One of the first thing you should know is that when you subscribe to this blog (and I hope you do), a WordPress.com account will be created for you. The creation of this account is a byproduct of the software being used for this blog and cannot be altered. Creating a WordPress account when subscribing to a WordPress.com blog is required for security to prevent spam and ensure a shared security environment, and allows you to manage your subscription from a single place and receive updates from the blogs you follow.

A WordPress account is needed to prevent malicious actors from posting harmful content that could affect the entire platform. Requiring an account helps to ensure that comments and posts come from authenticated users, reducing spam and other abuse.  The account allows you to manage your subscriptions and the content you receive.

There are many things you can do via your WordPress account but for the purpose of this blog, you only need to concern yourself primarily with the options outlined before.

The WordPress account allows you to change your username, email address and your display name. When your WordPress account is created, an auto-generated username is created for you in the background; you will most likely want to change that username to a more meaningful and easier to remember name. You can also specify a display name which will show on posts and comments made by you on this blog. It is common to use your first name plus the first initial (capitalized) as a user name. For example, if your name is John Smith, you may consider using JohnS as your username providing that no one else has taken that username.

Your username is the identifier you use to log into your WordPress account. It displays publicly with your posts and comments if you have not entered a public display name. For help with changing your username or public display name, visit the FAQs in the Navigation Menu.

Each WordPress.com account must have a unique email address. The email address registered with your WordPress account is your unique identifier to verify ownership of your account and can be change via the Account Settings in your WordPress account. For help with changing your email address, visit the FAQs in the Navigation Menu.

For posts and comments to this blog, the available email notification frequencies are instantly, daily, every week, or never. These settings can be adjusted in your Notification settings under the Subscription settings tab in your WordPress account. The frequencies are:

• Instantly: Receive an email immediately after a new post is published.
• Daily: Receive a single email per day with a roundup of all new posts.
• Every week: Receive a single email per week with a roundup of all new posts.
• Never: Stop receiving email updates from that blog.

It is recommended that you keep the Instantly option (which is the default setting) so that you are informed right away of any new post that is published. However, the choice is yours. For help with changing your subscription settings, visit the FAQs in the Navigation Menu.

If you permanently delete your WordPress.com account, you cannot immediately use the same email for a new account; there’s a 30-day waiting period, during which the email is locked to prevent misuse, but after that period, you should be able to sign up again with that email. The old username, however, becomes permanently unavailable.

You generally cannot reuse the exact same username on WordPress.com after permanently deleting an account, as usernames are reserved forever to prevent impersonation, even after deletion. If you changed your username and then deleted the original account, that original username is also gone permanently. The deletion process purges data after 30 days, but the username itself is never released for reuse.

Note: This page is subject to modifications to make it easier to understand and to include additional and important information. 

If you have not done so already, please read the About page in the Navigation Menu (before you subscribe) or click here.