to like our own articles since I don't do that anyway. Yeah, at first, when I saw the blue check mark, I thought the system automatically liked our own article for us.

But when I submitted my latest article, I realized that wasn't the case at all as the blue check mark was there, but the like count remained zero. It is a good idea to make that check mark invisible.

midastouch wrote on July 27, 2014, 5:52 PM:
that is a very good observation
it goes to show that you are following up
keep seeing between the marks!!!!

FreyaYuki replied to midastouch on July 28, 2014, 11:41 AM:
Thanks. I'm new here, so I'm still learning a lot about Persona Paper as I explore the site, notice its different features, and ask questions about how things work here.

*Notes:
- Image is by pixelbuddha (CC:BY) from Wikimedia Commons
- This was previously published elsewhere

Are You An Elite Liker On Persona Paper?

What makes an elite liker? How can you be classified as an elite liker? Do you think that most, if not all, the people here are actually elite likers?

I think so, or, at least, that’s the impression that I get. Why? It’s because I hardly see any likes on the articles here on Persona Paper.

Maybe it’s largely due to the fact that no one gets paid for likes and you don’t even know who liked your articles, but I’d also like to think that it’s because the members here are more selective of what they like and that no one here just blindly or randomly clicks on the like button.

What about me, you ask? Well, if you must know, I definitely prefer to comment than to like. In fact, I comment much more than I like. Maybe it’s just me, but, to me, the like button isn’t something to just be blindly clicked on or pressed.

If I click the like button on something then, to me, it really means that I like the article enough to click the like button. I guess I just have higher standards when it comes to liking articles. What about you?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

SLGarcia wrote on July 31, 2014, 3:30 PM:
I generally read the articles that interest me. If I like it but have nothing to say, I will hit the like button. If I comment on an article I also hit the like button (unless I forget to).

MegL replied to SLGarcia on July 31, 2014, 5:07 PM:
Me too. That was why I asked for a "like" button to be placed at the BOTTOM of the article, so I could like it AFTER reading and wouldn't forget to return to the top. But there didn't seem to be much interest in it.

FreyaYuki replied to SLGarcia on August 1, 2014, 3:16 PM:
I also usually only read articles that interest me. I generally usually leave a comment on the articles that I read. If it's an article about something that interests me or that I find interesting, it's easy enough to think of a relevant comment to post.

LoudMan wrote on July 31, 2014, 4:31 PM:
That word "like" has been forever ruined.

Ruby3881 replied to LoudMan on July 31, 2014, 7:23 PM:
So true! But before anyone blames some writing site, I think we need to recognize the contribution of Facebook to that phenomenon. It seems these days "like" just means "I saw it."

FreyaYuki replied to LoudMan on August 1, 2014, 3:18 PM:
You're welcome. And, yeah, I think that word has become really hyped up and overrated. It's like it has lost all meaning since pretty much everyone just randomly make use of it, all seemingly without thinking about it, as if it doesn't matter if they really like it or not, they still just blindly and randomly click the like button anyway, just because.

BarbRad wrote on July 31, 2014, 5:55 PM:
Automatic liking is a hard habit to break. But I'm starting to break it here. I do think a comment gives better feedback though, since you know what reader actually did or didn't like.

FreyaYuki replied to BarbRad on August 1, 2014, 3:26 PM:
I agree about comments giving the authors better feedback and they also encourage interaction. We don't get paid for likes here so I guess it doesn't matter if people randomly like posts though it seems that no one is doing that here, considering the low like counts. Either way, I still prefer to comment than to like.

paigea wrote on July 31, 2014, 7:11 PM:
Sorry, since the like button doesn't pay the poster and they don't even know I like it, I use it to remind myself I already read an article. They will surely know by my comments whether I liked their article and what my opinion is on any manner of things.

Even if I only clicked like on things I really really liked, it wouldn't indicate that the poster was a good writer or that they had said something particularly well, it would only indicate that I liked it.

FreyaYuki replied to paigea on August 1, 2014, 3:35 PM:
Yeah, since we don't get paid for likes here, it wouldn't really matter if people randomly like articles or not since no one would know anyway. This must be why there's a low like count on the articles here. I hadn't thought of making use of the like button to remind myself that I've already read an article.

