I Am So Furious At Typepad Right Now I Could Spit

Typepad and I, we may be getting a divorce.  They have made the weirdest change I have ever seen.  All of a sudden, completely out of the blue, now when we get comments emailed to us, the person's email address is changed when we respond.  It is changed to a code that then posts my email response, intended to be sent directly to that person -- as has always been done -- DIRECTLY TO THE PUBLIC BLOG COMMENTS.  So there are no personal interactions anymore unless I take the onerous step of removing that long weird code, then finding your email address in my address book if I already have it, or copying it and pasting it to the email, and then sending to that email address. Otherwise, everything I say in response to your comments, everybody else reads.  And there is no choice, they say.  It's been done, and it can't be changed back, and there is no "check this box or change this setting if you don't WANT the change."

Well, phooey on that.

I have written about this issue before.  We knit bloggers (or in my case "hardly a knit blogger") do things differently than perhaps a business or political blogger.  We have personal relationships with our readers.  We don't necessarily want everything we say back to our commenters to be for public consumption.  We are ALSO blog readers, in addition to being bloggers.  We don't want to have to go back to blogs all frickin' day to read if the blogger has answered our comments, OR to subscribe to people's blog comments and get reams and reams of emails in our email box of a bunch of comments that mean nothing to us, in addition to the one we left.  This leads to a constant barrage of pointless trivial stimulation.  The world has Twitter for that.  And Facebook. Neither of which I'm a big fan of, because, well, I've got WORK to do, for fucksake. (Doesn't anybody else?!)  And why does everything have to be a carbon copy of everything else, all reduced to a 40-character sound bite?  We make our appointed rounds, reading the blogs we want to during the day, we check in on each other with comments, we move on.  Only rarely do we have the time or desire to go back, until the next day or the next time the person posts.  

After almost six years of using this blog-hosting service and having been a loyal customer to the point of recommending it to others and always trying to be the voice of reason when they made mistakes or had outages, I guess I've reached my limit.  This change was unilaterally sprung on us.  I hate it.  They say that a large number of users requested this service.  Well, I'm not one of them.  Those users are the "blog for work/blog for money" type of bloggers, I'm guessing.  That ain't me.   And you don't just make a change that is as substantial as this, and changes the way a person blogs so dramatically, and institute the change so that one day it's just all of a sudden THERE, with no opt-out option.  

I submitted a help ticket, and this was the response I got, the same form letter that Cookie got when she submitted a complaint:

Hi Norma,

Thanks for the note. We received a large number of requests for this
feature, so the behaviour in TypePad was changed to reflect this.

We appreciate that this is something that does not fit with how you use
TypePad, and we have provided this feedback to our engineers and we are
looking into options for improving the experience.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you.

Thanks,
Zalary

It's enough to make me want to quit.  

They truly, truly don't get us.  How's about we raise up our loud knitterly voices and let them know that we are a force to be reckoned with?

Comments

[Kristin]

This is the first I've heard of this! That's an incredibly stupid idea. Now I've got to go and see what I've been writing in my blog comments. I'll let Typepad know what I think. By the way, I also have a real problem with their way of uploading photos. It's a major pain if you don't have Windows Vista. I know there are easier ways to accomplish that because Flickr and Facebook have it figured out.

[Erika]

That's incredibly idiotic. It completely breaks the user expectation for blog conversation workflow, and it breaks email as well. When you email someone, your user expectation is NOT that it will SHOW UP SOMEWHERE IN PUBLIC AUTOMATICALLY.

I'm guessing there's something else behind this. If "a large number of users requested this feature," they would have added it as a feature. They didn't add it as a feature - features are things you can turn off and on.

My guess is that they did it to increase pageviews. By routing responses back to the blog, they would probably quintuple their pageviews across the network. Pageviews are one of the primary metrics a business like Typepad will use to justify itself, so pageviews = $$.

That's the only explanation I can think of. Blecch!

[Cookie]

Have you seen the "new" format yet? I'm starting to wonder what those people are smoking over there.

Then again 6A does not have a history of caring what their users think.

feh

[Betsy]

Word Press

[gayle]

I think Erika nailed it. If a blogger wants to reply to comments in their own comments section, it's easier to just open the blog itself and do it directly. Why would anyone *ask* for a more cumbersome process? The traffic-boosting explanation is the only thing that fits.

[Carole]

I'm very happy with Word Press. Just sayin'.

