Get Instant Feedback When You Publish
For months we’ve been studying how, when and why people publish their posts, and what the common tasks are people perform afterwards. We know many of you immediately want to see what your post looks like, check for typos, and then share your post to social networks.
Starting today you’ll see a much improved design for giving you feedback and supporting how you work.
The first thing you’ll see, after your browser finishes telling WordPress.com you have a new post, is positive feedback your post was successful. We now notify you as soon as possible that everything went smoothly. At the same time, we’re loading your actual post to show you.
Once the post loads, which can take a few seconds, you can confirm it looks as you expected. If you find a typo in your post (which can be easier to spot in the published post, than on the edit screen), you can quickly click Edit and switch back into edit mode to fix it.
If everything in your post looks good, you’ll notice some smart things we’ve done to both help improve your post, and to inspire you for the future.
The progress bar: we now show a simple progress indicator that helps direct your efforts at a specific target. The goal is automatically set to increments of 5 posts (yes, we are considering allowing this to be customized). An inspiring quotation appears under the bar, as a reward and as motivation for next time. When you reach the goal, you get a nice surprise, and the bar will be reset for next time. Of course posting quality matters as much, or more, than quantity, but research shows having clear goals helps both.
Sharing: if you have the Publicize feature turned on, we show how many people were notified through social networks like Twitter and Facebook, with some of their Gravatars so you can learn more about them. If you don’t have Publicize active, you’ll see easy to use buttons for manually sharing your post on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
Tagging: we also know adding tags to your post can make it easier for people to find your work. Based on the content of your post, we use an algorithm to recommend a few tags to add, which you can do with a single click.
We’ll continue to study how you post and improve what we do to support how you work. Happy posting.
If you’d prefer the classic experience, you can turn Instant Post Feedback off from your Dashboard, at Users, Personal Settings.
Dec 12th at 6:13 pm
“An inspiring quot[ation]“
Dec 12th at 6:27 pm
AD: Thanks. Fixed.
Dec 12th at 6:32 pm
What a pleasant surprise to get this today! It was a birthday present! I love it! I love the feedback. And I didn’t realize it was my 501st post! Mahalo! Keep up the great support. Truly appreciated!
Dec 12th at 6:33 pm
Man you guys rock! I can’t get over your constant quest for improving the blogger experience – which is why I keep talking about WordPress to anyone who will listen. After leaving MySpace I did a lot of research with many blogging sites and finally ended up here. There are no regrets at all – updates like this one continues to justify that decision. Well done!
Dec 12th at 6:36 pm
Great additions!!
Dec 12th at 6:39 pm
Wonderful upgrades…I’ve been remiss in thanking you for all the hard behind-the-scenes work you offer. Thank you!
Dec 12th at 6:40 pm
At first I found this page to be annoying. I think that was becauseI have blogged for many years and it felt invasive. Now I quite like it so maybe I was just so resistant to change that I initially overlooked the value and usefulness of this feature.
Dec 12th at 6:42 pm
The feedback page looks great. Now to post again to test it out!
Dec 12th at 6:55 pm
What a wonderful way to streamline the blogging experience, thanks!
Dec 12th at 6:56 pm
This looks great! I’m off to write a post so I can see how it works!
Dec 12th at 7:00 pm
Love these features — I’m a big fan!
I’ve noticed lately that the orientation of the pix in my published post on an iPhone looks different than on the blog itself, Droid, etc. I guess I’ll take this question to the support forum, but just thought I’d see if anyone else was noticing this same problem? I was just thinking that I’d be tempted to fix this using the quick new “edit post” feature, but it may not actually be a “real” problem!
Thank you again, WordPress…
Dec 12th at 7:05 pm
That will help me definitely; great job WordPress
Dec 12th at 7:13 pm
I’m a fledgling blogger, but think your support staff and the upgrades you’ve incorporated over the past few months, really makes the writing and blogging experience much more accessible for those of us who are not as technically savvy as others. Thank you for all you do, WordPress!
Dec 12th at 7:15 pm
Well, I for one welcome these changes… keep up the great work..
Dec 12th at 7:19 pm
Nice! Can’t wait to see this in action.
Mel
Dec 12th at 7:20 pm
this is great
thank you
Dec 12th at 7:21 pm
WordPress really keeps raising the bar on how blogging should be. The fact that all this is happening on the free portion of WordPress just astounds me. Thank you WP!
