Hello dear subscribers, some of you have been subscribed to this site for quite some time (or maybe only since yesterday) and it’s been a pleasure to have you here.
Starting July 15th this site will be offline for a yet-unknown period of time while I reexamine the future of this website and how it can best serve us both. From July 5th I’ll be unsubscribing you from this site if you:
- subscribed, but never wrote on your blog
- no longer have a website connected to your WordPress.com account
- have not updated your WordPress.com website since subscribing
- have never interacted with this site beyond subscribing.
This also means that before the 15th of July you have a window of opportunity. If you have a free WordPress.com website, reach out in the comments and tell me the one thing you wish you could change on your website that would make it work better for you. I’ll do my best to reply with an idea that you can put to use on your site. After 14 years on the WordPress.com platform there’s a lot of information tucked away in this head of mine and I’m happy to put it to use for you.
First time commenters are held in moderation and so your comment won’t appear until approved. If you’d rather not leave a public comment on this post, feel free to leave a message on my contact form (currently offline).
The emphasis here is on free WordPress.com websites. If you have any paid WordPress.com upgrade, well done for leveling up your website experience! You’ve got access to direct support by LiveChat or email when you post to the Support contact form or that big question mark in lower right corner of any page of your MySite dashboard.
Keep in mind I can’t turn back the clock and bring back features that WordPress.com has discontinued or will discontinue in the near future (like the Classic Editor in the MySite interface-I’m not Doc Brown and I don’t own a DeLorean).
If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.
-Dr. Emmett Brown, Back to the Future
WPcomMaven 
The biggest thing on my main site is not posting on it for a while – it is still however getting what I consider nice traffic for being neglected – I have a “free” site for recipes or general observations of the world but it is not linked to my name – – good luck with your thinking project!!!!!!!
Hi Mike, always glad to see you; hope you’re faring well. A lot of the content you’ve written on your main site is evergreen content and that only turns to gold the older your site gets thanks to search engines. Neglect away! I haven’t visited your other sites for a while and will correct that immediately. Did you finish the cannery history project you were working on?
Thanks for the good wishes. I don’t think anything will happen here overnight, but it’s time for some major changes, both on and offline.
I think I’ve only commented here once before, but would definitely want to stay subscribed please! I have been following your posts on the Block Editor and am totally worried about it, what it will do to my galleries etc.
I’ve been meaning to try it out on my private test blog – that will only affect that one blog and not my other ones, is that correct?
Hi Kiki, my sincerest apologies if I caused you undue worry. You’ve definitely commented here before, so you’re on the future subscriber’s list.
AFAIK- Existing content shouldn’t change after the Block Editor becomes default. My experience so far is admittedly limited, but here’s what I do know: After changing this site from the Classic Editor to the Block Editor, when I went to open an existing post to edit it, I was offered to either convert the post content to separate blocks or continue to edit it in the Classic Editor block, which is supposed to emulate the Classic Editor experience. From the reactions I’ve seen in the forums, it isn’t always a one-to-one exchange.
Let me know if you need an older, private site to test on and I’ll invite you to mine. We can only test this before the platform switches to the Block Editor.
Yes, I certainly needed that extra cup of coffee before answering you!
If you try the Block Editor out on your private test blog, it will only affect that one blog and not the other ones.
And now maybe some offline time is in order.
Good luck with the overhaul, it seems to me the covid-19 pandemic has shaken us all up and made us look at things from different angles. I hope you keep me subscribed as I’d miss your blog – and you – otherwise.
I’m following your blog via my Colouring the Past blog, but might change that to one of the newer ones as I’m using them more often (I think you’re following at least one of those, too). All my sites are paid apart from a few private ones I use just for jottings and as test sites, amongst other things, and I’m fairly happy with them as they are, though when the block editor arrives on those, I’ll be switching back to classic. I had staff switch my newest blog to the classic editor so I now feel more at peace… (and so much for my idea of doing tutorials of how to use it. Oh well!)
If you have any access to a new brain… send it my way! 😉
Hey Val, Thanks for your good wishes. Of course you’re subscribed and it seems from both your accounts. 🙂
No new brain, I’m afraid. Just trying new and different things to clear the cobwebs from this one. I’ll be round more to visit yours.
I was watching an Instagram ‘story’ today that showed a person making tiny resin earrings and brooches – mini doughnuts with chocolate and sprinkles on – that kind of thing – and then I was watching stickermule with their labels and stickers – and I am thinking how I could put something together. I keep looking at the post from the people at WP.com that explains how one can monetise a blog if one has any kind of paid plan. It’s on my list to try it for the process and the experience, but I need a little product that will actually sell, otherwise it’s embarrassing… 🙂
They do make it tempting to monetize, don’t they. But besides having a product and the ability to sell it on your site, it may also require some legalese and insurance, too, depending on the product you’re selling. That’s an investment all on its own above the cost of an appropriate upgrade plan. Good luck with your venture!
Good points – I have a set of terms that meets the distance selling regulations in the UK (such as a right to cancel, return for whatever reason within 14 days) and because we have an e-commerce site as well, we have insurance. But then the product (whatever it may be) would be simple, and the worst consequence would be a paper cut. But that is a good point
Good topics for a blog post 🙂
Over here, that will have to wait for the next incarnation. 😊
We can do those too. Reincarnation kits – Just add water.