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Viewing Blog: Through My Librarian Eye's Blog, Most Recent at Top
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TMLE - Short for Through My Librarian Eye's - TMLE is a blog I started for the sake of writing about all the books I love, hate, or feel indifferent about. As it turns out, TMLE is a blog about that, and more. Through it I will continue to post my views and opinions on books and the field of librarianship, I will also write about my adventures and misadventures in becoming a librarian. Lastly, but possibly most importantly the blog is going to take on the essence of an online zine which will feature reviews on books, and even author interviews!
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Number of Readers that added this blog to their MyJacketFlap: 4
1. Field Notes: BlogHer ’14

Automatticians, the people who build WordPress.com, participate in events and projects around the world every day. Periodically, they report back on the exciting things they do when not in front of a computer. Today, Michelle Weber — one of a group of Automatticians offering real-life happiness engineering at BlogHer ’14 — reports back from the popular women bloggers conference.

BlogHer is an amazing organization created to support and lift up women bloggers. They’re home to blogging communities close to our hearts, like NaBloPoMo, and their conferences are among my favorite blogging events to attend.

Meeting the bloggers who take WordPress and infuse it with their words and images is rewarding, educational, and just fun. This year’s annual conference was no exception — the WordPress booth included a Happiness Bar for on-the-spot troubleshooting, ample hangout space, and, of course, a comfy couch for much-needed conference breaks and blogging tête-à-têtes.

Bloggers talking blogging at BlogHer. A weekend's worth of mini-workshops and panels. Carolyn and Daryl, ready to engineer some happiness for WordPress users. A post-panel pic with A'driane, Emily, and Kylie. Sara Rosso talks social networks while the booth hums around her.

This year, we also added a series of mini-workshops on the topics bloggers most often ask us about — domains, plugins, social media, copyright, and the different flavors of WordPress — along with mini-panels with some of the outstanding bloggers selected as BlogHer’s 2014 Voices of the Year.

Being at BlogHer isn’t just standing behind a counter talking about widgets. There was great discussion. There were hugs. There were selfies. There was a little crying, and a lot of laughing. After three days doing everything from having in-depth conversations on how to find your blogging voice to helping a new blogger learn to highlight text and create a hyperlink, I was a little tired and a little hoarse — but also full of ideas to take back to work, inspired to do some blogging of my own, and richer in friendship than I was three days before. What more could a blogger ask for?

Thanks to the Voices of the Year-winning bloggers behind Butterfly ConfessionsC is for CrocodileGirl BonerNaptime WritingThe Life of Kylie, Hacker. Ninja. Hooker. Spy.Baddest Mother EverThe Waiting, and Jamie Krug: Author for taking the time to sit down with me, and for everyone else who came by to get help, talk WordPress, or just say hello. I hope I see y’all in 2015!


Filed under: Community, Events

11 Comments on Field Notes: BlogHer ’14, last added: 8/8/2014
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2. Introducing: Comment Likes

I’m sure we’ve all experienced this — reading through a comment thread, and seeing a particularly well-written comment, whether it be informative, insightful, or just plain funny. You want to show the commenter that you appreciate their work, but don’t have a reply for them, so you just move on. Well, those days are over!

Comment Likes are now available on all WordPress.com sites. We’ve seen how much you enjoy Post Likes, and want to bring that kind of love to comments, too. When you enable Comment Likes on your site, you’ll see a small Like appear below all the comments on your site, just like this one.

You and all your readers can click it to show your appreciation!

If you prefer to read in the WordPress Android or iOS apps, we’re working hard to bring Comment Likes to both of them as well — stay tuned for upcoming releases.

To activate Comment Likes, head to Settings :arrow: Sharing in your dashboard, or check out the Comment Likes support page. Don’t forget to show some love in the comment section below!


Filed under: New Features, Social

13 Comments on Introducing: Comment Likes, last added: 8/6/2014
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3. Early Theme Adopters: Gridiculous Pro

No matter whether you use WordPress.com to host your blog or your business website, premium theme Gridiculous Pro is a cool, sophisticated, and versatile theme that showcases your creativity.