Dec 12th at 7:25 pm
Love the changes.
I really would love to see the ability to have a link-up feature for those of us that like to do blog hops since most of the ones out there don’t work on here unless we self host, and many of us don’t care to do the self host thing.
Dec 12th at 7:32 pm
This is why I fly with WordPress.
Dec 12th at 7:34 pm
Great changes, but I always schedule posts so I won’t see this.
Maybe I’ll post things normally from now on.
On a different subject, when can we start re-blogging again?
Dec 12th at 7:38 pm
Dear Word Press, YOU ROCK! Every thing about what you do is classy and beautiful. I’m very pleased with all the amazing features on my blog. You keep me well informed of all the latest and neat things you do. Keep up the outstanding work!
Dec 12th at 7:38 pm
I have a problem with following up on replies I have left on others post. Could you somehow fix it to email you back when the owner of the blog replies to the comment you made. It would make it easier for all of us that follow multiple blogs and comment on most of them. I don’t like the email notification at the bottom because then you get everyone’s comment and reply. That will drive you crazy! Thanks.
Dec 12th at 7:51 pm
LIKE!!!! ^_^ This is so great. I love how you guys always try to make this the best blogging experience ever. Thanks so much
Dec 12th at 7:55 pm
Looks really nice
WP is getting too good these days ;D
Dec 12th at 8:03 pm
WordPress remains the number one choice for (any) blogging experience.
Dec 12th at 8:03 pm
Thanks!
As others have said, I’d enjoy the same feature on the Scheduler.
Dec 12th at 8:09 pm
Why can’t you leave well enough alone? You have already mutilated the image upload process to the point of exasperation!! Does everything always need revising, tweaking, and constant modification? And now feedback on a post? Come on!! If you need project direction why not make WordPress more friendly to Mac users?!
Dec 12th at 8:41 pm
Hi Mspmint: Thanks for the feedback on our feedback. As mentioned in the post, if you don’t like what we’ve done, you can turn this off with a click of the button, which would take you mere seconds to do, and spare you any sense of futher mutilation. While we do recognize the sincerity of your opinion, the positive comments seen on this thread suggest there are other users who feel differently about this feature than you do. We realize we can’t satisfy everyone, but we do try our best.
I do hope you’ll give the new design a try for a few days. It may have more value for you than it appears at first glance.
As a general note: It is worth keeping in mind that depending on when you started using WordPress, the design that you experienced the first time you used it probably was not the first design WordPress or WordPress.com had for that feature. Most key areas have seen many changes over the years, based on learning from what people actually do, and working to make the design better map with how people wish to use WordPress. And while we realize changes aren’t always seen as improvements by everyone, we hope its clear that’s always the intent. We do take seriously the learning cost of making changes and don’t ask users to relearn something they already knew how to do unless we’re convinced the improvements justify the changes. While we know we’re not always right, we do strive to keep trying and learning.
Dec 12th at 8:30 pm
Another great set of enhancements, the tagging algorithm sounds interesting, can’t wait to see how that works.
Dec 12th at 8:44 pm
That’s all great, thank you for the enhancements. Something else that I always do after I’ve posted, is go back into edit mode to click the connect to Facebook link because it doesn’t come up before I’ve posted. Then I need to copy the shortlink and add it into my Facebook page. Is this going to be changed as well as it’s very manual at the moment. I never used to have to do this.
Thank you
Sandra
Dec 12th at 9:00 pm
Hi Sandra:
If you turn on Publicize, WordPress.com will post to Facebook automatically for you.In this new design, if you don’t have Publicize on, just click on the Facebook button that appears in the sidebar.
We’ll also consider adding a shortlink button to the sidebar, to save you that step.
Dec 12th at 8:56 pm
Just wish to make sure. Turning Instant Post Feedback option to OFF, will only remove the new sidebar which has information, correct? It won’t turn anything else off?
Dec 12th at 9:11 pm
Correct. If you turn it off, it will be as if the long hours we spent building this new feature never happened (sniff).
Dec 12th at 9:01 pm
Simply the BEST!
thanks for improving day a day our blogging experience!
Dec 12th at 9:03 pm
Interesting, I’ll try it in a short time (I was actually writing a new post…).
robert
Dec 12th at 9:04 pm
Thanks for the improvements – it certainly will make the process of posting for me much easier (I’m always having to edit several times after I’ve aleady hit “Publish”!).
