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WordPress.com Hoses DatingGoddess
WordPress.com is a free hosted blogging service (not to be confused with WordPress.org which is similar, but software you download/install/configure to your Web host).
Recently, they shut down the popular DatingGoddess, Adventures in Delicious Dating After 40 blog with NO warning! Now this is a very popular and well done legit blog.
Customer service (if you can call it that) was closed the next day, but eventually responding with "remove the ads and affiliate links." Now I've read the silly terms of service and don't see where the hell they were violated!
My suggestion? Stick to my favorite, TypePad (or WordPress.org or MoveableType or ExpressionEngine or . . .)
Looks like the (free) WordPress.com should be avoided, unless of course they apologize to my friend the DatingGoddess.
Hey, everyone makes mistakes, even the Dating Goddess -- otherwise no one would be reading about her dating adventures:)
Ted,
I running on WordPress.org.
They don't exactly have what I would call "customer service" either. If I couldn't have gotten some good counsel from folks like yourself, I would have been pretty much awash in the sea isoloation myself. My heart goes out to the DatingGodess. I've experience similar misadventures on blogspot.
Posted by: Reg of Elemental Truths | 20 September 2007 at 01:27 PM
Reg,
I'm glad you've recovered! WordPress(.org) is great software.
Nothing personal against WordPress.com either, but if they are going to yank down blogs for vague violations without warning, it's hard to recommend them (even if they're free).
They DID restore her blog eventually.
Posted by: Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business | 20 September 2007 at 03:09 PM
Hi Ted:
Thanks for featuring my blog and my woes from last weekend. When I did hear from WP support Monday morning, they said I wasn't supposed to have ads or affiliate links. I guess I didn't see those restrictions when I signed up 18 months ago. I don't have ad, as in AdSense or sponsors, but I did have some display ads with affiliate links on my "Best dating sites" page.
The WP rep was prompt in answering my questions. At first he said I had to take off *all* affiliate links. Arrgh! I have many of them sprinkled in my 500 posts, since I review books and link to the Amazon page.
When I asked him to clarify, he said I only needed to take off the display ads with links on the aforementioned page. Whew! When I asked for a time line to complete it, interestingly he said there wasn't one. Go figure.
He also said I was fine after removing the culprit links, but that I should not do any in the future. So much for monetizing!
Which means I'm now moving to host it on my own site. He said it was easy to export all my posts, the import them, but I'd have to export/import all 500 images one at a time! Ugh! Do you know a way to automate that?
Dating Goddess
Adventures in Delicious Dating After 40
http://www.DatingGoddess.com
Posted by: Dating Goddess | 22 September 2007 at 12:23 AM
Greeting Goddess, and thanks for stopping by,
I don't know to automate moving the images (other than paying someone to do it manually).
The terms and conditions aren't clear, which is my complaint. If there were a "no affiliate links or . . ." I'd understand, but nowhere do they do more than hint at that in their terms and conditions.
Then again it's a free service, and pretty good otherwise. Clearly you've outgrown it though!
Posted by: Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business | 24 September 2007 at 01:49 PM
I was useful very much.
Thank you.
Posted by: Relax | 22 October 2007 at 10:28 AM