I Will Follow You

Or Not!

Before I went on my overseas trip in June, I noticed that my followers were stuck at a certain number; I think it was 441. Then they decreased, then back to that number, decreased again etc It seemed I was never going to get to 442.

It is happening  again. Despite getting about 6 or 7 new followers in the past week, (hard to count, as I receive an email telling me I have a new follower, but then they often do not appear in the Notifcations) my number of followers has gone down from 452 to 451, instead of up to around 458.

Now, you’ll point out that people stop following you, or stop blogging altogether. Yes, I know, but in the past, they have still been counted as following. I can look back on some of my earliest followers, who have actually deleted their blog, and they are still shown as following me.

I also find that people I have been following quite happily for some time now, I am suddenly no longer following. So if you see me pop up as following you again; that is why.

So what’s going on?

I think I have to just let it go. In fact, I’m pretty proud of myself! I have removed the number next to my ‘follow this blog’ bar on my blog, so I can’t see it any more. Out of sight, out of mind.

And have you looked at your Trophy Case lately, to gloat over your achievements?
Oh wait! You can’t any more, because it’s gone!

Where is the Trophy Case?

Yes, WP decided to remove it earlier this year, without any notice (that I am aware of). Although your trophies will still pop up in your Notifications as you get them, but I’ve a long time to wait before I get any more. And to be honest, I had not visited my Trophy Case for months anyway.

But I had been looking forward to reaching 15,000 views and 400 posts, and maybe at the same time achieving 500 followers, since these sorts of milestones (in my blogging life) had gone together in the past. It’s not going to happen now, since my followers are stuck in limbo.

Pity, because I love numbers, you know! I drive my daughter nuts by pointing out all the permutations on the odometer in my car. (It has just reached 6789!)

 

News Flash!  WP has increased the font weight in the WP Reader, so the text is not so grey on grey any more, and is now easier to read. Thank you very much to Rachel M who drew the attention of our complaints to the relevant WP team members, and to them for fixing it. Yay!

 

43 thoughts on “I Will Follow You”

  1. Rachel M

    I hadn’t noticed the absence of the Trophy Case but I understand why you would want to look at it every now and again. I’ve passed on your request to see its return but I’m not sure how likely this is to happen. But you never know …

    Getting more followers … that’s the million dollar question! Sharing posts with social media is definitely worthwhile. I notice you don’t have any social media buttons at the bottom of your posts? Any reason for that? You can add sharing buttons here:
    https://wordpress.com/sharing/buttons

    Even if you don’t use Twitter/Facebook etc yourself, others can share your posts with those buttons and it’s a good way to increase traffic and therefore subscriptions.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      Oh, I miss the Trophy Case, but wasn’t going to campaign to get it back – after all, I hadn’t noticed its absence in 5 months! But thank you for trying. 🙂
      I used to have the sharing buttons on my posts for a long time, but decided since I am not on fb or Twitter etc, I’d prefer not to have them. It made no difference to my stats.
      And actually I’m not out to get more followers, as I am quite happy with a slow accumulation, because then I can visit all the new blogs and follow if I like them. I like it that I ‘know’ everyone who visits me. Those with 10,000 followers cannot possibly!
      So my post was really that when someone new does follow me, they don’t always make an increase in the follower stats.
      And I believe to get lots of followers you simply follow tons of blogs at random and many will automatically follow you back. This does not mean they will ever visit your blog or comment, but you can get 10,000 followers then – If that is what you want! 🙂

      Like

  2. Genie

    There are people who hang around topics, so if you add: Photography
    whenever you do a post with a photograph, you will probably get more followers and your stats will go up, seems the photographers are interested in finding blogs with pics on them, but they won’t know you have pics unless it’s one of your: categories and/or tags, personally, I don’t use tags, only categories, I discovered that from a web designer for WP, he said they aren’t necessary, categories are sufficient.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      Interesting about categories versus tags 🙂 I do add all these to my posts. I’m not really scouting for new followers, just that those that did follow me were not counted. I have a small blog, which suits me, as then I know everyone and have the time to visit their blogs too 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  3. faburlifekhloe

    I used to look at numbers a lot, so I do understand why you do so Sci 😉 But now I simply don’t care about it as I wanna be more carefree 😛 Anyway, I truly hope you blog continue to grow as you are very dedicated to blogging and i like how you always care about people in this community. It’s my pleasure to follow a kind and sweet person like you. Have a happy Sunday dear! ❤

