In a move almost surgically designed to piss me off, Automattic[sic] sent me junk mail "Claim your Ultimate Traffic Guide". Which after you click thru, tells you "Save $100! Only $17!" for a pamphlet of SEO marketing poison.
Every single thing in there is evil. Sending junk mail to my service addresses for blogs; I've gone thru and maybe got all their "send me spam" switches turned off again, but they'll just add more "send me NuSpam®" switches in 6 months.
The click-thru validates that they reached your account; which they already had that information in web bugs for most people (me included since I was on mobile, where I'm less secure).
Charging whatever you want for a book is fine. Claiming it had some SUPER value of +$100 as a discount is straight out of late-nite infomercials of the '90s. "Offer not available in stores! It chops, dices, it makes julienne spam!"
And we all know what's in that crap, immoral activities like paying Google and Facebook for ads. If you give Google money, you are financing Judgement Day. If you give Facebook money, you are financing American Nazis.
Scumbags can't even honestly label their spam and scam.
Anyway, just a heads up.
(I am aware there's other blog engines. Some are even not written in PHP, which is an automated virus loader. Some don't have a shitty company backing them. And yet, that choice is already made, and at least it's on my least favorite free license so I could cut the cord entirely. But I'll make sure Automattic[sic] gets no money from me.)
@Cheri @mdhughes I still haven't updated my sites to the block stuff. One day I'll have to decide whether to update or switch. I'd prefer a static site, but haven't looked into options. I'd need one that works with MarsEdit and supports image-heavy posts. (I'm also trying to resist the temptation to write my own.)
@mdhughes I’m migrating off WP this weekend. I was already cheesed about the block editor, and their recent iOS update refused me access to my site until I handed over my “interests” to them.
I’ll be flipping dual-birds as I walk away. ?
@mdhughes I got the same email, and passed on it for pretty much the same reasons as you. I have no problem with WordPress the CMS, but WordPress the service annoys the heck out of me.