Dec 12th at 9:06 pm
I will definitely use this feature! The first thing I always do when I post is check it on Facebook and my own email to be sure everything was posted correctly. This will save me one more step in my busy day! Thanks again!
Dec 12th at 9:14 pm
That’s one of the things I like about WordPress–nothing is ever a complete change. For example, with this change, if you don’t like it, you can turn it off. Or if you don’t like the drag-and-drop image uploading, you can choose the old way. Paired hand in hand with new features should always be choices and options, and I appreciate WordPress for giving us those.
Dec 12th at 9:19 pm
I’ll certainly give it a try to see if I like it. It’s certainly great to have all these options on a free blog. Thanks
Dec 12th at 9:23 pm
These are all really nice additions (& I am very impressed that it can be switched off- not that I want to, but it recognises we all like things a little differently from the next person).
Now if only I could post, read it (again), discover and fix the glaring errors and omissions BEFORE it flies off to my subscribers………..
(I don’t mean the sending to subscribers becomes a manual step (although that might be a nice choice for some bloggers), but there be a delay of a few minutes to give me a chance to read it, then click edit! If I don’t click edit within a minute or so (depending on the post length), sure, it flies off to inboxes everywhere)
I know I should check before sending, (and I do), but I always seem to pick up a few more things post……uh…..posting.
Dec 12th at 9:39 pm
Hi Stuart:
This is definitely an idea we have discussed (although to warn you, we discuss, and explore, a magnitude more ideas than we release). There are some email programs that allow you to set a 5 or 10 minute delay between hitting “Send” and when it’s actually sent, and conceivably we could do something similiar. But since it’s an option most people would never use, it hasn’t move up very high in our ideas list, although your comment adds another vote in its favor.
Dec 12th at 9:26 pm
It looks cool. Thanks!
Dec 12th at 9:28 pm
Great news! I love feedback and shares.
Thank-you!
Dec 12th at 9:32 pm
I believe that calls for a “Job Well Done..
((Well.)) For some people that word,. Alone can be, A Deep Subject. All in their own.
However this feat of simplicity is once again, Why,. WordPress.com is leading the boggling World, Full-WordSpeed Ahead
Dec 12th at 9:33 pm
Hooray! Thanks a lot. It’ll be a happier holidays now!
Dec 12th at 9:35 pm
Nice! I love it!
Dec 12th at 9:36 pm
Seems pretty pointless to me =/
Dec 12th at 10:00 pm
Reblogged this on i cittadini prima di tutto.
Dec 12th at 10:01 pm
Not sure where that Idea List is, for us to vote, but please add my vote to Stuart’s idea of a delayed distribution of posts to email subscribers.
Dec 12th at 10:04 pm
Very interesting features, we’ll see how it goes!
Dec 12th at 10:10 pm
Very cool…it like it !…thanks
Dec 12th at 10:15 pm
Thanks for the support. I actually like it.
Dec 12th at 10:22 pm
What do you get when you reach the progress bar?
Dec 13th at 12:41 am
You’ll have to post a bunch to find out. A surprise is a surprise.
Dec 12th at 10:23 pm
Hey thanks a lot! WordPress is amazing and your support is fantastic!
Dec 12th at 10:23 pm
I found the old page useful so the improvment will help.
Dec 12th at 10:31 pm
I can’t find out how to activate Publicize. I tried posting a new post to see if it shows up top, as the video suggested it would. I also looked in settings, no luck their either. I also searched plugins, no luck there either.
Any thoughts guys?
Dec 12th at 11:28 pm
You can activate Publicize by going to Settings > Sharing. Read more about it here: http://en.support.wordpress.com/publicize/
Dec 12th at 10:50 pm
I switched from Blogger to WordPress over 6 months ago. I really am so impressed with the change. WordPress is for adults, no matter what the subject of their blog. Mine happens to be a Pet Related Blog. I recently switched from a 3-column to a 2-column setup on my pages. It looks infinitely better.
I’m new to all this and when I’m wondering about something I go looking in the Help/support sections for answers.
Keep up the great work!
Dec 12th at 10:52 pm
Absolutely love the new changes… it was like you guys were in my head and pulled out all the things that I actually need when publishing a new post… then had to remind myself that I’m not the only blogger, I’m sure there are others that had the same needs
)
well done WP team… you guys definitely rock and just keep getting better.
