Stats Classics: How to set?
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EVERYTHING about the “new” stats page makes it less usable and more frustrating.
There is nothing more reprehensible than the illusion that everything functional must be regularly “updated” by design addicts just for the sake of change.
MAKE THE CLASSIC STATS PAGE A USER-PREFERENCE SETTING FOR THOSE OF US WHO DON’T BUY INTO YOUR “NEW IS BETTER” IDIOCY.
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Uh oh, today my old Stats page seems to be gone forever.
I tried the new one, didn’t like it, and went right on happily using the old one.
Can I have it back please? -
Ah ha! If I scroll right to the bottom of the new stats page (where many people won’t find it), there’s a link to use the classic one AND there’s a choice of 4 responses that you can give to the question why did you choose this one.
You don’t have the option to choose ‘I prefer widescreen to narrow screen’ and there’s no option to add any other reasons, but perhaps if lots of people do the survey even in this limited form, the so-called Happiness Engineers may get the message?
Wouldn’t it be nice if they put the link to the classic stats at the top instead of down at the bottom *sigh* -
If you go to the bottom of the new icky stats page, you can access the old stats. My husband, who is a graphic artist, compared the two today and laughed at the new stats page. When I put them side by side, it’s just so sad. The “classic” stats page yields so much more information at a glance.
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I suggest bookmarking it.
I did find it through the link called “View All” on the classic Dashboard located through the “WP Admin” link below “My Sites”.
That saves having to go to the “new” Stats page and scrolling to the bottom.
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Of course, we don’t know how long the link will be located there, that’s why I suggest bookmarking it on your browser’s tool bar.
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Yes, I’ve put it on my favourites bar to skip the new multiple step process…
But will the data still be there if they retire it?
Time will tell? -
Who knows? That’s one of the frustrating parts of blogging here now. We don’t have any knowledge of what’s going to happen until it’s forced upon us. Then we complain and sometimes they change things, sometimes they don’t.
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This is probably the dumbest of all the dumb Qs I’ve ever asked here, but is there anywhere that WP posts its policy directions or its corporate planning? Are there directors, global head honchos, Big Bosses somewhere that are accountable for what goes on?
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From this comment by designsimply on Dec. 10, 2014, she said that the old Stats page, (https://wordpress.com/my-stats) would be eliminated in the future.
You may wish to read this comment on the same thread:
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/massive-changes-to-the-wp-interface/page/11?replies=456#post-2177546 -
is there anywhere that WP posts its policy directions or its corporate planning? Are there directors, global head honchos, Big Bosses somewhere that are accountable for what goes on?
They have the official newsfeed with its steady stream of cheerful posts announcing every inane new “improvement.” Then there’s his, which I think should be essential reading for everyone concerned not only about recent changes, but about WordPress’s future direction as well: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2014/06/11/an-extended-interview-with-wordpress-creator-matt-mullenweg/
Matt Mullenweg is the company’s CEO. Here’s what he has to say about WordPress’s new focus in the article posted above:
I think we need to do a hard swing as a company. We’re a Web company. We grew up on the Web, we grew up with mice and keyboards and we live in a touch world now. We have an incredible growing business from people who are currently able to use our products, which are desktop users. We’re not going to launch anything anymore ever again, that’s not responsive. Right now we have 10 mobile developers in the company spread across teams. They’re starting to train other developers . . . I want to be more of a mobile company but as we do that I don’t want to lose the things that make us the engine of the independent Web.
We’re going to try to bring to mobile the thing that allows us to power the dark matter of the Internet. To be super diverse and allow thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of people to build a living on top of it. I want to bring that to mobile however we can. It’s difficult because there are closed things around payments and there are closed things around app stores and how you code things.
His choice of words is revealing: “we live in a touch world now.” It’s quite evident from the interview and from WordPress.com’s recent efforts to dumb down and streamline (decontent) the interface that the goal is to focus on making WP.com a touchscreen environment.
Of course, many of us who live in “touch world” still use more traditional tools to produce content, but it’s increasingly evident that we’re expected to adapt to the new mobile paradigm. Hence the staff’s resistance to our concerns about the new UI and the growing sense that computer users are playing second fiddle to the mobile crowd in the latest round of announcements regarding the recent changes. They’re simply responding to pressure from above.
Mullenweg has a blog: http://ma.tt/ Though he doesn’t post much about WordPress’s new focus, the blog’s content is, to me, quite revealing. There are no long posts, or much original content at all. Matt is a microblogger, and that’s the demographic he, and WordPress, are pandering to these days.
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I want to be more of a mobile company but as we do that I don’t want to lose the things that make us the engine of the independent Web.
Judging by the recent changes, WP is not doing very well at either.
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Judging by the recent changes, WP is not doing very well at either.
It’s really a perfect storm of ineptitude. WordPress’s leadership is so taken with mobile interfaces that they’ve completely ignored the Metro fiasco, resulting in the unfocused, desultory changes we’ve seen over the past year, but especially in the past few weeks.
More mobile engineers and micro-bloggers are calling the shots. Do any of them really understand how we work as writers?
I think not.
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Thanks fjordaniv for the article and info. Very enlightening but not surprising considering the destruction of the blogging platform recently.
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Thank you, @fjordaniv, I understand now what we are up against.
Clearly, the only thing that is going to make them consider a change in direction is for classic users to abandon WP in sufficient numbers to offset the arrival of new tablet users. That would presumably attract their attention.
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I have not expressed my opinion here because I was hoping that WordPress would come to their senses.
Constructive Criticism:
In my opinion, the new stats page is FAR too giant and clunky. It requires a great deal of scrolling which was barely required before, which makes it both horribly annoying, and slow.
If WordPress wants a utility interface that works well with toy computers that people carry around in their phones, that’s fine. Make that utility interface. But please do not stop supporting people with full-fledged computers.
Most of your text content creators use a real computer to create content. Typing on a toy computer is atrocious. If we are creating content on a real computer, do you not suspect that we will also be using a real computer to check on the status of our pages.
Suggestions:
1) Stop trying to create a magical one-size-fits-all interface, because that will never exist.
2) Give content creators stable tools that are meant for the interface devices that we actually use. Yes, this means toy computers too.
3) Allow several more methods of viewing the interfaces, so you *gasp* serve more than one group of people.
4) Allow content creators to make display choices permanent until we choose to change them.
I would be more than happy if WordPress would create an interface option that would roll back every aspect of the interface to what it was in November of 2013 when I was first attracted to WordPress because of it’s clean interfaces. If someone else wants to view everything differently, great, let them!
Conclusion:
The reason I have not yet paid for a subscription to WordPress for my new site is because of the awful interface. If this interface becomes permanent, I will move, because it’s terrible.
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I get the impression that many of us are already leaving, or considering it.
Here’s another interesting excerpt from the Forbes interview:
People think that WordAds and VIP are big parts of our business—they’re about 10% each. They’re important and for many reasons we invest in them, but the vast majority of revenue comes from subscriptions, the other 80%. So people signing up for WordPress.com to get extra features or a domain name.
I wonder how many microbloggers will spring for these services. WP.com might gain 5-10 users for every traditional blogger it loses, but I suspect that we’re the ones who are most likely to buy premium themes and service upgrades. They’re playing a numbers game with a demographic accustomed to free services while they alienate the users who’ve carried them to this point.
I was considering self-hosting for several months before December—my site has grown quite a bit in size and complexity, and I missed the creative freedom I had with my old (different) self-hosted account. Then I found a great premium theme that seemed to tie everything together—this, after enough purchases and returns to forever taint my name in the WP.com store—and I decided that the low cost and stable hosting were enough to keep me here. The Custom Upgrade gave me a measure of control over the typography and column widths, and while the new interface put me off, I decided to weather the storm.
Then, we were effectively forced into the new UI, and we had the debacle with the My Sites menu last week. I could ignore that stats page, but the raft of new and poorly thought-out changes directly affected my ability to interact with the site, and the staffs’ responses (“get used to it and tell us what you think later”) bode ill for the future.
My desire to retain creative control over my writing while expanding my ability to shape the aesthetics of my site are in direct odds with WP.com’s new focus and design language, and I don’t see them listening to us in spite of our assurances.
So I’ll be moving to a self-hosted site shortly. WP.com will collect some money for the site redirect subscription, but I’ve cancelled the premium theme, and I won’t be renewing the Custom Design upgrade.
If enough users do the same, perhaps they’ll listen to us, but for now, I think I’ll enjoy the freedom, if not the expense, of controlling my own site for a while.
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The new stats page is entirely blank on all of my iPad browsers. I’m glad somebody here posted a link to the old-style page.
To all of the users who have posted thoughtful and informed comments, kudos to you! Thank you for trying to get some attention to this issue.
The strong push-back we’re getting from WP is surprising and very disheartening. It seems like they don’t want us here anymore. :/
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I agree yellopig.
It’s very rare to see a company run away from it’s existing customer base so… enthusiastically.
Most companies appreciate customers. WP is acting more like congress than a company that wants to be successful.
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