Is WordPress on the verge of Destruction?

I recently discovered that the WordPress project owned by Automattik is in a complicated battle with its Hosting company WP.

The integrated aspect of WordPress with Automattik and WP is complex and currently under threat.

WordPress represents about 40% of all websites on the Internet and a punitive legal battle could drastically affect the Internet ecosystem and your wallet.

What I’m doing is backing up all of my content the hard way because WP only offers back-ups and recovery to business level accounts. If you are a free or individual account You can download your site into a zip file but this zip file is in an architecture that the non-programmer person might find impossible to unravel if one is forced to go to another web hosting service outside of the WordPress Universe.

I’m including a link to a blog site owned by an employee of WordPress/Automattik where you can get the views of what is happening from his perspective. The bottom line way at the bottom is back up your content if it’s important to you as for now we don’t know how this will end and what effect it will have on WordPress Users.

https://paolo.blog/blog/what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-wordpress/

59 responses to “Is WordPress on the verge of Destruction?”

  1. WoW! Will do, and thanks for the tip!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You are welcome Resa. I’ve seen a few reports of this problem between Automattik and WP. Definitely a divorce is on the horizon unless they work the equity problems out.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. I actually have all the images for my posts on sticks…and I do the zip 2ce a year.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Smart move Resa. Your content is priceless and should be kept safe from internet company arguments.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Are you taking screen shots of all your posts?

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I don’t take screen shots but that is the best way to capture the layout, art, and text. The file sizes can take up a lot of space if there is a lot to back up that way but with modern hard drives in the terabyte range. It shouldn’t be a problem.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Crazy!
            I have about 1750 posts between my 2 blogs. 1600 on GLAM alone.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. That is a real chore to copy all of that work to individual documents. The quickest is to export your site to the WP zip file. On a monthly basis. If you need to move those files to a new web host, talk to the site about helping you extract the data to their architecture. If they are WordPress backward compliant then no problems just create your site and import the back up file. Sounds easy but there are always a few gotchas to work through. Or, just start downloading your oldest posts first or newest posts depending on your preference and do a few posts whenever you have time. Call it regular site maintenance.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Yes!
                I download the Zip regularly.
                I have saved posts for years, all images are saved in multiple.
                I did look up importing the XML file into a non WP platform. It said it would work in many (not all) similar platforms, with possible tech glitches, issues.

                I’m also looking at it a bit like I do personal possessions; best not to get too attached. They are nice to have, but not the essence of my life… can’t take them with me.

                Still, digital life might be something we can leave behind, for posterity.
                Unfortunately that leaves a lot room for not good stuff to be left behind.

                Perhaps manual arts (drawing, painting, sculpture, etc.) traditionally published books, movies, photography… will remain a benchmark for a long time.

                Still we have no way of knowing where the wind will blow us…or if we blow ourselves up first.
                Pardon, I got off on a tangent!

                Liked by 1 person

                1. LOL! That was a great tangent. 😂. Sometimes the truth is too funny. I have no idea why. I agree, we’ve seen so much change over time, there is no telling what will be considered our legacy left behind. I like tangible things that engage all the senses. You sounds like you have the skills and knowledge to make it work out for you. I do think the XML file will work if you save the posts in the export file but leave the WordPress theme out of it. Saving the media files separately is a good idea. It will all work with a little tweaking but knowing how to tweak is the key. Maybe we can find secret decoder rings on Amazon.

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  3. What is backing up the hard way?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. There are two reliable but slow methods. One, copy each post from your POST database in the WordPress owner’s back office page to a document and save it to your hard drive, cloud drive, or back up drive or all three if you really want to be safe. The other way is to copy the post from the browser to a document. I use Google Docs for my cloud storage. YouTube videos and linked media may not work if the original content is removed from the source it was linked to. I’m more interested in my original text content so that makes it easy for me.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. What is ” the WordPress owner’s back office page ”
        Is that my dashboard?

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Yes, the Dashboard has a link to the POST database. Click on the three dots to the right of each post title and select copy from the menu. Then paste it into your document for saving. There are other options in the menu.

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          1. Thank you!