For me, what I do is check to see if I've already commented on the article since I almost always comment on articles that I've read so that would serve as an indication that I'd already read that particular article.

Yes, the problem with the like button is that people can have different criteria as to what would get them to click said button (some just randomly click it, others have higher standards, etc) so it couldn't really be a good or reliable way to be able to tell if the article was really well-written or if those likes had been obtained for another reason.

bestwriter wrote on July 31, 2014, 8:05 PM:
I choose what interests me and not because I am an elite liker :) I like less as likes do not pay.

FreyaYuki replied to bestwriter on August 1, 2014, 3:38 PM:
Yeah, likes don't pay here so it must be why there are less likes on the articles here. I also prefer to comment than to like. I mostly read or prefer to read articles that interest me and those are the articles I comment on.

Scorpie wrote on August 2, 2014, 8:26 AM:
People feel good about likes. Why not give it to them?

FreyaYuki replied to Scorpie on August 2, 2014, 4:57 PM:
Some people probably wouldn't mind just randomly going around liking articles. But others would want to have a reason before deciding to click on the like button. People have their own standards and set of criteria as to what would get them to click on the like button.

Others might like because they really like the article or because they agree with what the author has said even if it wasn't written in the best way, etc.

*Notes:
- Image is by pixelbuddha (CC:BY) from Wikimedia Commons
- This was previously published elsewhere

Why Is The Hamburger Icon A Part Of The Persona Paper Logo?

When you go to Persona Paper, you'll see the site title in large font with the "persona" colored green and the "paper" colored black. In-between these 2 words, you'll see these 3 horizontal lines - the hamburger icon.

It's not that I never noticed this icon before because I have. And I'm sure lots of people have as well. It's also the menu icon. On some sites, you can see this button or icon, and, if you click on it, either a sidebar or menu will pop out / show up.

By now, you're probably wondering what the point of this post is about, right? What, you're not? Okay, so it's fine if I say the point is nothing then? LOL :-). Just kidding. There is a point, really.

I've been noticing the hamburger icon a lot 'cause I'm trying to add this (to clarify: trying to code something with this icon, not just add it 'cause, yup, it's easy to add this icon :-)) to the theme that I'm working on. Usually, in some sites, blogs, and/or themes, you'll only see the hamburger icon when you're on smaller / mobile screens / devices.

If your menu (site links, pages, etc) is on a navbar (fixed or otherwise), on smaller screens, instead of displaying all the links on the bar, it'll be collected and hidden inside the hamburger icon. Click the icon and the menu links will drop-down.

Cool? Sure. But, sometimes, some might want this icon visible all the time - you know, like if you have an offcanvas / togglable sidebar or something. Anyway, the point is that I just found myself wondering why Persona Paper uses the hamburger icon as part of the site title. Just curious about that since, as mentioned, this is usually used for menus. What do you think? Any ideas?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

agvulpes wrote on June 27, 2015, 9:27 AM:
I had not noticed it before and if you click on the whole Link it takes you to the Home Page (as normal sites do) I am using Firefox which has a 'Hamburger Icon on the right hand site which brings out a Drop Down Menu for customizing Firefox!
You raise an interesting question?

AliCanary wrote on June 29, 2015, 9:27 AM:
Even though it has three bars rather than two, I always kind of viewed it as an equals sign, as in persona = paper (translation: If you write, your personality can earn you money [paper]), and also simply as a decorative element, which is what they probably intended.

cheri wrote on June 30, 2015, 5:21 AM:
Oh shame on me. I have not noticed that icon you were talking about. Need to check on that

Ruby3881 wrote on June 30, 2015, 1:39 PM:
I would imagine it had something to do with writing lines of text...

AdGoggleKo wrote on July 10, 2015, 3:17 AM:
Oh I was also thinking what those 3 lines mean or why they chose it but didn't think of hamburger haha! Talking about hamburger reminds me one site I joined before, they have a banner hamburger stuffed with dollars, cheese and veggies instead of meat, etc. :)

*Notes:
- Image is by GraphBerry (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- This was previously published elsewhere

Can You Submit An Article On Persona Paper Before The 10-Minute Time Frame Ends?

