Possibly Related Posts?

Posted on April 27, 2008 by Frankie

I just logged into my site this afternoon and was surprised to see a listing at the bottom on my posts of “possibly related posts”. I did not put them there nor authorize them. I do not endorse any of these links. However the way they are attached at the bottom of the post implies that I do. Ugh! After searching the help, I found out this is a new feature by WordPress. Unfortunatly the default for “possibly related posts” is to show them. You have to edit a setting to switch them off. They don’t show up on the main page but only on the page if you directly click on the page or after you click to read comments.

There is no way to edit which “possibly related posts” you want on your blog but is all or none instead. I thought this is what categories and tags were for. If someone was interested in related posts, they clicked a topic tag. You got to choose what tags. Then your reader chose which tag and sites listed on the tag to visit. If you really liked a post you could link to it yourself in your post and the reader knows YOU are the one who chose to link to the site. You don’t have this control with “Possibly Related Posts”. If its irrelevant or personally offensive, they still show up by default unless you turn off this feature. Also, you don’t know the content of the pages where your posts may show up as “Possibly Related Posts”.

Here’s how to turn it off “possibly related posts”:

1. Go to your dashboard

2. Design then Extras

3. Check “Hide related links on this blog…”

4. Click “Update Extras”

This should get rid of them. It also keeps your blog posts from invading others as a “related post”, which may or may not be a good thing.

I am posting this with lots of different tags and in all my categories so others who encounter “Possibly Related Posts” on their WordPress blogs and don’t like them can know how to turn them off. I originally turned them off. Now I’m turning it back on and just adopting a “wait and see”. So far it’s noting really bad or unrelated. Time will tell!

4/30/08 Update:

I found a World of Warcraft link on my curriculum fair post. I won’t condone Warcraft (either directly or implicitly). Since we can’t edit which posts truly are related, I am now turning this feature off. The (supposedly) extra traffic isn’t worth compromising my beliefs.

Filed under: 1st grade thoughts, around the home, Church, curriculum, family, garden, good ideas, issues, random thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

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9 Responses

  1. jt, on April 30, 2008 at 7:00 pm said:

    Thanks for taking time to explain this (sort of annoying) default. I just discovered the same feature and was disheartened to see a link I didn’t care for front and center as referral. (There was a message that explained the link was “automatically generated” … still, I’m just not crazy about associations I didn’t create. Especially since the one I didn’t care for had no relation – in the end – to what I’d been blogging about.

    All to say, I did appreciate your instructions on turning this feature off; thanks … jt

  2. akhomeschoolfun, on April 30, 2008 at 7:47 pm said:

    jt,
    Thanks for visiting my site. I’m glad you found it useful.

  3. Xaliber von Reginhild, on May 12, 2008 at 3:39 am said:

    Too bad this feature seems do not apply to all themes. đŸ˜›

  4. Jennifer, on June 18, 2008 at 12:18 pm said:

    Just happened upon your site today. I live in AK too, near Anchorage. Thanks for the tip about this “feature” I didn’t really look at it closely yet as I just noticed it the other day. But I think I’ll probably turn it off now.

  5. akhomeschoolfun, on June 18, 2008 at 2:01 pm said:

    Jennifer,
    In theory it is a good feature, but not in reality. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Always glad to hear from a fellow Alaskan!

  6. npiner, on October 13, 2009 at 9:38 am said:

    Thanks for explaining how to do this! As a teacher I do not want my students exposed to these unwanted and potentially inappropriate “related posts”.

  7. akhomeschoolfun, on October 13, 2009 at 11:27 am said:

    Nancy,
    You’re welcome. Thanks for visiting my site.

  8. ibrahimandamna, on October 13, 2010 at 7:33 am said:

    I have not been able to remove the possibly related post feature. Is there any other means to do this, other than what you specify above? I have no ‘extras’ tab ie your instruction ‘design then extras’ does not work. Please advise. Thank you.

  9. akhomeschoolfun, on October 13, 2010 at 11:50 am said:

    I don’t know any other way. This is what WP told me when they first began doing them. Contact WP’s technical support to find out why you don’t have an “extras” tab. Perhaps they re-did the layout (again).

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