            Liked by 1 person

            1. You are most welcome Resa.

              Liked by 1 person

  4. If WP wasn’t written in the worst language of the web… PHP, others might pick up the fight.
    The Federated project/protocol feels like it might build steam.
    That and the Content Economy.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yep. The Germans are head over heels in love with LINUX OS, especially in Ubuntu flavor and all the free open source SW and GNU licensing mainly because they like free stuff and are willing to take the risk of abject failure. Automattik is based on open source and GNU licensing but WP is not. They are for profit and are the fee based parts of WordPress. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to find their major industry running the same way. It does seem like the Federated project/protocol is finding favor out there. And I think Content Economy are the fastest growing new wealth on the planet. Where else can an only fans content provider with some savvy make $100K a month. 😳. I missed my calling. I tried to earn money the old way.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Oh…better to back up the content to somewhere else. Thanks for sharing this.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Vipin! Yes, everything may turn out just fine but it’s better to be safe and back up our hard work just in case we have a big interruption of services.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. WOW!!!!! Thanks for thhe heads up, I’ll reblog to my site and then figure out how to back it all up. WordPress has always been a pain and now it sounds like it could get much bigger. I have no idea where I would go from here. Right now I’m in Rochester and start my meetings with doctors, labs and test and will have diaognosis by Friday. If you have secrets on how a non techie can back-up I would appreciate it. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. HI M. I decided to post a non techie approach to WordPress backup. They don’t really make it easy. Good luck with your tests 🤞

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I was able to export my content and media. Now I’m just not sure what’s falling next. Have you given any consideration to where you would take your blog? That my big question and how easy ti will be to transfer my content. I looked at a couple of site but they all seemed to hocked into WordPress somehow.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. HI M. There are a half dozen sites that have blogging friendly set-ups. You can take your time to explore which one suits your needs. You’ll want to be able to let your readers know where they can find you if you need to move your site. That would be part of your transition. I don’t think you need to worry about the move just yet. WordPress will make an announcement if anything changes drastically. In the mean time keep your back-ups current and keep on doing what you are doing.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. You know me, I’m a long term planner. But keeping black-ups to date is my plan for now. When I’m just screwing round I may look at what’s out there but now hurry. Not until I see you send out notice and jump!

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            1. I’ll keep my ears and eyes open for any troubles.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Thanks, if it weren’t for you I would not have known there was an issue brewing.

                Liked by 1 person

                1. It isn’t getting much notice at the moment.

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                  1. Have you thought about where you would take your blog?

                    Liked by 1 person

                    1. Yes. I will blog the many options we have. Wix and Joomla are the best substitutes for WordPress but there are many others that can cater to specific types of blogs. If you feel adventurous, you can check out these two web hosts and set up a mirror site to your WordPress. Give the link to your readers and if WordPress goes down, you will be up and running instantly on the other site.

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                    2. I will give them a kook, can;t be to prepared I want to able bout to let le poeple know there options and where I’m going. I still don’t quite understand the mirrowing site thing. 🙂 Tanks for all the help.

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                    3. Mirroring your site means make your new site exactly like the old site with all the content you had previously on WordPress. Keep it up to date with the same posts as before.

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                    4. I’ll have to come back to this, it sounds easy but over my head. I’m checking out the tow wedsites, Wix seems overwhenlmning for a little blog like ne who is not running a business or doesn’t have social channels. Thoughts. I looked a the other and it looks great but it ask for a irl to sihn up and it won’t take the one I alrady have. I guess that means go to a main url sirte and get a new aggressive. O’m still a virgin in theis area. Thanks for you help.

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                    5. There are other simple sites like Blogger. They don’t support complex sites but give you enough to have a nice website. I’ll post another update with recommendations.

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                    6. I started on Blogger before WP, it sucked then but it has probably improved. Thanks for keeping everyone updated.

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                    7. Blogger has been around for a long time. It’s best to investigate a web provider from third parties by searching the web for endorsements from reputable reviewers.

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                    8. I’ll keep looking. I also just realized if I read it right, they want $124 a month to host my URL, I must have read that worng because that crazy. I’ll know tomorrow and if it doesn’t work out I’ll soend more time looking beore jumping in. It’s just not my nature.

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                    9. Blogger looks nice and simple but my concern is the lates update to the community was over 2 years ago. For whatever that means, support my be lacking. I’ll keep going through the list.

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                    10. Yes, Blogger may not meet the needs of everybody.

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                    11. Wix looks the best by far, you can get a free plan and upgrade from there and there medium plan is only $36 which is compairable. Tey have great templetes and loads of services. I’ll be sending time there tomorrow. Plus you get a free URl for a year.

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                    12. Excellent M! Thanks for checking everything out for us.

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                    13. I’m sticking with Wix and starting the signup process tomorrow. I’ve already took are of the other site so my site is on their, what to do with it next, I’ll pass that when I get there. I did get a mess back from Joombia and they said they are not attached to WordPress or any other company just offers people the chances to sign up through their site. It doesn’t change my thoughts on staying with Wix, it was outragiously expensive comired to Wp or Wix. When are you going to decide where you land?

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                    14. I’m well backed up so I can take some time to settle on a site, WIX was rated number one in several Best of reviews by technology magazines.

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                    15. I saw they were rated top but I thought they were more business focused untl I took a closer look.

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                    16. The community will never be the same, the feel we have with our followers won’t be there, everyone will spread out and for many starting over. That’s okay for me but I do have some nice relationships I would miss. But life is tough!!!