The Persona Paper Rules page says that 'you must wait at least 10 minutes between each post'. I’ve absolutely no problem with that at all. I mean, it’s just 10 minutes and what does it matter, right?

Okay, yeah, that’s not the point of this article though. I was just wondering if we actually get some sort of notice or something in case we accidentally end up submitting another post before 10 minutes have passed since we submitted our last article?

For example, if we try to submit an article, but the time limit hasn’t been met yet, will the article we’re trying to submit get posted on the site or is some sort of message or notification going to appear that will prevent us from submitting the article?

I’d prefer it if it was the latter. I'm just concerned that I might end up accidentally submitting another article even though the 10-minute time frame between article submissions hasn’t passed yet.

I do look at my profile page where the time when I last submitted an article is listed, but what if you forget to do that, right, and make a mistake without meaning to? What do you think?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

MaeLou wrote on July 28, 2014, 12:08 PM:
It should automatically go into your drafts if the 10 minute time frame isn't up.

FreyaYuki replied to MaeLou on July 29, 2014, 8:06 AM:
That's very good to know :). Thanks for clarifying that. Now there's no need to be worried about accidentally breaking that 10-minute rule.

LoudMan wrote on July 28, 2014, 1:00 PM:
You're really becoming quite the producer. I think I like you. :)

FreyaYuki replied to LoudMan on July 29, 2014, 8:10 AM:
:) Thanks. It's pretty easy to post articles here and, so far, it's really quite enjoyable. Also, there's a lot more to learn about the site so I just ask when I get some questions like this one.

sconstantino wrote on July 28, 2014, 2:28 PM:
I can't ever get away from reading posts to figure it out. It's good to know what happens, though, should I try to post sooner than allowed :)

FreyaYuki replied to sconstantino on July 29, 2014, 8:29 AM:
Yeah, it is good to know what will happen in case we ever accidentally try to submit an article before the 10-minute time frame is up. I wouldn't want to accidentally make a mistake so it's good that this won't ever happen since the article will apparently just go in our drafts.

paigea wrote on July 28, 2014, 2:54 PM:
I barely post every day. I am never going to have to wonder about this particular rule. LOL

FreyaYuki replied to paigea on July 29, 2014, 8:31 AM:
Usually, I just post once a day, but, sometimes, I end up posting at least 2 articles or maybe even 3, so I was wondering what will happen if we ever accidentally try to submit an article before the 10-minute time frame is up.

midastouch wrote on July 28, 2014, 3:07 PM:
if unsure
try!!!!!

FreyaYuki replied to midastouch on July 29, 2014, 8:32 AM:
But it's against the rules to try to submit an article before the 10-minute time frame ends. That's why I asked about this because I wouldn't want to end up submitting an article before the time is up.

*Notes:
- Image is by GraphBerry (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- This was previously published elsewhere

What To Like About The Persona Paper Captcha?

Did I mention that I like the Persona Paper captcha? No? Well, let me say it now then - I really like the Persona Paper captcha. I mean, I wouldn't want to bother with captchas at all.

But, if I really have to deal with typing captchas, then I'd choose the Persona Paper captcha. Why? It's because this captcha is so easy to understand and decipher that I have absolutely no problems typing the word/s.

With this kind of captcha, I never have to worry about getting an incorrect captcha message because the word isn't incomprehensible and downright impossible to understand and decipher. It's shown so clearly and the letters aren't too close to each other so you can really see what the word you have to type is.

I'm really glad about this because some sites have really difficult to understand and read captchas so this is a welcome relief to all the frustration, annoyance and inconvenience caused by captchas that you can hardly read, much less understand.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

Kasman wrote on October 2, 2014, 10:13 AM:
"What I like most about the Persona Paper captcha is the fact that it helps to keep out all those spambots which infest certain other sites some of us write on."

FreyaYuki replied to Kasman on October 16, 2014, 4:33 AM:
"I agree. There are some sites where there are a lot of spam comments but, so far, I don't think I've seen any here on Persona Paper, which is great. I also really like how the captcha here is so easy to understand."

Feisty56 wrote on October 2, 2014, 12:37 PM:
"You know, the captcha here is such a breeze that at first I couldn't remember that PP has them!"

