WordPress.com is rewriting my download links to point back to wordpress.com, even though these links point to a server off the wordpress.com website.
This is, naturally, very destructive.
Note: I’ve set up a provisionally temporary download page that won’t get adulterated by WordPress.com’s filters. It may become permanent, which isn’t the end of the world.
The only way around this is to right click on each link you want, copy the link, paste the link into your browser address bar, and edit the following:
http://files.spontaneousderivation.files.wordpress.com/B/Bramah_Ernest-Wallet_of_Kai_Lung.epub
I don’t know if WordPress.com will fix this bug of theirs, or if they’ll even consider it a bug, or if they’ll just ignore me. If they won’t fix the bug, I have a back-up plan, but I would prefer not to have to pay for multiple domains.
In the meanwhile, I’m curious.
Spontaneous ∂erivation 
I have never used WordPress as a blogging platform, so I don’t have an answer for the poll. But years ago I noticed that, if I was visiting a WordPress blog, and clicked the subject-tag next to the entry I was reading, it did not show me other entries with that tag on that blog. It showed me other entries with that tag *from anywhere on WordPress*. So I would guess that redirecting all your links is part of WordPress’s ongoing scheme to break the internet by making it all about them.
Looks like everyone feels the same way about WP. The thing is Blogger, LiveJournal, and the others that aren’t quite as popular are pretty much the same way.
Yeah, not having your own hosting leaves something to be desired. But on the other hand, I don’t have to worry about going over my CPU limits at Dreamhost.