Me no likey the block likey

Some days, you can’t win for the losing.

In trying something out for WordPress on a test site, I saw a new block that I thought would solve a frustration of mine about the .org version of WordPress, where you have to force folks to click on the post title to “like” a post when they visit outside of Reader. I finally had a block to add to my front page for likes (on those short poems).

Which is fantastic. Except… It doesn’t appear to be registering likes in the notifications on either of the versions of Reader (web or Jetpack App), which is where I keep track of such things. Which means the functionality is broken and I need to rework the site design to get back that functionality to where it should be.

TARNATION!

This is a consistent problem with the Jetpack plugin for WordPress. They push out a feature without really testing it prior to launch and it breaks things. Last year, it was the commenting system until an update. Other times, features don’t do what they are functionally designed to do. Reader regularly gets web updates that are headscratchers at best, and breaks Reader until someone can hotpatch it at worst.

I love the folks at WordPress, but they really need to do a better job of testing their incremental updates before something goes live.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming. I just needed a quick vent.

michael raven

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14 responses to “Me no likey the block likey”

  1. Chico’s Mom Avatar
    Chico’s Mom

    Vent away

    Reply
    1. michael raven Avatar
      michael raven

      I try not to rant too much about things these days, but the discovery that I was getting no notifications if anyone pretended to like my writing (or, bless them, actually liked it) was a frustrating realization.

      Especially because I had followed the plugin’s advice, LOL.

      Thanks, Jolene. 💙

      Reply
      1. Chico’s Mom Avatar
        Chico’s Mom

        Sir, some of us like your work. 🖊️ And your rants teach us things. 🤗 And again I say, rant on.

        Reply
        1. michael raven Avatar
          michael raven

          Thanks Jolene 💙

          Mostly, I think I teach people not to do what I do until someone else says it is safe to do so 🤣

          Reply
          1. Chico’s Mom Avatar
            Chico’s Mom

            😃

  2. lyndhurstlaura Avatar
    lyndhurstlaura

    Annoying, but not unexpected, as you note. I tend not to bother with new features; things work well enough for me so I don’t want to risk screwing them up. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, is my motto. Sorry though that you’re having these issues. 🤨

    Reply
    1. michael raven Avatar
      michael raven

      It was a quick fix. I just reverted and everything looks as expected after I did.

      It probably only impacts sites hosted by someone other than WP. It’s a much needed feature, but the implementation is broke.

      Reply
      1. Veselin Avatar
        Veselin

        Well, you can create a screenshot and report it to the Jetpack people. I’m sure it’s not supposed to annoy anyone.

        Reply
        1. michael raven Avatar
          michael raven

          It’s hard to create a screenshot of when it is event-based. I don’t want to flood someone’s email with multiple pictures to illustrate. And when I vent, I am done, waiting patiently until it works as intended.

          The situation was: I used the “like” Gutenberg block and took off legacy like buttons, the notifications stopped coming in for the day I had it active and I thought I was particularly unpopular (no notification for likes) for whatever reason. I saw a like on a post that didn’t register on the notifications. Looked back and saw there were likes on posts when I thought I was unliked. Turned on legacy likes, remove the block and notifications start to appear again.

          I’m not chasing likes, but it does give me a metric of what goes over and what does not.

          Those poor folks (you too 😊) probably get more opinion from me than they need (I always try to be nice about it). I know it’s not intentional when these things happen, and they resolve over time. But it does sometimes feel a little half-baked and not fully vetted at times when I try out new features.

          Reply
          1. Veselin Avatar
            Veselin

            https://jetpack.com/support/jetpack-blocks/like-block/ was it this block? I normally take short videos of what doesn’t work and send them to the people who touch the specific codebase.

          2. michael raven Avatar
            michael raven

            Yeah, that appears to be the one based on the description.

            I’ll keep that in mind next time I encounter something along these lines instead of automatically fixing it. You know how it is, you tend to discover these things at the most inopportune moments. This was one of those cases.

            Thanks!

          3. Veselin Avatar
            Veselin

            Jetpack doesn’t work without a connection. It needs it to add posts to the Reader

          4. michael raven Avatar
            michael raven

            It should be connected. That’s how my posts get to Reader normally. The only functionality that doesn’t seem to work is when I turn off the legacy Likes (as instructed in Jetpack) and use the Like block. Posts still arrive on Reader, but notifications of Likes disappears. People can like a post and it shows up in Reader, but the notifications cease.

            As I said, I’ll just use the legacy for now and not have the option to place the like button where I want. It’s no big deal.

        2. shredbobted Avatar
          shredbobted

          It’s really kind of you to let us feel like there’s an answer with WordPress issues; you’re like a real behind-the-scenes person we can talk to and that is very generous of you, Veselin.

          Reply

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