FreyaYuki replied to Feisty56 on October 16, 2014, 4:37 AM:
"I know, right? :-) I love the captcha here on Persona Paper. It's so easy to understand that it doesn't take me much time at all. If the captcha is this easy to decipher, then I don't mind having to take a few seconds to type it; in this case, it wouldn't be such a hassle at all."

BarbRad wrote on October 2, 2014, 1:57 PM:
"The best is that so far, we only need them with posting, not commenting. I hope that policy will hold. It makes interacting here so much easier. Stick around more. This site will become as addicting as the other one."

FreyaYuki replied to BarbRad on October 16, 2014, 4:42 AM:
"I like that too and wish that it would stay that way. But, even if we have to type a captcha every time we comment, I wouldn't mind so much as long as the captcha continues to be easy to decipher and understand. If it will only take us a few seconds to type the captcha, then it can be tolerated and it wouldn't be so bad."

bestwriter wrote on October 4, 2014, 5:12 AM:
"Big foot county is my favourite. Sometimes I get it while watching a movie (just between you and me I actually do not watch it :-))"

FreyaYuki replied to bestwriter on October 16, 2014, 4:52 AM
":-) . I don't like either the video or audio captcha so I always just stick with the text even if they can be hard to understand and decipher. Thankfully, the text captcha on Persona Paper is so easy to understand and type that there's no problem at all."

bestwriter wrote on February 5, 2015, 1:48 AM:
"Very rarely does it coincide with what I have posted and at that time I do feel happy. But Captcha per se is not my cup of tea. I hope they did away with it but I know they cannot."

FreyaYuki replied to bestwriter on February 7, 2015, 8:34 AM:
"I don't like captcha either but can tolerate it if it's easy to decipher. If you save your posts on Persona Paper as a draft before publishing it, you can bypass the captcha so you can publish it right away without seeing the captcha."

*Notes:
- Image is by GraphBerry (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- This was previously published elsewhere

What's Wrong With The Persona Paper Polls Feature?

I just tried to make a Persona Paper poll. This is the first time I've tried this feature, but I think it's cool that we can make polls on this site.

However, I experienced some problems with this tool. If you've made polls on Persona Paper, how were you able to address these issues? Or what did you do to avoid these problems?

Cannot add spaces to paragraphs on the Additional Commentary textbox

I added a lot of text on the "Additional Commentary" textbox (this is located below the title on the Persona Paper poll creation page) to explain my poll and give more details and information.

I added some paragraphs and spaces to break up the text so it won't look like one huge block of text. I even had some bullet points using the dash (-) symbol. It looked perfectly fine on the textbox and I thought that all was well.

However, when I submitted my poll, I saw that all the stuff I wrote on the "Additional Commentary" textbox got combined together so it looked like one huge block of text that wasn't all that easy to read. The bullet points I added got messed up too :-(.

Cannot edit Persona Paper polls

Because of what happened above, I thought about editing the poll to try to fix the text and maybe just remove the dashes for the bullet points. It was then that I found out that the edit button isn't available. The only thing you can do is delete the article and start over.

I know, I read the text below the poll creation tool about how we can't edit the polls, but I thought that only referred to the poll choices and not the additional text. So now it looks like I'm stuck with a poll that has a long and kind of messy intro text. :-(

Poll choices don't accept symbols like ' and ()

My poll choices included words like "I'm", "can't", etc. I also added some sad and happy faces - :-) and :-(. It looked perfectly fine when I was creating the poll, but, when I submitted the poll, I saw that the parenthesis () had been removed and only the : remained so it didn't look all that nice.

The ' symbol was removed too so I ended up with words like "Im" and "cant". It looked kind of bad. Oh, who am I kidding? It did look bad :-(. I really wish I could change it, but I don't know how to fix this mess.

Does anyone know how? And, if I deleted the poll and started all over again, I would have to wait 10 minutes before being able to submit it again. Even if I did that, how would I add paragraphs and spaces to the "additional commentary" textbox?

And how can I make sure that symbols like ' and () won't disappear when I add them to the poll choices? I don't understand why we can't use those symbols or why we can't add paragraphs to the intro text. What's wrong with doing those things?

