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.
i really appreciate what you guys have been doing to make us comfortable here. big thanks, as usual! : )
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Bravo! You all are so creative and you check on what/how/when bloggers blog to find improvements. I am cheering for you! Thanks.
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Most favorite improvement so far. You’re spoiling my OC-ness. Haha
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grazie per il vostro lavoro che migliora quotidianamente i miei blog. siete eccezionali. W WordPress !!! paolo ferrario, italia, lago di como
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thank you very much for the help////
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cool stuff. looks to be really usable.
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Thank you, WP! This is so helpful.
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Spectacular innovations,great features!
Love the effective learning method of trial.
And,if we don’t like it or can’t handle with it,we can damn it with faint praise…
You are totally generous WordPress and it is very much appreciated.
Thank you
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Thank you. It was a really pleasant surprise after being away for a while. Now I wonder what the secret surprise is.
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Totally love this! Great way to keep up with the posts etc. brilliant!
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Amazing stuff
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Excellent, thank you! I am looking forward to trying the new feature on my next post 🙂
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Love this new feature. Keep up the good work!
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Got my surprise reward today. I really, really like it. It’s like for every blog I post, a virtual WordPress team is rallying behind me with pompoms and cheerleader outfits, you get the picture. It really boosts you up. What a great team you have. I started with the young WordPress years back when you had to struggle with the default permalink! What a far cry from today. Sending my hugs…
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Thanks for the explanation, I was shocked when I first saw the feedback bar. I’ll try this for a while, but I suspect I may go back to the classic style.
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I can understand that some of the features of this upgrade may not be super useful for everybody (it was interesting to learn that I just published my 20th post, for example, but I can imagine that some people wouldn’t care). But automatically showing the published version of the page upon publishing it? How can you say this is a pointless modification? Even if you regularly use the preview feature, which I do, it isn’t exactly the same until you see the final version. I guess some people just like complaining. I’d advise you to stay away from Facebook, if you have an issue with constant tweaks that nobody asked for – because there you really would have something to complain about.
In other news, regarding the discussion of a delayed email notification… I don’t know how such a thing would work, but it would also be helpful when something is published accidentally or prematurely. (At least once, I’ve hit the wrong button when in fact I just intended to “save as draft.”)
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Very useful new feature! I posted this morning and was so pleased with the results. Immediate feedback! I like it!
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It just sort of amazes me how you keep on thinking of new ideas!! I never find typos though – I can’t BEAR imperfections.
Actually one imperfection I can’t bear is how my print comes out in variying sizes when it posts – and there is no space between paragraphs. Are you the right person to ask? Just look at my MEME post and you will see there is a lack of paragraphs in some parts – and one question unbolded itself, by itself! Editing it doesn’t fix it either, so I have to accept a mashed up page, which I don’t like to do.
Anyway, I did mean to say your idea is great, but this does bother me a lot re posting.
Thank you,
N’n.
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You are good teachers! Thank you.
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Wonderful addition, thank you MJ
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I really like the fact it makes it really easy to add suggested tags to your post. You can do it all right there, no need to go back or even edit the post. Plus the little progress bar is kinda fun!
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I’m new to blogging so this will really keep me motivated! WordPress is very user friendly and I really enjoy blogging!
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❤ Love the changes!
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Some neat toys and useful features here, I like it, thanks.
sev
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Love the quick edit mode! ^_^ And…a little extra positive feedback is always welcome 🙂 I like how you guys spotted that!
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From where to switch on this updates? I’m with free blog.
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The Instant Post Feedback feature is turned on by default. When you hit Publish on a new post, you’ll see it!
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As many above have said, you wordpress Dev folks rock! No doubt about it.
I see discussion about turning off the new feedback features after writing a post, specifically the “Progress bar”. I am not finding the option that disables that. Where is it located?
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You can disable Instant Post Feedback entirely by going to Users > Personal Settings on your dashboard.
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Thank you, for making things easier.