Dec 12th at 11:02 pm
Thanks! This feature is awesome! I blogged before I got the email notice about this, and my first thought was to find a button to say THANK YOU WORDPRESS!
Dec 12th at 11:07 pm
This sounds awesome, I can’t wait to publish my next post and try it out! Thanks for the continued support and improvements!
Dec 12th at 11:10 pm
Thanks for the new App. It is a good idea, this will make blogging much more of an experience. I am excited to see how it works!
Dec 12th at 11:32 pm
This is very awesome ..thank you!
Dec 12th at 11:34 pm
Love it! Love it Love it! can’t wait to work on my next post now.
Dec 12th at 11:37 pm
sounds good, however, would I would love to see you do is keep the blog name and password remembered, as specified. I am constantly having to enter in the same information.
Thanks,
Sara
Dec 13th at 12:48 am
There’s likely a browser setting causing this. We do keep you logged in if we can, using browser cookies (We like cookies. Yum). But if your browser has cookies turned off, there’s not much we can do.
Dec 12th at 11:49 pm
I feel like a champ every time I reach a post milestone, thanks for making the experience that much more enjoyable!
Dec 12th at 11:53 pm
I like the new feature– gives the illusion of a job well done, even if it’s not subjective commentary. However, I often wonder if there is some hidden benchmark WordPress uses to gauge “good” from “bad” writing. Specifically, I have a paranoid suspicion that my blog will never ever be chosen for FreshPressed because I didn’t obey some unspoken rule. Perhaps it would also be helpful to know, immediately upon publishing, if I have done something wrong– written too long, chosen a topic that is deemed uninteresting, used a swearword (still unclear on the policy for this), etc. so that writers who want to reach a bigger audience can learn how to do that more effectively.
Dec 13th at 12:03 am
I have publicize on. My blog automatically gets linked to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Yet since you have made this change — despite the fact that when I went into settings and checked and I was still connected to all 3 — I got a message when I posted that I had to authorize publishing my blog to Facebook just now. And on dashboard — at the top right where it says ‘publicize’ — it only shows Twitter and LinkedIn. It’s some glitch, obviously, that’s been caused by this latest change you’ve made — but — I’d appreciate it if you looked into it and corrected whatever it is. Thanks.
Dec 13th at 12:52 am
It’s best to report issues like these directly to WordPress.com Support. But I will see if I can take a look: what’s the URL for your blog? You didn’t list it when you left a comment, and I need that to investigate what might be going wrong.
Dec 13th at 12:15 am
i want my blog back
Dec 13th at 12:21 am
That all sounds great. Keep working!
Dec 13th at 12:29 am
Regular upgrades streamline the user experience, what’s not to like. Thanks!
Dec 13th at 12:49 am
I’ve started last week, and I hope people will be able to find me soon!!
Dec 13th at 1:04 am
Thank you for supporting writers!
Dec 13th at 1:15 am
i dont like the “goal” things, the goal is not to have posts as many as possible.
Dec 13th at 1:20 am
Good Work…
Dec 13th at 1:24 am
Looking forward to seeing whether this helps in practice. Certainly, checking the post for any quick edits needed is something I generally do, so I like the idea of it directly and there being a quick edit ability. Good idea.
Dec 13th at 1:29 am
Hats off! Such a great info. Thanks.
Dec 13th at 1:41 am
Goals? Inspiring quotations? Good grief. It’s been bad enough seeing these silly comments telling me I’m awesome because I’ve churned out 473 words or whatever – stop patronising me, I’m an intelligent adult and I don’t need this sort of nonsense. If you were able to *really* watch what I do after publishing a post you’d have seen me sighing and rolling my eyes at the motivational rubbish on the screen.
Dec 13th at 2:46 am
Hi Meirav: After oodles of research, we’ve confirmed this new design is 31.562% less patronizing than the previous design, which is quite an accomplishment when you consider how annoying things were before. In thinking about your feedback, perhaps we can have a mode where we offer demotivational quotes that tell bloggers how bad their writing is, where the progress bar goes backwards no matter what they do, and even suggest ways for bloggers to blog less, with email notifications and SMS alerts rewarding people for every day they don’t post. There are shiny gems of brilliance to be found here!