Firefight

firefight

Rick Kurelo, CD, is a firefighter and Canadian Forces veteran of campaigns in Bosnia and Afghanistan. His site, Firefight — in addition to promoting his book of the same name — collects stories and photos of his time battling fires in Canada and chaos and conflict in theatres of war. The large compelling photo of Rick in full military battle gear, the commanding type, and muted color scheme emphasize the gravity of Rick’s work in the military and in the fire hall.

Delft Big Band

thebigband

Jazz lovers will swoon at the smooth clean lines and eye-catching masthead of Delft Big Band, a site for a South African jazz program offering music instruction to disadvantaged high school youth. This stripped-down iteration of Gridiculous Pro highlights the band’s upcoming performances and a photo gallery. You can even watch a recording of a live performance.

Aunty Muriel’s Blog

auntymuriel

Aunty Muriel is the alter ego and online persona of English literature professor and oboist Gaenor Burchett-Vass. Her site, Aunty Muriel’s Blog, collects her writings on the works of Scottish novelist Muriel Spark as well as her comic book, movie, and book reviews. Gaenor takes great advantage of Gridiculous Pro‘s homepage widget feature to help readers navigate to her Spark writings and reviews.

Interested in other looks for Gridiculous Pro? Check out:

  • clutter — a furniture store in Savannah, Georgia.
  • 2RETHINK — a Danish furniture company.

Filed under: Themes

3 Comments on Early Theme Adopters: Gridiculous Pro, last added: 6/11/2014
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4. Introducing Longreads’ Best of WordPress

Today we’re excited to launch a new series with Longreads, the storytelling community that recently joined the Automattic and WordPress.com Editorial family. And we need your help.

We’re looking for the best long-form stories over 1,500 words, across all of WordPress—a quest that will span 22% of the Internet. It will include work from undiscovered writers, as well as the authors and publishers you already know and love.

Help us find and share the best stories

Authors and publishers: When you post something great that’s over 1,500 words, use the longreads tag on your post so we can consider it. You can also share a link to the story on Twitter: Just reply to @Longreads or include #longreads in your tweet. (If your WordPress site is self-hosted, Twitter is still the best way to reach us.)

Readers: If you find something that you love, share it with us! Reblog a link on your own site and add the longreads tag, or share it on Twitter with #longreads.

What we’re looking for

Right now, we’re searching for primarily nonfiction. This can include the following:

  • Interviews: It could be an interview with your grandparents, a Q&A with your best friend about their career, or a conversation with your favorite local business owner.
  • Essays, speeches and big ideas: A personal spin on an important topic, or a transcript from a talk you gave at a work conference.
  • History and research: We love learning about our collective experiences, and what it tells us about the past and the future. Share your personal, professional, or academic research about topics that interest you.
  • Previously published book excerpts and magazine features: If you are the rights holder for a book or magazine feature—old or new pieces are both welcome—share it with the #longreads community.

We’re looking forward to seeing your story picks!

* * *

Here are a few more examples of stories we’ve featured on Longreads from the world of WordPress:


Filed under: Admin Bar, Community, Reading, Tags, WordPress, WordPress.com

16 Comments on Introducing Longreads’ Best of WordPress, last added: 6/5/2014
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5. Early Theme Adopters: Espied

From a full-blown professional portfolio to a streamlined homepage, Espied, which was launched a few short weeks ago, gives you a wide variety of options to display your best work.

You can tailor the theme to suit your most exacting needs. On top of standard customization touches like a custom header image, Espied comes with four featured color palettes, different layouts to choose for your featured images, and a custom social links menu. The Portfolio feature gives you even more choices to control the way your visitors experience your site.

Let’s take a look at some of the creative uses of Espied.

CDM Productions

cdm productions early theme adopters
The graphic designer behind CDM Productions has created a lively, colorful portfolio homepage using Espied. Hooked by the visuals, interested readers — and potential clients — can easily find additional information in the fly-out side panel menu, from the designer’s blog to a contact form to a “Hire Me” page.

bryony attenburrow

bryony attenburrow early theme adopters

British illustrator Bryony Attenburrow has taken Espied in a more minimalist direction. Her homepage follows the classic blog format, with her latest work at the top of the page. If you’re ready to dig deeper into her work, Bryony has also built portfolio pages for the different formats she works on, from illustrations to comics.

