A sudden, unannounced change
In between articles a line on my blog stats suddenly went from being halfway full to being full and red:
The free WordPress option used to come with 3GB for storage space.
Above is an image I found on a WordPress page that already seems to have been deleted while I was writing this. It shows what the limit used to be.
That has now been reduced to 500MB. At the moment, I can still upload new images, but I’m expecting that to stop soon.
There has been no announcement that I can see, but this is the new ‘free’ option. It has been drastically reduced. I also notice the 10,000 monthly views limit. I’m getting more than that, and so are many others I know.
At some point, something is going to happen, as in I won’t be able to upload new images, and people won’t be able to visit my site after a couple of weeks each month. I also notice these changes are propagating on the first of the month (April Fool’s!) so I’m going to assume it starts now.
I have to assume, since there has been no announcement and no contact.
What is likely to happen is that I will shut this blog down. If these new limits are real I won’t be continuing on the platform. If I move content to blogger and restart there I will post a (text only!) update and link, so at least the first 10,000 viewers each month will know what is happening.
3 April update
I asked a few times about what the 10,000 monthly limit is and what it applies to, and received this response via the WordPress forums:
At the moment I can’t tell you whether that will be based on pageviews or unique visitors – those details are still being worked out, along with the work on the add-ons that will allow you to increase this limit. Once those details are finalised they’ll be indicated either on the Pricing page, or on a dedicated support page.
I see you have a site that has steady traffic of over 10000 views a month, so I’d expect someone will also be in touch with you directly to discuss your options once we have those in place.
But I want to make it clear that this is a soft limit, and your site won’t be taken offline or blocked without warning because your views have gone over that limit.
So they have invented a limit but they haven’t yet decided what this invented limit is based on. Doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. I’ll keep everyone updated should I ever have someone from WordPress “be in touch” with me to discuss my “options”.
4 April update
They have made a common thread on the support forums for feedback on these changes. You may want to add your voice to the feedback thread.
5 April update
They have walked back some of the changes, mainly the view limits, but storage for free sites is still massively reduced and the cheaper paid plans are still gone. Here’s their article.
Scent of a Gamer 
I have been through the same pain.
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Did this change happen already for you? This literally happened during the day, from when I logged on this morning, to when I finished work and went to schedule an article for the week end (tray 8 is done!)
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I have a paid option but will be considering my options when this runs out. I have already had a look at blogger!
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Mine still says 3GB, I’m up to 92% of that though! So this could hurt!
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It may be a time zone thing; it’s 1 April for me already
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Interesting. Something to keep an eye on.
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Damn! I just checked my stats and how much storage space I’m using. The view limit won’t effect me thankfully (in one sense), but if I post regularly I may need to store smaller images in future, or move. That’s a mess for you and others I know.
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I am the kind of person who was looking at my previous 47% usage and thinking it was getting quite full. To have it suddenly shoot to 100% was a shock!
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My photos are not as good as most of you guys because I reduce them using “Irfan View’s ” batch conversion down to quite small file sizes which is a pain but helps with the size limitations.
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Afternoon here on the eastern time zone of the USA, April 1st, I still show 95% usage of the “free” 3GB. If they reduce that to 500MB, I’ll have to stop posting photos and that would be zero fun! As it is I’m thinking the time will come that I’ll have to pay WP for storage or just delete old posts and photos – sad
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As far as I can tell this is affecting all blogs but some people haven’t been updated yet
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I’ll keep check and see if it “updates” or should that be downgrades??
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Yes, there’s also a new ‘monthly visits’ limit of 10,000 and no word on what it means if your blog reaches or exceeds that number.
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Crap. Only got 500MB of storage and I can’t add any new photos, as I well on may way to 2GBs before this morning’s blog post. I’ve got 7 or 8 posts in various draft stages, but I can’t publish them without adding photos.
I’m torn. This blog was started with I got laid off back in 2014, it was all over the place, but it helped me through some difficult times, then it really took off when COVID hit and I found myself publishing more consistent and specific content, mostly tied around visuals of my miniature and scale modeling. I never purchased a plan, as I don’t ever want to monetize my blog, it’s simply a place to decompress and feel connected to a group of like-minded individuals.
