My Reader Profile
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Today I happened on my updated Reader Profile and noted some changes since I asked about it last year.
Under the Sites tab in my Reader Profile are sites where I am only an Administrator (no posts published under my username) and, inexplicably, my Business plan’s Staging site as well.
To double check if these sites are also visible to others on my Reader profile, I logged into my test account and those sites do appear under Sites at justjennifer. (temp screenshot)
I understand that this new version might be a work-in-progress, but would like to understand the criteria and how one can remove such sites from appearing there.
TIA
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Hi @justjennifer – thanks for reporting this.
The Sites tab on the Reader Profile was built on this PR, may be designed to show all sites where you have a role, rather than only sites where you’ve published posts.
That said, I’m checking with our teams to confirm whether the current behavior (including staging sites and admin-only sites appearing publicly) is intentional. I’ll follow up here once I have more details.
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Thank you. I’d like to understand the rationale for including them. To me it makes no sense to include a staging site on that page.
I’ve also noticed that in the Reader, the username link in my comments leads to my Reader profile rather than the site I designated in my public web address in My Profile. So if the Reader link is going to become the default when following conversations, it would be appreciated that we have some control over what is included there.
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Hi there,
Thank you for the follow-up, and those are both very fair points.
Regarding the staging site and admin-only sites appearing under the Sites tab, that shouldn’t be happening. This has been identified as a bug, and a fix is in the works to filter out staging sites and sites where you only hold an administrative role without published content. There’s no timeline I can share just yet, but it’s actively being looked into.
As for the comment icon linking to your Reader profile rather than the site you’ve set as your public web address in My Profile, the Reader profile is a relatively new addition and is still evolving, so feedback like yours is genuinely valuable in shaping how it develops.
On that note, I’d love to hear more about what kind of control you’d envision for your Reader profile. For example:
- Would you prefer the ability to choose which sites appear under the Sites tab?
- Would you rather have the option to hide the Sites tab entirely?
- Regarding the comment icon linking, would you want to be able to choose whether it directs visitors to your Reader profile or to your designated public web address?
- Or is there another approach that would feel more intuitive to you?
Any details you can share would be really helpful. I’d like to make sure your feedback is captured as specifically as possible so it can be considered as this feature continues to take shape.
Thank you for taking the time to flag all of this.
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Hello again,
This has been identified as a bug, and a fix is in the works to filter out staging sites and sites where you only hold an administrative role without published content.
Thank you for the update. It did seem rather curious to include them.
You asked:
I’d love to hear more about what kind of control you’d envision for your Reader profile.
- Would you prefer the ability to choose which sites appear under the Sites tab? YES
- Would you rather have the option to hide the Sites tab entirely? YES, if it is not possible to choose which sites appear there.
- Regarding the comment icon linking, would you want to be able to choose whether it directs visitors to your Reader profile or to your designated public web address? YES (see below)
- Or is there another approach that would feel more intuitive to you? If there are other possibilities, they are not obvious to me presently. Not enough head room at the moment.
Thank you for asking.
As to the current behavior of the link that appears in my username in comments in the Reader, it’s not consistent. I’ve found it linking to my public web address (the site listed in my profile), my Gravatar profile or my Reader profile. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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Thank you for getting back to me so quickly.
I see what you mean. The team is actively working on adjusting the behavior when clicking the username link, and I have added your feedback to the report. Hopefully, this will be adjusted soon.Should you have any specific feedback about what you would like this to look like, feel free to share it. Now is the best time to do so, and we’ll make sure to share it with the team.
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If I remember correctly, and of course this doesn’t mean that it will continue to behave this way, y’all mention in the Support Guide to “Manage My Profile” that the public web address is the one linked when making a comment.
Public web address: You can add a link to include with your profile when you leave comments on WordPress.com sites. This can be your website or blog that you want people to discover.
I’m only one person, though. :) Someone else may have a different preference.
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Jen asked whether I would check my experience and comment here.
I am not sure whether I have got the picture fully, but when I look at my profile in another browser (so I am not signed in) I see a list of my sites under ‘Sites’ with my principal site (meaning the one I put most effort into) at the top. That’s where I want it to be – at the top.
But why is it at the top? Is it because it is the oldest? Is it because I link to it in my Gravatar?
When I leave a comment and click on my name, it links to my principal site.
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Hi there, @justjennifer and @artphotowall — thanks for the continued feedback on this!
justjennifer – You’re right that the Manage My Profile guide does describe the public web address as the link included with your comments. The inconsistency you’re seeing (sometimes linking to your Reader profile, sometimes your Gravatar, sometimes your public web address) has been reported to the development team along with the rest of your feedback. They’re aware of it and are working on making the behavior more consistent.
Your preferences around having control over which sites appear (or hiding the Sites tab entirely) and choosing where your comment link directs visitors have all been passed along as well. There’s no timeline to share just yet for those, but your input is genuinely helpful in shaping how this feature develops.
artphotowall – Great question! The site that appears at the top of the Sites tab is your primary site — the one set as your default on your WordPress.com account. So that’s why your principal site shows up first. It also appears prominently in your profile header. It’s not based on age or your Gravatar link specifically, though those may happen to overlap in your case.
On the fixes already in progress: the team is actively working on filtering out staging sites and sites where you only hold an administrative role without published content. Those changes are in review now, so that part should improve soon.
In the meantime, as a workaround, any site set to Private or with “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” enabled under Settings → Reading → Site Visibility will not appear on the Sites tab. That could be a quick option for any sites you’d rather not display publicly while the broader fixes roll out.
Thanks again for taking the time to share your experience – it really does make a difference!
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Hello again, Thanks for the updates.
Just coming back to let you know that while my Reader Profile no longer includes sites where I’m an Admin only (not an active poster on the site), my Staging site still appears in the list of sites as well as a newly visible test site whose privacy is currently set to “Discourage Search Engines”.
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Updating that my Staging site is no longer visible. TY
Test site with “Discourage Search Engines” however is still visible.
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Hey @justjennifer! Thank you, as always, for the updates! I’ll pass this on to the team and get it checked out.
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