Note: the following post contains affiliate links.  I receive a portion of any purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to you.  —TPP

Longtime blogger Esoterica of Existential Ergonomics wrote a piece last Saturday that caught my attention: “Why Is WordPress Adding Achievements Now?” WordPress.com has long tracked “streaks” of daily consecutive posts starting with three days-in-a-row; indeed, that’s partially why I decided to start blogging daily way back in January 2019 (as of this post, it’ll be 2712 for yours portly), but now they’ve introduced little “badges” and achievements for more granular milestones.

Gamification through Achievements Incentivizes Writing

My comment on her post was to indicate my “mild resentment that the rewards and badges [aren’t] retroactive for the life of the blog, because I’d have several of the achievements already, haha!” But as I’ve reflected on that (admittedly selfish) initial reaction, I think what WordPress.com has done with introducing these achievements is very clever.

Consider: if I have been motivated to keep my daily streak going for 7.43 years just by a daily counter, imagine how much more motivating earning badges for specific milestones could be? Gamification works for a reason.

Positive Changes: Plug-Ins

WordPress.com has instituted a number of changes lately with the aim of improving user functionality. One yuge change was opening up plug-ins to users with any paid plan, not just the $25-a-month Business plan. For years I’d been dying to add Disqus and Buy Me a Coffee (which, you know, you really should do, dear reader), the former because it’s used even more widely for comments sections than WordPress.com, the latter because I appreciate your support (cough cough). Adding that functionality was a real gift from the Happiness Engineers at Automattic.

So WordPress.com seems to be driving hard to improve the user experience, in ways that both benefit long-time users (like yours portly) and incentivize new users.

Most users will likely start with a free plan, which is how I began when I made the switch from Blogspot/Blogger back in 2018. As the blog grew, my desires to have a stronger presence and to monetize prompted me to spring for the $8-a-month (paid annually) “Premium” plan, which boasts a generous 13 GB of storage. Because I’m not selling handmade doilies and what-not through WordPress.com, Premium has been an excellent plan for my needs (the Business plan gets to the next level with all sorts of e-commerce features with WooCommerce, but that’s beyond my expertise). Coupled with WordPress.com‘s incentive structures and the addition of achievements, I could see many new bloggers posting more frequently and upgrading to at least the $4-a-month (paid annually) Personal plan (which has 6 GB of storage, which is very respectable if you’re primarily posting text and some pictures).

Adapting to the New Order: Blocks vs. Classic Editor

Now, one point of contention Esoterica and I both touched upon is the transition away from the Classic Editor to Blocks. WordPress.com rolled out its block editor some years ago, but maintained the option to use a “Classic” block. I had grown very accustomed to working with the Classic block editor, which essentially created one big “block” that allowed for doing everything that typically goes into a post: embedding video, uploading image galleries, etc. It worked very similar to a word processor, for example, but not as finicky.

For reference: a “block” is essentially a paragraph; indeed, one of the blocks is called “Paragraph,” and it’s the default block in WordPress.com. This paragraph block is teal because I designated its style as “Info”—TPP

Well, Blocks have grown on me, and I am beginning to understand the logic behind them. One issue I’d run into use the Classic block is that, if my PC crashed and I hadn’t exited the block to save my work, I could lose a substantial amount of writing. That happened frequently enough that I’d leave the block, save, and then return to it. However, that seriously disrupts work flow.

Of course, learning a new way of blogging, including how to embed video and upload images, was a bit disruptive, too—at first. When one uses a certain format or program for so long, inertia can set in, so that even changes that are ultimately beneficial can seem annoying. For example, the first time I wanted to upload multiple pictures in one block, I realized that I could not simply use the “Image” block, but instead had to use the “Gallery” block; the former only allows one image to be uploaded, while the latter permits multiple image uploads.

For new users, however, the learning curve—which is very shallow to begin with—will be a breeze; it’s just us old grognards that will take a few weeks to adapt. I think I have already; in yesterday’s post, I was able to move blocks around seamlessly to get the kind of layout I wanted. With the old Classic editor and/or the Classic block, pulling off those New Music Tuesday posts, which include embedded video, images, and audio was much more difficult (I wrote about formatting these posts more extensively back in January).

Also, it seems that the Classic Editor is still around in the form of a plug-in! I wasn’t brave enough to engage it while writing this post, but I’m going to activate it at some point and report on my findings; stay tuned!—TPP

Conclusions

WordPress.com has really been stepping up its game in terms of engaging bloggers to do what we do best—blog! Anything that incentivizes writing, while also making multimedia posts more intuitive and user-friendly, deserves praise. While it took some adjusting, I’m learning to embrace the new block editor (well, new-ish to me—it’s been the norm for years) and explore its possibilities. There are blocks I’m only just learning exist, and it’s stimulating intellectually and creatively to explore what this spunky platform can do.

If you’re thinking of starting a blog, first of all—do it. I’m all about more people creating. We need that as a civilization! Secondly, WordPress.com is the institutional leader in the blogosphere. I’ll discuss the pros and cons of other platforms in a future post, but WordPress.com still comes out on top.

As I wrote back in January:

I’ve been really pleased with the functionality of WordPress.com, which also comes with Jetpack built in.  Jetpack has functionality I’ve only begun to explore; that said, I love its Akismet anti-spam system. According to Akismet, it’s blocked 13,830 spam comments in the past six months alone—and 141,377 over seven-plus years I’ve been writing this blog[.]

I think those Akismet numbers are way higher now—ha!

Happy Blogging!

—TPP

The Portly Politico is me, Tyler James Cook. I’ve been blogging on WordPress since 2018, and daily since 2019. I love to write about politics, culture, and music, and frequently feature my original music. Check out my musical creations here on the blog or on Bandcamp. —TPP