Have you found a solution to these issues in using Persona Paper polls? Do you have any idea how to fix this problem? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

LoudMan wrote on October 16, 2014, 5:40 AM:
"Once-in-awhile, the votes still just don't seem to register. I don't remember which ones.

"(Hey, long time no read from.)"

FreyaYuki replied to LoudMan on October 30, 2014, 4:50 AM:
"Hi :). Yeah, it's been a while. I've been busy so haven't been able to visit Persona Paper all the time. I didn't know there were also problems when it comes to voting on polls. Maybe I'll just avoid making any more polls for now until all these issues have been addressed."

Feisty56 wrote on October 16, 2014, 11:09 AM:
"Did you write your text elsewhere, then copy and paste to the "Additional Commentary" textbox? That's the only way I can see that trying to add in spaces for paragraphs and the like may have been an issue. I've always written in that textbox, using usual spacing as when writing posts and haven't incurred any issues myself. Best of luck to you in getting this corrected."

FreyaYuki replied to Feisty56 on October 30, 2014, 4:54 AM:
"No. I wrote my post directly on the textbox. I fixed it up there, adding all the spaces, etc and it looked perfectly fine on the textbox but, when I submitted the article, everything got all messed up. Even the poll choices got messed up. Don't know how to fix it. But I do hope this issue with the polls gets corrected. Thanks."

MaeLou wrote on October 16, 2014, 11:21 AM:
"We are aware of these issues with the polls and they will be fixed when the new layout is rolled out."

Kasman replied to MaeLou on October 16, 2014, 2:47 PM:
"You're planning a new layout for the site? When?"

FreyaYuki replied to MaeLou on October 30, 2014, 5:03 AM:
"Okay. Thanks :). I look forward to seeing the new layout and having these polls fixed."

MaeLou replied to Kasman on October 16, 2014, 5:36 PM:
"It's not really a new "layout" really. The only new layout will be the blogging section. I wrote about it awhile back. We were hoping to get it up by mid October but things have been happening on the home front and have been pushed back a little (which we will post about soon)."

*Notes:
- Image is by Alan Klim (CC:BY) from flickr
- This was previously published elsewhere

Can You Get Passive Or Residual Income On Persona Paper?

Hey y'all. How is everyone? After what feels like forever, I'm finally back to Persona Paper. In my last post, I mentioned having problems with my internet connection (ISP). I'll spare you the details, but it's all finally been fixed :-).

Passive income on Persona Paper

I thought for sure that my bank balance here would have either decreased or something (wasn't there some rule about that or something?). But I was super surprised to see that that's not the case at all. I just checked my bank page here on Persona Paper and I'm happy to see that I have earned a few more coins since the last time I was here.

Update: Unfortunately, it doesn't matter anymore how many coins you have. You could have thousands and it wouldn't mean a single thing because it's worthless now.

It wasn't like a whole lot or something (and I'm still forever away from the minimum payment threshold), but it's still really nice that something like that happened especially considering that I haven't been around lately.

Update: Unfortunately, I never even got to reach the minimum payment threshold before Persona Paper stopped paying its writers.

Changes on Persona Paper

So, did I miss anything? Are there any new changes or new rules or stuff here on Persona Paper? How's the traffic and activity to the site? Is everything going well? I just checked Bubblews too and there isn't really anything new there either.

There were no new posts from the CEO, but there was this one post from one of the staff there saying that there would be new changes and stuff to the site. But, then again, haven't they been saying that months ago?

Persona Paper notifications

Since I've been gone for so long, I missed all of my Persona Paper notifications, which is kind of really sad :-(. So, I'll never see those notices ever again. I kinda wish it wasn't like that or that my internet connection didn't have to be such a- but, eh, what can you do, right? Hopefully, I won't have to miss anymore notifications here.

Update: Unfortunately, Persona Paper is no longer a paying writing site. So, sadly, a lot of people there never even reached the minimum payment threshold and so never got to cash out :-(.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

CalmGemini wrote on June 3, 2015, 5:29 AM:
"Welcome back FreyaYuki. I do not think there are any major changes.You just browse around and see how it is now. Looking forward to your posts."

