Hi there, WordPress subscribers!

Have you looked at you WordPress Reader lately?

It’s been reformatted once again!  The WordPress Reader is now using combined cards and it’s probably going to kill a lot of your favorite sites.  I just thought everyone might want a little advanced warning.

See, here’s how combined cards work.  Let’s say that there’s a wordpress site — like this one — that publishes multiple different posts during the day.  In the past, each post would appear separately in your reader, as a “card.”  However, someone apparently thought that prolific writers — like me for instance — were posting so much that the WordPress Reader was getting crowded.

So, now, we have combined cards!  Instead of getting a card that reads, “TV Review: Twin Peaks On Through The Shattered Lens,” followed by another card that reads, “Why Lisa Is Currently Furious,” you’ll get a card that reads, “Two new posts on Through The Shattered Lens.”  If you want to just casually click on the like button or get a quick preview of the images used in those posts, you’ll no longer be able to do that.  Not with combined cards.  Instead, you’ll have to click on the combined card and then click on one of the posts listed.

Does that help to “clean up” the reader?  I have no idea.   I really didn’t know that there was apparently a “cluttered reader” crisis going on.

What I do know is that this new format only serves to reward writers who only post, at most, once a day.  Meanwhile, people like me and sites like this, will be punished for having a lot to say.  With this combined card nonsense, WordPress has pretty much destroyed the benefits that many sites got from people casually browsing their reader.

And who is going to suffer?

Only the most active and prolific writers.  I’ve already heard from many other WordPress users that, since the introduction of combined cards, both their views and their likes are way down.

I mean, what the Hell?  HOW IS THIS A GOOD THING!?  In the end, the only thing this reformat is going to do is unfairly deprive sites of hundreds of potential views, likes, and comments.  Why punish those of us who are actually willing to put in the effort to make our sites worth visiting!?  And, perhaps even more importantly, why do this without giving us any say or advanced warning?

No.  I am not happy about this at all.