Jan 7, 2015 / News

Daily Prompts in 2015

Going forward, we will be tapping into our huge collection of writing prompts, as well as adding new ones.

We started publishing writing prompts on a daily basis back in October 2012 — a near-eternity in internet terms! 785 prompts and one free ebook later (not to mention tens of thousands of posts generated and shared in response to these prompts), we thought it was time to tweak the way we approach prompts on The Daily Post.

What’s new?

In the final days of 2014 we started publishing a mix of older prompts from our archives, along with the occasional new prompt. We still feature prompts suggested to us by our loyal, incredibly creative readers, and will continue to do so in the future (if you have a prompt idea please share it with us here). Everyone can still share their posts via pingbacks, which will appear in the grid below each individual prompt; the technical issues we’ve experienced with pingbacks last month have been resolved.

While daily prompts are currently available on our homepage, we’re working to make sure they also appear in your WordPress.com Reader as well as delivered via email to our followers.

Given the depth of our prompt archive, the vast majority of bloggers visiting our site will never encounter a prompt to which they’d already responded. That said, if you see a prompt you’d previously used, or if today’s prompt leaves you cold, we’ve got you covered. We’ve added a “Try Another” button to our homepage as well as to individual prompts’ pages, letting you browse through as many prompts as you wish until you hit one that inspires you to write a new post.

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Every writing prompt is, ultimately, an invitation to share your own perspective with the rest of the community. We always encourage bloggers to interpret prompts in any way that makes sense to them — to make prompts their own. Whether you use them as a tool to help you meet a posting goal, a way to jump-start your daily writing, or an occasional lifesaver on days you feel stuck for a topic, we hope our daily prompts continue to be a part of your Daily Post experience.

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  1. Thanks for letting us know. I know many long-time blog writers have been frustrated and disenchanted by the “repetition” of prompts. As I’ve only been writing a blog here for a year, the repetition wasn’t obvious to me. Also, though I follow the daily post, I have not been getting the daily prompt in my email for some time even though I set it up to be emailed daily and other daily post message do show up. I’m not alone in having this problem so it might be something to look into. Anyway, that you have communicated this is awesome and I know it will calm down a lot of folks.

    Liked by 9 people

    1. Hi Martha,

      Thanks for your comment. As a writer yourself, you well know that daily prompts (and writing prompts in general) are tricky beasts; the prompt that appeals and inspires one writer could very well repel or aggravate another. We feel that with almost 800 prompts in place, it was time to focus our team’s efforts on other aspects of The Daily Post and other projects in general. As Ben notes new prompts will appear, though new ones won’t appear daily, as in the past.

      Resurfacing prompts as we are now raises a limitation in our notification system: currently our system doesn’t support notifications on republished content. We’re working on getting that fixed up so that prompts will arrive via email and appear in the Reader.

      And just to make sure I’ve not missed a problem here: did you receive an email notification of this post? Is it just daily prompts that aren’t arriving via email? I want to make sure I understand exactly what’s happening for you.

      Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts and constructive feedback.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Yes, I received an email notification for this post and all the other things connected with Daily Post (Blogging U etc.). Thanks!

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Oddly, my daily prompts suddenly stopped arriving via email on the 2nd of this month. The last one that came into my email box was the 1st of January. I’ve changed nothing with my email, yet they are no longer coming into my email box. Very odd. I’ve even unfollowed, re-followed and then checked the settings, which I’ve always had set to “Immediate”. Writing prompts have simply stopped. I am forced to go to the website to get them. I’d really love to receive them in my inbox again. I receive other daily post items such as this message, which came in my email. But no more daily prompts are coming.

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  2. I shouldn’t complain, After all the prompts are free. Nevertheless when I get a prompt that has already been responded to by 50 or more people I feel like I’m being asked to drive a used car with 200,000 + miles already on the speedometer. Better than no car/prompt I guess. But less likely to impress those looking for a new model. 🙂

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Interesting. I don’t know what the number of responders to a given prompt has to do with what you (or I) might write.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I regret my comment. I wish I could delete it. I’m tired.
        When I’m tired I write without thinking.
        Come to think of it, most of what I write I do without thinking.
        Even this.
        Perhaps I should wait until I’m well rested before I write.
        But then there is a possibility I’ll never write again.
        Then where would new writers get their inspiration to write by realizing they can write better than I do?
        I’m a public service. And an idiot. I need sleep.
        Please accept my apologies for my comment, my writings and my ramblings. Especially my ramblings. I’m told they are not pretty to look at. But I’m going on a diet, so maybe I’ll shed them. If they don’t fit in the shed I’ll try the basement.
        I’ll never reply to a comment again.
        Although this has been more inspiring than the daily prompt lately.
        Now I have to apologise for that last statement.
        I should quit when i’m ahead, but if I do that then I’d never quit. And that is something I couldn’t take away from the public.
        After all this world needs hope.
        And every day when I write I give people the hope that this will be the last thing they read by me.
        In fact I’m probably giving you that same hope right now.
        You’re welcome. 🙂

        Liked by 6 people

      2. 😀 I just wondered — you’re not the ONLY person to say that and I can’t figure it out but it could be me or not.