JParks
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I love this “nudge”… awesome 🙂
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Scott – thank you for your reply, I do appreciate that we’re all different and a feature that I find annoying is likely to be one that other people love, and vice versa. So thank you indeed for providing the opt-out, which I’ve finally managed to get to work! yippee! (so you can ignore my other comment. Yesterday it just wasn’t behaving, but it’s fine now.)
(I wanted to reply to your reply but couldn’t find a link for that, not sure if I’m just having a duh moment or if it really isn’t there… anyway, hence this separate comment.)
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Hmmm…
when i first saw this, I thought it was about getting feedback on the content of your post. It’s more about being an incentive to write more and a publicizing tool.
Isn’t this kinda misleading?
I mean all is fair in upgrading but providing a service that isn’t a service service advertised is a lil out there to say the least.
there is nothing this feature provides that could be seen as constructive or help aid people become better bloggers.
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Motivation is a great part of blogging, and we’re hoping this feature motivates you to write more posts. If you are looking for more inspiration, take a look at the Daily Post blog.
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thank you!
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Big improvement! Kudos to your design team.
Can you add a “get Shortlink” button to the instant feedback screen? It’s a pain having to go back into edit mode to get it.
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Thanks for your feedback. We’re considering adding the shortlink, stay tuned!
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What great changes – changes that help support your users. I really appreciate the work and effort to make our experience so much better!
Thanks!
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Wonderful! Just what I needed! Thanks!
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This is great. Was very happy to see it when I posted this morning! Thanks!
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It’s a nice feature! I thought that maybe WordPress wanted to give out badges for hitting landmark posts.
Or hugs. Maybe WordPress wanted to give out hugs for hitting landmark posts.
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I’m not even blogging yet and I like it. 🙂
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Good job!
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I was wondering when the sidebar started appearing!
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I HATE HATE HATE it, it is a major pain in my rear.
I have turned it off and it did quit showing that dumb sidebar thing,
but it is still showing me how many posts I have made, and many words I used etc, uggghh I
Also, my blog is private and I subscribed to nada, nada another thing,
tags, other blogs etc and yet they too keep re-appearing.
Has been a WordPress devotee for years, even has my own hosted
WordPress apart from this one. However, for free blogging, thinks
I will now be turning to Blogger. I just can not get into this invasive junk.
WordPress was perfect just the way it was. Was about ready to update
my hosted WordPress to 3.1.3 to day, thinks I will not be doing that,
is afraid all these ” improvements ” will arrive their as well.
Thanks for the memories WordPress, you were wonderful while you lasted,moving on over to google blogger now.
P.S. WordPress is still the best, hands down for your own hosted WordPress sites.
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Hi Harley:
Sorry you are unhappy with the changes we’ve made. Before you do anything rash, I suggest living with it for a few days. But if you hate it enough to type out the word hate in all caps three times, perhaps you’re well beyond that point already, and I’d rather not provoke you into a Hulk like rage where you not only type in caps, but start smashing WordPress.com in Hulk like fashion.
A few things to know about:
You can also always export your blog for free, at any time, anywhere you like. And if change your mind, import it all back in the future.
If you want to transfer your .com blog to a self-hosted WordPress install, we help folks do that via Guided Transfer, which is paid, but mostly excellent, service.
Best wishes.
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Awesome. I love it. Thank you.
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Buen trabajo,siempre estáis ofreciendo nuevas posibilidades y aunque soy un novato en el blog,seguro que me viene muy bien.
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Hi Scott, I appreciated your message today. Being somewhat new to blogging and WordPress, I am learning more each day and communication like yours and other WordPress emails are always helpful. Thanks. One thing I noticed is a few blogs get featured on your web site homepage under ‘Just Pressed’ or something like that. I noticed one of the few blogs that I follow had her blog advertised there. How can I get my next post or web site offered on that page?
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Hi,
Here’s some more information on getting your blog posts featured on Freshly Pressed: https://wordpress.com/support/five-ways-to-get-featured-on-freshly-pressed/
Thanks,
Tim
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Yes I still don’t quite get what’s going on! I’m blogging because I love writing but haven’t really understood how to navigate around WordPress. I moved from another blog. Can anyone advise how I can make better use of the whole experience?
