5 Years With WordPress

Reflections
Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!
You registered with WordPress.com 5 years ago.
Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.

I received this message from WordPress on Saturday. It’s hard for me to believe that I have been blogging for 5 years. It’s even harder to believe that after 5 years WordPress is changing the rules. To their credit I was given fair warning that these changes were coming and I have had adequate time to learn how to use the new editor. I just haven’t!

I guess the problem is that I don’t like change. I subscribe to the philosophy of “if it’s not broken don’t fix it”. I still use a flip phone and I don’t text; I take pictures with a camera; I still write checks to pay my bills; and I prefer to use a map or have written directions to get where I’m going. You might think I will be offended if you call me old fashion. I won’t. I will take that as a compliment.

For me the WordPress classic editor worked fine. I personally had no complaints, but I suppose when you are trying to please hundreds of thousands, perhaps more, (I really have no idea how many people use WordPress) there will certainly be people wanting something more, new or different.

This is my first post using the new editor. It is pretty basic and there is much more to learn. As much as I don’t like having to learn to use the new program, it is a choice I will make because blogging is important to me. You may not notice a difference in the appearance of the blog, and since I do not blog on a regular schedule you might not even realize that it is taking me longer to create a post. As I go through this leaning process if you do notice differences please bear with me as the support of my readers is what encourages me to keep blogging.

My hope is that it will come easy and I will continue to enjoy blogging as much as I have in the past. If that is the case perhaps WordPress and I will celebrate many more anniversaries.

Thanks for reading. It means a lot! 🙂

32 thoughts on “5 Years With WordPress”

  6. Wooop, Happy Blogiversary! 5 years is an impressive milestone achievement, you should be proud of all the posts you’ve done and the readership community you’ve brought together through your blog. As for the new editor, I was so reluctant to use the blocks when they first came out. I had just become confident with the classic editor and then they bring out something else. Despite my reluctance and dislike at first, it didn’t take all that long to get used to it and they’ve made a few small tweaks between then and now to make it a little more convenient. If I were to look at the classic editor now, I think I’d prefer the blocks. Hopefully you’ll find similar and it’ll become the norm after a few posts.

    Here’s to more happy blogging..! 🎉
    Caz xx

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    1. Thanks Caz. Blogging really has been a great adventure for me and I’m so happy that you have been part of it. Thanks for the encouragement about learning to play with blocks. LOL! I have those few more posts started – now if my brain will cooperate (focus) I should have them done soon. 🙂
      I hope you are doing well My Friend.

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  7. Happy blogging anniversary Ruth. Please don’t let the block editor get you down or keep you from posting your posts as we all enjoy them. I resist change too and the only reason I jumped into the block editor feet first is because we were getting new computer equipment at work (ordered in March 2019, I got onto the block editor April 2019 and our computer equipment and new accounting equipment is still not in use. So, I would have waited until the conversion too had I known. It is better you waited as most of the bugs have been tweaked out. There have been some little issues and it is going much better now. I have a flip phone too. I resist change too. Many more blogging anniversaries to you Ruth.

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    1. Thanks Linda. I will keep plugging away and pretend I know what I’m doing until I figure it out. LOL. There just seems to be a lot of features that I will probably never use because I am quite happy with the simple format of my blog. I’m glad you told me it was better to have waited. I can stop kicking myself for not learning it earlier.

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      1. Yes, do that and my first blog post when I “converted” was just paragraphs and one picture up top as I recall. I was pretty wound up by the time I finished the first post and there have been lots of buggy stuff. And, constant tweaks – like the left-hand side where all the choices are. That is only a couple of weeks old. It was just the image, paragraph and headline and I think to insert a link in – that was it. All of a sudden the “basic block” you have to scroll down for (seems strange to me) and the other stuff I have no clue what they are there for!

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    1. Thanks. I always appreciate when you visit. I’ll continue writing since I have figured out how to create my standard type post with basic paragraphs and pictures. That’s all I really need to know. You have a great day too, My Friend. 🙂

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  10. I know what you mean about change. Three years ago my wonderful hubby foisted a new smart phone on me, saying that my flip phone would not do as he now had to pay for internet on our shared phone service and I needed to learn. It has taken a while, but now I find myself using it as a teaching tool. (Almost all my middle school students have one.)
    In fact, this year we have to learn to teach online! Yikes! So I, like you, have to learn new tech things. I feel your pain. I am looking forward to hearing about your new adventures both in the real world and in the Blog world. 🙂

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    1. It’s amazing how quickly technology is advancing. I feel like the whole world is racing the Indy 500 and I have chosen to sit in the stands and watch the race. I don’t envy you having to learn to tech online. I hope it goes well for you.

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      1. I try to look at it as keeping my brain young, even though sometimes it just reminds me that learning was easier when I was younger. Right now I am “refreshing” my Algebra 2 and Trig. ( I don’t like Trig) and Calculus. Sometimes it is more fun than training videos. I hope you are having some fun.

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      2. I give you a lot of credit. All that math is way beyond me. I prefer learning about the plants I find growing in our area and their usefulness or lack of. Right now while I’m weeding the prayer garden I am cutting thistle instead of pulling them. Thistle has a horizontal root that runs underground so when it is pulled that root will send up new shoots and I end up with more than I started with. We have had success in getting rid of thistle by mowing it (depriving it of sunlight) so that is my intention. The summer weather has arrived and we are having fun. We miss you.

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  11. Yes! You did well! Keep it up!! I don’t want to lose you, so this is a selfish plea. Five years is a long time to blog. Many people give up long before that. I’m so glad you kept writing until we found each other.

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    1. Thanks Anne! I blogged for the first 2 1/2 years with very few readers. Now that I have readers and have made new blogging friends I wouldn’t want to give that up. I’m glad we found each other too. 🙂

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  12. Ruth…..did you choose to switch to the new block editor, or did it just automatically show up when you started a new post. I see mine is still on the old classic, but I wonder if that is just because they didn’t/couldn’t switch all 46 million users over at once? Or if it’s something I have to choose. Did you notice an option to go back to the old editor, as the Happiness Engineer told me there would be some default thing I could click on to go back or I could choose classic block in the new block editor? I’m confused so I don’t think I’ll be doing a post this week….

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    1. I switched a few days before the deadline and then it would not switch back even when it asked if I wanted to use the new editor. I haven’t noticed an option to go back to classic but I am still learning. I think what makes it confusing is that there are many things you can do with it. Most of which I will probably not use.

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