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Midwestern Plant Girl

    I have stopped looking at followers and those kinds of numbers. I’m going for hits. I write a bit different of a blog (mostly info) and hope that it is getting past WP and people are clicking on it for knowledge. I have about 660 followers, yet I only get an average of 20 likes a post, however some may be hit 150 times a day. I’m assuming folks are clicking on it outside of WP.
    Ironically, I feel the blogs that get the most hits are the personal blogs rather than my ‘info-type’ blogs.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      Wow! 150! That is awesome!
      My bestest ever was 101 (a fluke as two people who’d been away both caught up on my blog on the same day). Mostly I get more likes than hits, and a very good day is 40 hits.
      I think also, people on fb, twitter and instagram get those hits counted too?
      I don’t think anyone outside of WP finds me – except the other day when someone was looking for Sparky the wonder dog and got mis-directed to my Sparky the squirrel – which they did not, however, like! 🙂
      But I enjoy blogging, so meh to the stats! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Midwestern Plant Girl

        Ironically, my tarot card post (sooooo not horticulture) gets an average of 175 hits a day. I almost wanted to ditch it as it was kinda a mislead on my stats, however I did write it and post it, it is a post of mine, so why not reap the benefits of the hits?

        Liked by 1 person

  6. pensitivity101

    We were ‘off line’ for the 9 days we were away and I’ve also lost followers, regained them by some new ones, then the number has decreased again.
    One site simply stopped coming up in my reader, and is no longer listed in blogs I follow, and worse, I can’t find it in search, so if they have deleted their blog, that’s ashame

    Liked by 1 person

    2. scifihammy Post author

      I’m not so sure of that – as I follow Quiall, Butterfly sand – and can never find her when I look for her – but she is still there. It says all the time that I am not following her – but I am! It is a mystery!

      Liked by 1 person

  7. mistermuse

    I’m not a big “numbers” person – some time ago I reached 200 followers, but I didn’t even realize it until my daughter congratulated me on the milestone. Even now, I couldn’t tell you the number, though I assume it’s north of 200 – could be a million, for all I know (ha ha)!

    Of course, we all march to the beat of our own drummer, so if you or anyone else is into stats-watching, more power to you. As for me, I’m getting too old to push the envelope! 😦

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      Yeah, I have to let the stats go. It’s just that I like and remember numbers, and have done a special post for each of my centenaries, so had been looking forward to the 400th. But as long as we all have fun blogging, then that is what counts 🙂

      Like

  8. dizzylizzie72

    Once again I knew the song in your video. As for WP – I am not one to worry about numbers. I do not have that many followers. I simply post for my satisfaction and enjoy the blogs of some of my favorites, like you. Yes, you are one of my favorite blogs. Why? Because you reply back with comments and you actually read my posts. I find your posts and your photos interesting. I follow and comment on some people’s blogs who will thank me for my comments, but never comment on one of my blog posts. Occasionally they push the like button on one or two of my posts to keep me visiting their blog. I call that a one way street. I do not have much use for these “One Way People.” Ha Don’t let WP get you down, I find computers and the internet a total mess, that needs to be fixed in dozens of ways.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. scifihammy Post author

      Thank you very much 🙂 And I know exactly what you mean.
      I blog for fun also and will continue to do so, as long as WP and my bad internet allow. 🙂 Thank you for your support 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  10. kim scaravelli

    I follow my own blog so that I can see what things look like when they come through email and this week, I apparently stopped following myself! Hmmm… hope I didn’t bore myself… perhaps I should send myself an email to inquire about my reasons for “unfollowing”. Anyway… I clicked “follow” and am now back on track but it would appear that there has been a glitch in the wordpress world.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Garfield Hug

    Come to think of it, if you had not raised this, I would not have realised it as I thought my posts gone south 😉
    I do like getting the stats and have been looking at “insights” as I access through handheld device. Maybe WP is working out the kinks hopefully! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      I think this is here to stay, since the change a while back when views were counted differently, and my blog took a nose dive!
      But no matter, our regular friends will all keep in touch somehow 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      2. scifihammy Post author

        Aw Thank you very much 🙂
        One small point – LM is a girl, tho I know she looks like a boy! When we were choosing a new dog at the rescue centre and they pointed her out, I said, I want a girl not a boy!!
        I am working on some posts for next week – I have a cute photo of SL to post 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  12. Aditix

    Same here and I’ve been wondering about this too. I’ve had several old followers following me again recently and I, too had to follow some of my favourite blogs again. The number of the followers goes up and down all the time now.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. scifihammy Post author

      Yes it appears to. I thought maybe it ties in with all the stats not counting the same any more. Never mind – we will keep re-following! 🙂

      Like

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