Hot Mug

hot mug early theme adopters
The website of book cover designer Hot Mug is a lesson in economy. Consisting of little more than a gallery of the designer’s previous work, visitors can enjoy the artist’s beautiful covers without distraction. A splashy (pun intended) custom header image adds a sleek individual touch to the site, while a Terms and Conditions page provides interested parties with all the information they might need.

If you’d like to see some other great uses of Espied, be sure to check out these sites:

  • True East, a beautifully designed travel blog.
  • The whimsical portfolio of dutch illustrator Merel Barends.
  • Flaneur, a minimalist Japanese photoblog.

Stay tuned for more examples of sites using recently-added themes — and if there are any particular themes you’d like to see featured, feel free to leave us a comment.


Filed under: Customization, Themes

9 Comments on Early Theme Adopters: Espied, last added: 6/5/2014
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6. Rev Up Your Writing with Our Blogging U. Challenge

Want to flex your blogging muscles? Get ready for Writing 101: Building a Blogging Habit, starting Monday, June 2.

16 Comments on Rev Up Your Writing with Our Blogging U. Challenge, last added: 5/27/2014
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7. Monday Morning Edition

In case you missed it, a quick recap of the past week on WordPress.com, from new features to great blogs to discover.

10 Comments on Monday Morning Edition, last added: 5/27/2014
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8. More New Books by WordPress.com Authors

With so many creative (and prolific) voices, it's hard to keep track of all the titles published by our bloggers. Here's another selection of recently published books by WordPressers.

13 Comments on More New Books by WordPress.com Authors, last added: 5/12/2014
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9. The Daily Post Has a Great New Look

WordPress.com's resource on the art and craft of blogging got a makeover. We're excited to invite you to the revamped Daily Post!

14 Comments on The Daily Post Has a Great New Look, last added: 4/11/2014
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10. Celebrate Poetry, All Month Long

April is National Poetry Writing Month! To participate in NaPoWriMo 2014, write a poem each day this month. Read on for details.

12 Comments on Celebrate Poetry, All Month Long, last added: 4/1/2014
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11. Introducing Smoother Editing and New Playlists

Extra, extra, read all about it: we're thrilled to announce a whole batch of improvements to your blogs, from image editing in the body of your posts to better, sleeker audio playlists -- and more.

18 Comments on Introducing Smoother Editing and New Playlists, last added: 3/25/2014
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12. Smile: Our New Emoticons Have Arrived!

We just gave our emoticons a loving redesign. Check them out: they're sure to bring a smile to your face.

10 Comments on Smile: Our New Emoticons Have Arrived!, last added: 3/19/2014
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13. Early Theme Adopters: Singl

We release beautiful new themes every week. In our Early Theme Adopters series, we focus on bloggers who are using the most recent additions to our Theme Showcase. Today, let's visit some of the blogs that are already using Singl, a minimalist, versatile theme.

8 Comments on Early Theme Adopters: Singl, last added: 3/22/2014
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14. Show Yourself Off in 2014: Profiles, Portfolios, and Personal Pages

When you refresh your résumé for the new year, why not also refresh (or create!) your online presence? An online portfolio highlights you in a whole new way. Portfolios aren’t just for artists — writers, teachers, architects, graphic designers, and more can use portfolios to share their work. If what you do can be visualized, you can represent it online.

WordPress.com makes it simple to create this 21st century calling card — dozens of themes are great foundations for a powerful, professional portfolio. Now, simply mention your URL to a potential client or partner and let them explore the very best of your work online. 

Need inspiration to get started? Here are a few highlights…

Portfolio

To make it as easy as humanly possible, there’s a theme helpfully called Portfolio. Built-in custom colors and fonts make personalizing easy, a drag-and-drop interface neatly organizes multiple portfolios, and a slider shines the spotlight on your best work:

Portfolio_Showcase

Slovakian artist Lucia Lukáčová takes advantage Portfolio’s blank slate for her portfolio, Delulu Illustration:

Lulu

She’s able to highlight her illustration, kid-focused work, and general sketchbook in different portfolios, which visitors can easily access via a menu across the top of the page. Her bold lines and bright colors jump off a stark background, while simple and unobtrusive fonts provide information and help visitors navigate without ever detracting from Lucia’s artwork.

Portfolio is a premium theme. Learn more or preview it in the Theme Showcase.

