The Daily Post Has a Great New Look
WordPress.com’s resource on the art and craft of blogging got a makeover. We’re excited to invite you to the revamped Daily Post!
The Daily Post is WordPress.com’s blog on blogging. From blogging prompts to photo challenges to writing tips, we’re dedicated to helping you build the blog you want (and have fun doing it).
The Daily Post began in 2011 as an experiment to encourage regular posting and provide a place to talk about the nitty-gritty details of telling a story and building an audience. Since then, a lot has changed. Visit The Daily Post now, and you’ll find:
- Our best tips and tools for all facets of blogging — the craft of writing, building an audience, site customization, blogging etiquette, and more.
- Daily prompts for days when the inspiration well is dry.
- Writing and photo challenges to stretch your blogging chops.
- Blogging U., a hub for ongoing courses like Zero to Hero to support you in meeting your unique blogging goals.
- Voices from the blogging community sharing their expertise.
- The weekly Community Pool, a place to get constructive feedback and make friends.
We want The Daily Post to show off all those resources — and we want it to show you off. It was high time for a new look, and we’re proud to unveil it today (click to visit the full site):
At the top, you’ll find the day’s prompt front-and-center, along with quick links to our most popular content. As you scroll down, you’ll see the latest posts, popular top challenges like the Weekly Photo Challenge and Zero to Hero, and a space where we can share quick notes, tips, and links to posts we love for inspiration throughout the day.
Our new look is also fully responsive — it will adjust its layout based on your screen size, so the 30% of you who read The Daily Post on phones and tablets will have the same great experience as people on full computers.
We’ve also improved how your prompt and challenge responses are displayed. Goodbye, long, multi-page lists of pingbacks! Pingbacks on prompts now appear as a clean, graphic grid, showing off your blog’s name and post title over an image of your home page:
No matter what your blogging goal is, The Daily Post has resources to help you get there — and now they’re easier to find and read. Welcome to the new Daily Post!
- April 11, 2014
- Better Blogging, Reading
WordPress.com News 
It is certainly a very modern and dynamic look. The grid of pingback looks so cute! The only detail I’m not too excited about is the dark orange colour — it seems a bit too dark to me. On the whole though, it’s cool 😎
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I like the look, but it’s 6:10 AM April 11th, I’m tapping my desk, where is my Daily Prompt for the day!
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The fact that you’re tapping your desk in anticipation has us dancing a jig. It’s here: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_prompt/have-you-never-been-mellow/
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Thanks Krista, I figured it out. Great new look. I really like it and in spite of my occasional sarcasm (meant only to be funny) you do a wonderful job.
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We can totally take a joke. Thanks for doing the prompts!
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On the whole, I like it.
However…
The pingbacks for earlier challenges are no longer visible. Either they weren’t replaced by the grid or the grid got buried behind the hundreds of regular comments. I didn’t want to keep hitting “older comments” again and again to find out. (I checked Threshold and Fifty, BTW.)
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Good eye. The writing and photo challenges don’t show pingbacks — yet. We’re on it.
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The pingback grid is now displayed on challenges.
Current photo challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_photo_challenge/monument/
Current writing challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_writing_challenge/poetry/
Thanks for your patience as we continue to iron out some kinks.
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What a great improvement! Works and looks much better on my iPad. Better organized, more informative, long overdue and much appreciated. I’m sure it was challenging, but lots of fun, to work on so kudos to all and thanks.
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Amazing look, though I probably wouldn’t choose orange for the main color scheme.
Is it based on a theme that we’ve seen before or is it a brand new design by WordPress designers?
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It’s a custom theme from our team designer, which takes into account the popular elements of this blog (the prompts and challenges, the most-accessed categories, etc.).
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Love the new look!
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Looking Good!
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It looks fabulous!!! I love the organization – I can easily navigate to find prompts, writing challenges, and posts about how to grow traffic. And the color zings and zaps and energizes. I love it! Congratulations, y’all, you did a great job.
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Wow! This is a terrific layout… well done gang! I really like the featured boxes near the top of the page, and the popular posts are so big that they’re impossible to miss.
Very cool format for the purpose of this blog.
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Very nice looking. Good for you!
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It does look much better but I’m not a huge fan of dark orange either. I guess you can’t please everyone. Good job though.
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Thanks for your feedback on the color, and speaking of color palettes, do poke around and click on posts. The color palette changes depending on the post you’re viewing, like the gray shade here on last week’s photo challenge, Threshold.
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That’s awesome!
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Love the new look and the easy-reading format. Clearly a lot of thought and work went into the re-design — and it shows. Unlike the work I did in my front yard yesterday…
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Great look. WP is always evolving. It breathes. I love how proactive and interactive WP staff are with bloggers. I’ve learned so much about blogging with all the great tips and features the staff brings to the table. This is my favorite spot on the Internet. Thanks to all for all you do.
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Love the new look!
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Who told you it is a “great” new look? It’s not. The orange is horrifying early in the morning and the format is unwieldy. OH well. I’ll either learn to deal or leave. Love the way you have only posted POSITIVE comments here.
