follow non-wp.com jetpack site on wp.com?

That plugin should indeed still work. Another alternative would be to create a Follow button here:
https://developer.wordpress.com/docs/follow-button-creation/

Additionally, WordPress.com users can always add your site to their Reader here:
https://wordpress.com/following/edit

Thanks, Jeremy!…some good ideas there.

I actually can’t figure out, however, how to add a site to the Reader via

https://wordpress.com/following/edit

without following it in the usual way (i.e., going to a WP.com site and clicking the Follow link). Maybe that’s why the prompt says “Search your followed sites”?

Jim P.

Oops, the WP.com follow button creation routine isn’t working either; when I enter my Jetpack enabled site it says:

“Please check you’ve entered the address of a WordPress.com or Jetpack-powered site and try again.”

Would appreciate help diagnosing, as this could be really helpful to my students on this multisite.

Jim P.

I actually can’t figure out, however, how to add a site to the Reader via

https://wordpress.com/following/edit

Try clicking on the blue “Follow Site” button at the top of the page.

Oops, the WP.com follow button creation routine isn’t working either

Could you make sure you’ve completed the 3 first steps here, and then try to disconnect and reconnect Jetpack to WordPress.com in your dashboard?

That should help.

Jeremy, many thanks. Re. “Follow Site” button, um, that was easy!…sorry about that.

Re. the Follow button creation routine, I wonder if you could pull @kraftbj into this conversation, as he knows our Jetpack configuration: basically we are running SSL on a WPEngine multisite, and I’m not sure we can do those wp-config.php edits (forcing admin over SSL and setting port to 443) without something else on our Jetpack configuration going haywire. If it sounds workable for our situation, then I can go ahead and do that.

Regards,

Jim

we are running SSL on a WPEngine multisite

Alright then! Try adding the following to your wp-config.php file instead:

define( 'JETPACK_SIGNATURE__HTTPS_PORT', 80 );

Let me know how it goes.

Alas, that trick is already in our wp-config.php, thanks to @kraftbj.

Happy to take next steps as recommended, and thanks.

Jim P.

Could you make sure you’ve enabled to JSON API module, and let me know if it helps?

Aha, I believe that did it! I didn’t have that module activated to date.

I’ll confirm and send in a final note here, then we can close the thread.

Jim

Yes, it apparently works. Yet to be clear, both the Follow plugin and WP.com Follow script enable *subscription* (i.e., email notification of new posts) and not *WP.com Follow* (i.e., inclusion in WP.com Reader view), correct? The latter is the functionality of the Follow link on WP.com sites, is it not? (Possibly also email subscriptions, if configured accordingly on WP.com.)

Regards,

Jim P.

The Follow button uses WordPress.com’ follow function. It can only be used if you’re logged in to a WordPress.com account, and once you subscribe to a site new posts will indeed appear in the Reader.

The Follow plugin offers the same features as Jetpack’s built-in Subscription Widget. It’s only displayed differently. To subscribe, readers will need to enter their email address, and won’t need to be logged in to WordPress.com or even have a WordPress.com account.
However, if you enter an email address linked to a WordPress.com account, you’ll be able to receive new posts in your mailbox as well as in the Reader.

The best way to understand how it works is to run some tests! ??

Jeremy, this is all very helpful; thanks so much. We can close this thread now, and I’ll communicate the above to my students.

Jim P.