Time to find some other way to blog, luckily all my photos are stored on my laptop, so I could go back a re-publish somewhere else.
I’ll be paying attention to see what you and out on the wide wide world internet.
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Your existing blog should have 3gb. Before they fixed my visuals I could see the real limit by changing to classic view. But then even on normal view I could still upload images even though I was at 100%
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It wasn’t allowing uploads, I’ll recheck in the morning
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Definitely check. Even when it was telling me I was at 100% I could still upload more images.
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Yup, it’s back to 3GB, and I can upload again, but I’ll be up against that hard data limit so. Time to look and see if the .org platform is worth the cost!
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Yes when the choices are either $0 or $20 it brings a lot of other options into play
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I just blogged about this, too. The Support forum reps say that this cap only effects new free blogs, and that the 500MB display is a bug for existing blogs. You should still be able to upload new media even if the display says you can’t (I’ve tested this).
However, when the Support reps say this, they also add words such as “presently” and “at the moment” – which really worries me. For now, this doesn’t change anything for free blogs, but does that mean they’ll grandfather the old blogs in forever? We don’t know. They haven’t announced anything and I’m watching for it as a person with both paid plans and free blogs.
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The fact that they did this without notice is not a good sign to me.
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I did just find this – https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/media-library-is-full-2/
Looks like you’tre grandfathered in under the old free plan. They’re making WordPress more accessable to everyone, by severely removing what free plans can do while lowering the price of the business plan (which is still WAY more than I’d be willing to pay for my own site).
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It does seem like they’ve shelved the US$48/year Personal plan and are forcing either the gutted free option or the very expensive US$240/yr “Pro” option. Which is more than I’m willing to pay to put photos of my toy soliders up on the web.
My current plan expires in early July, so I guess I have to get started now.
A new/clean Google account will be needed in order to get the 15gb of stortage if I go Blogspot/Blogger, so I’ll also need to be changing accounts constantly. That will be fun…
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My mistake – those prices were in AU$ – so that means I would go from US$48 to AU$240. Ha. No.
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Yikes!
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I was looking over Blogger templates yesterday and some of them look usable for me. I just couldn’t see anything about what the storage limit is for free plans
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I believe it’s tied to your overall google storage. I set up a new gmail account before starting a blogspot/blogger blog to get a fresh 15gb. One of WP’s people responded to my …pointed comments to them and said that people with an existing paid plan woul dbe able to resub at the same rate, so since mine will be up fairly soon, I may resub for a year to give me more time to transition across…
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That probably works for me too, since I have bene thinking for a while now it might be useful to have an email just associated with the blog. This would probably make transferring easier for me. I wonder what WordPress will look like in 12-18 months after this change.
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On that very thing, I asked them if they were aware of what Photobucket did to itself…
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Yes, this really does have the feel of self-destruction about it
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I’ve got a post going up in about 6hrs talking about this. At the end there are 2 links that can help you expand your storage space here on WP as a temporary solution.
I’m also keeping an eye on your post on the forum about visit limits. I wonder how they’ll pedal that as a positive.
But yeah, this was the absolute worst thing WP could have done. I have a bad feeling that they will do something even more egregious later this year and as such I’m starting to prep mentally to go elsewhere. I am really bummed out too 😦
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I look forward to seeing your post, and yes I am looking at the language they are using on the WP forums, and seeing a lot of ‘at present this doesn’t apply’ type responses. Clearly the new limits will apply to existing blogs at some point and I expect to receive about the same level of notice.
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I expect that WP is going to lose a lot of new people with this change and a LOT of people who were on the personal and premium plans.
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Agreed. Two days ago moving of the platform would never have occurred to me, but I spent some time yesterday looking at blogger templates and will spend some more time today saving my images onto a USB for a potential future move.
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Weebly has the same limitations as the new wp, so forget about them. Wix is pretty much the same and self-hosting isn’t free. Blogspot is free but there is pretty much no way to socially interact through blogspot and given googles track record with apps, it could be shut down at any time.
A quandary….
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I’ve got all of my images archived on my PC. I’ll likely leave my WP blog up as a legacy since I feel they’re unlikely to delete it (since storage is cheap, and they do want people to come back – same as Photobucket). I guess if I want to finish migrating my PB-hosted pics/posts to WP, I better do it soon! 😀
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I’m not sure what I would do. Deleting most of my content and then using the blog to just point to wherever my new content is until people stop visiting has its appeal.
