About a week ago, I mentioned a problem with WordPress now subscribing people to blog comments by default, instead of having the checkbox unmarked by default, as it always had been previously. A week later, after people have been yelling about it in the support forums for quite a while, WordPress.com has finally said something about it, and it’s not good news.
Apparently this isn’t going to be going away. It’s a deliberate decision by WordPress.com, under the theory that it encourages discussion. Well, it might, but it also ticks off people who don’t want their email inboxes flooded. Plus, just my professional opinion as a software engineer, but if you’re trying to dictate human behavior through your design choices, you’re going about it exactly wrong. Just as form should follow function, function follows the will of the user. What you think people “should” be doing is irrelevant; people use software to do what they want, not what the programmer wants them to do.
So that’s the bad news: It’s deliberate, it’s not going away, and unless you completely disable the “follow comments” feature on your blog there is not (currently) a way to restore it to having “off” as the default state, as it should be. Personally, I hope most blogs don’t disable it — I like having the option there for certain posts — but I can’t really blame any that do.
There is some good news, though, in the updated help page. If you’re a WordPress user, you can change the default state for yourself (not your blog, but your personal browsing preferences) by unchecking the relevant box in your Email Delivery Settings. From then on (if the function works as promised) the checkbox on each blog post you visit will be checked or unchecked the same way as that setting — and you can change it for each individual blog post if you decide that yes, you do want comment emails for that post. For people who aren’t WordPress users, the setting is controlled by a cookie, and if they uncheck the box for a particular post, it defaults to being off for that entire blog (though not for other blogs).
So it’s not inescapable now that they’ve finally (after a week) decided to get around to addressing just how it works. It’s still a bit irritating, but at least with the information, it’s back to being a more manageable single-click issue than before.
Pingback: Comment Emails | Morgan on Media
Reblogged this on Love The Bad Guy and commented:
I recently reblogged a post about WordPress’ irritating new habit of assuming we all want follow-up emails for every single post we comment on. That post advised for every Blog-Owner to remove that option from their readers; Morgan on Media, however, is a smart cookie who has found the way to change individual settings, so the power returns to the reader. If you don’t want to remove the “Notify me of follow-up comments…” checkbox from your blog, then this is a great alternative.
Thank goodness for these technologically-advanced minds, or I would be royally screwed…
So frustrating. (had to uncheck just now!) I dont mind the irritation as much personally for me as I do about what my blog does. I removed that option for people to follow comments by email all together… the nuclear option. I’d rather people who want it not have it than people who dont want it getting spam…
It sucks
Yeah, I understand. Your blog in particular is one where I often do want that option, but I can certainly see why you’d go that way, since your posts generate so many comments.
In my case, my feeling is that people will generally see the checkbox below and correct it (and hopefully people with WP accounts will change their settings as appropriate), and if not hopefully they’ll see the “want less email?” text in the email and follow-through there. But it’s still more of a burden on the user than they should have to be under.
I know you had your site moved to your own domain name… do you have any of the other “for purchase” options? If you have the ability to edit the PHP, this can be changed altogether… though I suppose that would probably stop any future WP updates, benevolent or otherwise…
What’s worse is that I replied in that WordPress post with my opinion of it which was negative, and it’s still being held for moderation. I saw several negative comments there and wonder how many more are still being “held for moderation”? “Our feedback has been overwhelmingly positive”, feedback from whom? People who work at WordPress?
Yeah, that’s a pretty spurious statement from them. A hundred-plus long comment thread in their forum full of complaints, but it’s “overwhelmingly positive.” Right…
It’s my opinion that you should always choose to opt into things, rather than choosing to opt out. It’s bad user experience. Just all wrong. Wouldn’t have expected this from wordpress. Or at least give the wordpress blog owners the CHOICE for their own readers.
Your opinion is correct. (Yes, I’m taking a subjective statement and making it objective. I can do that.
) I don’t think people usually want to subscribe to the comments, so not doing so should be the default. And yes, the choice should be available for the blog owners; maybe WP will make that the case, but so far, I’ve seen nothing to that effect.
They also recently made a change, multiple users can’t post under the same name on other blogs. Thus I am now Sanclementejedi rather than 3guys1movie when I post on people’s sites. Supposedly was going to cut down on spam.
Yeah, I noticed your identification changing when you post. That one, I can kind of see; at least if nothing else, I now know for sure which of the 3 Guys I’m talking to.
Morgan it was probably always me at least 99% of the time before as well. My partners in crime are some terrible commentors lol