More seriously, we realize how personal the writing and blogging experience is for everyone. This is why we went through the trouble of providing the option to turn it off. And I promise we carefully watch these statistics, as its one way among many we learn from the behavior of everyone using WordPress.com, including, but not limited to, those who leave comments here.
Dec 13th at 1:42 am
i like it…. very wonderful up grades…..
nice and cool…
best regards
Dec 13th at 1:46 am
P.S. I tried turning it off from my dashboard but for some reason the setting won’t stay – I untick the box, click save at the bottom of the page, and the box is showing as ticked. I’ve tried a few times, and yes, I’ve done a hard refresh just in case.
Dec 13th at 2:13 am
Your team really are doing nice work. THX!!!
Dec 13th at 2:18 am
like me too, tanx
Dec 13th at 2:21 am
I love all these new upgrades and additions. Keep working hard WP
Dec 13th at 2:28 am
Excellent Review
Dec 13th at 2:35 am
hmmm… Sound of Good… Nice… I Love it… Thanks
Dec 13th at 2:52 am
Is this something we’re going to see automatically? I love it and can’t wait to see it in my dashboard!
Dec 13th at 3:00 am
Yes. Whenever you publish a new post, you’ll see this.
Dec 13th at 3:04 am
Sorry, last question.
This is only if you wrote and immediately posted as opposed to scheduling one correct?
Dec 13th at 3:11 am
Correct. Since scheduling happens when no one is watching, we have no one to show this to.
Which begs the question, if a post gets posted on the web, but no one hears it, does it make a sound?
Dec 13th at 3:14 am
it DOES make a sound!! the relief i feel when i know it’s ready to go and be launched upon the world while i do the work that pays my bills!!
i’m sad, but it makes sense.
i don’t think i’ve ever written and posted same day.
Dec 13th at 3:05 am
I’ve switched over from Blogger to WordPress recently. I like it much better in WordPress land. Still learning though, but love the new upgrades.
Dec 13th at 3:26 am
This is excellent, thanks so much for paying attention
Dec 13th at 3:30 am
I’m goal orientated so I really like the progress bar…thanks!
Dec 13th at 3:42 am
thanks guys i am realy new at this i think what you are doing is great hope i catch on keep up the good work
Dec 13th at 4:23 am
Switched from Blogger to WP a month back and think that was a really wise move. Like these small ‘nudges’ from WP which help our posts get an audience besides helps in keep the creative juices flowing!! Great work guys keep it up.
Dec 13th at 4:29 am
I just posted my 50th and it suprised me, I was like what’s this? Then I came across this post and I was like…oh.
I like the inspiration quote.
Dec 13th at 4:34 am
Don’t know if I’ll continue to use this feature or not, but I appreciate the thought.
Dec 13th at 4:40 am
I’m very interested in the inspirational quotes — little rewards like that make blogging easier on those days you just want to shut the whole thing down.
Dec 13th at 4:47 am
Yes, I’m loving it. Please check out http://www.dreblacksofresh.com
Dec 13th at 4:55 am
Really love it
Dec 13th at 5:22 am
Ooh, thanks! I’m going to love having that!
Dec 13th at 5:28 am
OK! Fine! Thank you!
Dec 13th at 5:32 am
Scott,
I use Windows Live Writer to write my posts and publish directly from there. Will this feature be available to me from there too..? (I know I could try it before I ask you… but…
)
I just LOVE this feature. WP keeps astounding me all the time. AND I am 2 posts away from a surprise..!
Dagny
Dec 13th at 5:48 am
its really quiet good system . i like it and i also like to wordpress . i am proud of you.
Dec 13th at 5:51 am
I posted something today (on my private blog, not the one my profile links to) and immedeatly saw and liked the new look of the page—especially the fact that I could now see the post right away. What I went looking for in vain were my beloved Plinky prompts. I know I can go to Plinky directly, but why go to all that drudgery when I’ve gotten used to being able to click a prompt and already have a fresh post (complete with title!) ready for my words. Will the prompts be reintroduced at any time?
Dec 13th at 6:08 pm
Thanks for the suggestion, we’ll consider it for a future update.
Dec 13th at 6:12 am
Sounds very good.
Dec 13th at 7:16 am
I tried in my blogging life alot of tools/sites to blog, but wordpress is just best option out there. Thank you guys for constant upgrades and making our blogging time enjoyable.