Facebook Knows Me By Name, Not Number

June 26, 2009 9:47 AM

PonyUpdate Request: The "Also On..." section of user profiles should allow you to link to your fancy new Facebook username.

I just updated my social networks on my profile by adding my Twitter username, but while I was there, I thought I'd change my Facebook link to my new username. I was told that my change caused an error, and I don't know what profile number I just deleted. Can one of the admins figure out a way to link to Facebook profiles by using the username?

posted by sjuhawk31 to bugs at 9:47 AM (17 comments total)

We already have 845 folks with a numeric ID in the system, so yeah we'll probably have set up a special rule for Facebook now that they're moving to new URLs. I'm not even sure how to look up your numeric Facebook ID once your vanity URL is set.
posted by pb at 9:54 AM on June 26

Exactly, pb, once I deleted the number I didn't know how to find it again.

Chalk one up to leaving well enough alone.
posted by sjuhawk31 at 9:57 AM on June 26

speaking of which, is there anyway way to link to your flickr account using the old numerical url, instead of your vanity one? i set mine years ago and hate it now...
posted by lohmannn at 9:59 AM on June 26

ok, you should be able to set your Facebook username as a string or numeric ID now. It could just be a quirk with my privacy settings, but if I put in my vanity username instead of my numeric ID, I get a login page at Facebook before I can see anything. (which violates the current rules of our "Also On" system.) I don't include my Facebook profile on my MeFi profile anyway, but hopefully this login-required thing isn't true for everyone.

lohmannn, nah, we'll leave Flickr as it is. But if you notice we link to Flickr with your internal NSID instead of your URL username so you only need to use that username you hate when setting your Flickr account. (Flickr is needlessly complicated about URLs as well.)
posted by pb at 10:12 AM on June 26

pb - cool. what i meant by my first comment was just a general inquiry about flickr, which you indirectly answered for me. thanks!
posted by lohmannn at 10:15 AM on June 26

And whilst we're here... Would it be a pain to add SoundCloud support?
posted by benzo8 at 10:17 AM on June 26

pb: Can you fix Facebook so that they allow four character usernames? Thanks.
posted by ODiV at 10:19 AM on June 26

...and while you're at it, I could use an extra few inches.
posted by gman at 10:22 AM on June 26

benzo8, you can add it over at the wiki: SocialStuffs. I try to get over there every couple months and add new ones, but it's been a while now. We have to find a balance between adding absolutely every suggestion and adding services more than one person will use which is tough to predict. For example, we currently have some not-so-popular services in there like SonicLiving (0), VideoSift (3), Netvouz (1). Opening things up to arbitrary URLs is one option, but that means less chances for social exploration—we need to have some structure behind the scenes to do fun things with data from these sites.

ODiV, I know. I went over there at zero hour to get pb with no luck.
posted by pb at 10:28 AM on June 26

Try peebee?
posted by ODiV at 10:32 AM on June 26

If you, for some other reason, need to find your numeric ID, take a look at pretty much anything you posted -- status updates work wonders, you'll see they look something like this (emphasis supplied):

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6828245&v=feed&story_fbid=94619453965&ref=mf

As long as you're looking at profile.php, the bolded, underlined part is your numeric ID.
posted by toomuchpete at 10:48 AM on June 26

Thanks, pb!
posted by sjuhawk31 at 11:43 AM on June 26

I would like a chocolate chip cookie. Anyone have an extra?
posted by blue_beetle at 12:23 PM on June 26

Sorry, blue_beetle, but I gave mouse a cookie, then he wanted me to drive him to Wisconsin (something about "best frickin' milk on the planet"). That's the last time I did anything nice for other people.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:33 PM on June 26

I hear that mouse lives in Nigeria now.
posted by TwelveTwo at 1:48 PM on June 26 [1 favorite]

And since we're talking about linking to other accounts, any chance we can add LaLa.com to the list of availables? That's my main music site and it's not on the list.
posted by garnetgirl at 5:33 PM on June 26

garnetgirl, see here. Please add it to the wiki for consideration.
posted by pb at 7:53 PM on June 26