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We’ve been working hard on this and will continue to iterate to make it the best reading experience it can be, across all devices. We like the emphasis on the daily prompts, and our two popular challenges for writing and photography, and are finding the best ways to make both new and our best archived content accessible to you. Post pages are cleaner and images are displayed better, and the font is much easier to read.
We’ll continue to work hard to make it a place you want to visit. Thanks for your feedback and keeping us on our toes.
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I don’t like the new look at all. I’m sorry, but I find it to be too cluttery. The old one was better IMO.
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Thanks for your feedback — what sections are too cluttery for you? We’ll continue to refine the design to make it the best experience we can.
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I just find the layout confusing because everything seems all spread out now.
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Thanks for your feedback; sorry the layout is confusing right now. It takes time to get used to a new look and design, where you’re not sure where things are — we’ve indeed moved things around! But everything that was there before is still there: the main categories (Community Pool, Photography 101, etc.), access to the latest posts, our two main challenges (writing for Monday, photo for Friday), and the daily prompt, smack dab at the top. Please poke around to get a feel for it; you’re welcome to leave more feedback if you’d like after exploring more.
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I love the new design. It looks much better and is much easier to use as well.
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It looks good but two things I see right now, one of which I see you’ve answered above. No pingbacks from the photo challenges. Haven’t checked the writing ones. Also, I’m having a hard time finding your most recent posts. For instance, I had to go back to my reader and scroll down to find this.
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If you scroll down just a bit, directly underneath the orange daily prompt section at the top, you’ll see “Latest Posts / (See All)” on the left. You can click “See All” to see more recent posts, but the four latest ones we’ve published on the blog at there on the front page.
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Cheri, I saw a few on some but now there are none at all. I see according to the postaday Twitter that it’s being worked on, so will keep watching. Something I really do like is it looks like you’re keeping comments open on previous challenges. I’m thinking you’ll keep pingbacks enabled, too? That is a nice feature for a person like me who has to mull over themes. I like to put a bit more thought into things and with work/family do not always make the deadline.
Guess I’m a creature of habit and I’ll get used to the new format but for now I miss the general look of the old one.
Thanks for responding to me, though. Still rave about the personal responses from WordPress staff!
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The pingback grid is now displayed on challenges.
Current photo challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_photo_challenge/monument/
Current writing challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_writing_challenge/poetry/
Thanks for your patience as we continue to iron out kinks.
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It certainly looks modern, I am never keen of that kind of orange, as it always reminds me of the fact that when something is orange it is meant to entice you to eat or get hungry, isnt it?
I am confused — the weekly photo challenge says boundries whereas elsewhere it says monument. Or are there two weekly photo challenges now?
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Hi there — thanks for your comment. There is still only one weekly photo challenge (on Friday). Yes, today’s challenge focuses on “Monument.”
Where do you see “Boundries” (which I gather is supposed to say “Boundaries”)?
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On the Daily Prompts page, I think that the oldest prompts are shown instead of the newest. Is this an error or is it meant to be like that?
Thanks,
Tom
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Hi Tom — the archive page for the prompts has been updated so the most recent ones appear first, at the top
Thanks for the note, and for poking around on the new site — we appreciate your feedback.
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You’re very welcome. Thanks for reading my comment.
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Nice! What theme is this? Is it available WP users?
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Hi — glad you enjoy this theme. It’s a custom design created for The Daily Post — it’s not available to users at the moment.
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Try No. 2 – I don’t mind the colour that is chosen for the new look. The main thing is that it functions well. It functions OK; I have got used to a lot of changes over the past 20 years on the internet. I would just be happy if the pingbacks would work again. This seems to be a common problem at the moment.
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Thanks for your comment! Yes, we’re working on displaying pingbacks for the challenges.
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The pingback grid is now displayed on challenges.
Current photo challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_photo_challenge/monument/
Current writing challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_writing_challenge/poetry/
We’re continuing to iron out some kinks. Note that sometimes we can’t immediately moderate/respond to your comments, especially on the weekends when we take time off, too.
We’re continuing to work to improve your experience.
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Great new look and thanks for all the hints and tips for us novices!
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Wow, this really looks like it is going to be awesome for all of us. Great job WP!
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The old one was good but the new look is great. The old was easy to handle but I think the new one will also turn out to be equally easy. Will get use to it.
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I like this theme. Will you be making it available for all WordPress users?
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Hi — glad you like this theme! It’s a custom theme created for The Daily Post and its readership; no, I don’t believe it’d be made available to activate on WordPress.com blogs.
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I’m a big fan of the new look, but then orange is my favourite colour :). I like the layout & other organisational changes. Well done to all!!
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An excellent new look!
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Spiffy new look! Has the color been changed? I liked the orange, but I think I like the purple/grey combo even better.
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Sorry but after giving it a go since it started it does not do anything for me, just causes problems. No pingbacks listed to copy paste and the order of the different contributions on the daily prompt changes all the time, so I have to search each time to see what I have read and what is new. I am seriously thinking about no longer doing the daily prompt, which is a shame, because I enjoy the prompts and have got to know a lot of good people there. I suppose it is stupid to say, let’s call it a day and return to the old version, but that is what I would really like. I am really open to change, but a positive change.