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Hi,
Our best resource for getting more experience with WordPress.com is Learn.WordPress.com. I hope that helps.
Tim
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I was wondering what this was , it is pretty cool!!! Nice work!!
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Dear Scott Berkun,
Thank you for suggestions, although I was already quite aware of them.
I have used these functions many times in the past and they are indeed quite helpful.
Hopes WordPress.com will not be messing with those in future as well.
I am also sorry that you felt you I was a “Hulk” for using caps to express
my great disdain for the new Free WordPress. I was able to read
between the lines and the insult came through loud and clear.
I was obviously under the mistaken impression this was for feedback
as to what we like or dislike about the new “options”.
As I stated in my previous post, I LOVE WordPress for hosted sites,
has created customized WordPress sites for a great many people
and highly recommends WordPress to a great many people and will
continue to do so. I do ( did ) take advantage of the Free WordPress
for sometime for some personal, fun blogging because I like
WordPress so much. I see that many others are thrilled with the changes.
I however was not thrilled with what has been done to it and thought
you wanted the feedback, I apologize for not being in love with it
and screaming “Yippie!, Good Job! Well Done!” when I do not agree
with the masses. I do realize that nothing will be changed, you, meaning
the powers that be have obviously made your decision and we, the users, can
choose to live with it or we can choose o go elsewhere.
Got it loud and got it clear, no mistaking the syntax in your previous reply for me!
So anyway, thanks for the suggestions to my previous post, perhaps
others will find them helpful ( they are very helpful BTW should you choose to use them )
I have no doubt WordPress will continue to grow and be successful.
I only wish the best for WordPress and its paying customers as well its Free Users
I did discover today that with Blogger, one need not have their
own hosted site to use Premium Purchased Themes with it, if
you happen to own one, just use it! ( discovered this using your suggestions above ! )
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These are absolutely wonderful upgrades. I’ll be testing them with my blog post tomorrow!
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that’s a pretty interesting idea of you people. I’ve just started browsing through my own blog, and guess what, this tool is particularly handy !
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I recently migrated my blog to WordPress from Blogger. Updates and posts like these make me feel like I’ve made the right choice. Thanks!
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Some nice changes with two exceptions.
Firstly, I find the blogging goal unnecessary and – sorry – patronising. I mean, I post when I have something to say, not to fulfill a quota. But ok, I can just ignore that.
The other thing really confused me a great deal until I found out what had happened. All of a sudden I had 151 followers (yesterday there were 8 or so). Turns out, because I have my blog linked to facebook, all of my fb friends have now miraculously turned into followers. Seriously, that’s just eyewash. It doesn’t make me feel any better about my writing skills. Apart from that, what about people I am friends with on fb and who have also subscribed to my blog? They are now counted twice (and I suspect if I had a Twitter account and had linked to that too, any follower there would be counted again, even though they might be among my facebook friends already). What’s more, my facebook friends only count as followers in my primary blog. My second blog, which is pretty much just a German version of the primary one, is linked to fb too but hasn’t seen the huge surge in followers.
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Hi Sandra,
The purpose of the blogging goal is to encourage people to post. Our research suggests that a method, such as the one we developed, would give a sense of accomplishment to posting and would assist with overcoming the hurdle in getting to that next post.
The follower numbers we display now are intended to give you a sense of the full reach of your blog. If you have enabled Publicize, then you have a whole new community that might see your post. Even with an overlap in the numbers, these follower numbers should give a better sense of how large a community has been notified of your post.
Do you have your second blog connected to the same Facebook account?
Thanks,
Tim
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Hi Tim,
Thanks for your answer. Yes, I have my secondary blog connected to the same fb account. But even now, that I have disconnected my primary blog, the number of followers of the secondary one is still at the original level.
Which I still feel is much more realistic. Because even though my new post might have been published for all my facebook friends to see, that still does not mean they automatically are followers of my blog. Apart from the fact that, due to the usual facebook settings, only a certain percentage of my friends will even see the annoncement, some might have chosen not to see updates from me, and of the rest, many will decide not to read the post (e.g. because they are German and will wait for the German post or simply because they are not interested). So while I appreciate the idea I find it wrong to declare all my facebook friends “followers”.
