A very informative and comprehensive article on the things you should think about even before you sign up for or create a new website, whether hosted here on WordPress.com or anywhere, really.
This reblogged post is a test of what happens when clicking the Reblog button displayed at the end of a WordPress.com post. When a post is reblogged, it is immediately published to your WordPress.com website. If you have more than one WordPress.com website, you can choose it from the drop-down menu offered. You will not be able to add Categories or Tags at the time you reblog, but you can add these after the fact by editing your reblogged post.
Note that you will only be able to edit the comment you have added in the reblog box, but you will not be able to edit the excerpt of the original post, which is automatically selected and shared in the reblogged post.
Reblogging a post in this way is only available on WordPress.com sites to logged in users, and only if the site owner has enabled the Reblog button in Sharing. You can only reblog the same post once.
Over the next week or two, I’ll be sharing posts from around the web testing the currently available sharing options of reblogging, sharing and PressThis and posting the results below.
How was this post shared and what happened: Shared using the Reblog button located at the end of the original post. After clicking the Reblog button, a small box opened where I could add my thoughts prior to clicking the button. The reblogged post on my site appears with my thoughts; the original post text was automatically selected, along with the post title and a link back to the original post.
After reblogging the above post, I opened my post to edit it and my comment on the original post appeared in a Classic block in the Editor. I also added categories and tags after the fact and then updated the post.
Images: Reblog is broken on WordPress.com again. Nine of the original post’s 13 images were transferred to my site’s Media Library. With the exception of the original post’s Featured image, none of the the images from the original post appear in the reblogged post on my site. Strangely, although the original post’s Featured image appears in the Featured Image module in the post’s Editor, it does not appear on the post itself!
If you have Publicize enabled on your site, the original post’s Featured image is shared to your social media and displays in the WordPress.com Reader.
Additional Notes: If the original post allows comments and pingbacks, my thoughts would appear as a comment on the original post with a link back to this reblogged post. Like any comment, the original post author can choose to allow it to appear or not.
Also, search engines are not happy with exact duplicate post titles, so although I could change the title of this post, which I did, I would want to take care that the permalink stayed the same as the post has already been published.
Creating a website from scratch can be intimidating. This is especially true if you have never designed one before and your time is tight. When you have other things to do (like building your business or pursuing the passion you’d like to share), it may feel like an insurmountable task.
Fortunately, WordPress.com makes designing websites simple. It offers power, flexibility, and ease of use to bring your digital dreams to life, no matter what your needs are, or how much experience you have. With some basic knowledge and planning, there’s nothing you can’t do.
Stick with us and we’ll walk you through the entire process from beginning to end. Plus, we’ll even share some simple tips that’ll make you feel like a website design pro. It all starts here.
Step 1: Determine Your Website Needs and Goals
What would you like to achieve with your new website? This is…
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WPcomMaven 
I know we’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth mentioning that although you said that …’ and only if the site owner has enabled the Reblog button in Sharing…’ that users can still reblog the post from the WP Reader if there is no reblog button on the post.
Very true and an important point, Hugh. In this post I’m specifically highlighting the Post Reblog button due to the image issue. I covered the Reader Share button in an earlier post.
I was — and am — not keen on the whole reblogging thing. Don’t know what exactly I don’t like about it other than a vague feeling about it typically seeing it misused.
If I want to point someone to a particular post or site, I prefer linking the site with an explanation without grabbing some of the content and posting it on my blog. And, in fact, I don’t like seeing any part of my content elsewhere. Links to my stuff, I don’t mind.
There are a couple of places that all they do (or used to do) is aggregate other people’s posts, and I used to try and dissuade them from grabbing my stuff (they never answer and I never took it further than politely asking).
And, yes, I have the reblogging feature turned off (whether it works or not). Heck, I don’t even like the idea of being “pressed”.
But, none of this matters (and hence I’m not overly worked up) because no one is breaking down my virtual door in an attempt to share my stuff.
I completely understand, Emilio. The potential misuse of this feature has been discussed many times over the years since reblogging was introduced, both here on my site and elsewhere and in the community forums. At the same time, even without the Reblog button on your site, there is nothing preventing anyone from sharing your content by simple copy/paste or, as Hugh mentioned in his comment, by using the Sharing button in the Reader, which to its credit (?) does not scoop up post images and dump them in your Media Library, which is currently the situation with Reblog, unfortunately. That really is the point of this specific post.
