1 WordPress Complaint and 5 Literary Citizenship Tips

No, WordPress spammers, I do not want to buy you a coffee.

Is it just me, or is the number of people trying to finagle financial gain out of WordPress out of control?

I don’t mind people who have monetized their blog or who have Patreon supporters. I seek to provide value to my readers because I don’t take your readership for granted for even a second. I consequently don’t begrudge those who have more sophisticated branding and have begun to use WordPress as an income stream. They are likely providing their readers with a product they value.

But those random people who don’t actually have anything other than an invitation to buy them a coffee on their own WordPress? Come on.

I like the fact that WordPress notifies you when people like your posts and invites you to check out their posts. I have discovered some wonderful writers this way and increased my own literary community beyond the writers groups I belong to. Those emails can be a way to increase engagement and connection between writers.

But I have noticed an alarming increase in people who aren’t actually using WordPress to produce any written content. They seem to randomly like people’s posts, and when I try to return the favor, all I find is a page that says, “Congratulations, now you can buy me a coffee!” Not cool.

If you’re new to WordPress and have your bank account linked to it (I don’t), please be careful. I don’t know what would have happened if my account information had been linked.

Ok, rant over. I have been thinking about literary citizenship and how it is sometimes lacking on WordPress. And as I am just getting a handle on how to use this forum, I would like to apologize! The truth is that it is common courtesy to use people’s names when you respond to them in a group. I am sorry to those of you for whom I have failed to do so. As I become more acquainted with how to navigate WordPress, I promise to do better.

Reflecting on spammers and my own feelings as a literary citizen has inspired me to write this post with tips for literary citizenship. If that term is unfamiliar to you, it is what it sounds like: it’s how to be a nice person in the literary world.

Here goes:

  1. Respond to everyone. If someone takes the time to comment on your blog, respond to them using their name as you would in real life. It is a busy world full of technology competing for everyone’s attention. If someone takes the time to comment on your blog, appreciate it for the honor that it is in this busy world. Again, I am sorry for not consistently responding using people’s names in my own responses and ask for your forgiveness!

2. Pay it forward. If you have made an explicit request for people to comment on your blog, and I have made a comment on your blog to comply with your request, you should consider doing the same for other people. It doesn’t have to be on my blog, but pay it forward somehow.

3. Don’t troll people, no matter how tempting it is. I have seen some ugly things on people’s blogs, and it is just mean-spirited. I saw someone pointing out another person’s grammar errors, and while that’s fine in a writers’ group, it was just mean on this forum. If you don’t like someone’s content, don’t interact with it. You don’t need to bring them down. Scott Fitzgerald was a notoriously bad speller, yet wrote what is one of the most perfectly plotted novels in the English language.

4. Encourage others if something they’ve written has provided value to you. Spend a few minutes each week seeking out people who aren’t yet wildly successful on here. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with following people who have a huge following, as there is obviously some reason for it. But I also think it’s valuable to spend a few minutes giving a “like” to a post that you benefited from in some way, even if that person is pretty anonymous on here. Who knows? One of the unknowns on here might be the next Faulkner, and maybe your encouragement is just with that person needed to keep going.

5. Don’t follow people because you want them to follow you. This idea is not original to me, as I remember reading it somewhere years ago. I had a WordPress blog about 15 years ago, then deleted it and got back to blogging about 3 months ago. Someone who was very successful interacted with a lot of my posts, and I became interested in them and their branding and started following them. But here’s the stupid and embarrassing thing -I wondered why they kept interacting with my content and not following me. I know- it’s so dumb! Then I got over it. You follow someone because they provide value to you, not in the hopes that they will follow you back. The only person worth following is Jesus, anyway.

Is there anything about WordPress that annoys you? Or anything you would add to the literary citizenship tips? Please let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading, and be blessed!

Thank you for sharing!

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  1. KC-Ink

    I love this! Good pointers.

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    1. Stacey

      Thank you, K-c! I hope you haven’t gotten spammed! I enjoyed your post on spiritually healthy leadership. I am always applying that idea to motherhood….I need to keep my inside house “clean” to be a good mom!

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      1. KC-Ink

        It’s the first time I’ve heard about the coffee messages, so no, I haven’t. Must be horrible. Thanks. Yes, leading children in the right way – the way of the Lord – is so important, and we cannot do this if we’re not on the right path.

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  2. Jeffrey H. King

    I usually look up someone’s blog when they give me a like on my site or on a comment on someone else’s site. I often find that they aren’t quite what I’m interested in and move on. Caralyn’s Beauty Beyond Bones is a prime example. Her story and her writing are compelling to me. I’ve developed friendships with two other bloggers through her site as well – Kenneth and David’s Daily Dose. Now you. Your story is compelling and I like your style. We’re also pretty aligned on our faith and world view, so I find it helpful to have these conversations and hear your take on things.

    Thank you for re-entering blogging and putting yourself out there once more.

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    1. Stacey

      Thank you, friend! I’m so glad you’ve found meaningful friendship and not been scammed!

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  3. TRAILBLAZER

    Don’t follow people because you want them to follow you. I agree with this.

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    1. Stacey

      Yes! Thank you for commenting!

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      1. TRAILBLAZER

        You are welcome

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  4. Phil Strawn

    I have been through all the above, and I see WP becoming more like FaceBook. Spammers and scammers, they are here to stay, and once AI kicks in, then it will be unstoppable. I’ve been blogging for over 10 years and WP is the best platform, even with its flaws.

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    1. Stacey

      Thank you, Phil! It’s reassuring to know that you find WP to be the best platform after 10 years! As for becoming more like Facebook, that makes me groan inside a bit. I don’t actually have any social media, and having WordPress was a compromise for me.

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      1. Phil Strawn

        When I first started my blog I tried Blogger and then GoDaddy, both had major problems. Good luck with your new blog site.

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      2. Stacey

        I appreciate the tip. Thank you!

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  5. Darts and Letters

    Our faith and world views may not be perfectly aligned but I’m really inspired by your outlook on life and your writing as evidenced in just a handful of the posts of yours that I’ve read this morning. I also appreciate your observations about WordPress, the latest one you shared about AI (very alarming) and this somewhat older post, you’ve really put into words what I’ve been feeling, lately (people commodifying their activity on WP). I still believe WP is still one of the best platforms for blogging, I’ve been writing on here a long time. I almost decided to stop earlier this summer, I thought the end was nigh, that my rewarding run had ended, that everyone I used to know had gradually, finally burned out on blogging. But I missed writing on here after a couple months. And lately I’ve felt reinvigorated by other people on WP who seem like the “new guard”, who are carrying on the torch of fostering community on WP, through good content and making connections, in spite of a changing environment on the web.
    -Jason

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    1. Stacey

      Thank you for such a thoughtful comment, Jason. It’s totally okay that our faith and worldviews aren’t aligned- when I first encountered God many of my dear friends expressed sentiment ranging from confusion to disbelief that prompted them to send me articles about how people who think they’re having a religious experience are actually having a seizure.

      I’m so glad that you got back into blogging! You mentioned that it reinvigorates you, and that is wonderful. That’s the whole point of any optional endeavor, isn’t it? T find things that give us more energy rather than deplete us. Of course, it’s not possible to do this all the time and our jobs often deplete us, but it’s important to balance that out with something that gives more than it takes.

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