I’m Officially Old!

I am reasonably tech savvy. I code for a living. I don’t always have the latest generation phone or cool gadget, because money doesn’t grow on trees, but I usually know how to use it. There are five computers, four tablets/e-readers, and two smartphones in our household of two people + one cat.

I’m reasonably tech savvy, but, apparently, I’m not at all social media savvy. I refuse to use Snapchat or Instagram, claiming the “I’m in my thirties and that’s too much work” privilege, but I thought I was doing this whole blog thing reasonably correctly.

Originally, I was using the same ‘tags’ as ‘categories.’ I really thought categories were just a within-blog index of posts. Tags, then, which you can follow just like a blog, must index blog posts across WordPress, right? Nope, they are basically the same thing. I noticed that other bloggers tended to use different categories from tags, so I went back and edited my usage to follow this convention.

Surprise! Suddenly my blog posts started showing up on the ‘tag’ pages that I follow (even when I used categories!) Their absence wasn’t just that my blog wasn’t popular enough to be featured, as I assumed. Apparently, WordPress counts categories and tags together. If the total of ‘tags’ + ‘categories’ >= 15, your blog is flagged as spam. If your blog is flagged as spam, you don’t show up on the main pages of the topics you write about. Oops!

While noticing this category/tag convention, I also noticed that everybody includes a follower count. You don’t have to be as popular as Kim Kardashian to post your stats, it seems. That’s great! I’m game! So, does anybody know how to actually add a follower count to my blog?

What can I say: I’m officially old!

Need a recap of anything I’m talking about in any post? Check out the Glossary of Terms.

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2 thoughts on “I’m Officially Old!

  1. “I refuse to use Snapchat or Instagram, claiming the “I’m in my thirties and that’s too much work” privilege”. Same! I don’t understand snapchat especially! And this stuff was news to me so thank you for sharing. I’m fairly confident I use WordPress all sorts of wrong ways but I’m learning slowly.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Hey Lavender,

    A flying visit to thank you for the follow on my Blog and to thank you for putting together this interesting site as well. It is refreshing to read a personal perspective delivered with an aromatic infusion of levity and brevity 🙂

    You’ll be far better acquainted with the material currently available for reading online regarding ADHD and PTSD, but I thought I’d leave you the following link to a site that I have recently found of use with personal research.

    https://addandsomuchmore.com/

    As for being old…there are days when life can feel like I’ve reincarnated a thousand times, and other days when I still shine wet with the vibrant verdure of never-ending youth. But technology changes all of that and just leaves me constantly confused and/or in awe.

    Have an enjoyable week. Take care.

    Namaste 🙂

    DN

    Liked by 1 person

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