Typo

Building a beautiful portfolio doesn’t need to cost anything — there are free themes that do an equally good job making you the star, like Typo:

Typo_Showcase

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based writer Stewart O’Nan realized this when he chose Typo for his site, where fans can learn about his books, short stories, and essays; read interviews with him; and stay on top of his latest tour stops:

StewartONan

Typo’s default font and color scheme have an antique, typewriterly feel, instantly letting you know you’re on an author’s site. A simple header image made of the covers of Stewart’s books showcases the breadth of his work. Below, he uses a blog to share photos and keep readers up-to-date on his latest projects, but the bold header keeps his published work in constant focus.

Typo is a free theme. Learn more or preview it in the Theme Showcase.

Gridspace

Visually-oriented portfolio themes aren’t just for artists — even bold, photo-focused themes like Gridspace:

Gridspace_Showcase

Just look at BBC presenter, lecturer, and broadcast journalist Kenan Malik’s personal site, Pandaemonium:

Pandemonium

We love everything about Pandaemonium’s juxtapositions: the way Kenan uses shades of gray for his header and sidebar content, letting the bright hues of individual posts’ images stand out without competing for attention. His choice of the willowy Raleway font, in contrast to the blocky, graphic font he uses in his images. The mix of serious content and a somber facial expression with his helter-skelter header. His quirky combination of elements and personalities intrigues, encouraging visitors to click around and engage with him.

(Of course, Gridspace is a perfect choice for artists too, like Erin Hill and David Zinn.)

Gridspace is a premium theme. Learn more or preview it in the Theme Showcase.

Profile, Hatch, and Oxygen, oh my!

There are dozens of other themes that are either designed to create beautiful portfolios, or that can easily morph into one. Premium Profile puts you front and center, while free Hatch and Oxygen let you create clean galleries of your best work. Photo-oriented Autofocus is a natural for photographers, and versatile TwentyTwelve works for any personal site. A few of our favorites:

  • Historical fiction author Julian Stockwin dresses up his Profile-based site with period artwork and a vintage map background.
  • Graphic designer Trina Lambert takes the free Clean Home theme to new levels of sleek minimalism for her portfolio and résumé site.
  • Scottish Dream Photography uses Autofocus unique tiled gallery-style home page to help their images sing.
  • Web developer and strategist Joel Hughes customizes TwentyTwelve to build a friendly, inviting site that makes his WordPress skill clear.

A home page for any theme

Turn any theme into a personal showcase – all our themes can be used to build a website with a home page, rather than a blog, like web strategy firm Creative Thunder. Rather than using Ryu’s standard blog layout, they’ve opted to create a home page that highlights their services and strengths; adding a blog to another page of the site lets them keep that important point of contact with potential clients.

To create a home page, head to the Settings >> Reading tab in your dashboard, check the box next to “A static page,” and specify which of your pages you’d like to show as the home page, and which should be used for your blog. You can also update this setting in the Customizer – just click on the “Front” tab.

2014 can be the year that your creative and career goals reach new heights — and a great online portfolio can help!


Filed under: Themes

10 Comments on Show Yourself Off in 2014: Profiles, Portfolios, and Personal Pages, last added: 1/7/2014
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15. Add That Personal Touch to Your Blog with a Custom Header

Headers PanelOne of the best free customization tools on WordPress.com is the ability to upload a custom header image. Using a custom header is a great way to showcase your style and personality on your blog.

When readers visit your blog, its header is what pops out first and introduces visitors to your site and your content. That header image plays a huge part in your blog’s first impression, and now you can live preview custom header images as soon as you upload them.

Experiment by uploading header images in the Appearance → Customize → Header area. The new preview feature helps you to choose the header that best matches your site’s style and design.

To learn more, see the support page on uploading a custom header image.

Color matching for headers

If you’ve purchased the Custom Design upgrade, you can generate a color palette to match your header image with the new Match Header Image button in the Colors panel under Appearance → Customize → Colors. Keep clicking the button to see different color arrangements.

Here are a few examples showing how unique headers and color matches can vary the look of a single page:

Bright Green Header Color Match Chivito Header Color Match Weimaraner Header Color Match Raspberry Header Color Match Skyline Header Color Match Street Art Header Color Match

Have fun experimenting with colors and custom headers on your blog!