FreyaYuki replied to CalmGemini on June 4, 2015, 4:33 AM:
"Thanks. Yeah, I've been looking around and reading the interesting articles that I've seen. It's just too bad that we can't really see the older articles anymore since the categories pages only lists one page of articles."

CalmGemini replied to FreyaYuki on June 4, 2015, 7:17 AM:
"I think that you could go to the profile page of some of the members and there you can read older articles. It takes time though."

Dawnwriter wrote on June 3, 2015, 6:14 AM:
"I don't think there have been any major changes here, though activity seems to be low. Welcome back and I hope ISP issues are resolved for good."

FreyaYuki replied to Dawnwriter on June 4, 2015, 4:49 AM:
"Thanks. Yeah, I noticed the low activity too. And I've read/seen some posts here that mentioned this. I think some said that a few have left already or something? So far, my internet connection seems to be just fine. Thanks."

LadyLeaf wrote on June 3, 2015, 7:45 AM:
"Welcome back! Glad to hear you ended up getting some residual income! People have been saying activity on the site has been lower than usual, but I'm hoping it's just temporary."

FreyaYuki replied to LadyLeaf on June 4, 2015, 5:00 AM:
"Thanks. I was surprised about the residual income too. Yeah, I've noticed the low activity on the site and I've even seen some posts here that talked about it. I hope it's just temporary as well."

MegL wrote on June 3, 2015, 7:56 AM:
"Well, none of the articles will have been lost, so you could check out members and read down their lists of articles and comment. You could also check your own articles to see if there are any comments on them. You could also check the front page of PP for the latest articles to find new people to follow. :-)"

FreyaYuki replied to MegL on June 4, 2015, 5:06 AM:
"Yeah, I've been doing that. It's hard to look through the older posts though. The categories pages only lists one page of posts. While the profile pages actually have pagination, it's not really easy to use the "next" and "previous" buttons."

MegL replied to FreyaYuki on June 4, 2015, 5:24 AM:
"That is very true. It's hard even just going through your own profile, never mind anyone else's!"

Bensen32 wrote on June 3, 2015, 11:28 AM:
"Welcome back, I guessing you didn't miss to many changes at least not that I can remember anything major changing. The traffic hasn't really increased much I thing it's just a matter of staying active. You mentioned the other place and nope not a thing has changed there, still not making anything there and really not worth my time there, so I don't spend anytime there anymore."

BarbRad wrote on June 4, 2015, 2:07 AM:
"Good to have you back. I think a few of our regular posters have gone inactive, and I've been pretty busy outside the site and haven't posted much. I come here to relax, but I'm more likely to be commenting than posting most of the time now."

*Notes:
- Image is by FirmBee (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere

What Is There To Like About The Changes To The Persona Paper Homepage?

Wow. I'm so surprised. I haven't been able to log on to Persona Paper for more than a few days (I've been busy and wasn't really feeling inspired to write here) and now that I got the chance to log in, I was so surprised to see the changes to the site's homepage.

It looked pretty odd at first, but I quickly got used to it. I like the changes to the homepage of Persona Paper. It looks quite nice. I like how the articles listed there now include snippets so people can see a bit more of the post in question to help them decide if they want to continue reading or not.

It's also good how we can see the post author's name if we hover our mouse on the image of the article. The carousel in the middle part looks pretty cool too.

But I do have to wonder why the site name "Persona Paper" appears twice on the homepage. I see it at the top, on the header portion, where it should be. But I also see it again a bit further down, right before the site announcements.

Why is that? Wouldn't it be better if it was only listed at the very top? It does seem odd to see it repeated twice. Anyway, what do you think about the site changes? I heard there were more changes to come.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

allen0187 wrote on September 11, 2014, 8:41 AM:
"Love all the changes. It is the first of many. Can't wait for the rest of the updates."

FreyaYuki replied to allen0187 on September 25, 2014, 6:59 AM:
"I am also looking forward to the rest of the updates and changes. But I do still have to wonder why the Persona Paper logo appears twice on the front page. Has that been explained? Maybe I missed something."

Shadi wrote on September 11, 2014, 9:07 AM:
"I think its still not finished as they have things to improve. I personally would like to see a better and more attractive slideshow header and a more viewable recent posts."

