WordPress

Blog status update (April 2026): Blocking AI bots from WordPress

In this month’s blog status update post, I’m making yet another attempt to thwart AI bots from messing with my site.

Yet again, I’ve switched the blog away from WordPress to another content management system. I’m giving ClassicPress yet another go.

Matt Mullenweg playing hardball with WordPress host WP Engine makes me wonder about the future of WordPress as a platform.

I list a possible way (for now) of blocking artificial intelligence (AI) crawlers from your site, by updating your site’s robots.txt file.

With Automattic planning to sell user data to AI companies, I take a look at alternatives to WordPress.com and Tumblr.

A look at my favorite free and open source software, from Bitwarden (a password manager) to the Firefox web browser.

A list of my recommended WordPress plugins, from catch-all ones such as Jetpack to UpdraftPlus for site backups.

In this month’s blog status update, I give reasons why I’ve switched the site back from ClassicPress to WordPress (again).

A basic checklist of things to take care of before a blog launch, from search engine optimization (SEO) to checking for typos.

A collection of tips on starting and running a blog, including choosing a domain name, coming up with topics, and dealing with spam.