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The new format is okay, just takes some getting used to. I definitely agree that the orange is hideous. I hope you are listening to people saying so and tone it down a bit. Garish is not a good motivator.
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Have you considered a temporary fix to the pingbacks – listing the participating blogs by hand? It is understandable you have a glitch, but the loss of community is pretty serious – more so perhaps than updating your twitter?
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The pingback grid is now displayed on challenges.
Current photo challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_photo_challenge/monument/
Current writing challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_writing_challenge/poetry/
Thanks for your patience as we continue to iron out some kinks.
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Hmmm, how do i “like” a daily prompt.
Where is the link “that used to be a circular W” what would open up a post for me with the link to the daily prompt prefilled”?
Why are you “working on pingbacks” I wish you guys would test your stuff to make sure it works before throwing out something half baked.
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At the moment, there are no likes on prompts, but that button might be enabled in the future.
The pingback grid is now displayed on challenges.
Current photo challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_photo_challenge/monument/
Current writing challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_writing_challenge/poetry/
Thanks for your patience as we continue to iron out some kinks. We’re working hard to improve your Daily Post experience and really appreciate your feedback.
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Enjoying the new design especially created for you; making me a bit envious! lol 🙂 Maybe something similar could be created for the rest of us?? Thanks for always keeping things interesting here at WordPress.
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So, I’m loving the new look – it’s awesome.
However, when I got to find the daily prompts, I can’t. If I follow the links from the top menu, it gives me all the daily prompts from Nov 2012 – 11 Nov 2013.
If I scroll to the bottom and select Daily Prompts from ‘Browse By Topic’ It just gives me a random list of prompts from 2012 / 2013.
Not sure if this is happening to anybody else, but I have a weeks worth of prompts to catch up on, and I can’t because I can’t see / find them.
…heeelllpppp!!!!
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Hi there — the daily prompt archive page now lists the most recent prompts first, at the top: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_prompt/
Thanks for the heads up on the category page (via the “browse by topic” dropdown in footer) — we’ll fix that. The archive page (the link I noted above) is the best place to find our prompts.
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Unfortunate that no ping backs are available yet for the photo challenge as they have already been enabled for the Daily Prompt… Where might one be able to find this – “If you link to the challenge in your post, your post will appear in the list of responses on The Daily Post” – from the Weekly Photo Challenge paragraph at https://wordpress.com/dailypost/challenge-instructions/
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The pingback grid is now displayed on challenges.
Current photo challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_photo_challenge/monument/
Current writing challenge: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/dp_writing_challenge/poetry/
Thanks for your patience as we continue to iron out some kinks.
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Hurray! Congratulations to the team!
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Could you please bring back the pingbacks in a separate link for every prompt so that they all show in a list?
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The pingbacks are now displayed on writing and photo challenges. The text list has been replaced by a grid of images.
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Could a text list be added to the prompts as well? We liked it better that way… we know the grid list looks way cooler but the text list served higher purposes of socializing as well than what grid lists will ever serve! I don’t think it’ll be too hard for you guys to bring it back in a short little link right at the end of the grid list! 😀
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Hi there — at the moment, I don’t think we’ll be adding a text list of prompts in addition to the grid.
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So are you saying that it’s possible? And also could you please explain why it’s not being done? Just to erase my curiosity totally!
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It’s possible to have the list and the grid. Having both is unnecessary — it’s a duplication. We’re going to stick with the grid because we’re trying it as something new.
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No problemo!
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I suppose progress demands that things change..for the better or worse. I am disappointed with the new layout and operation of the Word Press front page. I am experiencing nothing but technical problems with a number of issues. The ping back and like buttons are now hidden somewhere. The top line of the front page is all but obliterated by the new format. Should I change the computer screen perspective on my computer to view your new offering. The kinks in the page format should have been ironed out before its introduction to your site.I hope you can resolve the technical issues quickly.
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Hi Gerry — the pingbacks on the challenges are displayed now, and we continue to refine the design and work on other kinks. Thanks for your input here — we appreciate it.
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I don’t know if I can do this prompt further. I no longer have close contact with other blogs – the grid order changes all the time and it is difficult to know what I have read and what not. The sociability of this blog theme has decreased and the result is that the no. of contributions is reduced by at least one third and is constantly dwindling. You have ruined a very good prompt from my point of view – shame, and it used to be so good.
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Hi there — today, we made updates so that pingbacks load in a consistent order, and added styling to pingbacks so it’s obvious which ones have already been viewed.
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I noticed the improved design which makes it easier to see what I have read, but I have still not found an easy way to put pingbacks on my blog for other bloggers, which I could easily do in the earlier version. Now I just need a list of the links to copy paste and add to the end of my blog and I am happy. I have tried everything, using html and transforming it, but it is a long job, very exact and hard work and is not worth the while. People no longer seem bother to read or visit your blog since the new order of things. If only we had the list of entries to the blog again, and not only just the grid which is very complicated to work with.
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