FreyaYuki replied to Shadi on September 25, 2014, 7:03 AM:
"Yes, it looks like there are still improvements that need to be made. I agree with you about the slideshow header and the recent posts. But I'm glad that recent posts actually get the chance to be featured on the homepage so that everyone has the chance to appear on the front page even if it's just for a short while; that's only fair, isn't it? Maybe the slideshow could be moved up a bit so visitors / readers can see some content or articles right away without having to scroll down."

astraldreamer wrote on September 11, 2014, 2:12 PM:
"I'm still getting used to it, not sure if I like it, preferred it the way it was before, I found it quicker to navigate and I loved seeing how many views each post was getting."

FreyaYuki replied to astraldreamer on September 25, 2014, 7:13 AM:
"I think the homepage still needs some more improvement but I like that the recent posts are being displayed there and that we can see many more articles there as compared to how it was before.

"I think one of the Persona Paper logos should be removed though since there are 2 right now and wouldn't it be much better if there was only one? Perhaps the slideshow could be moved up too so some of the articles can be seen by visitors / readers without requiring them to scroll down the page. Right now, you can only see the announcements. If you want to see the articles, you have to scroll down."

Jackah wrote on September 11, 2014, 5:34 PM:
"It is quite a nice layout - although I'd like to see two themes; a light version (the current one) and a dark one (because, I write and use the site at night, so it's easier on the eyes)."

FreyaYuki replied to Jackah on September 25, 2014, 7:25 AM:
"I prefer the light version even though I usually use the site at night as well. I actually think the light version is easier on the eyes. But a dark theme or version sounds like a good idea for all those who might want it. It would be nice if you can just easily change the site look / theme by clicking on a button so you can decide if you want the light or dark look."

LarrySells wrote on September 11, 2014, 7:55 PM:
"I also like the home page, but wish that a few more department were there."

FreyaYuki replied to LarrySells on September 25, 2014, 7:29 AM:
"Sounds like a good idea. I think the homepage is still undergoing improvements. I do like how the recent posts are featured there so everyone has a chance to get their articles on the site's front page."

bestwriter wrote on February 5, 2015, 1:46 AM:
"This site is pretty new and we are bound to see changes if not at a galloping rate but changes are surely in the offing."

FreyaYuki replied to bestwriter on February 7, 2015, 8:40 AM:
"Yeah, I like the changes so far and it's good that the site is improving like allowing us to edit our comments in case we make a mistake, increasing the payment rate, etc."

*Notes:
- Image is by FirmBee (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere

How To Find Persona Paper Articles To Read?

How do you find articles that you want to or are interested in reading here on Persona Paper? What’s your process to help you easily find posts that you actually want to read about?

For me, there are a number of ways that I make use of to help me find interesting articles. For starters, I look at the Persona Paper homepage. You can see a short list of the most popular and most recent articles there.

I also take a look at the site categories though you're only limited to one single page so you can’t really search for or see the much older articles.

Aside from that, I also take a look at a person’s profile page where you can see a list of all the articles that they’ve submitted to the site.

I know there’s a search box here, but I haven’t tried using it yet. So, what about you? How do you discover new articles to read about?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

melody23 wrote on August 1, 2014, 2:45 PM:
"I usually stop by the home page a few times a day to read new articles that are posted or welcome new members as I come across them."

FreyaYuki replied to melody23 on August 2, 2014, 5:21 PM:
"I also refresh the home page a few times to see if there are new articles submitted or if the popular section changed a bit so I can see if there are any interesting articles to read."

elitecodex wrote on August 1, 2014, 2:49 PM:
"We are working a way to better explore the articles on our site... that is lacking at the moment. Shortly after the redesign I hope to get that up and working."

FreyaYuki replied to elitecodex on August 2, 2014, 5:28 PM:
"That's good to know. It would be nice to be able to easily find more articles on the site. Looking forward to this upcoming feature then."

Scorpie wrote on August 1, 2014, 3:12 PM:
"The browse members from the header menu works also."

FreyaYuki replied to Scorpie on August 2, 2014, 5:31 PM:
"I haven't tried that since I'm new here and don't know many people yet. Also, the members list only lists the usernames so you won't know which of the people there have written articles that you might be interested in reading unless you can recognize the username from somewhere."

