Technical Issues with WordPress Comments – Again
Arrrrggggghhh!
Without notification, WordPress made the check box for follow-up comments via email ON by default. I didn’t do it and I can’t change it. This appears to be system wide for all wordpress.com users. Angry WP bloggers are filling the forum with comments and pleas to turn it OFF, but WP staff do not work on the weekends.
Whether this is a new feature (hahaha) or a bug remains to be seen. For now, uncheck the ‘notify me of follow-up comments’ box if you don’t want to receive emails.
If WordPress blogs are flooding your inbox today, this is the reason why. And yes, I know the solution: Self-hosting, self-hosting, self-hosting!
Update – May 6th
This was posted in the WordPress Support Forum in response to the many comments about the email notifications:
The reported behavior of email notification for comments is not a bug. It is a new default setting when commenting. This feature was a recent change to the way comments work on all WordPress.com blogs.
So there ya go, it’s not a bug, it’s a feature!
——————————–
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Under My Apple Tree 
I noticed that earlier as I’ve been making the rounds on Saturday Snapshot. I just unchecked. And by the way, Leslie, it appears to be unchecked on this post. Maybe it’s fixed? Nice thing about it is that WordPress always sends you an email asking you to subscribe. Which is annoying to me normally because I always think that if I didn’t want to subscribe I wouldn’t have checked the box.
LikeLike
Not fixed yet on my end. The box is still checked. And it never asks me if I want to subscribe or not, it just does it. Probably because I have a wordpress blog.
After I commented on the Sat.Snapshot posts I found all these emails in my inbox plus we get notifications on our toolbars. I guess WP wants to encourage conversation!
LikeLike
I’d been wondering about that checked box. Since I like to see if I get a reply to my comment I usually always check the box anyway. These blogging platform techies are always changing things. I think they get bored or maybe are just trying to justify employment.
Lee
A Faraway View
An A to Z Co-host blog
LikeLike
For Blogger and other platform comments I check the box too. But wordpress.com bloggers have a dashboard that automatically notifies them when they have a comment reply on another WP blog. That’s why I think this may be a bug… I’m getting two notifications on every WP comment now.
LikeLike
After about the 3rd email, I checked to see why I was getting them. WP hopefully will turn it off Monday so we don’t have to uncheck the box if we don’t want follow ups.
LikeLike
I hope so too. It does seem like overkill … and a bit spammy too.
LikeLike
There is always something. I have hosting and had installed wp in preparation to migrate, and last night just found out that something about one of the php based installs let hackers screw with all the php sites. I just went and deleted them, and will manual install it later.
I like not having to check the box. And if you don’t confirm it, you won’t get the emails.
LikeLike
Problem is, I don’t get the confirmation email, it just signs me up and I get all the notifications in addition to getting duplicate notifications from my own blog. I think they need to work out a few bugs.
LikeLike
Maybe it depends how you sign in. I guess if you sign in with WP you get them like you are. Since my account was wordpress.org, I can’t log in on the wordpress.com sites.
LikeLike
Yeah, I think you’re right. They also triggered a few bugs with the changes they made to the sign-in verification.
LikeLike
Leslie, I noticed that I was suddenly subscribing to the comments on several blogs, although I hadn’t planned on that. I think it started a day or two ago. I’m sure it will be resolved soon by WP. Thanks for letting us know what’s been happening. 🙂
LikeLike
You’re welcome. I just wanted readers to know how to stop it and that I wasn’t spamming them.
I went and poked around on the WordPress forums some more and it seems they did turn notification on by default but also triggered a few bugs in the process and they are working on it this weekend.
LikeLike
Yup, I noticed this on all the WP blogs I commented on today. Those glitches are always annoying:(
LikeLike
Looks like it wasn’t a glitch. WP Staff is saying it’s a new feature. Go figure, a feature that sends spam!
LikeLike
If it makes you feel any better, WP did send an email that I needed to send back to confirm. When I didn’t do that, I didn’t get the follow-up comments.
LikeLike
I knew there was a problem when I had 80+ unread messages in my inbox! I wondered what was happening!
LikeLike
Ugh! It’s like they said, “Hey we’re too popular – why don’t we just screw it up?” And I’m not just talking about the new default for the comments, but also the having to login to your wordpress account to leave comments. I had my hotmail account linked with an old wp account that I don’t use, so I switched that account to a different email address, and yet wp still says that my hotmail email is associated with an account and I have to login to comment. So I just comment using the twitter login now.
LikeLike
It’s the lack of choice that really is the last straw here. As they roll out each new buggy feature we have no option other than to accept it or purchase a CSS Custom upgrade.
Prior to the comment system changes they began making templates “infinite scroll” with no way to disable it. As if I really want my blog to look and act like a Facebook page! My garden blog is now plagued with this ‘feature’. So far they haven’t messed with this template and I hope to be self-hosted before they do.
And if I really want to get cranky I’d complain about the ads they place on our blogs… and we don’t even see them if we are logged in, which I always am. I didn’t know about it for months. My husband saw a video ad and asked me why it was there.
LikeLike
I have been out of town most of the weekend, but glad to see your post because I thought it was something I messed up on my blog. SO ANNOYING and so much extra email! I went in and shut it off (I thought), but I am still getting everyone’s comments on their posts….
LikeLike
Yes, annoying that we aren’t given the choice to turn it off. Less than 2% of my visitors subscribe to comments so I don’t think I need it turned on by default.
LikeLike
One of the reasons I left WP.com last month was because of things like that without any notifications to its customers. For example, they changed the way people can comment, having to use WP.com or Gravatar sign-ins even if you have accounts that you don’t use anymore. I was wondering what was going on when I was receiving e-mails yesterday from WP.com sites, so thanks for letting me know what is going on…
LikeLike
Thanks for adding to the discussion and retweeting this.
WP has “jumped the shark” for me. Rolling out several major changes without notification and refusing to make them optional are the last straw. I have to uncheck the notify box when I comment on my own blog or I get emails from myself! How stupid is that?
WP needs to listen to the people that use their service. They seem to have forgotten we are their customers. I have yet to hear anyone say they regretted moving to self-hosting.
LikeLike
I had been with them almost seven years before encountering problems with them. I had a hint of problems last year when they deleted a theme and changed it to another one without telling anyone, but this year was, as you say, “the last straw.”
LikeLike