Some free WordPress.com users will be used to responding to the Bell in the top-right of their blog’s User Interface. They may now be wondering what’s happened there. Clicking on the Bell should open a sidebar list of recent posts and responses. It now never loads.

It’s part of the slow and stop-start changeover from the old editor to the horrible new Block editor (the free Open Live Writer desktop software is the alternative for free users).

To get to your Bell alerts now, when in ../wp-admin/.. you instead swing over to the other side of the screen, and click on “My Sites”…

This then gets you the newer interface…

Swing back over to the Bell, now blue. Your alerts will now load…

Then you click back to the ../wp-admin/.. UI.

As for Open Live Writer, it only lacks access to this Bell, and to the blog’s uploaded Media Library. All other WordPress blogging functions are in there, though sometimes you need to right-click on a seemingly-plain icon to find its advanced options (like loading a list of the scheduled posts).