[Adelaide]

Is switching providers a big deal? If it is relatively easy you should do it.

[Renee]

That is just beyond annoying.
I have free Blogger and they don't have the posters leave emails at all, so unless I already know the person and have their email in my contacts I can't respond at all. But, then again.. it's free so I don't complian... too often... ok, I do.
I've been considering changing to Typepad, now I won't!!

[cindycindy]

Not being a member of Typepad, all I could do was email their support people. It is an idiotic idea, but since when are businesses in tune with their customers. I notice even you report good customer service as the rarity it is.

[margene]

I just gave them an earful....not that it will help. Changing seems SO daunting. sigh.

[whitney]

That's crappy, yeah. Wordpress has recently made it so that it's possible to reply via email and have it show up on the blog, but the commenter's email address is still right there, and you can use that instead to reply privately. It's still a little weird (I preferred things back when you just replied privately), but it sounds like maybe it'd be better than what you've got.

[Holly]

I just switched to Squarespace after several years of progressive disappointment with Typepad and I am telling you.... it blew my mind. I know it is a big hassle to uproot and everything, but I know for me it is going to be worth it in the long term. There is a free two week trial! I am just saying!

[Mary]

Looks like Twits have taken over Typepad. Incredibly stupid. Just know that wherever you (and Mr. Jeffries) go, I will follow.

[Becky]

Just another case of the tail waggin' the dog. Seems like that is business as usual these days. Ditto to the comment that wherever you go, I will follow. Don't let the bastards get you down, Norma!

[Sarah]

This bites big time. I hope they discover that they need not look far to improve the experience.

[Elizabeth]

EEk! I didn't know this was happening. (Blog much?)
Emails are PRIVATE. Period.

[lisa]

well, you could move over to wordpress.... Did you put up the "you might also like" links at the bottom of your posts? or is this another new typepad thing?

[lisa]

Huh, just submitted a comment and it isn't in here. Wordpress. And a question... are the "you might also like" another new thing from typepad or did you put those in?

[joan]

I'm with you on the outrage. They have sent the same response to me and I replied that it was not acceptable. I also tried to post on their user forum but I may have been banned from that after the last time I got ticked (they screwed up my email in the accounts setting and it took a week to de-bug). I will try again to post on their user board and plan to shower them with help tickets. I would move the blog but I am not looking for extra work or to lose content. Or to let them win because I doubt they would even care.

[lisa]

Anyhoo, again... Maine Island Knits was talking about the "go-go girl" and I wanted to let her know about your post about the disposable paper pee funnels you blathered about, but when I looke for posts about pee in here, well, norma, you sure do talk about pee a LOT!!! bwa ha ha ha!!!!

[Marcia]

I haven't blogged since, what, June, so I've missed all this. I don't like the sounds of it, so it might just sway me towards the "giving up blogging" side of the argument I've been having with myself. I, too, have always supported Typepad, but for me the thrill is gone, so I may just tell them I'm not renewing.

[AnnaMarie]

Holy Crow! I just noticed this on my most recent post. Not liking it either. I'm paying $50 a year for a service that has a major issue I don't like? Time to look around. I point my domain name to my blog so it's probably going to be fairly easy to just start a new one and point folks there. Great weekend project for me and Typepad can go suck it.

[marianne]

egads, what a pain in the ass! and yes, if it's considered a 'feature' it should be optional, which apparently it's NOT. (whew, SO happy to see Margene's comment!)

[Liz]

I agree. Totally bass ackwards.

[Elizabeth D]

Hey, Norma -- for those of us loyal readers who are not bloggers ourselves (wait -- am I the only one without a blog?) let us know the URL for where to write. Please? That's just wrong. Guess it must somehow be easier for them.

[susan]

Wordpress, Sistah. Hosted here: http://ihswebsolutions.com/

[Lorette]

I've put in a help ticket as well, and am waiting for a response. Can you say "wordpress"? I haven't been all that impressed with typepad's new and improved user interface before this, and this might just be the last straw.

[Joannah]

Argh! Did someone forget to bring his brain to work the day this "plan" was concocted? Add me to the "where you go, I will follow" list.

[elizabeth a airhart]

i shall follow

[Janice in Camas]

I'm still blogless and I suppose this sort of thing is one of the reasons why -- I'm pretty sure my head would have exploded by now! Very happy to see Margene's comment. Hope the Saturday sky is beautiful wherever you all are today.