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                    17. It’s not over yet M. There are some big legal struggles and name calling behind the scenes but WordPress is still kicking for now. What we are doing is preparing for the just in case. I’ll keep looking out there for news and any breaks that occur.

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  7. […] Is WordPress on the verge of Destruction? […]

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  8. O.M.G. Chicken fucking Little time. Go here – https://blogbooker.com/ back up your site, store it locally, in a couple of clouds and get on with life. The “content” commentary is so far off I’ll leave it alone.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. LOL re Chicken Little. For a couple million web users, yes indeed, the sky is falling. I did check out blogbooker. I may use it for its intended purpose and it’s side benefit of having stuff offline. There is a faster 2 minutes or less way within WordPresses export utility and it’s free, unlimited, and works. The only part for the non-Web mechanics is moving to another host. There could be some whoopsie incompatibility so you spend your time with the tweaks. I’m sure I’ll get a real blog beating for saying this but a lot of people just have to find what works for them and with the gazillions of solutions, there is bound to be something for everybody.

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  9. I’ll probably be able to find a decoder ring in one of the vintage shops in my hood.

    That will be handy, as I have been boycotting Amazon for 10 years. I feel good about that!

    I started a new comment box. The thread was getting skinny!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. OH yes! That was a bit of a foo-pah suggesting Amazon. They have managed to make a lot of people seek alternatives that are better for the local economy. Finding a secret decoder ring in a vintage store would be a real find that didn’t come from China sweatshops made by children.

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  10. wow. I’d better get cracking Thanks.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I don’t think we face an imminent disaster but we definitely will see creeping disaster and if we value what we keep on our WordPress site, it’s always smart to find a back-up system that works and is easy to use. There are many options besides my post on backing up data within the very limited JETPACK app. If one is diligent, any serious interruption can be overcome.

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  11. Seeing as how the promising part of free WordPress devolved into another social media platform without a word cap it’s a small matter. For all the business users on the platform, shoulda seen it coming. The winner will be the plug n play Gutenberg model so they don’t have to pay anyone with a clue. It’s been happening in academic software for several years. Google was supposed to be the Volksweb platform but it leaks like a sieve. I prefer blog booker because if WordPress disappeared tomorrow I don’t need to migrate an entire website. I could go elsewhere, reboot, start over. I have no e commerce, no brand. In fact 90% of WordPress could disappear and what would we really be missing from our lives? OMG, I’m not on the internet, who am I?

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    1. Phil, I can tell you will easily survive the coming Webisphere Armageddon. It should come as no surprise to anyone. We have been recovering from poopware disasters since Microsoft DOS 2.0. Let us not work ourselves into a frenzy with a discussion on MS Windows from Beelzebub Gates. His vision was backup was no longer necessary because we have the Cloud, which by its very chaotic and unregulated nature will live forever in infamy. But, I digress into senseless bloviation, my specialty. I liked blogbooker and will drive it around the block a time or too as it solves a few things for me easily as you indicated. I do have a technical background that is useless now and so I solve my problems easily if I overcome my inherent laziness. If not, who cares. But for those that do care, it’s important they understand the challenge and have options other than my caveman approach which focused purely on hacking JetPack’s clumsy interface with only a keyboard and two good fingers.

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  12. We all have the propensity to shoot ourselves in the foot working our technical ecosystems with overkill, trying to finesse and turd polish because we might know how. Like you I sketch offline. But I might see a clam or a retard moment after a post is up, so it is often the latest rev. Into blog booker as a docx file I have my latest opinion of a work. Open Word, open Scrivener with a bunch of empty chapters, drag and drop. I convert nothing, memorize no formulas. I’ve only had one murderous computer crash, the great wipe of 2006, which ate 25 years of samples, mixes, tunes…and I can’t blame anyone but myself for that fiasco. So the less I can get in the way of a process that works the better. Sometimes we outsmart ourselves being smart, if you pick that up.

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    1. Yes definitely agree. When I was in my 30’s I was an absolute genius that laughed at Einstein and just guffawed at Da Vinci for their fat crayon kindergarten guess work. But, as I got older, I began to realize I was dumb as day old dog sh*t. Life does have a way of humbling even the most invincible egos. Now, I do like to keep it as simple, quick, and easy as possible. However, it does take some savvy and a little dash of give a shi!t to ensure simple, quick, and easy will polish the turd and not result in messy hands. Here I think experienced simple is best. And like yourself, experience means you did something at least once. Your strategy is sound and with a little try it now not after we can all get there soon enough. I do feel sorry for all these youngsters who will die within days after the internet goes down. I think starving to death because DoorDash can’t be reached is a tragedy. 🤭🎻🎼

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