May 24, 2018 / News

To the Daily Post Community: Thank You!

Saying goodbye is hard. Celebrating years of community and great blogging is anything but.

Almost seven and a half years ago The Daily Post opened its virtual doors to the WordPress.com blogging community. It’s been an incredible ride, and incredible rides, too, sometimes come to an end. As of the end of this month (and 2,000 Daily Prompts, 380 Photo Challenges, 260 Community Pools, and 100 First Fridays later), we will no longer publish new posts, prompts, or challenges on this site.

Where are we going?

The decision no longer to publish on The Daily Post wasn’t an easy one. We’re enormously proud of what we put out here — and of the hundreds of thousands of stories, essays, photos, and poems members of this community have shared with us over the years. The team behind The Daily Post isn’t going anywhere; we’ll be focusing our attention on other projects that help WordPress.com remain the best place on the web to publish, build an audience, and find a community. We hope to cross paths with many of you on other sites we run, including Longreads and Discover.

Will this site stay online?

Yes. The Daily Post will be around for as long as our servers keep chugging along, which we predict to be roughly 14,320,078 years (give or take). All your conversations, pingbacks, and favorite writing prompts and Blogging U. courses will still be available, and we hope you’ll keep exploring — and enjoying — our deep archive of resources, from beginners’ tips to writing advice to blogging etiquette.

Where can Daily Post bloggers connect with each other and find inspiration?

One thing we know many of you will miss is, well, you. This is a place where many bloggers — including many who were just starting out — found like-minded people to be part of their blogging adventure. We hope you continue to develop friendships and seek out the advice and support of others in the WordPress.com community. Here are some resources to explore:

What happens between now and May 31?

We’ll publish the last First Friday thread this week, as well as a Community Pool post and a Photo Challenge next week. (Daily Prompts will continue through May 31.) We hope you decide to participate in these final posts, and also encourage you to use their respective comment sections to make plans for keeping in touch with all your Daily Post friends.

One last note…

Our mission has always been to inspire others to blog more and to blog better, even if “blogging better” means something quite different in 2018 than it did back in 2010. The editors and contributors who’ve tended to this site have all changed, grown, and evolved, and so have the members of this community. What has stayed consistent — almost miraculously so — is the spirit of openness, respect, and camaraderie of the people who’ve made this place a part of their online journey. Yes, that’s you.

From those of us on the WordPress.com team who’ve contributed to The Daily Post over the years, thank you for being the best blogging community on the web, bar none. It’s been a total joy.

Joen Asmussen, Sheri Bigelow, Brie Anne Demkiw, John Godley, Jeff Golenski, Jen Hooks, Daryl L. L. Houston, Ben Huberman, Marcus Kazmierczak, Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Anne McCarthy, Donncha Ó Caoimh, Kathryn Presner, Kjell Reigstad, Zandy Ring, Sara Rosso, Wendy Scott, Chris Smith, Krista Stevens, Erica Varlese, David Watkis, Michelle Weber, and Xiao Yu.

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  4. It’s really sad news! Business is business it’s true but we all came together as community through community pool, daily prompts first Friday. I wish if they could change their mind and keep it continue to connect us. 😟

    Liked by 5 people

  5. Reblogged this on Word Play … Poetry in Progress and commented:
    Sad decision

    Reputation built
    Now quicksand and silt
    How users betrayed
    A fail grade displayed
    Guilty to the hilt

    Alan Grace
    25 May 2018

    Daily prompt: Guilty

    Just how much effort does it take to choose a word at random from a dictionary?

    Or use a random word generator. e.g.
    https://www.randomlists.com/random-words

    Perrhaps just start repeating words from a couple of years ago.

    Liked by 5 people

  6. I hope you all at WordPress will at least consider giving us alternatives to the Community Pool and First Fridays. Those have been instrumental for me in helping grow my blog and I don’t know that I would’ve stuck with it this long if it wasn’t for that. We will definitely miss that!