I realise that I seem to be the only one with these thoughts, so it is highly unlikely you are going to change things back to the old ways. I have therefore decided to disconnect my blogs from my fb account. That also solves the problem that I can’t influence which post picture will be the thumbnail in the facebook update when automatically sharing.
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Good! Thank you!
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Very very impressed with WordPress just published my first blog today I am a newbie at this It has so many bells and whistles Thanks so much. Loco Steve
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Thanks! I like the new set-up. It’s a great addition.
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Thanks for all the quality advice. Without a lot of your helpful hints, I wouldn’t be getting my blogs out to so many people. Thanks again for all your help.
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I always like having a new toy to play with.
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We Love this Feature and We Love WordPress!!!
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BRILLIANT!!!!!!!! 🙂
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This is really great. I really appreciate the goal feature. Thanks a lot WordPress Team.
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i like the idea of the progress bar. I am also in publishing and can imagine in could motivate authors to improve content of every new article, as they got an immediate response “how good they are”. Are there any information about the technical background of that?
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The progress bar currently automatically increments every five posts, though we’re thinking about ideas of customizing this based on user settings or other data.
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This is something more than motivation. I was surely surprised to see this feature.
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The progress bar is a wonderful addition! Wonderful job, I can’t wait to try it! And I’m sure it’ll motivate me to write more. 🙂
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Thank you for giving us the option to turn it off. I will try it both ways for awhile, but the split screen is a bit distracting.
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becomingcliche, what do you find distracting about the split screen? We’re always looking for feedback on our new features.
Tim
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Nice addition to WordPress. Keep up the good work.
Frank
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is this upgrade available on WordPress.org?
WordPress.com every time is getting even better and better, i wonder which is the best .com or .org?
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This is a WordPress.com feature and not available as a WordPress.org plugin. There are a lot of differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org that don’t lend well to a “best” comparison. You can read more about those differences here: https://wordpress.com/support/com-vs-org/
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Guys my blog is in spanish, and i can’t see the progress bar, mabye is just for english bloggers for the moment, but if not. ¿Anyone could help me to se the new content?
I have “Instant Post Feedback Show the feedback and progress sidebar after posting” turned ON.
Thanks, and keep on doing a grate job with this web.
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Currently, the Instant Post Feedback feature is only available on English language blogs. We’ll let you know as soon as it is available for Spanish blogs. Thanks!
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Ah, that explains why my secondary blog still has the original followers count. It is in German. One more mystery solved.
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It makes the whole wordpress experience very pleasant. I love the new target message.
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Why does this feature show a lower number of posts compared to the dashboard number? Just wondering. I appreciate your work.
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Hi Tim, both numbers should be the same. Are you still seeing different numbers as you continue using the Instant Feedback feature?
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i can’t activate it
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It’s activated by default. Just publish a post and you’ll see it 🙂
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Love this. Thank you WordPress for staying ahead of the game. There are so many great tools and all are very user friendly. I’m going to love the instant post feedback!
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This is a great feature and I believe it will actually help me. I look forward to actually trying it out.
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it’s very nice !!!!
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I just completed my 13th post today. How do I know? Well, WordPress told me. This is such a subtle, yet significant feature. I personally think this is one of the most powerful feature yet… to see instantly who I just published to. For the first time, I feel like I have to deliver; for the first time I feel a connection with my audience. I know it may sound dramatic, but in all fairness, I don’t have a large audience and I have always felt isolated in the WordPress ecosystem.
Thank you WordPress Team. you guys have this Apple like quality about you – you guys really are listening to us. This feature has already motivated me to push more content because it truly makes me feel a bit more responsible.
Again Thanx and Happy Holidays.
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thank for the info….i’m new here =)
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Good post, good information until the directions at the end: “you can turn Instant Post Feedback off from your Dashboard, at Settings, Users, Personal Settings.”
