Since the start of this blog, we have used WordPress as a publishing platform. Recently, however, WordPress appears to be working to drive off bloggers by imposing insular charges for every little thing. Indeed, they routinely charge you more if you are one of their more successful blogs beyond the annual fee for the blog (which is quite reasonable). Thus, they will now put advertising on your blog without your consent unless you pay them not to. Once again, if you are a successful blog, they zero in on your blog for such placement. Now, with no warning, WordPress has changed the basic tool for embedding videos by requiring bloggers to pay $60 a year for a video feature.
They could not make it more difficult for bloggers to avoid paying them the added money. They offer ambiguous instructions on getting a tool that I am still trying to find. The result is that we have been cut off from posting video content for the moment until we figure out either the new way of posting or buy the premium service.
In the meantime, WordPress has yet to fix basic problems on the system like the sudden failure of the “incoming links.” WordPress has simply said for months that “the API that powered the incoming links through Google Blog Search is no longer working.”
It is unbelievably frustrating to feel that WordPress is constantly trying to find ways to clip its users. It may be time to look for an alternative. It is not the added marginal costs each year but the feeling of a bait-and-switch with WordPress acting like a car dealer revealing undisclosed hidden costs for rust-proofing and undercoating. This is not a lot of money but it is a growing complaint among bloggers about the creeping added costs, even on blogs like this one that pay an annual fee and other collateral fees.
I went ahead and paid WordPress not to put advertising on the blog. Now, it is demanding more money to post videos when using the “add video” option.
Perhaps other blogs can share their own experiences.
WordPress shutdown my blog because I violated their TOMs because my blog was for commercial purpose. I chose http://www.bluehost.com to host my blog when I had an active one. They were very reasonable, charged me about $7 per month. I see they have reduced their price to $6 per month. I continued using WordPress for free and when I had problems updating WordPress, I found the techs at Bluehost very helpful in getting my blog updated and back online and they didn’t charge me for the help.
Wasn’t Byron an engineer too?
Boy, that’s a lot of Pressed Words about being over charged for something.
Anon,
My comment to you was not about your feelings that lawyers fees are too high, or that some take advantage. Been there, done that as a client. My comment was directed at the virulence you expressed on a post that had nothing to do with your point. Perhaps the discussion on Torts Caps would have been a better place to make your points. Your anger is palpable and may well be personally justified, but your choice of threads to do it and your strong words in this context, were just plain silly.
Gene,
I stand corrected.
Roco,
Psst you’re nom d’internet is slipping. Not that I think most of us particularly care, or hadn’t guessed as much anyways.
Tim,
Eh, it happens. I was just being grouchy. The suggestion wasn’t mine btw, it was somebody else’s that I was quoting.
All,
I don’t think JT is complaining about the price so much as complaining about how they do business. In fact…
“It is not the added marginal costs each year but the feeling of a bait-and-switch with WordPress acting like a car dealer revealing undisclosed hidden costs for rust-proofing and undercoating. ”
Bad service is bad service.
Roco1, August 26, 2011 at 9:37 pm
“But engineers are too what, ethical, stupid, lacking business savy to do it.”
—————————————————–
Roco, May I have your permission to put this savvy statement on a t-shirt?
I don’t think I (personally) could come up with a statement that so concisely states the Zeitgeist of the moment…
ie: EngineersAre:Ethical=Stupid=Poor Businesspeople
I think I’ll market it to the local Rotary…..:)
anon,
The way the system is set up you need a lawyer to navigate it through the system….Wainwright v Giddeon was a was a good decision unless you were a capitol case and no impact…You had the right to counsel…
So the system taking advantage of someone just because they can’t afford an attorney is ok with you? Bud, I tell you something….Live a good life because Karma is a hell of a teacher….Enjoy all you can, take all you can….If there is a next life…may you not be indigent…or have the need for public assistance…
So why are you in Family Court…Wife couldn’t stand you anymore….Doesn’t want you to see the children…has the upper hand…and you are feeling screwed by the system….exactly, what is your hard on for the system…
“The way lawyer billing is set up, it’s set up to destroy the client.”
should be
“The way lawyer billing is set up, it’s set up to destroy the client, not incentivize could communications or the best case outcome.”
The way lawyer billing is set up, it’s set up to destroy the client.
If the lawyer thinks about my case in the shower, I get billed.
If I call the lawyer, I am billed, and in 15 minute chunks.
If the lawyers for each side call each other, I am billed for the entire call.
If some dumbass lawyer judge is late to court and we all wait in the hallway, I am billed.
If there is any delay in the case, I am billed.
Gene H., you need to recognize what your so called profession does and how it prevents justice. You need to come to grips why everyone in the world for hundreds of years hate you specifically Gene H and the rest of your profession.
But you won’t. You will again continue to blame the victims for being lessers and being idiots and believe you work in a free market where no one has to hire you.
That dumbass Gideon could’ve led his life in such a way as to never need a lawyer, and so it is just plain downright stupid that the Supreme Court thought society should appoint him a lawyer. He was just a lesser peon, fuck him for being ignorant.
“If you don’t like legal fees, the best thing you can do is conduct your affairs in such a way as to have minimal or no contact with the profession ”
Gene H, I think this statement goes straight to the heart of your self-deception and douchebaggery.