The other option would be to put up one final farewell post and link, and then move on.
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Just saw WP’s response to you. What a bunch of condescending jerks.
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Did they delete it? I went to look but can’t see it any more
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I found it! “We’re working on options” – like the options they literally just removed?
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Exactly. And if they’re working on other “options”, why did they release this 2 tier only plan fiasco? I am not sure if WP is being malicious with this rollout, or completely greedy incompetents.
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They could be both!
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Personally, I do think it is both 😦
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Good grief! I genuinely thought this was an April Fools at first when I started to hear about this yesterday. Like you I’m very curious to see what will happen when views go over 10,000 in a month. And by curious I mean, pissed off.
The whole thing sounds like absolute madness to me. The cost of living has gone through the roof the world over and here in the UK yesterday saw a massive hike in domestic energy prices which is going to be crippling for a lot of households, so the timing couldn’t be worse. Add that to the rising cost of food (thanks war in Ukraine!), the eye-watering cost of fuel and the fact that most small businesses have either gone under already or are on the brink of insolvency (thanks lockdowns!) and this feels deliberately insulting.
Ultimately if this means I can no longer blog (and I think for the moment I can work around it, but how long that remains the case we’ll have to see) then that’ll be sad but not the end of the world. For me it would mean the end of active participation on the internet and at this point I don’t really think that’s a bad thing. I’ve already closed all my social media, such as they were, and I don’t have the time or energy, nor can I be arsed, to set up again on some other blogging platform and build everything all over again, just to have some wokester tech-nerd pull the rug out from under me on a whim all over again. Small business owners will be absolutely raging though. Just another example of greedy, cosseted, silicon-valley rich-kids being utterly divorced from reality.
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I would hate to see you go, I’ve always enjoyed your updates, and your great project titles!
I will probably do a follow up article once I have had the opportunity to investigate other options and consider their strengths and weaknesses compared to staying here.
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Thank you – that’s genuinely very appreciated! Well I’m not planning on going anywhere just yet, but how much longer I stick around depends very much on how WordPress behaves from here on. If they start punishing me for using their platform then why would I stay, especially as interaction with the community on here is one of the biggest attractions – and if everyone else is driven out as well then what’s the point? I’m not going to fight WordPress just to be allowed to talk to myself on the internet when I can do that in my own home whenever I feel like it.
With my tinfoil hat firmly on this seems like something designed to stamp out smaller independent voices and small businesses. This is something we’ve seen a lot of over the last few years and it troubles me deeply; and their removal creates ever greater reliance on big-tech and other large corporate bodies as our source for news, ideas and purchases. Alternative options and opinions are vigorously pruned away and what we’re left with is an extremely top-heavy system, not so much an “ecosystem of ideas” as a heavily censored monoculture, with all the inevitable problems that entails.
That said it’s actually very heartening to see how many people are upset about this. A friend suggested to me recently that for many people the internet has now become a source of discomfort rather than pleasure, and just as people will congregate around something that gives them pleasure they will retreat from anything that causes them pain. More and more people seem to be associating the internet in their minds with aggression, censorship, threats of violence, legal action or “cancellation” and an invasion of privacy. A few years ago almost everyone I knew was on social media of some kind, now hardly anyone is. I’m not going to try to predict what the internet will look like a few years from now but it feels very much like the good days are over. The silver lining is that people’s desire for unfiltered, honest conversation remains strong and there’s plenty of healthy anger and disgust directed at those corporations who seek to take that away from us.
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Certainly if I move platforms (currently looking probable) I will link to my new home, but you’re right I am going to miss the connections I have made with other bloggers over the years here.
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Reblogged this on beetleypete and commented:
Another blogger’s view of the new WordPress plans. Keep yourselves informed about what’s happening. I for one had no idea!
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I don’t think this is real – I just checked my free blog limit and it’s 3 GB. Hope you worked it out!
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Its’ real. You can check the WordPress plans which have been changed. https://wordpress.com/pricing/
What is happening at present is that existing blogs are keeping their 3GB limit. Please note the term ‘at present’ is theirs, not mine.