Filed under: Customization, Features

14 Comments on Add That Personal Touch to Your Blog with a Custom Header, last added: 12/31/2013
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16. New Themes: Spirit and Spun

Happy Theme Thursday, all! Today I’m proud to introduce two new free themes to the WordPress.com theme family.

Spirit holiday theme

Spirit

Spirit is a festive treat for your personal blog, complete with softly falling snow and a wintry color palette. Share past holiday memories or create a website to coordinate the next family Christmas party. Post formats allow you to highlight images, videos, quotes, and more, while the responsive design ensures your site looks great at any screen size.

Read more about Spirit on the Theme Showcase, or activate it on your blog by going to Appearance → Themes.

Spun

Spun

Next up is Spun, a minimalist theme that puts the emphasis on your content; extraneous navigation fades away to put your words and images front and center. Whether you’re a writer, photographer, or personal blogger, Spun‘s beautiful typography and responsive design showcase your creativity with subtle elegance.

Read more about Spun on the Theme Showcase, or activate it on your site under Appearance → Themes.


Filed under: Themes

10 Comments on New Themes: Spirit and Spun, last added: 12/12/2013
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17. All the Trimmings: Mouthwatering Food Blogs on WordPress.com

The holiday season is officially upon us: that special time of the year dedicated to friends, family, red-nosed reindeer, and—

Who are we kidding? It’s all about food! Glorious, comforting, yummy food. As millions of Americans are busy preparing for tomorrow’s turkey/turducken/tofurkey feasts, the food scene on WordPress.com is equally abuzz with recipes, food stories, and pictures that will make you drool over your screen. Here are some of our favorite food blogs — better not continue on an empty stomach…

Eating with your eyes

A picture is sometimes worth a thousand bites, and many food bloggers take their images seriously, pushing food photography to a whole new level. On cookinandshootin, for example, bloggers Tara Striano and Maria del Mar accompany the detailed recipes with crisp, bright photos. They make great use of Anthem‘s full-width content display to make the pictures pop.

Others follow suit: in Lattes and Leggings, New York-based blogger Jen presents her healthy preparations with photos that channel each season’s distinct textures and colors. Across the continent, in Los Angeles, former baker Paula Parsons showcases her delicious-looking creations on Love + Cupcakes, where well-lit food and elegant typography makes for an irresistible mix.

Taking a different approach, illustrator Heather Diane creates custom-made drawings for each post, infusing her site (soon to become a book), Illustrated Bites, with an unmistakable, tongue-in-cheek retro vibe.

Food and contemporary society

Eating is, of course, never separate from much larger questions about culture: it defines societies at least as much as language or politics.

For those interested in the social aspects of food and cooking, Tangerine and Cinnamon offers fascinating cultural analyses of food by Sarah Emily, a Johannesburg, South Africa-based writer. Sarah also curates extensive weekly lists of food-related news from across the world, from Jon Stewart’s takedown of Chicago pizza to Israel’s prickly pear shortage.

Over at Eatocracy, CNN’s food blog, you can find an ever-changing roster of stories on the intersection of eating and current events, as well as weekly chats with blog editors Kat Kinsmen and Sarah LeTrent, who are often joined by special culinary guests.

For a look at the environmental stakes of the comestibles we grow, produce, and consume, the food section of eco-centric news blog Grist will satisfy any reader curious to learn about the policies that affect our eating habits (or anyone interested in knowing how you can cook your turkey in the dishwasher).

Recipes for all dietary choices

Are you vegan and wonder how to make desserts decadent enough to satisfy your sweet-tooth friends? Is your nephew gluten-sensitive and you aren’t sure how to approach Thanksgiving dinner? WordPress.com food bloggers cover all possible ground in today’s ever-expanding map of dietary choices and restrictions.

At his blog, The Domestic Mansoon-to-be-published-author Russ Crandall focuses on healthy, fresh takes on the paleo diet. This increasingly visible food doctrine aims to replicate the healthy eating habits of our prehistoric ancestors who shunned grains and had no access to processed products.

In a similar vein, Pallavi Gupta, the north-Indian blogger behind Veggie Zest, promotes the benefits of vegetarianism and veganism with sleek photos of her fresh creations, as well as of the delicious street food she encounters around the world.