    Liked by 7 people

    1. As the post mentions, we have 2000+ prompts in our archives (as well as many other posts around finding writing inspiration). While I know that relying on these isn’t quite the same as the Daily Prompt, I hope you find them useful in the future.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Thank you! It’s not really that I need ideas so much as just knowing others were “connecting” somehow on the same word on the same day. Thank you for all you do! Valerie

        Liked by 2 people

  8. Oh no! I’ll miss the daily posts, especially the Weekly Photo Challenges. Thank you so much for all the ideas you’ve put out there. It’s been a great journey. I hope the WP community will stay as connected as it is or will grow even closer through these alternatives you are suggesting. All the best to all of you and thanks again for the great work.

    Liked by 4 people

  9. Like everyone else, I am immensely sad to see the Weekly Photo Challenge disappear and extremely grateful for the efforts of the team to help us remain motivated and connected. Hopefully we will continue to post, share and grow our communities despite the loss of such a valued resource. Thanks to all of you for your efforts through the years!

    Liked by 10 people

  10. Thank you so much to you and the whole team. You have made my blogging experience much easier and more enjoyable that I thought it would have been. I will greatly miss the word prompts. I don’t know how I am going to cope with out them. Anyway, all the very best for the future. I secretly hope you will change your mind. Xxx

    Liked by 7 people

  11. Sad to see this go. When I first started blogging two years ago the Daily prompt was how i got to know other bloggers. The weekly photo challenge has be something I have continued with and again found other bloggers that I have followed and who have followed me. I understand you have the Longreads and Discover but Longreads are not something I look at often and Discover is interesting but no one would ever have found my blog on Discover. So this is disappointing.

    Liked by 8 people

    1. Thank you for your comment, anne. You’re right that Discover and Longreads serve other purposes, even if they’re still part of the same broader community (and run by the same group of editors).

      Liked by 2 people

  12. Reblogged this on Thriving Not Surviving and commented:
    I am saddened by the announcement that there will no longer be a word of the day. This word has been my inspiration for each post, and motivation for me to practice writing every day. It leads me to write things I would never write otherwise and in ways I would never otherwise write. I need to continue to find inspiration and so I will be finding my own word of the day. I will post the word on my blog but will schedule it ahead of time so that I don’t cheat and use a word that fits what I want to say.

    I will begin 6/1. I hope you will join me! Pingbacks are allowed on my site so you can link back to the post if you wish.

    Liked by 2 people

  17. I too am saddened to learn that the Daily Post Community has outgrown this useful place and space where prompts, challenges, and feedback have been inspiring a world of bloggers. For me, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays have been precious opportunities to connect with others since electing to share my journey 14 months ago. It’s allowed me to be a better blogger, gain confidence in my voice, and expand my vision to so many.,

    I can’t wait to see what’s next for the Discover team as they determine what’s next for all of us.

    Meanwhile, I would love to continue the tradition of posting Weekly Photo Challenges should there be sufficient interest. Why not let me know.

    Liked by 8 people

  20. So sad! I really enjoyed all of the posts that were shared here, I hope all of the involvement keeps going! Thank you!

    Liked by 5 people

  24. Ohhh, I just started my blog maybe last year or so and the daily post really gave me some stuff to write on. I am a little upset now that the daily post is coming to an end. I also really enjoyed reading others daily post assignments. Regardless, I will miss you people in charge of the daily post. Good luck to you and all the bloggers. Wish me luck too please

    Liked by 5 people

  25. Aw, so sad! I really enjoyed these posts. I’m relatively new and they introduced me to several wonderful bloggers and I felt this was a unique asset and community compared to other social media platforms/websites. It’s been great, wishing everyone the best!

    Liked by 5 people

  27. I, too, am saddened by this. Not only has the photo challenge been my reason and inspiration to blog once a week, it has also been where I’ve made friends, gained followers, and found bloggers to connect with. But I get it, that change is necessary, and nothing that needs to grow remains constant so I will look for another photo challenge out there and perhaps will start growing in a new direction. Thank you Daily Posters, for all that you have done for this community!

    Liked by 7 people

    1. Hi Laura — thanks for your question, and I hear you about the Community Pool’s closure. The Community Pool and Daily Prompts (and everything else we published) are all part of the same site and the same process for the team who manages The Daily Post, so maintaining certain parts while stopping others wasn’t an option that could’ve worked at this point.

      Liked by 4 people