        Liked by 3 people

      2. Yeah but WHY? Do you READ other peoples’ work before you write yours? I was asking an honest question, not expressing an opinion. I’m interested in how other people respond to the tools on WP.

        Liked by 3 people

      3. I write my interpretation of the DP. THEN read others’. If I am out of ideas or just tired, then I read other people’s posts. Most of the time I just read without writing til inspiration hits.

        Liked by 3 people

      4. Hi, I wrote my Daily Post entry (a poem), and then went back and looked at others posts depending on time constraints (sometimes all, sometimes none). I really enjoyed the community spirit (which included reading your post, Angloswiss and others). Now when I am presented with a two-year old grid littered with 404’s I am not inspired to read the other posts, which includes navigating to where the current posts start, and my reader is also filled with other options with the new “try another”, which makes it all the more irrelevent to me. I can understand though, that many bloggers are not two years into their blog writing, so many of the prompts would be first time for the newer bloggers (like myself). I have been away, and only returned now, so am undecided on how to proceed. I will have a look at others to see how they are responding. Take care, Vonita.

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      5. Once I figured out that over 50 people had NOT responded two minutes after the prompt is posted, I just started reading from the bottom of the grid up to the point where the next post was two years old. Then I go back down and read the new stuff. What’s discouraging to me about so many posts showing up so fast is that it puts my own down under a huge mountain of posts, and I worry that my efforts are going to go unread. Vanity, I suppose.

        Liked by 6 people

      6. granonine — that makes sense to me since you think people will read the responses starting from the top. Maybe that’s what others think, too. Usually I don’t even read them (honesty here). And if it happens I do, I usually choose at random. I’m interested in learning more about how other people approach writing and the Daily Prompt is a voluntary writing “challenge” which is a lot different from work I assigned my students or the writing I do apart from WP.

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Hello there! As I mentioned to Martha above:

      Resurfacing prompts as we are now raises a limitation in our notification system: currently our system doesn’t support notifications on republished content. We’re working on getting that fixed up so that prompts will arrive via email and appear in the Reader.

      Liked by 2 people

  4. Thanks. I diabled email notifications (I was getting too many), but blogs I follow, including the Daily Post, do show up in my reader. And, up until recently, so did the Daily Prompt. But not recently. Anyway, thanks for ‘splaining why not. I hope you’ll get that matter fixed soon.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. I will gladly pester you with prompt idea, if I might have any :-). I like the daily prompts, it is a great start to get readers and met others bloggers. However, I slowed down on the prompts. I felt dramatically bored by the same people trying to be there first. I started reading the prompts backwards, the last one firsts and I have to say, it was entertaining. I can not thank you guys enough. My little quit-smoking blog is still little, but did so much better as I ever expected. I have to give you guys at worpress and the daily prompt (some) credit for it. So I heartfelt “Thank you” and I happy New Year from the happy Quitter :-).

    Liked by 1 person

  9. I am willing to admit that I was becoming frustrated (and saddened) by the recent prompt repetition. Having responded to almost all 700 something prompts, I am one of those bloggers who recognized when posts were being reused. However, I was unaware of an e-book being available so if those prompts are unique, perhaps I will look into those instead! Or if not, I’ll simply branch away and proceed with writing my own content.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. The ebook was based — with some minor modifications — on our 2013 prompts, so they’re not unique.

      Way to go on responding to so many of our prompts — I’m really glad you’ve found them useful. Many of them might inspire very different posts when approached for the second time, especially since we aim not to republish the most recent ones too soon, but I also understand if you’d rather seek out different sources of inspiration. Either way, thanks for being part of our community for so long.

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Maybe I’m not understanding this fully but it seems like this move is going to break apart a bit of a community in WP. I’ve been known to grumble about the lameness about some of the daily prompts, along with many of the bloggers I follow. On the other hand, part of my enjoyment of the Prompts were seeing how other people handled “today’s” prompt—whether I thought the prompt was awesome or lacking. I found several fun new blogs that way. What I am not going to do, ever, is chase around 785 other blog topics to see if people have moved to “other” prompts. The pick “whichever” option is making the WP prompt much less relevant to me.