What I do appreciate about the Reblog button is that it is not possible to edit the content of the original post excerpt when it’s reblogged on a site. I’ll give TPTB that much. If you do find sites that are nothing but reblogged posts, those can be reported to the Terms of Service team as spam via the Action bar.
I agree there’s no way to keep someone from stealing content . . . but that’s a deliberate act which, again, is difficult to police. But the ease of Reblogging/Sharing encourages copyright infringement the same way that Pinterest does, under the guise of ‘sharing’ and benefit to others (it benefits Pinterest).
As for reporting “over-sharing”, it’s a nuanced thing that is difficult to enforce unless one knows the intentions. One of my subscribers was an animal lover that would post content that was, essentially, a list of where one could find photos of particular animals (other blogs), and included the photos.
There’s nothing specific in the ToS that prohibits lots of reblogging. If anything, it’s encouraged, as you have to agree to having your content shared. To wit:
“License. By uploading or sharing Content, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, adapt, publicly display, and publish the Content solely for the purpose of providing and improving our products and Services and promoting your website. … — … You also give other WordPress.com users permission to share your Content on other WordPress.com websites and add their own Content to it (aka to “reblog” your Content), so long as they use only a portion of your post and they give you credit as the original author by linking back to your website, which the reblogging function on WordPress.com does automatically.”
Basically, bloggers have to agree to give away their content for nothing. Of course, one could beg for contributions from readers (and have WordPress take a cut). Realistically, I have nothing to worry because WordPress isn’t going to steal my content . . . but they could, and so can other bloggers, and I have to agree to it to even have a blog.
The ToS also says they are not responsible for what other people do (i.e. people outside the WP community) . . . but the bulk of the sharing is from within the community and blessed by WP. I knew this going into blogging, so I’m not claiming victimhood; I’m just expressing my dislike for the practice.
To be clear, and as I’ve already said, I don’t mind someone sharing a link directing readers to any of my posts, and I’ve even encouraged readers to do so (it’s telling that none of my readers do so — that I know of — and especially not for my fiction and opinion pieces).
But, if I ever publish something and become famous (not that there’s a chance, but speaking hypothetically), I would immediately pull all my content from WP . . . except that, per the ToS, they already have a license to all my content.
Let me reiterate something. The reblogging feature is confined to WordPress.com and I understand that there are those who would see it as copyright infringement, which is why many WPcom site owners do not offer the Reblog button on their sites. What currently is at issue is on those WPcom sites where the Reblog button is available, there is transference of the original post images to the reblogger’s own Media Library, which should not be happening and is a reversal in behavior. I reported it to WordPress.com earlier this month. This, like my other recent posts, is a test post.
WordPress.com’s ToS is there to protect WordPress.com. Unfortunately, though, there are real world consequences for its users when Reblog brings someone else’s images into a reblogger’s Media Library, especially if they are reused by the reblogger in some way. This transference does not occur (at least it hasn’t in my previous test posts) with either PressThis or the Reader Sharing button, which hotlink the featured image only. Reblog is the outlier in this regard.
The topic of reblogging has been discussed hotly time and again since its introduction in 2010. It’s always going to be controversial.
Lastly, forum Staff have repeatedly advised if a blog on WordPress.com consists only of reblogged posts, and NO original content, it can be reported to the ToS team. There’s nothing nuanced about it.
Yes, but all you need is a tiny bit of original content to meet the guidelines. And, often, there’s no malicious intent (admiration, even, as the case for the person I mentioned above), but that’s not the point.
Again, it’s not affecting me other than a dislike for it in principle. WP could fix the whole thing by changing the mechanics of it (share the link without sharing the content).
You seem to say that it’s OK for PressThis or Reader Share to hotlink an image.
Hotlinking an image causes the image to appear somewhere without my consent. Here’s a link to an article about hotlinking. Some of it doesn’t;t apply to the WP platform (resources are shared) but the permission thing is a biggie for me. I’ll willingly share anything (give it away, even), but I want to be asked.
https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/hotlinking
Note that it mentions you should link to the site and not a specific piece of content, which is what I recommend and do for other blogs when I share them.
NOTE: because of blocks, even that behavior is being circumvented. I can share a link, and WP tries to resolve it into content, depending on how it’s shared.
I can write on my blog that I DON’T agree to share content without my permission, but it can be routinely ignored without consequences because of the WP agreement (hence my humorous note about copyright).
I want to stress I’m not complaining of personal loss or personal abuse . . . it’s about the principle.
