Why were titles in "Top Posts and Pages" suddenly abbreviated today?

windwhistle · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 9:32 pm
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Okay, I see some new image options have been added to the Top Posts widget. That still doesn’t justify ruining the look of the widget for those of us who want to keep the nice-looking text-only widget we had before yesterday.

Furthermore, I’ve no doubt there are a lot of WP bloggers out there today wondering why their widget is broken, who won’t think to come to the forums for an explanation of this unannounced new feature.
dainachaviano · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 9:38 pm
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I already drew back that widget to hide it from view. I’ll wait for this thing to get fixed before going back to use it.
timethief · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 9:40 pm
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There are more widget happenings folks. There are now 2 new widgets. Posts I like and Blogs I Follow.
windwhistle · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 10:08 pm
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@timethief Why don’t they announce these things?
timethief · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 10:12 pm
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Oh but they do announce things, after the fact. lol :D
feartheseeds · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 10:36 pm
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…at least “Blogs I Follow” is optional, but why not make it an add-on to “Blogroll / Links”, instead of a whole new links thing?

Maybe they’ll bring back the “Add To Blogroll” button with a cute new name…

after the fact.

…it’d be nice if they told the HapEng people so they could expect people.
timethief · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 10:45 pm
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@feartheseeds
I’m using a responsive width theme (Twenty Eleven) and I know that those viewing my blog on a mobile or tablet are going to experience all sidebar content displaying below my posts. I know by 2014 there will be mobs of people using mobiles and tablets. I’m not inclined to add a single widget. I’m actually moving in the other direction. I will be offering more custom menu access to my blogb and less sidebar access ie. fewer widgets as the year progresses.
musicdoc1 · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 11:05 pm
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macmanx,

“Well, the title would have to be cut off at some point, because the widget cannot be infinitely wide.

The titles have always been abbreviated, but we never added the “…” until just recently”

Sorry, but this not correct.

I’ve been blogging with WordPress for nearly four years and have never seen abbreviation in the “top posts or pages” widget before. I’ve sometimes had titles which stretched for three or four lines in the widget and the full titles were always displayed, sometimes broken up oddly with certain themes (That’s why I chose the Koi, because the theme is very wide in comparison to most WP themes).
feartheseeds · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 11:07 pm
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…the “Blogs I Follow” thing, I think it’s the Blogger add-on people have been asking for. If you set it up with the image option engaged it looks like the “who’s following me” thing on Blogspot blogs. Only better and different.

It actually looks okay… once they give us control over how large the avatars are, and give it a random option, it might actually work.

I like blogroll’s, I wish more people spent time on theirs. I have friends in there, but I also have ‘help’ links for mental health issues, blogging issues… maybe I’m ‘old-school’, but putting someone’s link or RSS feed in your sidebar used to be a huge sign of respect…
feartheseeds · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 11:08 pm
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…whoops, that was meant as a reply to TT.
musicdoc1 · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 11:13 pm
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Correction. Koi’s theme is very wide, allowing big images to display, but the sidebar text line length is only a little longer than some of the other themes I’ve used. Nevertheless, until a week or so ago, the entire title of a post or page always showed in the “top posts or pages” widget. The widget expanded and contracted in height to accomodate the varying title sizes.
musicdoc1 · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 11:16 pm
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Oops. The change was not a week ago. One day.
musicdoc1 · Member · Jul 15, 2012 at 11:22 pm
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macmanx,

Resize the browser window? Mine is always maximized. Maybe I don’t follow you. What do you mean?
justpi · Member · Jul 16, 2012 at 12:05 am
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The titles have always been abbreviated

No, and the proof is in the cache. Examples (cached and current):
feartheseeds · Member · Jul 16, 2012 at 12:52 am
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No, and the proof is in the cache.

Thanks… that makes it easier.
dainachaviano · Member · Jul 16, 2012 at 12:55 am
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The fact that WordPress had added more widgets is not excuse to destroy or change something that was working perfect for everyone. As I said before, I already drew back the widget Top Posts and Pages to hide ir from view until they fix it. I hope everyone do the same to see if this has some impact in getting WordPress attention. I propose to pass the word and do a strike against using that widget.
feartheseeds · Member · Jul 16, 2012 at 1:19 am
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@dainachaviano: the WP staff generally take weekends off, even macmanx gets a few hours to himself. I’m sure someone will be along tomorrow, or later tonight. Personally I don’t see this as an ‘urgent’ threat to my blog, it kind of sits in the ‘annoyance / oh man, not another unannounced change to my blog / exasperated’ range.
windwhistle · Member · Jul 16, 2012 at 1:22 am
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My fear is that they are about to “fix” the “Recent Posts” widget the same way they “fixed” the “Top Posts & Pages” widget.
feartheseeds · Member · Jul 16, 2012 at 1:34 am
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@windwhistle: if they do, you can always put your own RSS feed into your sidebar. I think that’s how we did it before the Recent Posts widget was introduced.
dainachaviano · Member · Jul 16, 2012 at 1:47 am
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@feartheseeds, I hope you are right. I really feel so frustrated with this, because my readers used to click on those Top Posts and Pages a lot, and now the traffic has decreased almost to zero on that widget. That’s why I preferred to hide it rather than displaying such a flawed and useless design.

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