How to Get Free WordPress.Com Account (for Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari… Users)
WordPress.Com is a commercial venture from the authors of popular weblogging software - WordPress.
They provide free weblog to selected individuals based on God-knows-what criteria. On their website they ask you for some mysterious invitation code to be a wordpress.com blogger.
Recently however they opened up, possibly due to some marketing arrangement, and provides free Weblog account to Flock users.
Note: Flock is a new browser based on Mozilla code. More on it later.
So if you are a non-Flock browser user (like FireFox or Internet Explorer or Safari) then you can either download and install Flock for the sole purpose of getting an account or follow the steps below to get an account.
There is yet another option. You can share your email with them and hope sometime in next 100 years you will get an invite. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. As I experienced they never arrive.
Simplified Instructions for Flock Users
In Flock if you open the page - http://wordpress.com/flock/ then you will be provided an option to choose an username and blog title for your new blog account. The password is sent to the email address you provide.
Instructions for Firefox Users
First download and install User Agent Switcher Extension. The XPI file here.
Restart your browser.
Go to Tools->User Agent Switcher->Options->Options menu.
Click User Agents and then click Add.
In the description field enter: Flock
In the User Agent field enter: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8b5) Gecko/20051021 Flock/0.4 Firefox/1.0+
Ensure that the user string specified is entered as-it-is without any modifications.
Then select Flock after accessing Tools->User Agent Switcher
Now load http://wordpress.com/flock/
Fill in the details as specified in the simplified instructions for Flock users above.
Instructions for non-Firefox & non-Flock Users
Use any extension / proxy server / web client like wget that allows you to change your user agent. Change it to the string as specified above.
Now load http://wordpress.com/flock/
Fill in the details as specified in the simplified instructions for Flock users above.
Note: I have grown tired of these user agent based preferential treatment as is widely practiced by Microsoft and now by WordPress.com. I am providing this information for the sole purpose of exposing the futility of such schemes. Personally I haven't opened an account with WordPress.com.
BTW: Google does it too to limit access to several of its services to browsers only. My WordPress translator plugin overcomes one such restriction in Google Translation service using cURL.
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October 24th, 2005 at 1:09 am
[...] Bryan briefly discusses OpenOffice.org v2.0 and the problem that is preventing its adoption by the masses. Owen would like to know, “What plugin would you most like to see upgraded or enhanced for the [WordPress] v1.6 release?” Bonnie has an interesting political debate on the recent Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers. Michael ruminates on Quake IV and a recent increase in redundancy amongst science fiction games. Brian briefly reviews Google Reader and recommends a classy alternative. Khaled reviews Serenity (beware of spoilers). Sarah updates her bio and resumé. Angsuman discovers a simple method which will allow anyone to sign up for a free wordpress.com blog. Mark learns that milk can slow the rate at which the body absorbs an ingested poison. And, Tom reviews Flock. [...]
October 24th, 2005 at 9:41 am
[...] Angsuman explains how to get a free WordPress.com account without having to install Flock (or getting an invite). For Firefox users, it’s a matter of installing the User Agent Switcher Extension, pasting a User String, then selecting it as your User Agent as you browse to the WordPress.com Flock URL. Nifty! [...]
October 24th, 2005 at 2:01 pm
Interesting post.
Will disagree with this however, as I got my WordPress.com account only because of entering my email there. And I entered another email by mistake and got an invite there as well, which I gave a friend.
So basically, this works
October 24th, 2005 at 7:43 pm
So maybe they have some mystical criteria to which I didn’t fit
October 26th, 2005 at 12:26 am
[...] Dan ini ada sedikit tambahan, cara mendapatkan free account di wordpress.com dengan firefox browser, internet explorer, Opera dan Safari. [...]
October 26th, 2005 at 12:32 am
nice trick, this works
October 27th, 2005 at 2:45 am
[...] Thanks to a fellow “netizen” Edrie who alerted me that I do not have to be “enslaved” by Flock now I am free and am posting this using Firefox.Here’s some Help if you need it. [...]
October 27th, 2005 at 10:59 am
wordpress.com is only take a keyword “Flock” from user agent header. See my instruction here. You don’t have to install user agent switcher extensions. You can find that configuration by typing about:config on adress bar and change it.
October 28th, 2005 at 12:27 pm
Kostenfreies Wordpress.com - Weblog ohne Einladung
Blogger müssen nicht unbedingt auf eine Einladung warten. Mit etwas Fleiß und einem kleinen Umweg kommt jeder bereits heute dank Flock an sein Weblog bei Wordpress.com. Bereit vor einige Zeit hatte ich hier über Wordpress.com geschrieb…
October 29th, 2005 at 4:20 am
[...] [...]
October 31st, 2005 at 10:11 pm
Hopefully at least a few of your readers will be intrigued by your mention of Flock and actually try the browser out.
It integrates pretty nicely with wordpress blogs and provides some drag/drop functionality that, for me, at least, makes blogging a lot less painful. Of course, wordpress.com has some of this built in, and I hear there are already wordpress plugins (for non-wordpress.com wordpress users) that emulate some of our functionality. In any case, we appreciate the mention.
November 1st, 2005 at 1:07 am
I am happy to mention Flock (see I have done it again). In fact I have been using it for couple of weeks along with Firefox.
I will post a review soon comparing Firefox with Flock, the new sibling.
November 2nd, 2005 at 8:39 pm
[...] I just wanted to see whether cheating my way to an invite would work. [...]
November 8th, 2005 at 9:22 pm
hi angsuman,
thank you. i got an account and I did install flock. So far, using it like a FireFox clone except I have chosen to continue with the default search engine — yahoo. Yahoo search seems to have improved quite a bit.
(hopefully soon, there will be a Yahoo Search Hacks from OReilly!)
November 21st, 2005 at 12:23 pm
[...] WordPress.com has finally opened for free signup by everyone. You no longer have to be a privileged invitee or a Flock user or use my hack to get an invotation. It is free as in Blogger. [...]
June 2nd, 2006 at 8:41 pm
[...] Update: Or you can just fake like you’re using Flock to get an invite. (via) [...]
April 25th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
how do u make a websitwe
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
fifa mesin (univ.sam ratulangi manado)
lowongan kerja sesuai dengan jurusan saya
December 24th, 2009 at 5:24 am
may i exchange link with u..??
nice post
December 24th, 2009 at 5:25 am
may i exchange link with u..??
nice post :)….