And, if you thought that producing yummy cakes without wheat-based products is impossible, you clearly haven’t visited The Pink Rose Bakery, baker-blogger Kirsten‘s gluten-free baking site. We haven’t tried her bundt cakes yet, but they sure look delicious.

Food, the ultimate cultural bridge

It’s near-impossible to understand different cultures — whether oceans away or across town — without paying attention to the way people eat. Luckily, in blogging as in real life, food invites us to explore and expand our cultural horizons.

Using food to negotiate the different backgrounds and locales that have shaped their relationship, the blogging couple behind Chef and Steward, based in the United Arab Emirates, share their love of food and discovery through health-conscious recipes and gorgeous photography. Likewise, Eva Wong, a Malaysian food blogger based in Finland, brings these two drastically different climates together in her blog, Spicy Tones, writing about cooking and reflecting on her childhood.

Blogging about food can elide not only geographic distances, but temporal ones, too. With the insight that food cultures of the past reveal so much about earlier periods, author, seasoned traveler, and food-history lover Cynthia D. Bertelsen digs into fascinating stories, like White House desserts from the nineteenth century or pear preservation in antiquity.

The dawn of modern cooking is explored in depth, too, in food-history blogs like Gastronomy Archaeology, the project of a self-avowed “British food nerd” who’s into medieval and Renaissance cookery. If colonial-era hearth-fire feasts and heirloom seeds are more your thing, Victoria Rumble, over at The Historicfoodie’s Blog, will quench your curiosity.

A blogging cornucopia

From the Roman Empire to present-day North America, people have never tired of talking, writing, and thinking about food. Whether you’re looking for a pumpkin pie recipe or a reflection on food tourism, WordPress.com bloggers are here to enrich your culinary knowledge, and prepare your taste buds for their next savory adventure.

Looking for more food bookmarks for a rainy-day, food-blog fix? Check out some of these sites:

  • Paper and Salt, a blog focusing on the unexpected connections between delicious food and great literature.
  • The Hungry Artist, a site by a book illustrator who’s also an avid cook, with many kid-friendly recipes.
  • Emily Contois, a blog by a food studies scholar exploring the place of food and body image in contemporary culture.
  • British Blokes Cooking, where musings about cooking and living in Cornwall are interspersed with recipes for dog treats.

Filed under: Community, WordPress.com

11 Comments on All the Trimmings: Mouthwatering Food Blogs on WordPress.com, last added: 11/27/2013
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18. Striking Back Against Censorship

The mission of WordPress.com is to democratize publishing. We’re inspired every day by the ways creators use our platform to bring their voices to the world. Unfortunately, we also see many cases of censorship aimed at WordPress.com authors and users.

One area where we’ve seen a number of problems is the censoring of criticism through abuse of copyright law. Two recent cases of abuse really caught our attention and made us think that we needed to take action to fight back on behalf of our users and everyone who believes in the Internet’s promise for free expression.

A common form of censorship by copyright stems from improper use of legal creations called DMCA takedown notices. The DMCA stands for the “Digital Millennium Copyright Act”, which is a US federal law that created a system for protecting copyrights online. The DMCA system works pretty well, but has a few overlooked flaws that have made it too easy to abuse. Under the DMCA, companies, like Automattic, who publish user content cannot be held legally responsible for copyright infringement – so long as we follow a procedure to take down materials when we receive a notice from a copyright holder that something appearing on our platform allegedly infringes their copyrights. Every company that you use to share videos, pictures, and thoughts (from Google search to Facebook to Snapchat to WordPress.com) relies on the DMCA to balance free expression with protection of copyright.

The DMCA system gives copyright holders a powerful and easy to use weapon: the unilateral right to issue a takedown notice that a website operator (like Automattic) must honor or risk legal liability. The system works so long as copyright owners use this power in good faith. But too often they don’t, and there should be clear legal consequences for those who choose to abuse the system.

We receive hundreds of DMCA notices and try our best to review, identify and push back on those we see as abusive. Our users have the right to challenge a DMCA complaint too, but doing so requires them to identify themselves and fill out a legally required form saying that they submit to being sued for copyright infringement in a place that may be far away. If they don’t, their content is taken down and could stay down forever. This tradeoff doesn’t work for the many anonymous bloggers that we host on WordPress.com, who speak out on sensitive issues like corporate or government corruption.