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Go here and read the thread:
https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/media-library-is-full-2/
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Wow, I noticed that I was suddenly up to 67% full yesterday and was pretty worried about it because it felt like things had ballooned very quickly. I’m back down to 11% with 3 GB of storage today and feeling much better. I’m confused about what’s going on but I hope they’ll allow us regular users to enjoy the platform in the way we have been for years.
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The restoration of 3GB for existing users may be temporary, it’s not clear. Given the way this change was made, I’m not hopeful of receiving advance notice of the rest of us being reduced to 0.5GB, I think it will just happen.
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I see what you mean and it is shame that there is so much confusion and shady dealings going on. I really hope they get this sorted out so we can continue to use this product that we enjoy.
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Reblogged this on Azazel's Bitz Box. and commented:
I’ll have some model-related content (probably) later today, but this is important news for our community.
If you wish to comment, pleade do join in over at Dave’s Blog, where this article originated. There’s more updated into in the comments there as well.
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Sorry to hear this Dave, and hope you find a suitable solution to continue blogging
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I’m going to spend some time over the next week looking around, and I will keep everyone else informed too!
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Checked this morning and my storage is back at 3GB. Thumbs up to those of you who have commented on WP forums. Disappointing that even they don’t know about the page view limit. I have a smaller footprint than many of you, but I’ll be re-blooging this too.
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Reblogged this on Dragons of Lancasm and commented:
I’m only a small blog compared to many of those I follow, but this is important to be aware of:
A fair number of WP bloggers noticed their media storage space suddenly become full yesterday… with no warning… and no announcement from WP. They seem to be in the process of restricting plan options, and increasing prices.
Take a look at Dave’s Blog, where this article originated. Read the comments too. (There’s links to WP forum and their responses and attempts at answering questions raised.)
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Found this from https://webbblogscom.wordpress.com/2022/04/02/a-sudden-unannounced-change/, who had reblogged it from another ( https://beetleypete.com/2022/04/02/a-sudden-unannounced-change/ ) — oy vey. thank you & the others blogging about this utter crock of shit. I’ve been on the personal plan for years, and while I’m a sporadic blogger at best, I love my little corner of the internet. I’ll be keeping an eye on what happens next.
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It’s definitely a concern, and I will update here or link to a follow-up article if things develop further.
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Dave, I also have a commercial website for my business and I intend to explore with my web hosting company the options of including a blog as well. The website is just a pointer to my email address and phone number anyway, so does not use much storage at all.
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Thanks for all of this work Dave. I believe a large number of us will just move of the WP system with you. I think we should all continue to agitate. The other option I am discussing with a friend in the IT games industry is the potential for setting up our own co-operative as it is reasonably cheap to by a large amount of storage space. May be an option maybe not, but at this stage it IS worth looking outside the WP square!
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Strangely I’m on blogger and was setting up to migrate. Blogger has definitely crappified over the last 2 years. The editor is pretty rough.
WP has integration for instagram and blogger doesn’t. One of the things I was thinking about doing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a case of loss of competition allowing for the jacking up of rates. Google seems intent on worsening the blog experience until people leave. Maybe they will pull a G+ move and announce the closing of the service at some point.
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Perhaps the era of free blogs is ending. I was hoping Blogger with a new email account might be my solution, but I will post a few test articles before making a decision.
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Wha, this is real? I was reading this on Friday and thought that it was for sure April Fool’s.. Well that sucks.
This won’t affect my blog for the foreseeable future, as I’m nowhere near the limit (3gb/500mb) nor the monthly view cap yet, but let’s hope WP can come up with a reasonable rate before I hit one of those.
Can’t say I’m too surprised by this change, just didn’t expect it to come so soon after I started my blog. Even so, I feel for anyone who has a blog with a decade’s worth of content and readers!
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Yes, after 9 years I was under 50% of the old limit, however an updated limit of one-sixth as much is not going to be viable for many bloggers, not just those in the miniatures space.
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Reblogged this on NEW BLOG HERE >> https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
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I’m so sorry. I also feel like I am going to get this message very soon😂😂😂
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They have removed the view limit for now according to a more recent update, which is good
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Phew! I was to go back to free plan hehe
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