[Cookie]

I'm slowly looking into options because I think our days at TypePad are numbered. Ever think about having your own site?

Wordpress is looking better and better.

[Jan]

This just happened on one comment that was left for me but not the others. Hmm. I cut and pasted the person's email address (from the emailed comment) into the reply but thought that was weird. I have loved typepad and will be very upset if the longstanding reply feature is permanently changed.
I haven't yet tried the new posting platform. I wonder when that will be the only option. Ugh. I hate change like this in things that I think are working well to begin with.

[--Deb]

I've been hearing a lot of bloggers complaining about this all of a sudden. It would drive me nuts, too ... if I were still on Typepad, which I'm not. I'm very happy with Wordpress, thank you!

[Vicki]

I posted about this today, too. I'M SO PISSED OFF!! Zalary must be the tech in charge of these complaints. I know all these people who love Wordpress, but I found it to be a pain in the ass when I tried to use it for my photoblog. I don't want to learn coding -- and the upgrading of Wordpress makes my head spin -- and I like to think that I'm a little bit techie. I like what I like and what I know -- it's about the stupid blogging, for fucksake; I, too, have been a loyal and regular customer of Typepad, but this is just too much. WAY too much. And not even a heads-up from them about such a major change. Pissed.Off.

[Julie]

Yeah, what's with that? I was shocked when I got the first comment in this new format. What are they thinking?

[Laurie]

I will open a helpticket and complain. A**hats.

[Knitnana]

Well, I surely won't go to Typepad now.
I feel your pain - it's a dumb choice on their part!
(((Hugs)))

[Bethany]

So glad I never switched back to Typepad.

Let me second the vote for Squarespace. It took me a bit to get the hang of how it works, but I found it much easier to use than Wordpress.

[Rachel]

I read on Vicki's blog that you are looking for a host, check out Go Daddy at:

http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/wordpress-hosting.aspx?ci=15005#details

The transfer may be a problem, it seems like TP lets you export the text but the photos and permalink are a different story.
Do they give you access to your blog on their server? this may be the key to the transfer.

[TeresaC]

Blogger is starting to look real good to me. I cannot figure out the sidebar features at all. My blog will never change at this point because I really don't want to relearn everything I so painstakingly taught myself before. It all worked before. I was happy. Now, not so much, but I don't even know how or what to complain about because I can't figure out anything. UGH!

[Joansie]

Everyone on my Google Reader who uses Typepad is furious. These damn people with Typepad of anything else that use the excuse that it is what our customers want when they were perhaps on freaking drugs (what other excuse can there be) when they made these changes and make you feel like you are in the minority....well, who the hell needs them. Move on to some other hosts but be sure to let us know where you go.

[Manise]

What bastids! What are they thinking? I remember Zalary from my commentless-Manise-days debacle. Not much of a brain over there let me tell you. Like elizabeth a airhart said I shall follow you too.

[Carrie K]

I couldn't believe they did that with no warning or option. My help ticket reply said the same thing - Zelary did add if there was anything else they could help me with - so I asked for a referral to another blog service that supported the old email comments. So far, I have not heard back.

Gah. Really thinking about letting the blog die but hate to let them win like that. But it's getting to be such a chore. I can barely keep up with the blogs I read now - having to come back 80 hundred times? Impossible.

[Robby]

Um, I think this 'feature' is really a retitled bug they are too lazy to fix. I'm not sure even the most narcissistic among us really wants EVERYTHING we say to be made public. What an idiotic decision on their part. A divorce might be the nicest response, I suspect there are hacking bloggers already working on an alternative response.

[Isela]

I am also one of those users who is displeased about this change. I do not like it. I do not want to change to another provider though because I don't have the time to go an update all my link and all my photos...it is kind of a pain to do all that. I hope they get their heads screwed on straight because I am not enthused!

[Seanna Lea]

I would have a lot more coherent thoughts to add to this, but in the last month (and I should have said something earlier) I have lost about 50% of my comments here. It's gotten to the point where I try to copy the text so I don't have to recreate my train of thought.

[paula]

I HATE THAT! I keep commenting on my blog. I did not even think of letting 6 Apart know how I feel. Go Norma! It is also a pain to even post. I am glad they changed the categories, but it looks like Wordpress, which I threatened to switch to the last time I got made at Typepad, when they disabled my blog when my credit card expired.