Posted in Today's File, Writing

Blogger Call to Action: Please Help Me Happy-Dance

Posted on by Kana Smith

If you don’t do your blogging from an iPad, there’s one thing you might not realize about your WordPress blog. The “default settings” on your blog are programmed to send iPad viewers to a specialized “mobile view” of your blog called OnSwipe–and (speaking as an uber-frustrated iPad reader-of-blogs) the OnSwipe view is CRAP.

So I just wanted to take a moment to highlight the disadvantage to YOU, the blogger, of having your blog viewed in the OnSwipe format–and beg you to change your settings (also for the sake of ME, the reader).

  • This is the "beautiful app-like experience" touted by WordPress for iPad viewers. (screen-photo of jennswondering.wordpress.com--hilarious post, btw)

    The OnSwipe view is completely stripped of the theme you’ve used to personalize your blog. It shows the text and photos of your post against a white background. None of the theme design, none of your side-bar links, none of the options to visit your “about you” page… Nothing at all but your words on a white page. (Seriously, WordPress? If we wanted our work to look like that, we’d just be posting our word-processing documents…)

  • Maybe of more concern to you (although the first point irritates me to no end) is the fact that there’s no option for an OnSwipe viewer to “like” a post or “follow” your blog. Nope, none. I can not follow your blog from the OnSwipe mobile view.
  • To do anything beyond read the bare text of your post, I have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the post (waiting for all the pictures and text to load), click on a link to “View Standard Site,” and then wait for the REAL blog to post in its all its wonderful technicolor personality. Yay! Only then can I use your navigational links, see your stats and profile, “like” a post, or “follow” your blog.

Why WordPress thought this mobile theme was a great idea, I can’t begin to imagine.  They bill it as “a beautiful app-like experience”… Pure.Bull.Malarkey.  I’ve already registered my complaints thoughts with WordPress, and I’ve already gotten my answer: OnSwipe is here to stay… Though they said they’ll take into consideration my plea suggestion that, if nothing else, they could give us, as individual readers, a chance to choose whether the blogs we view will load in OnSwipe or Standard view…

But since that hasn’t happened so far, I figure there’s one thing I CAN do, and that is to beg all of you, my readers (whose blogs I READ!) to take pity on me and please PLEASE take the two minutes to change your blog settings so your readers can go directly to the “real” version of your blog.  (Instructions below–I even made pretty pictures for you–it’s super-easy!)

I promise you, I’ll be doing a little happy-dance every time I open a blog and find it’s NOT taking me to the crap-ola white-page of an OnSwipe view.  (I also have this funny little feeling that other bloggers might like to KNOW that their default settings are preventing people from “liking” their posts or “following” their blogs… If you wanna spread the word…)  Thanks in advance to all of you, for making my blog-reading less frustrating!

How to disable the icky mobile settings: Click on “Appearance” at the left of your Dashboard.

1) Pick “Mobile,” select “No,” click update.

2) Pick “iPad,” UNcheck the box, click save.

And if you’d like to let other bloggers know how their posts are getting viewed by iPadders…

Author:

I am... a writer, an explorer, a coffee-drinker, a recovering addict, a barefoot linguist, a book-dragon ("bookworm" doesn't cover it), a raconteur, a sailboat skipper, a research diver, a tattooed scholar, a pirate, a poet, a spiritual adventurer, a photographer, a few kinds-of-crazy, a joyful wife, a mom... a list-maker! :)

94 thoughts on “Blogger Call to Action: Please Help Me Happy-Dance”

    1. I wonder if you have a differently configured dashboard with your new domain name?? I have no idea, but that might be it… :)

      In any case, I’m happy to report that YOUR site shows up without the OnSwipe business… Maybe another advantage of the new domain. ;)

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    1. True–in cases where you’re starting from the “swipe view” (which is pretty much the equivalent of starting from the home page), you at least don’t have to scroll down to get to the “Standard View” link. When you’re directed to a specific post, though (which is most often how I arrive there, as links to people’s posts show up in my inbox) it goes straight to the white-page where you have to scroll down to get to that same link. And either way, I’m always going straight for that link (sounds like you do too?) rather than trying to view in OnSwipe, so I’d rather skip the OnSwipe experience altogether. ;)

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  15. holy buckets! – ok so i have to admit it took me 5, not 2 minutes to change my settings – but phew! i have been trying to figure out how to get rid of the ipad icky-ness. some of my pictures made it kind of fun, but by and large it was annoying

    i’ll do the happy dance with you :)

    thanks for posting!