Given the legal landscape, it’s no wonder that we’ve seen an increased number of improper notices. The following two notices inspired us to take action to help bring some needed balance to the situation.

First: Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus are experienced science journalists who operate Retraction Watch, a site that highlights and tracks situations where published scientific papers may not be everything they seem. One reader apparently disagreed with a critique published on Retraction Watch – so he copied portions of the Retraction Watch site, claimed the work as his own and issued a DMCA takedown notice against the original authors.

Second: Oliver Hotham is a student journalist living in the UK. Oliver publishes investigative articles on his WordPress.com blog. The subject of one of his articles apparently had second thoughts about a press statement he gave to Oliver – so he turned to copyright law to censor Oliver’s site. Oliver’s account of that incident is here.

These cases are both infuriating and increasingly common. While there are no legal consequences (like fines) under the DMCA for copyright abusers, there is a provision that allows victims of censorship (and their web hosts) to bring legal action against those who submit fraudulent DMCA notices. So today, we’ve joined with Oliver, Ivan and Adam to take a small strike back at DMCA abuse. We’ve filed two lawsuits for damages under Section 512(f) of the DMCA, which allows for suits against those who “knowingly materially misrepresent” a case of copyright infringement.

Until there are some teeth to the copyright laws, it’s up to us – websites and users, together – to stand up to DMCA fraud and protect freedom of expression. Through these suits, we’d like to remind our users that we’re doing all we can to combat DMCA abuse on WordPress.com….and most importantly, remind copyright abusers to think twice before submitting fraudulent takedown notices. We’ll be watching, and are ready to fight back.

We’ll also be actively involved, on behalf of our users, in trying to change the law – both through court cases and in Congress – to make sure that everyone has the right to share their voice on the Internet without threat of censorship.

Read Retraction Watch’s thoughts on our lawsuit here.

Full text of complaint in the Oliver Hotham case here.  Full text of complaint in the Retraction Watch case here.


Filed under: Community, Terms of Service

10 Comments on Striking Back Against Censorship, last added: 11/21/2013
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19. 30 Days, 30 Posts: NaBloPoMo is here!

There’s a lot of buzz each November around NaNoWriMo — you may notice some of your favorite blogs dedicating themselves to churning out 50,000 words this month. If 50,000 words seem like 49,000 too many or you’re more interested in blogging than writing a book, NaBloPoMo — National Blog Posting Month …

11 Comments on 30 Days, 30 Posts: NaBloPoMo is here!, last added: 11/1/2013
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20. Caught in the Act (of Reading): Edwin Turner, Master Book Thief

Book lovers, lock your libraries: a voracious reader is among us. We recently chatted with Edwin Turner, the mastermind behind Biblioklept, a popular literary blog dedicated to books, art, and the ways in which the two shape our world. Join us for a conversation with Ed about blogging, literature, and …

10 Comments on Caught in the Act (of Reading): Edwin Turner, Master Book Thief, last added: 10/21/2013
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21. New Theme: Massive Press

Happy Thursday! I’m pleased to announce our newest theme, Massive Press. Designed by Press75, it’s a great choice for news and magazine websites. A premium upgrade for your blog, Massive Press sports a clean, grid-based layout. Among its most notable features is a widgetized front page template. This gives you …

3 Comments on New Theme: Massive Press, last added: 10/24/2013
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22. Get Kids Blogging at the Digital Family Summit

Attending the Digital Family Summit this coming weekend in Baltimore, Maryland? Our own Karen Arnold will lead a workshop to teach kids and their families how to get started blogging on WordPress.com. Karen, along with Velda Christensen, Alx Block, and Jennifer Dodd will be on hand to teach kids and …

10 Comments on Get Kids Blogging at the Digital Family Summit, last added: 10/14/2013
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23. Create an email address with your custom domain using Email Forwarding

A unique and memorable custom domain is a great way to make your blog stand out. WordPress.com makes it easy to add a custom domain to your site: just go to Store → Domains in your dashboard, and enter the domain name you want. Now, your custom domain is not …

11 Comments on Create an email address with your custom domain using Email Forwarding, last added: 9/9/2013
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24. Introducing the New Learn.WordPress.com

New to WordPress.com and don’t know where to start? Looking for just the right theme, or wondering how to use all the features in your dashboard? Interested in creating a website, not a blog? Or perhaps you’re ready to do more on your site, from adding image galleries to using built-in tools to connect with the community — and the world.

