Well, I was far from happy when I read posts about this, so sent a message to the forum asking how it might affect me
My questions
I am concerned regarding changes to personal FREE blogs and restrictions to views and capacity i.e: 10,000 visits per month and media storage reduced to .5 GB rather than the current 3GB.
So my questions are:
Can I continue to use my blog as it is with no restrictions or am I going to lose my contents and media?
What happens if I get more than 10,000 visits per month something which is out of my control? If that happens, is it your intention to shut down access to my blog?
I have a lot of media which I have built up over the years. How will you decide what you are going to delete?
I only became aware of this having read another blogger’s post on it.
Why did you not make a global announcement or emailed everyone en masse about your intentions.
Is it your ultimate intent to do away with free blogging for life which was one of the key reasons why I joined WordPress in 2013.
Their reply
To start, our goal is to not “do away with free blogging”. We will be announcing affordable add-ons for both the free plan and the Pro plan to extend both your traffic and your storage as needed. In fact, we plan to also add a handful of affordable add-ons to the free plan to make it easy for customers to pick and choose which additional functionality they want, without needing to upgrade to the Pro plan.
Also, when we launched our new pricing changes there was a bug that changed the storage display for existing free sites from 3GB to 500MB – this has since been fixed. Please let us know if you’re still impacted by this!
Can I continue to use my blog as it is with no restrictions or am I going to lose my contents and media?
We won’t arbitrarily delete any media from your Media Library. If you reach that limit – we would limit new uploads unless you purchased more space or if you removed items from your library yourself.
Regarding the visits, if you consistently go over the cap month after month, we will let you know and ask you to pay a tiny bit more to cover the cost, but we will NEVER shut off access to your site, nor will we ever auto-increase the amount you’re paying.
Why did you not make a global announcement or emailed everyone en masse about your intentions.
We tend to release things, then make an announcement a few days later once we determine that there aren’t any additional bugs or problems with the switch – much like the Media Library display bug mentioned earlier. We should have a post on our blog with more details about this change within the next 24 hours or so. We’ll also have a thread posted to the forums where we’ll ask and gather feedback from the community.
My response to that:
Hello
This is all well and good from where you’re sitting, but I do not pay for my site and ‘affordable add ons’ go very much against the grain.
Do I have 3GB of storage or not?
Am I limited to 10,000 visits a month or not?
I thought FREE means I do not have to pay anything which was the deciding factor for joining WordPress in 2013.
I am not a business, I am a hobby blogger. I do not need or use half the fancy add ons, apps and gizmos to generate income.
The way I am reading their reply is that they want money from popular sites. Hardly seems fair does it.
This is not looking good. Will let you know what they come back with.
pensitivity101 
I’ve been absent so I know nothing, will hope you get answers for us🙄
The emails I get are to buy something never about changing the free ….🤔
it is all very confusing
Where are you getting all this from? I haven’t seen any announcement…
That’s just it John, there wasn’t one. I’ve picked it up from Fandango and Maggie at cavedwalls as well as Jim Adams but there are a lot of bloggers trying to get answers. I’m still waiting for a response to my part two.
I’m paid through next May. I figure they have to contact me if they want me to change plans, at least by next May. I’m going to wait to hear from them before I do anything else.
Have a read of the thread in my latest update John which might throw some light on the subject. At the moment, I’m reading that blogs started before 31st March 2022 are OK (………for now)
Reblogged this on The Bag Lady and commented:
Some Questions asked….
Reblogged, thanks!
Sent from my iPhone
>
Thanks Cheryl
These people are horrible communicators and seem to avoid giving direct answers to straightforward questions. Are they unable or just unwilling?
Are they even real Fandango? What was it ‘When I want your opinion I’ll give it to you?’ (movie Twister I believe). I haven’t heard anything else so don’t know where I am to be honest.
This is the first I have heard about the changes. It is confusing!
A lot of bloggers have picked it up Patricia.
I hope this isn’t like the block editor debacle!
One way of getting rid of classic altogether isn’t it.
Oh WOW, I’m so glad you posted this…as I was beginning to have nagging concerns about WP in the back of my mind. I pay for the Personal blog so that I don’t have ads–and I was blessed to sign up for it during one of their “discounts” days…but I sure don’t want to pay a huge amount for a simple poetry blog that is Not a Business. Thanks much for sharing this, Di–and I’ll stay tuned in for your updates.
Glad you found it useful Zelda. I’m just piggybacking on other concerns and adding my tuppence. I haven’t heard anything else yet.
I had an interesting “chat” with WP last night…wanting to know the cost of getting the plugin for the old “classic” format (I loathe blocks). It would be a small fortune to upgrade to Pro plan (and they were all too eager to “switch” me to it immediately)…but I’ll ponder it awhile 🙂
Luckily I can still access classic.
I can access it–but it’s a Block.
I only have a laptop so maybe that’s why I can use it from the drop down menu on dashboard.