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  18. Done! question tho…I had all kinds of options before I unchecked the box to pick a photo andfont and color that the ipad user would see…..It still doesn’t solve the like and follow etc isssue but is it based on the theme you have for your blog? I unchecked them but I was just wondering?

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    1. REALLY good question! The short answer, I believe, is “no”–selecting those options doesn’t actually import any of the elements of your theme (except, I suppose, that you could match a font type)… The “customized” choices you can make for the iPad view are simply the font style, the headline color (“accent color,” I think they call it) for that blank white page, and the “cover photo,” which is what people will see first if they go to your blog’s home address (as opposed to following a link to a specific post). I’m sure that “cover” was meant to be a flashy design-element, but all it REALLY does is add yet another swipe-and-wait step before I can get to the “good stuff” that is THE POST. :) Whew, how’s that for a long answer? Hope I made sense…

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  26. AAAAAAAAAAAAND done. I use all windows based machines, even my cellphone is windows based (I like to understand the evil I’m using) I had no idea there was such a crap setting. Thankf or the info.

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  28. Done (I think) and thanks for the scoop. Let me know if I did it correctly; I will definitely post a link on my site to spread the word! Commence happy dance!
    Oh, and about the “cat now officially thinks I’m a demented, capering idiot” part. It has been my experience that cats have always thought that about their staff, I mean owners…

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  39. Kana-You are really brilliant! Thank you so much for sharing that info with me. I wondered what happened to my theme and now, thanks to you, I know. It really isn’t right to apply that app without our permission or consent. There are people who don’t have or use a mobile device. Now I know why so many people don’t use wordpress. Take care, Kana! rosellezubey

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  41. thanks for this! 1 of my whopping 5 blog readers told me this very thing. she reads my blog from her iPad and wanted me to know that she loves me but her device doesn’t give her the option to “like” me.

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  43. Great, clear directions! Settings adjusted. I noticed the on swipe when viewing on my iPad, but like many others had not poked around with the settings to see what was root cause. Happy reading on your mobile devices, Kana.

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  48. Interestingly, I love the iPad theme that my WordPress provides. It’s pretty sweet, although a few of the images come out kind of funky. I find it much more enjoyable to read on a tablet than on a PC.

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    1. Well, go figure–I just finished telling the WordPress “Happiness Engineer” (who’s responding to the buzz) that I hadn’t yet met an iPad user who preferred the OnSwipe view to the Standard–so you’re a First. ;) I’m curious, then–why DO you like it, specifically?

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  49. Pingback: Useful tip for fellow bloggers – passing it on….. « maturestudenthanginginthere

  50. I’ve been following a wonderful blog (maturestudenthanginginthere) and she passed on your tips concerning mobile users this morning – I’m so glad she did, because now I’ve discovered another blog and blogger I can relate to, get behind, and thoroughly enjoy reading! Adding you to the blogs I follow now. :o)

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  62. Pingback: A Little Something You Bloggers Should Know About the Wordpress iPad App | Lolabees

  63. Hey there – thanks for the clear instructions helping me to rid my work of the scrambled mess that is called “OnSwipe.” And, if you should know how a guy could do the same with the new gallery “Carousel” that is equally blog-destructive, I’d really appreciate the tip.

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  71. Thank you! I hadn’t realized any of these things. I’m ticked off at wordpress for making me think that special views for these devices would be in my readers with those devices’ (and my) best interests. I just changed the settings. Thanks again!

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  75. Hi Kana! Thanks for the info–esp. the photo instructions! I don’t use and ipad, so I had no idea about this. Please let me know if my site looks right now. Thanks again!

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  78. Pingback: Blogging Tech-Tips: Growing a Readership « Kana's Chronicles

  81. Changed it now, but the settings looked a little bit different than on your screenshots, so I would appreciate it if anyone with an ipad would have a quick look and tell me if it’s ok or not :)

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    1. Score! It’s perfect. :)
      Maybe I need to upgrade my screenshots? WordPress has probably made some changes since I posted this… ;)

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  82. Please check mine (I have no ipad) and see if I did it right. I will share this with others when I know. Mine came up a bit differently, but I have to hand it to you…very clear instructions! Let me know and I’ll change the other blogs I administrate as well. Thank you for this! You’re right. It matters.

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    1. Beautiful! Worked perfectly! :)
      I suspect the dashboard has changed since I took these screenshots last Fall–maybe I’d better update the instructions! But I’m glad they got you through anyway. :)

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    1. I believe WordPress (FINALLY) changed the “default” setting so this process isn’t necessary–but I’ll double check the iPad view of yours. :)

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