Is WordPress.com Restrictive?

Do you think that the WordPress.com blogging platform is restrictive? Does it have way too many limitations, or do you actually get lots of freedom and choices if you use this platform for your blog?

Some Facts About WordPress.Com

• You are not allowed to edit the CSS of your blog theme… unless you pay
• You are not allowed to use Google Analytics on your blog… unless you pay
• You are not allowed to use any other polling service… except PollDaddy
• You get a Gravatar account with your WordPress blog… whether you like it or not
• You don’t get customer support from WordPress… unless you pay
• You can’t turn off the infinite scroll feature for real… unless you pay
• You can’t add a copyright link to your blog… unless you pay

Some Things That You Can’t Get or Do on WordPress.Com Even if You Pay:

• You are not allowed to edit the HTML of your blog theme
• You are not allowed to upload your own theme to WordPress
• You are not allowed to add ads to your blog (unless you get WordAds, but you only get a shot at this if your blog gets lots of traffic)

Update: if you're on the WordPress.com Premium or Business plan, you get access to WordAds. If you're on a Free or Personal plan, your blog needs to have high traffic in order to get the option to apply to the WordAds program

• You are not allowed to remove the attribution credit links on your blog (the ones that say “powered by WordPress” and “theme made by [theme maker’s name here]”)
• You are not allowed to add or use Google Fonts on your blog
• You are limited in what you can do in terms of customizing your blog even with the Custom Design Upgrade, which only lets you edit the CSS of your theme (for example, you can’t import files)

Your Thoughts and Opinions

So, is the WordPress.com blogging platform restrictive? You tell me. What do you think? What are your thoughts and opinions about this? Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.

*Notes:
- First image is by 27707 (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- Second image is by pixelcreatures (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere on Tuesday, November 8, 2016 at 11:33 AM
- Info presented above was true when it was written, but everything is subject to change without notice like if WordPress decides to change their rules, etc.

Sources:

• https://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/infinite-scroll/
• https://store.wordpress.com/plans/
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/custom-fonts/
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/code/
• https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/google-analytics-for-wordpress-com-business-sites/
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/google-analytics/
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/themes/adding-new-themes/
• https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/add-copyright-to-footer
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/polls/
• http://support.polldaddy.com/using-wordpress-com-connect-to-sign-into-polldaddy-com/not-interested-in-signing-up-for-wordpress-com/
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/no-ads/
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/help-support-options/
• https://en.support.wordpress.com/live-chat/

Problems With Adding Polls to Your WordPress.Com Blog

What’s wrong with adding polls to your WordPress blog? Are you allowed to add polls to your blog? What’s there to like and dislike about this?

Can You Add Polls to Your WordPress.Com Blog?

Yes, you can. What’s the catch? The catch is that you can only add polls using PollDaddy. This is a polling service owned by Automattic, the same company who owns WordPress.

What’s Wrong With PollDaddy?

Dunno. Nothing, maybe. Those who use this polling service will be able to tell what its strengths and weaknesses are. This isn’t the issue though.

What Is the Problem With Adding Polls to Your WordPress.Com Blog?

The problem is how you’re stuck with PollDaddy. If you want to add polls to your blog, you have to use PollDaddy. You’re forced to use PollDaddy. You don’t have a choice.

Want polls on WordPress.com? Use PollDaddy or have no polls at all. But what if you don’t want to use this particular polling service?

After all, this isn’t the only polling service out there. There are many more sites that allow you to add polls to your blogs or websites like Opinion Stage.

What if You Already Have an Account on Another Polling Service?

Some polling services make it possible for you to use their polls on various platforms, so you don’t have to sign up to so many different services.

For example, you can use Opinion Stage on Tumblr, Google Blogger, WordPress.org, and more.

So, if you already have an account on another polling service, wouldn’t you want to use that on all of your sites and blogs so you don’t have to create yet another account for the same service?

On WordPress though, you’re forced to use PollDaddy whether you like it or not or just go without polls because they don’t care if you have another account elsewhere or not.

Your Thoughts and Opinions

What do you think about this? Do you use PollDaddy? Do you like it? Do you use Opinion Stage? Do you like it?

Do you think WordPress should give people a choice in terms of what polling service they can use on their WordPress.com blogs?

Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.

*Notes:
- First image is by Alan Klim (CC:BY) from flickr
- Second image is by pixelcreatures (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere on Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 11:32 AM

5 Things to Dislike About the Latest WordPress Update Version 4.1

What’s not to like about the latest WordPress update version 4.1? Is something wrong with it?

Things to Like About the WordPress Update

One thing I like about the WordPress update is how it never drastically changes the appearance of the dashboard, so the Daily Two Cents* and Writegde* dashboards still look pretty much like how I remember them before the version 4.1 update.

I like that because I’m used to what the dashboard looks like. I’ve learned to like its appearance so it would just feel and seem wrong if it suddenly changes without warning.

*Writing sites that used to pay per view, but have since changed their payment model, unfortunately, where you can earn some passive or residual income by posting articles

Gigantic Text

Now, one of the things I don’t like about the latest WordPress update is how the text on the text post editor is way too big.

Before the update, the text was kind of small (fortunately, it’s still readable), and I definitely would have wanted it to be bigger, but not this big.

This time, the font size is just too much. It’s so huge that it borders on ridiculous.

Text Post Editor and Preview

What you see is definitely not what you get thanks to the version 4.1 WordPress update.

Whenever I preview the articles I write on the Writege and Daily Two Cents text post editor, it always looks different from how it’s presented in the editor.

On the text post editor, you can see the gigantic font size, but, when you preview your post, it goes back to a smaller font.

As such, just because it looks like you have such a huge paragraph on the editor, it doesn’t mean that that’s the case when you preview your article.

Adding Images

Thanks to the discrepancy between the text post editor and the preview, it’s very difficult to fix the images that you add to your article.

On the editor, the picture might look huge and it might look like it’s aligned with only a few paragraphs, but, when you look at the preview, you’ll see that it looks very different.

So you will need to use trial and error when you move things around so you can find the perfect placement and positions for your photos.

Word Count

On Writedge and Daily Two Cents, there is a live word count that is located at the end of the text post editor textbox.

Before the WordPress update to version 4.1, this live word count used to stay in a fixed position so that, even if you scroll up on the editor to get to the top of the page, you can still see your word count.

This is very useful because you can see right away if you still need to add more words or if you’re already past the minimum word count.

After the update, the live word count is no longer in a fixed position so you can only see it when you scroll down to the end of the text post editor.

What are your thoughts on the WordPress version 4.1 update? Do you like it or not?

*Notes:
- First image is by 27707 (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- Second image is by StockSnap (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere on Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 11:31 AM
- YouTube video features the Writedge and Daily Two Cents WordPress dashboard