How to help WordPress support services fix a WordPress problem

WordPress support services will help you solve a WordPress problem. It’s in your interests and theirs to work on WordPress troubleshooting together to find a solution. Don’t think WordPress help for beginners has to come only from WordPress support services. A novice view from a layman’s perspective can often help solve a problem for a technician. New writers and bloggers will gain huge benefits by learning how to work with the experts to solve problems. That way all WordPress users benefit. Give them as much information as possible and play an active role.

27^th May 2003 was a day in tech history, when two web developers, 19 year old Matt Mullenweg (USA) and his 41 year old partner Mike Little (UK), launched WordPress, a piece of open source software people could use to build a blog. WordPress is a content management system which is available to anyone and can be used freely to build a website as is or can be customised under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.

Seventeen years later WordPress was driving more than a third of the world’s websites, helping non-technical individuals solve a problem of how to build a website without writing code.

New writers and bloggers will gain huge benefits by learning how to work with WordPress to solve problems. It’s in your interests and theirs to work on WordPress troubleshooting together to find a solution. WordPress support services help novices solve a WordPress problem. So we should help them.

Case Study 1 – How to fix a WordPress problem that seem unfixable.

The first case study is a good example of how you can help and not just dump your problem on the WordPress Support services.

However good they are, common errors exist, and you are bound to come across a WordPress error at some point, unless you are luckier than I am.

Thanks to a helpful and determined member of the WordPress Support team, Shawna Roberts. I fixed a WordPress problem which I could not understand for weeks. Because of her help, in the end, I discovered what the problem was, even though WordPress was unable to fix it.

So the issue was understood and has been resolved but the problem has not been solved.

This was the problem

• I did not want to receive notification emails from WordPress about other people’s comments to all posts on blogs I followed.
• But I wanted to receive notification emails of responses to MY comments on those blogs.

Logic told me I could do this by:

1. Going to my WordPress Reader ‘Blogs I follow’ and editing. Turning OFF ‘Send new comments by email’
2. Then ticking the box ‘Notify me of follow-up comments by email’ when I commented on a blog post

But it didn’t work because (and there was no way of knowing) the act of ticking the box ‘Notify me of follow-up comments by email’ overrode the first act of turning OFF ‘Send new comments by email’.

So I got loads of unwanted comment email notifications from WordPress even though my Reader was set to OFF.

I was confused, so, I initiated dialogue with Shawna and eventually learned what was happening.

This was the outcome

Shawna said,

There is currently no way to receive WordPress notifications for only comments that are in response to your comment.

We’ve looked at ways to do this and it’s currently quite complicated. I’ll make sure to add your vote for this feature, but as it’s currently impossible, I believe this is where the confusion occurs.

The check box you mention is the one we’ve changed the language for. It now says  ‘Notify me of new comments via email.’ Clarifying that you’ll be notified of all comments on that thread, not just the ones that are follow-ups to your comment.

In Conclusion

So, by investigating why I was confused, WordPress changed the wording of the tick box after Comments from;

• Notify me of follow-up comments by email to
• Notify me of new comments via email.

I am sure, in time, the clever WordPress boffins will figure out a way to solve the problem. In the meantime, frustrating though it was, I had to choose whether;

• TO GET NO EMAIL NOTIFICATION OF COMMENTS AT ALL – Turn OFF your reader to receive no comment emails and DON’T TICK the box Notify me of new comments via email, when you comment on a post, or
• TO GET EMAIL NOTIFICATION OF ALL COMMENTS ON ANY BLOG WHERE YOU HAVE COMMENTED – Turn OFF your reader to receive no comment emails and TICK the box Notify me of new comments via email, when you comment on a post.

The purpose of this second case study is to encourage WordPress users to work with the Support team to help improve the blogging experience for all of us.

Case Study 2 – How to move your blog from WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress

I thought it would be easy to move my WordPress.com site to WordPress.org self-hosting. It may be true if you have some technical expertise. But if you haven’t then there are some things you should be aware of when you decide it’s time to self-host your WordPress website or blog before moving it to your selected host.

Discovering Bugs after migration

If you have published a lot of posts over a few years on a WordPress.com site you may find out there are some bugs after you migrate to WordPress.org and self-hosting.

For starters, all your LIKES will disappear, and according to Jetpack, there is no way to get them back.

Due to the way WordPress.com stores the Likes, they don’t have any way to transfer them.

So anyone viewing your blog for the first time will assume that no-one has liked anything you’ve posted since you started. In the case of my blog it was four years.

The question is,- are past LIKES more important than self-hosting?

They weren’t to me, but nevertheless, it would have been nice to know before I made the decision. Now, I don’t bother with likes or comments. If someone wants to tell me something they are welcome to email me. Things have changed.

Researching the migration process

Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

When I looked into migrating, I didn’t notice any warnings. I wasn’t looking for problems, so it’s possible I missed them. There were other issues I was working on, like menus, and there were other things I didn’t find.

Wherever the responsibility lies, WordPress and the host you move to must know the issues of moving from WordPress.com to self-hosting. So I don’t know why they don’t disclose them to users. But they don’t. So be aware.

Should you move to self-hosting?

The sales pitches made to site owners and bloggers to move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org self-hosting is persuasive, but it gives the impression it is easier than it actually is. That’s not to say you shouldn’t move. I did because there were plugins, I needed which are not available in WordPress.com. But the snags were not transparent.

When I look back, it seems odd that I was hesitant. I should have done it earlier, but then I was just doing it for fun with no serious intent.

Unless you are clued up, I don’t advise a DIY approach.

I used WPbeginner to transfer my site to Bluehost. And I have no hesitation in recommending both of them and would advise using WPbeginner for non-techies. They did an excellent job and I think I may have pulled the rest of my hair out if they hadn’t been there to support me.

You can build any type of site with WordPress

Nowadays WordPress is the go-to platform for any website user, private individual with a family blog up to sizeable businesses. Save costs and use WordPress .com for simple private sites and WordPress.org for business to show professionalism and authority, and to access plugins and get greater flexibility. These days, self-hosting on WordPress.org is used by a multitude of businesses, not only bloggers who want to keep producing quality content.

Recommended reading from Author Indie – Should Fiction Writers Blog?

Parting Tips

• Bluehost are partners with WordPress, so were a logical choice to host my site. I bought the domain from WordPress, but wherever you buy yours, it’s advisable to transfer it to the host to manage.
• And don’t forget to help all WordPress users by working with the awesome support team when you have a problem.

Editor’s note – This post was first published on 8th September 2017 and has since been revised and updated.

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