Blog

The 10-Second Like

By on • ( 42 Comments )

I like most every comment people make on my blog. At least for 10 seconds. After I read a comment, I usually hit the “Like” button. Then a white star below the comment turns blue, and the word “Like” changes to “Liked.” For 10 seconds. And then WordPress plays a trick on me. After 10 seconds, the blue star turns white again, and the “Liked,” turns back to “Like.”

I suspect it may be a bug in WP’s programming. I noticed it a few months ago, and since then I’ve patiently tolerated it, with occasional smoke pouring out of my ears, while expecting WP to fix this bug soon. But so far they haven’t fixed it. So lately I’ve been wondering if the programmers really want our likes to go away. Maybe WP doesn’t like us to like each other.

It doesn’t happen to posts. When I like someone’s post, my “Liked” remains a “Liked,” unless I decide, “meh, on the other hand, I’m gonna dislike this featherbrained post.” No, it only happens with comments. It’s crazy and confusing. So I did some playing around with liking comments, to figure out the scope of this issue, and what I can do about it. Here’s what I discovered:

  • It only happens when I’m on my own blog. It doesn’t happen when I’m on someone else’s blog and like a comment. There, the like remains “Liked.”
  • After I like a comment, and the “Liked” reverts back to “Like,” I can re-like the comment, and then the “Liked” remains permanent.
  • If the “Liked” reverts back to “Like,” and then I type a reply to the comment and hit “Send,” the “Like” returns to “Liked,” and remains permanent. Weird.
  • If I type a reply to a comment and hit “Send,” and then like the comment, the “Liked,” will revert back to “Like,” after 10 seconds.
  • If I unlike a comment, and then like it again, the “Liked” reverts back to “Like” after 10 seconds. And then I have to like it once more, to make “Liked” permanent.

I want to know if this bullshit has been happening to others, also. It’s easy not to notice, so you have to pay attention after liking someone’s comment. You have to hang around for 10 seconds, and watch what happens to your “Liked,” and I suspect a lot of bloggers are in too much of a hurry to do this. So, unbeknownst to them, their likes of comments are not going through, and not providing the positive feedback they hope their followers are receiving.

I feel annoyed, but it’s a minor annoyance. I’ve figured out a somewhat inconvenient workaround. If I have a bunch of unread comments stacked up, I go through and like each one, without reading them. Then I go back through again. By this time, all the “Liked” indicators have reverted back to “Like.” Then I read each comment. If I like a comment (which I almost always will), I hit the “Like” button again, and this time the “Liked” will remain permanent.

But it’s a pain in the ass. I dislike all this liking. I dislike liking, only to be disliking and having to like again. Come on, WP, get it together! Don’t you want us to like each other?

Categories: Blog

42 replies »

  2. this has been happening to me for a while. I’m not sure if it only happens when I am using the WP Reader or not. and same as you, it only happens when I am responding to a comment. I usually hit like first, then leave a comment, and if I am fast enough, the like is still there by the time I send the comment. But usually, it fades away before I can send the comment. But then once I send the comment, the like button has turned blue again… ‘ll check to see if it just happens on comments related to my posts or if it is any comment…

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  4. Yes, I feel your pain, happens to me a lot too. Was confused about it at first but now just roll my eyes. WP is wonky! As long as they don’t mess with my comments I am OK. I don’t want them to start disappearing. Maybe they just need to change the “like” button for comments. Have an option of 2 to choose from. One, “i really appreciate/like your comment” and one “sarcastic, you are funnny, button.
    I think the sarcastic one would get used quite frequently. Just aaying. 😉

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  5. I’ll have to watch my “likes”, which I usually leave to indicate that I didn’t just blow off someone’s comment. My problem has been with “following” blogs.

    It seems like the follows will just randomly disappear (and sometimes re-appear after visiting a page), and I’ll stop getting notifications. Right now, the button on this page indicates that I’m not following your blog (and I didn’t see any notification for this post in my mail this morning). It’s to the point where I’ve stopped re-following people, and I just make sure to bookmark sites and occasionally check in with them.

    WP has always been a little weird. For whatever reason, it has also been completely blocked by the local college servers. I think I can see pay-hosted (non “dot-wordpress”) websites such as yours, but it’s not possible to interact with them or to log-in to WP. The pages just come up with a warning that the website address is not secure and that it’s blocked… including my own page.

    If you get bored, I wrote this summary of an early WP malfunction experience and what I discovered (replace the “[DOT]”):
    luminousaether.wordpress[DOT]com/2015/03/07/word-from-the-gulag/

    Sorry for the long comment. But I’ll be watching for a “like”. 😉

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • This leads me to wonder if maybe your particular issue of dropping followed bloggers is related to the security setup of your computer. And maybe the wider problem of dropped “Likes,” that many seem to be experiencing, is related to the permissions we’ve allowed our browsers. Maybe it has to do with cookies. Or maybe it’s just kooky.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  7. I have noticed a bunch of WordPress glitches lately. I used to see replies to my comments on followed blogs through my WordPress app but no longer. I used to be able to unsubscribe to individual posts once my comment had been replied to, but now when I try to do this (to stop all the emails from others commenting on the same post I commented on), it either doesn’t recognize that I even have a subscription to that particular blog or it unsubcribes me from the whole damn blog instead of that particular post. That is how I became unsubscribed to you, TG I just realized…and now it has done it again so I am resubscribing!

    Deb

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. I have the same issue, yes. I usually type a comment first, then tap the ‘Like,’ since that seems to get it to stick. But I also ‘Like’ something twice if they’re commenting on a comment and I’ve nothing else to say.

    Commenting etiquette is funny in general, without WordPress’ ineptitude.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • For me, I have to tap Like first, then type a comment, for it to stick with just one tap.

      I’m not aware of any etiquette rules for commenting. I generally ignore etiquette rules, anyway. Rare is the comment I won’t like, and rarer still, the commenter whom I’ve banned. Although I have banned a small handful of very obvious abusers and weirdos.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I haven’t had to ban any yet (I’ll cross my fingers it stays that way). I think I referred to the idea that it’s polite to do SOMETHING like ‘Like’ or comment on others’ posts, then you’re supposed to respond to them if THEY do, etc.

        I only find the process noticeable or tedious in some way if I have a blogger who insists on always responding to whatever I write. Like, getting the last line in.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

Go ahead, blurt it out:

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.