On our new WordPress.com tutorial site, learn.wordpress.com, you can get the help you need to create the site you want and get it up and running right away.

Learn — our WordPress.com tutorial site — gets a facelift!

Learn

Learn.wordpress.com

We’ve completely revamped and reimagined learn.wordpress.com with lots of new content to help you get the most out of your WordPress.com site, including detailed guides to tasks like:

Find what you’re looking for in a snap

We want you to find the answers to your questions right away. In addition to the search bar on the top left, you’ll find:

A main menu of 12 new sections down the left sidebar. Want to come along on the journey from the beginning? Start at — you guessed it — the homepage and section one: Get the Most from WordPress.com. If you want to get going quickly, the Get Going Fast checklist is a no-nonsense quick start guide to the basics.

Handy summaries at the top of each section. We encourage you to dive in to any section! Each section begins with a summary of what’s covered, with links to quickly transport you to the answers you need.

A resource to set up a website. For those of you interested in creating a static website, Get a Homepage compiles the essentials to create a website, including publishing a static homepage, adding timeless page content, and displaying a custom menu.

A WordPress.com glossary. Not sure of the difference between a post or a page, or a tag or a category? Want to know what makes a theme responsive? Get Lingo gathers common terms and phrases used throughout WordPress.com — within your dashboard and across our Support site.

We’re here to help — and inspire

In addition to tutorials, we’ve sprinkled fun stuff throughout to help you put your newfound knowledge to use: creative ways to personalize your site, steps to encourage you to tinker with different features, and writing and photography prompts to get you motivated.

We’re really excited for you to poke around. If you have learn.wordpress.com feedback, feel free to use the feedback form, which you can access on the footer of the site. As always, if you have a specific question about your site or have a problem using WordPress.com, please head over to the Support site or the forums for assistance.


19 Comments on Introducing the New Learn.WordPress.com, last added: 3/14/2013
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25. Headed to SxSW this week? So are we — don’t be a stranger!

South by Southwest Interactive kicks off this Friday, March 8, and you know Automattic will be there! Whether you need some help with your site, want to learn about the future of blogging, or just want to boogie down with a beer and some barbeque, we’ve got you covered — come say hello, because we’d love to put a face to your blog.

Happiness Bar

Made in Texas

Have questions about WordPress? Our Happiness Engineers have answers, and they love sharing ‘em. Swing by the WordPress Happiness Bar — booth 725 at the Trade Show, Sunday, March 10 through Wednesday, March 13; look for the “Born in Texas” banner — and we can troubleshoot your site, give you a quick tutorial, or just share why we think WordPress is the best CMS around.

You can also pick up some swag to show off your WordPress pride, and turn yourself into an animated GIF at our Smilebooth. Don’t miss your chance to be the next Spinning Disco Chicken!

The State of Blogging in 2013

Listen in as WordPress co-founder and Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg sits down with AllThingsD co-executive editor Kara Swisher for a conversation exploring the future of blogging in an online world with more and more services demanding shorter and shorter content. What happens to bloggers in the age of Twitter and Instagram? (Hint: they’re not going anywhere.) Clear your schedules Saturday, March 9, at 12:30PM, and join us at the Hyatt Regency. Head to the SxSW site for more details and venue directions.

Party for the People

This year, we’re partnering with Sailthru to present Party for the People, a night of good music, good food, good people, and good times for a great cause, charity: water. Join 1,999 of your new best friends at Austin’s legendary Stubb’s BBQ to enjoy sets from DawesThe Lone Bellow, and The Tontons while help to raise money to fund a charity:water well — for every partygoer who makes a pledge to charity: water, Sailthru and Automattic will make an additional $10 donation. Have some fun and do some good! RSVP today; the party’s filling up fast. The fiesta starts at 7PM on Sunday, March 10.

Come to talk shop or let loose — we’re up for either. We hope to see you in Austin!


18 Comments on Headed to SxSW this week? So are we — don’t be a stranger!, last added: 3/6/2013
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