And yes, I’m in the minority.
Thanks for the reference on hotlinking, Emilio. The only relevant point there is the ethical (not legal) aspect, since in this case hotlinking is done between two WordPress.com hosted sites. There’s no bandwidth theft involved as WordPress.com provides all its users, including free websites, with unlimited bandwidth, which I believe is what you’re referring to by “shared resources”. Secondly, according to the quoted reference to the WordPress.com ToS you shared, you’ve already given WordPress.com permission to use your content for this purpose. (And that permission is also what allows your content to be distributed by email and appear in the Reader.)
One hotlinked featured image, while potentially problematic if your featured image is under copyright, is vastly different to what is currently happening with images when using the Reblog button. In its current iteration, images from the original article don’t appear in the reblog itself, but are none-the-less uploaded to the reblogger’s Media Library, without the knowledge of the original blogger or the reblogger. A hotlinked image isn’t transferred to the reblogger’s Media Library, so it can’t be reused intentionally or inadvertently. I’m not saying hotlinking is an ideal situation, but if WordPress.com created and promotes a utility to share other WordPress.com bloggers’ content, they need to be aware that there are real world consequences for the blogger as a result of using their Reblog utility.
I doubt we’ve exhausted this topic, but I can see I’m repeating myself. If you’re interested, there’s a discussion of the Reblog button’s current image issues in the forum thread where both Hugh and I have posted. Finito. ☺
sent from my Android mobile
(Edited to add the link to the forum thread, which didn’t come through by email.)
Have you seen the new plans? Just 0,5 G of storage in the free plan…
Most definitely. Things are in flux right now and there’s supposed to be space upgrades coming at some point. Free sites created prior to March 31 still have 3GB of storage. (Once upon a time, free sites had a whole 50MB storage.) If you have an existing paid plan, it’s now a legacy plan and you can continue renewing it; just don’t let it lapse!
I will recommend to my friends new projects on Blogger.
I had a long discussion with another blogger here about image sizes versus storage and I’m not in a place where I can pull up the link easily. But if people are optimizing their images before uploading, even 500MB is going to last quite a long time. I agree it’s not going to work well for photographers or other sites that are image heavy, but for most casual sites, it’s enough. Another point is that the new Pro plan has nearly all the features (as far as I can tell) as the old Business plan at about 2/3 +/- the cost. For managed WP hosting, that’s pretty reasonable! But, whatever platform works for a person is what is important.
To me, the need for an intermediate plan is clear.
Also, what bothered me was not the reduction in storage capacity itself, but what that means in a context where there have always been improvements (in the sense of more storage).
What prompted this change is unclear to me, but plans and their components have changed regularly on WordPress.com since the beginning. We’ll just have to wait and see. There are several forum threads already, besides yours, about the changes and it’s worth reading Staff replies that have been made so far. https://wordpress.com/forums/topic-tag/plans/
Feedback on the changes can be posted here https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/pricing-feedback/
Jen T; do you know the answer to this question:
https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/pricing-feedback/page/5/#post-3811205
It was bedtime here when you asked me, but I see staff replied to your questions in that forum thread.
Again, free sites that were created prior to March 31 still have 3GB of storage. Only new free sites have 1GB. Also, it’s never been a wpcom policy to delete media if a person reaches their storage limit. The site owner just won’t be able to upload new media. That’s why they should have had the add-on upgrades ready to go at the same time as the change in pricing. But they didn’t, perhaps believing that people would choose to upgrade instead to the Pro plan.
I’ve been looking around at other web hosting provider’s pricing pages and NO ONE, and I do mean no one, has pricing set up like this, not even Pressable, which is owned and run by… wait for it…Automattic.
And here’s the official announcement (finally!) https://wordpress.com/blog/2022/04/05/introducing-wordpress-pro-one-plan-infinite-possibilities/
Edited to add: They have removed the visit cap on both free and Pro plans and new free sites will have 1GB storage, not 500MB.
I left some feedback (care to guess if it was positive?) but it’s a bit like talking to a wall. At no time do I feel that WP evacuates internally processed food about users like me (or like most users that I follow).
If I were today looking to start a blog, that pricing plan would immediately eliminate WP.
I have a legacy plan, and now I wonder how long that will be honored (I estimate two years, tops — I should start setting up an alternative now).
The thing is, the largest group of potential buyers of this new plan is their existing customer base. To be honest, I don’t know why they decided to roll it out this way. It reflected very badly on them.