    Liked by 3 people

    2. Yeah, nor will I. While I’m glad WP has told us what’s going on, I don’t know why they can’t hire an intern to write new daily prompts. I’d do it.

      Liked by 2 people

      2. Not for free. WP could pay me a buck and a half a day. That would be fine. Seriously. I mean, I’m a pro, right? I earned my pension by writing prompts. And, for it to do all of the (justifiably disgruntled )Daily Prompters any good, it would seem it would need to appear on the WP platform.

        Liked by 3 people

    3. I expect the overwhelming majority of people to respond to that day’s prompt, especially those who care about the community aspect of The Daily Post and the daily prompts in particular. The “try another” option is really for those rare instances where someone has already responded to a prompt, or for people who use this feature for inspiration more so than for interaction.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I’m not convinced, though I generally take a wait and see attitude with such things. Sorry, but this announcement rings too much of “we got our ebook, so *next!*”

        Liked by 1 person

  11. BaBeBa’s comments remind me of something.

    People might also benefit from having the blogging event listings featured more prominently on the Daily Post. Of course I’m biased on this point because I recently started a second blog that features writing challenges…

    Liked by 1 person

  12. I didn’t know that the technical issue have been resolved because my pingback still doesn’t work. This afternoon I linked back to daily prompts with my post and until now my post doesn’t show up on the list of grid. It’s the same with weekly Photo and writing challenge. Help anyone?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m sorry to hear your pingback failed yesterday — I can’t immediately see what the issue might have been, so I’ve reported this to people who might have a better idea how to address this.

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Good stuff! Though I couldn’t figure out why the prompts were not appearing in my reader. I don’t do all of them, but they are nice for inspiration when I’m stuck for what to write about. Looking forward to seeing that resolved.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. This sounds great! I’ve been struggling to write in the past months just because some days I just can’t think of anything interesting to write about. These prompts could be a great way for me to revamp my blog this year.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Me too… struggle to follow any instructions to be honest but gave yours a cursory once over before free styling it my way! Thanks for the jolt though…. you have created action and that in my book is something to be grateful for

      Like

  16. The more I think about it the more I feel like this could potentially be a big mistake. It’s already been mentioned in the comments before but I feel like this decision will inevitably disrupt the current WordPress community. 😦 In all seriousness, can’t WordPress hire a new intern or employee to keep these going? 700 prompts is a lot but the list of potential prompts is endless…

    Liked by 2 people

  17. Better if you give prompts about common matters, issues, problems instead of personal prompts.Many prompts l found is asking like “how you will do. what you will do ” like this.Prompts can also be related to festivals, cultures so that people can write about such matters in their country and other country people can read about it.

    Liked by 4 people

  20. Makes sense. Sometimes its good to give a random take on a word. Especially when you have a blogger’s’ block’

    Liked by 3 people

  21. I have about 6 or 7 blogs that I wish to receive specific posts/comments that I write, particularly, in the field of classical music; but, since I am such a novice at blogging, I am having a difficult time trying to do this. Any suggestions??

    Liked by 2 people

  22. Groan. More clicks to do something I want to do. This is turning into a click nightmare on here. We joked that every time we got lost we took the “Cultural Tour” This is the supreme cultural tour. I use to be able to look at my reader, click and poof there I was at what I wanted to do just by one click. Now I have to click on Daily Post, then I have to click on that crappy page you put up to go to the actual page then After I am on the actual page, I have to scroll down to find the daily prompt. THEN I have to scroll to the bottom to check to see what freaking year the post was originally created it.

    Do you realize how much time I am wasting on this crap? I opt out. Have fun.

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  23. I’ve get the impression that you are letting die slowly the daily prompt out of boredom. The creativity has been left exclusively for the suggestions of the users. It’s a pity, because the daily prompt was great. I liked to read what people from all around the world were writing about the same topic at the same time and made a lot of friends. Now my old posts resurface on the grid while I’m supposed to write about the same topic today. Confusing. Is this designed to get rid of us, the old “dailyprompters”?

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    1. Hi Olga,

      We always welcomed prompt suggestions from our users in the past, and we’ll continue to publish new writing prompts based on their ideas (as well as new prompts generated by our staff).

      Making this switch had nothing to do with boredom, and everything to do with wanting to use the huge archives of prompts we’ve built over the past few years, which contain prompts that have never been seen by the vast majority of our audience.

      The community of “old dailyprompters,” as you affectionately call yourself and others like you, is an integral part of The Daily Post, and “getting rid” of this group is most definitely not something we’d like to see happen. Being creative bloggers, I hope you can find ways to use older prompts in a way that makes sense to you, and which will allow the friendships that were created through this site to continue to prosper.

      Like