Being new to wordpress and struggling to use it, I tried to go to the series of clicks listed in the article, to familiarize myself with the process of turn
this on and off. Under Dashboard, there is no “settings”, the settings at the bottom of the menu has no link for “users”. When you said “Settings”
and “users” that’s what I thought you meant and I don’t know what to start guessing when those links are not there.
Anyhow, the feedback is on at my blog, I like it, so I can just stay in the dark and not learn how to use those controls.
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Sorry for throwing you into a loop there. You should go to “Users” > “Personal Settings” and then there’s a checkbox for “Instant Post Feedback”.
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Thanks for updating so many features lately guys! I think you’ve earnt a good break on xmas!
Cheers
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I reached the progress bar yesterday, and I didn’t see the “Surprise” you speak of.
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I just posted a new blog entry. I am so curious to see what happens when I hit the star. I will probably have to wait until I do my Christmas post on the story of the birth of Christ to find out. Thanks for the new toy. I also like that posting a single post announcement is so easy on Facebook. I don’t want all of my posts to go to facebook automatically. I want to pick which ones and this little button will make that easy for me.
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i AM TRYING TO IMPROVE MY BLOG AND THIS WAS VERY HELPFUL
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Saw this side bar for the first time yesterday after a post. Interesting feature, can we have it appear even in normal conditions i.e when I am not posting.. Also when it slides in would it be possible to display some suggestions for a new post. That would be helpful for most of us. The general feeling when I have just published a post is to sit back and relax. I would like to see suggestions for a new topic when the urge to write something new comes up but there are no topics floating around.
BTW thanks for adding such great features and making our life easier.
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We are considering adding a new post suggestion area. Stay tuned 😉
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A pleasant surprise today when I posted. Loved it.
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The new sidebar is awesome; I would just like to see the ready-to-copy link text there too 🙂
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I love the new feedback system! And the fact that WordPress is constantly making upgrades. I like the new sharing feature which automatically lets people know you’ve got a new post up. But not sure what the progress bar is for. Anyway.. awesome job again! Your upgrades and features are the reason why I moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress. So a huge thank you! 🙂
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a change that is good enough to progress
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This sounds great, especially that it will be easier to publicize to for instance Facebook (I do not want all my posts to go directly to Facebook, so now I copy the links into my status updates, but this will be so much better). The only problem is: this feedback feature does not seem to be turned on on my WordPress-blog. Can’t find the button to deactivate it either, so I guess it’s not there. What to do?
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It’s on by default and should show up when you publish a post from the admin. To disable it, go to “Users” > “Personal Settings” and uncheck the checkbox in “Instant Post Feedback”.
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I’m a brand-new blogger, and I absolutely love the new feedback… I find it very encouraging, and the tag suggestions are a fantastic and fast help!
Thank you WordPress!
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thumbs up… (y)…
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That will help me definitely; great job WordPress
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Hmm, am I missing something? Instant Feedback is turned on but I did not get anything yesterday with my latest post. Does it make a difference if I posted directly from MS Word 2007 and then went into WordPress to add tags and categories etc?
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Yes, you do need to hit the publish button directly from the WordPress admin to see this.
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Another great tool for those that desire to keep track of all things posted –
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would it be possible to put the ‘this post had #### words’ back on there, somewhere? i always forget to look at the little counter at the bottom, and i’ve gotten used to it telling me the word count after publishing.
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We want to keep this lean and mean, but we’ll consider your request for the next version. Thanks for the feedback!
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Thank you word press for allowing the newbies and the seasoned pro’s to reach and teach one another. Truly exceptional.
Rich Meyers
http://spokesperson-video.com
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I like the new format. It was a nice surprise when i first saw it. Congratulations.
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These are all great tips. I am really enjoying using wordpress on my new site.
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Cool! WordPress is getting better! 🙂
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Thanks guys
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Thank you for the information!
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Very nice work
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I just had the absolute worst day ever at work, so getting a star for blogging is almost as good as chocolate. Thanks.
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This is awesome to have. Thank you!
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