I use a laptop too–but there’s no drop down menu for me…not sure why…it’s a mystery 🙂
Hi Zelda. This is how I can access it. Does it help?
https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2020/11/03/truthful-tuesday-3rd-november/
Thanks, but no it doesn’t help–it’s something to do with when I opened the blog, after the big WP block change…and also I think with what themes we’re using. So I’ll just soldier on 🙂
Oh my gosh, Di–I spoke too soon (I’m very stressed these days)–I followed your directions and, and Hallelujah, it worked!!!! I cannot thank you enough–you’ve saved me hundreds of dollars in upgrade costs. Bless you, bless you, bless you!!!
I am so pleased it worked for you! Again it was another blogger who pointed me in the right direction and I’m glad to have been able to pass it on.
Hope you enjoy my grateful post 🙂
Thank you!
Thanks for adding your voice to those questioning these changes and asking for clarification. My concern is this may be the end of WordPress as a viable platform for hobby bloggers.
Hi Dave. That’s what I’m afraid of too.
I am more than stressed about all of this. It truly seems like they want to get rid of the hobby bloggers. I’d hate to lose this community I’ve come to adore.
Me too and information is conflicting. I;m still waiting to hear if I have 3GB of storage and if I’m limited to just 10,000 visits a month. Just thought, does visits actually mean views? I had over 123K views last year.
They have us all dangling.
Damn rude of them if you ask me
I agree
First time I hear of this here, so thank you for making us aware. They are simply after earning money and if you don’t earn anything from your blog like you and I, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day possibly affected. If my blog on WordPress that I have still kept up for people to read, even though I don’t write there becomes affected, I simply will delete it.
I’m preparing an alternative to start again if necessary.
Thanks for getting those answers, Di. Very useful… and reassuring in terms of WP’s intentions, at least…
You’re welcome. Still waiting for confirmation of my storage capacity and any visiting restrictions.
I have just about had it with all these changes, it seems that the whole world is tinkering, sorry improving everything. The old saying, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, seems to have gone by the board…
Common sense has gone out the window with it.
Completely… 😩
Reblogged this on anitadawesauthor.com.
thanks
Reblogged this on NEW BLOG HERE >> https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
Thanks
🙂 xx
Thanks for the information and your efforts on enlighten this. Indeed terrible, as all costs now increasing in light speed. As long as they are allowing to use their Jetpack-plugin (responsible for reblogging, liking and also the engine for their advertising ads) all seems to be good. For image hosting i recommend a cloud like deego or pcloud. They have free plans with around 2Gigs, and you have all your image stored for better maintainance. Best wishes, Michael
Thanks Michael.
Always with a great pleasure. xx
Hi / it is confusing and it looks like their business model is changing
– when i was in florida (sometime last summer) a radio DJ was explaining disney world’s new prove plans that included all kinds of add ons!
So they can buy a quicker line access to rides – and so your post here reminded me of that.
Anyhow – we will see how this goes – perhaps wordpress wants to be known as a website builder and not a community of bloggers?
IMO they need to make things clear to existing bloggers as to whether they are going to be penalised with costs for add ons. There is a lot of unrest in the bloggers I follow on this.
I know / I have seen it too!
And hey – I was just editing a copy of a book i put together with some of my flash fiction – and guess what? I forgot I mentioned you (pensitivity logger) in it! I will try and send you a pdf because I had to edit it and make the font larger (numerous requests) and there was your mention
It was an entry about being others minded and how you shared that you and your other half often make it your goal to make someone smile each day….
Something like that – !
How lovely! Thank you for the inclusion.
My pleasure and I forgot all about it until I went in to change the fonts!
And maybe this connection is a reminder about how valuable multiple options for blogging are needed / it keeps the platform open more and allows for more connecting rather than only narrowing down to a pro plan? Hmmmm
I knew nothing of this until now. I, too, joined WordPress because of its free access.
I agree. Saying we can pay an ‘affordable’ amount for extras depends on your definition of affordable.
As a writer earning very little, anything at all is unaffordable.
I’m on a fixed and low income so can’t afford ‘extras’ anyway, and know from past experience that ‘a little bit’ soon become a bigger bit and then a huge amount beyond my budget.
🤔 They are already making money by placing advertisements on blogs with the free WordPress plan.
From what I have learnt via the WordPress forum is that blogs on the free WordPress plan that was created around March 31st, 2022, and before, will not have their storage affected.
Blogs on the free WordPress plan that were created on April the 1st, 2022, and after, will have a storage limit of 500 MB.
At the moment, I am still waiting for clarification on the various paid plans that existed before and if this so-called WordPress Pro is the new replacement.
Thanks Renard. I haven’t heard anything else yet so don’t know how much storage I have or if my visitors are limited.
Wow! Thank you for sharing Di. I hope it works out!
We shall indeed see
Interesting. We shall see how it unfolds.
We shall indeed. I haven’t heard anything else yet
Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
thanks