Disabling Possibly Related Links on WordPress.com
When WordPress.com introduced Snap Preview on our blogs (or is that their blogs?) at the end of 2006, I wasn’t impressed – it felt intrusive – like a JavaScript pop-up for Web 2.0! (Just given a different name). So I disabled it straight-away.
A few days ago, the WP.com team introduced a new feature “Possibly Related Posts“. At first I thought this was a great idea for finding similar content – but then I realised that it could become a mechanism for sploggers to inject links on your blog. (Obviously this feature is restricted to WP.com blogs only – which itself raises a few questions).
The other week I had a bit of a rant about how Skype sneakily installed a Firefox Extension and that they should have provided an opt-in. There has been a similar backlash about this new WP.com feature!
The blogosphere’s very own Saraswathi, the wise Lorelle has wrote about her feelings on the matter and how to disable this new feature.
To turn off the new related post feature on WordPress.com blogs:
1. Go to the Administration Panels > Design > Extras.
2. Check Hide Related Links.
3. Click Update.
![[nxnw logo]](http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/6a8e6348aa8c014a012bde96c9b04270?s=90 "North by Northwest")
If you see any splogs in the related links, report them! We’ll axe them straight away, and suspend their blogs. We turned the feature on by default because it seemed like the vast majority of WP users would enjoy the discovery aspects and the additional traffic and links, thus far they have but we don’t want to force it on anybody which is why we made it an option and allowed you to turn it off if you wish.
Matt
April 29, 2008 at 6:40 am
Thanks for taking the time to reply Matt. It’s much appreciated.
I agree that the Possibly Related Links is a great feature to discover similar content on WP.com … I guess some of us were slightly taken by surprise by it being it being an opt-out, rather than an opt-in. (a difference of opinion)
There is a way to keep everyone happy… have 3 options:
1. Disable Possibly Related Links
2. Possibly Related Links from your own blog (local)
3. Possibly Related Links from WP.com (global)
Apart from that, keep up the good work on WordPress!
Lee Kelleher
April 29, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Between your option #2 and #3 there needs to be another option:
2A. Possibly Related Posts from your own blogroll – even if this feature was limited only to WP.com blogs on your own blogroll it would still spread the link-live around within WP.com
tigtog
April 29, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Or have the links assembled before you post so you can choose through a selection… sort of a “random selection generator” button on the “Write Post” page. Then we just click on the ones we feel comfortable with.
Gabriel...
April 29, 2008 at 3:22 pm
@tigtog: Can’t remember where I read it, but there was a mention of tying this in with the WP.com Blog/Friend Surfer. Then you could white-list the blogs that you’d like to appear in the Possibly Related Links.
Lee Kelleher
April 29, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Maybe not a button… maybe when we’ve selected the tags and categories we want for a post Sphere.com could then automatically generate a top ten list of both other blogs and our own which we could choose from Before we post. That allows us to find other people with similar interests, and keeps the control in the bloggers hands while giving us the option of not having any links at all…
Gabriel...
April 29, 2008 at 3:45 pm