Thank you Gene H, for your contribution.
Please find me a lawyer in family law that will consent to a no fee interview. Please do. I called about twenty and none would.
Either you are using knowledge (and power) that the layman doesn’t know, or you are full of shit. I’m going with full of shit. But maybe I’m wrong, and it’s common practice for lawyers to accept to qualifying consultations for no fee.
Well lawyers: time to chime in. Do you regularly consult with prospective clients for free during pre-hire interviews? Do most prospective clients you encounter know you will consult with them for free? Do you inform them of that?
My experience Gene was that in the Bay Area as well as to the state I was forced to move to be near the children moved out of state by the mother, not one of at least a dozen lawyers would consult for free.
Are you sure it’s both common practice and common knowledge they will?
And Gene, you compound your idiocy by stating that no one forces anyone to hire a lawyer, and then stating but if you don’t hire a lawyer you’re an idiot because it’s so complex.
And of course that’s exactly my point.
Lawyers operate in a non-free market where they can demand extortionate wages and then they sleep at night by pretending it’s a free market “no one forces you to hire counsel”. That of course is nonsense.
Professor Turley and you then work to keep barriers to entry artificially high, even at a time when other progressives (Paul Campos one among many) are describing the law school scam.
I’m just not sure where the so-called progressive ideals are in keeping competent lawyering unavailable to the masses are. Oh, now I remember. That’s contrary to progressive principles.
At the same time you echo the sentiments that denied Clarence Gideon and many many others a lawyer, don’t tell me you understand the problem. You are the problem.
I use Movable Type as a publishing platform and run it from my domain served by Gator in Texas…they have great people to help with any ins and outs and excellent site tools. I pay nothing for the MT platform and $90/yr for the serving. That’s it.
I can embed anything i want, have complete format, authorship, comment and IP control, etc. There are many and handy dandy widgets tools from a super intuitive dash board and everything is completely upfront…no hidden switch and baits.
Just sayin’
one reason i like this blawg is the lack of advertisements. no random pop-ups, no ad tripling in size because the curser touched it, no distracting little person dancing in the corner. i can think of several blawgs i won’t go near because of ad load times (coughhuffpostcough). to try to check my local newspaper online generally requires two or three resets before the whole thing loads.
fight the power, free carl lee, whatever, but i make it a point to never do business with any company with annoying ads.
hear that, car dealers.
anon,
No. I do understand the problem. I also understand that you’re simply being a lawyer bashing ass because you got gouged in the past. Here’s a hint: don’t hire an attorney that won’t give you a free consultation before taking your case. That’s not just stupid. That’s incredibly stupid. There are a lot of lawyers out there who don’t charge outrageous hourly fees, offer reasonable contingent fee schedules and do pro bono work. There are also a lot of lawyers out there charging $800 hour and make you pay for a consultation. I wouldn’t pay $800 an hour to watch the Statue of Liberty take a leak let alone a pre-hire consult. However, if you think it’s an easy non-technical job, I suggest you take raff’s advice and try to represent yourself next time you need counsel. The right to defend yourself is guaranteed by the Constitution. The market is indeed free. Nobody forces you to hire counsel. That it’s a bad idea to represent yourself is another issue altogether. Do you think that having an untrained non-professional design a building is a good idea? I’m going to guess the answer is not just no, but hell no. If you don’t like legal fees, the best thing you can do is conduct your affairs in such a way as to have minimal or no contact with the profession and/or use better discretion in hiring. I know people who’ve lived to a ripe old age and never had to hire an attorney. Conversely, I know people who have theirs on speed dial.
Rafflaw, the Law *is* Big, it’s the lawyers that got small.
Gene H.
“However, that being said, there are higher goals in the field of law than saving you money.”
I am not asking you to save me money, and that response of yours demonstrates that you do not understand the problem, or are purposefully ignoring the problem.
I am saying that in a court system that requires lawyers, in a society where the majority cannot afford lawyers, that there can be no justice.
And can you honestly tell me that court is affordable or even accessible to anyone not in the upper middle class?
As rafflaw nicely points out, even as he demonstrates (once more) that he doesn’t even understand what he thinks he is writing about, in a court battle, lawyers ARE needed. But it’s also clear in your answers, you guys just don’t give a damn about the lesser people.
I know how you would have come down on Clarence Gideon, you nicely restated it. If think my answer is vapid, it’s probably because you are in denial about what you wrote.
anon,
No, I didn’t fail in the slightest. I was making fun of you. I accomplished my goal perfectly as evidenced by your vapid response. As to my goals, well, you’ve mistaken me for somebody who didn’t earlier in this thread criticize ridiculous fee schedules in the legal fees. However, that being said, there are higher goals in the field of law than saving you money.
anon,
it is nice to know that you hold me in such high regard. It is too bad, but life is a bitch sometimes. Your disregard for the legal profession is unwarranted, but maybe you have been slighted in the past in court or by an attorney and now the whole profession sucks in your mind. I feel sorry that you can’t see past your nose to the truth of the legal profession. The next time you get your self in a legal fix, civil or criminal, do me a favor and represent yourself.