LoudMan wrote on August 1, 2014, 4:20 PM:
"I haven't had much luck with search engines yet, unless I'm doing a site specific search on a topic. And I'm grateful for your entry in the contest. :)"

FreyaYuki replied to LoudMan on August 2, 2014, 5:35 PM:
":) I've tried looking for Persona Paper articles via search engine too. If you can't think of a specific topic, you can limit the search results to only include pages from Persona Paper. It's hard to find anything though so it's better to have a topic or subject in mind but even that might not bring all that many relevant results."

AngelSharum wrote on August 1, 2014, 5:46 PM:
"I go through my activity list first and read stuff from people I follow, then I go to the front page and see if anything catches my eye. I sometimes go through the categories."

FreyaYuki replied to AngelSharum on August 2, 2014, 5:57 PM:
"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the notifications list. I also make use of it but mostly I go with checking out people's profiles or the homepage and sometimes the categories too. The problem with the categories though is that we're only limited to seeing one page so you can't really explore and look for older articles that might be interesting to you."

BarbRad wrote on August 1, 2014, 11:45 PM:
"I mostly use my notifications, people's profiles, and the Browsing menu at the top to look for subject that interest me."

FreyaYuki replied to BarbRad on August 2, 2014, 6:00 PM:
"Yes, I make use of my notifications list too; I forgot to mention that. The notifications make things easy because the list is so detailed and organized. But it would be nice if we could have more options with regards to searching for articles to read here. For example, if you check the categories, you'll only get to see one topic page and you can't see the older articles anymore."

*Notes:
- Image is by kaboompics (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere

Reasons To Check Out A Persona Paper Member's Profile Page

What gets you to click on a Persona Paper member’s username, which will take you to their profile page where you can see a list of all of their articles?

As I mentioned in one of my articles here, one way for me to find new articles to read on the site is by checking out a person’s profile page and seeing what kinds of articles they write about.

But what will get you to check out the profile pages of these people in the first place? For me, there are a few ways that this can happen.

If I'm reading an article that I find interesting, sometimes, I’d find it interesting enough to want to check out the author’s profile to see if they wrote any more articles that I might want to read.

Another is when I encounter a comment made by a Persona Paper member on an article I'm currently reading. It doesn’t matter if it’s on my article or someone else’s.

If I see a comment that is detailed, that I agree with, that is significant, meaningful, or relevant to the article in question, then that might get me to check out that commenter’s profile page as I think something like, 'hey, I agree with this person’s words.

'It sounds like we have something in common. I wonder if this person writes about things that I'm interested in reading about too'. So what about you? What gets you to click on a Persona Paper username?

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

acelawrites wrote on August 2, 2014, 5:13 PM:
"I agree, profile page will give the reader some information about the author. It can widen our networks of friends on the net too."

FreyaYuki replied to acelawrites on August 3, 2014, 3:12 PM:
"Yeah. The profile page is where you can really see the kinds of articles that a person writes, what subjects or topics they like to write about, etc. It's a good way to see if you have anything in common with the author based on the kinds of articles that they write or based on the comments that they've written."

Fractal wrote on August 2, 2014, 8:12 PM:
"After reading a couple of articles from anyone, I will check the Profile page just to ascertain 'who' it is that writes. In most cases I gain little. I just learn the geographical location of the writer... whoopee! Does it help? No. :)"

FreyaYuki replied to Fractal on August 4, 2014, 4:41 PM:
":). When I look at a person's profile page here, I mostly pay attention to their list of articles to see if they write about things that might interest me or if we share the same interests. Their geographical location, if it is listed, is just a plus."

BarbRad wrote on August 3, 2014, 12:30 AM:
"I click for the same reasons you, do, but I usually click on the profiles of those who follow me to see if I want to follow back. I'm much more likely to do that here than on that other site, since everyone here is literate in English and is not likely to be a cheater."

FreyaYuki replied to BarbRad on August 4, 2014, 5:29 PM:
"I take a look at the profiles of those who follow me as well to see if they have any articles that I might want to read. Yeah, I noticed the same about people here being literate in English. I haven't even seen any spam so far, which is great."

*Notes:
- Image is by kaboompics (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere