unfollow a large number of blogs
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Is it possible to unfollow a large number of blogs simultaneously, without having to tediously unfollow them one-by-one? Alternatively, can I remove all my followed blogs after exporting the list, then manually edit out the undesired blogs, then import the remaining list? If so, will all the imported blogs be renotified that I’m following them?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there,
For email notifications, like for all the posts where you’re subscribed to comments, you can bulk-unfollow:
Go to subscribe.wordpress.com and enter your email address. Then click the link in the email we’ll send you. Click on Comments, and you can unfollow the posts from there.
But for the blogs themselves that you’re only following in the WordPress.com Reader there’s no bulk-unfollow option. For those the only way to unfollow is clicking the Unfollow button that appears for each at https://wordpress.com/following/manage
Our internal tools don’t give us a way to bulk-remove those sites from your list either, so your export/import workaround will not work in this case, though that could work if you wanted to start fresh with a different account instead.
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I’ve had two problems recently with the WordPress Reader:
(1) Often it doesn’t inform me of new posts from blogs I follow.
(2) It won’t let me unfollow the spam site pixy.aleshamusic.com (formerly rudysimone.net. I previously followed rudysimone.net before it was taken over by spam.)
Are either of these problems caused by the large number of blogs I follow (2458, most of which are inactive)? Would unfollowing some of these sites help?
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No, neither of those should be caused by the number of sites you’re following.
First, please make sure that your browser is up to date: https://browsehappy.com/
If it is not, please try updating your browser or switching to a different browser.
If it is, please do these two things:
1. Try clearing your browser’s cache and cookies.
2. Try with all browser extensions or add-ons temporarily disabled.
Please let us know how each step goes for you, and which browser (and version of) you’re using if you’re still having trouble.
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I’m using Firefox version 69.0.3 (which is up to date). I cleared cache and cookies and disabled extensions and add-ons and it still won’t let me unfollow the spam site. I won’t know about whether I’m missing posts until I find a missed post through some other means.
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Thanks. I want to go back to this:
Often it doesn’t inform me of new posts from blogs I follow.
Please elaborate on how you’re realizing that you never received a notification from us. It’d be great to have a few example posts that we can look at in a bit more detail as well.
As for #2:
(2) It won’t let me unfollow the spam site pixy.aleshamusic.com (formerly rudysimone.net. I previously followed rudysimone.net before it was taken over by spam.)
I’ve reviewed the backend of your WordPress.com user account and you are not following pixy.aleshamusic.com or rudysimone.ne. In fact, if you go to Reader – Manage and add those sites to the search bar you’ll see the option to start and follow those.
A few thoughts that I had are
– could you be following them from a different WordPress.com user account?
– are you following them through email instead? If that’s the case you just need to use the unsubscribe link in the next post notification that is delivered. -
(1) I check my WordPress Reader daily and it shows new posts in reverse chronological order. I check for new posts within the past three days (or more) and later discover new posts that didn’t appear in the Reader (at least not where they should have been chronologically). I don’t subscribe by email, just using the Reader.
I’ve been missing all new posts recently from oldladywithautism.blog/.
Below are some other blogs I’ve previously missed posts from:
autisticfuture.com/blog/
evilautie.org/
chaoticidealism.livejournal.com/
justkeepstimming.com/
walkinginland.com/
jerobison.blogspot.com/
http://www.niksebastian.com/blog/
misslunarose.home.blog/
aspergersallday.home.blog/
lookatthetrees.com/
autistic-writer.blog/
life-through-my-eyes.com/
autistictic.com/autistictic-autism-blog/
aspieunicornmagic.home.blog/
autismsense.home.blog/autstanding/
autismspectrumculture.com/
transponderings.blog/
laughingatmynightmare.tumblr.com/(2) Many posts from the spam site show up daily in my Reader. Below is the entry for the spam site from my exported list of Followed Sites.
<outline type=”rss” text=”Pixy Home Decor” htmlUrl=”https://pixy.aleshamusic.com/” xmlUrl=”http://www.rudysimone.net/blog/feed”/>No, I’m always signed in to the same WordPress account (anautismobserver.wordpress.com).
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1. Ah, that explains it. We only have the infrastructure to bring in posts immediately from sites hosted on WordPress.com.
Sites hosted elsewhere are checked a few times a day depending on their number of subscribers. More subscribers = more checks.
So, if you have a mixture of WordPress.com and non-WordPress.com sites, and you check multiple times a day, it is possible that you appear to miss posts.
2. I definitely don’t see that site under your account. How long ago did you unfollow it?
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(1) Does that mean the posts I’m missing are for blogs with few subscribers? How often do you check a site (hosted elsewhere) with only one subscriber? How about for 3, 5, 10, 20 subscribers?
(2) I’ve tried unfollowing it several times, most recently today. It still shows up in my exported list of Followed Sites. Can you check that?
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1. Every site is at least checked once every 24 hours.
2. It’s not there in your subscribers, so that may just be a cache that needs to clear. Would you please check again tomorrow?
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The problem still exists. I uploaded it to my Google Drive so you can see for yourself. Can you access it through the following link?
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Thanks @anautismobserver. It sounds like we’ve got three main issues:
1) You want to unfollow a bunch of sites that you don’t need anymore
We don’t allow bulk follows or bulk unfollows… spammers would certainly take advantage if we did. You’ll need to go through and deliberately unfollow each site you no longer want. I’d recommend doing this first to simplify troubleshooting these other two issues.
2) One site you stopped following keeps showing up
Can you click through to one of their articles in the reader, and send a link to that? I’m wondering if when they changed their site name, as you mentioned, that something got mixed up on our end. A direct link to one of the articles you’re seeing (the reader link, though, not a link to their site) will be most helpful in this case.
3) You aren’t seeing notifications for sites you want
Can we swing back to this one once we’ve resolved the first two? That way there’s “noise” to look through, if that makes sense. Also, even though you’re not into the email notifications, would you be willing to follow two of these sites (one self-hosted, and one hosted here) by email just to compare when you get the email notification vs when it shows up in the reader? That might be helpful info.
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Just noting on item 2, I was able to find that in your feed. I’m checking in with our reader team to see why it’s still showing up, and we’ll follow up with you on that.
I’d encourage you to go ahead and unsubscribe from some unwanted sites, and also sign up for email notifications (if possible) from a few of the sites so you can compare when you get the email vs when you see the post in the reader.
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(1) How would the spammers abuse bulk unfollows? (I’m just curious.)
(2) Some links from my Reader to the spam site are
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/50269822
https://pixy.aleshamusic.com/what-are-asbestos-shingles/
Is that what you’re asking for?(3) The workaround I’m using is a perl script I wrote (based on the WordPress.com REST API, thank you so much for providing that) that returns the date (and time) of the last update for each of a list of blogs. This allows me to see all the missing posts (but is more work, so I don’t do it as often as I check my Reader).
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1) Some people use the “follow” (and sometimes “unfollow” so they can refollow) feature to draw attention to their own site. Right now they still have to do that one site at a time. We do intend the reader for sites you’ll actually read, so a one-site-at-a-time approach is part of the design.
2) Yup, thanks, we’ve got it and have reported the issue. We’ll follow up with more info when we’ve got it.
3) Thanks, and with that you’re finding missing posts from WordPress.com sites as well as .org instances? Is there any chance they’re just being buried between posts from unwanted sites?
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1) Spammers can still do a bulk “follow” by importing a list of followed sites, can’t they? Why is that not a problem?
3) How do I tell when a blog is a .org instance? The URL’s all seem to be wordpress.com, not wordpress.org.
I think I look at the Reader listings closely enough to see buried posts. There’s only one unwanted site I’ve been plagued by.
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Is there a limit to the size of a followed sites list that can be imported? Yesterday I tried importing my followed sites list (after removing unwanted sites) into a new blog, but it seems to be stalled out and has not yet informed me that the import is complete.
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Spammers can still do a bulk “follow” by importing a list of followed sites, can’t they? Why is that not a problem?
Correct, they could. It’s not directly a problem because the worst thing a subscriber can do is read your already public site.
How do I tell when a blog is a .org instance? The URL’s all seem to be wordpress.com, not wordpress.org.
WordPress sites not hosted here on WordPress.com are self-hosted WordPress.org sites: https://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
Probably the easiest way to tell is that your logged in WordPress.com top bar doesn’t appear on self-hosted WordPress.org sites.
Is there a limit to the size of a followed sites list that can be imported?
Not that we’re aware of, did you leave the browser window open or close it at any point during the import?
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I think I closed and reopened it. Does that stop the import? I just started it again and will keep the browser window open.
In case it’s helpful, below are some recent posts that were missed by my Reader:
https://coffeeandneurodiversity.com/2019/10/16/missed-opportunities-rambling/
https://thegentleandbravewriter.wordpress.com/2019/10/16/this-aspie-woman-finding-her-perfect-spot/
https://www.tameri.com/wordpress/autisticme/2019/10/18/podcast-episode-030-parenting/ -
When I import a followed sites list, the previous followed sites are kept, the imported duplicate entries are ignored, the imported non-duplicate new entries are added, right?
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