Social Apps Changes June 28, 2011 11:45 AM Subscribe
The Social Apps on MetaFilter profile pages are a way for you to show where you're contributing at social networks on the Web. We have a list of 98 sites you can list including Flickr, Twitter, and Last.fm. (Full list here.) We're making a couple changes to Social Apps today including opening up the rules for what services are included and changing the way we include content from those services on profile pages.
First up, we're changing rules for service inclusion. In the past we required all services to have a profile page to be included in the list, with some notable early exceptions before we had the rules formulated. Today the rules will be tweaked a bit to account for sites that don't have profile pages:
1.) The service must be a social network where other MetaFilter members can join and connect with you.
2.) The service must have a page that is a close approximation of "you" in the system. A profile page or a stream of your output is required.
3.) The service and linked page must be human-readable (no RSS) and available to the public without a login.
This means some previously denied social networks will be included. In fact, the list of services we just added are: Tumblr, Blogger, Posterous, Crazy Guy on a Bike, Urban Spoon, Rateyourmusic.com, Fitbit.com, Amazon, and MLKSHK.
Next, we're changing how we bring in content from services. You might have seen Twitter, Last.fm, and Flickr content on profile pages. These widgets were created here by gathering content from these service locally. We were reinventing the wheel a bit because many of these services offer widgets. As Social Apps have become more popular to include on your profile page, we have been gathering millions of discrete bits of info: every song played, every photo uploaded, every tweet tweeted. We've decided to use the official widgets from these services instead, and stop aggregating the content.
A side effect of this change will be the loss of our aggregate Twitter, Last.fm, and Flickr pages. We took a look at how many people were using these pages and decided that the amount of data we were gathering and managing wasn't worth their utility. We know some folks will be disappointed losing these but we'll be saving millions of records in the database—gigabytes of data—and will make the site more reliable going forward.
We're adding widgets for Vimeo and LibraryThing today, and we have widgets for Twitter, Last.fm, and Flickr. We also added the ability to exclude widgets from profile pages if you'd rather not have content from these services included.
If there's a service you'd like to see added to the list you can make your suggestion at the MetaFilter Wiki.
First up, we're changing rules for service inclusion. In the past we required all services to have a profile page to be included in the list, with some notable early exceptions before we had the rules formulated. Today the rules will be tweaked a bit to account for sites that don't have profile pages:
1.) The service must be a social network where other MetaFilter members can join and connect with you.
2.) The service must have a page that is a close approximation of "you" in the system. A profile page or a stream of your output is required.
3.) The service and linked page must be human-readable (no RSS) and available to the public without a login.
This means some previously denied social networks will be included. In fact, the list of services we just added are: Tumblr, Blogger, Posterous, Crazy Guy on a Bike, Urban Spoon, Rateyourmusic.com, Fitbit.com, Amazon, and MLKSHK.
Next, we're changing how we bring in content from services. You might have seen Twitter, Last.fm, and Flickr content on profile pages. These widgets were created here by gathering content from these service locally. We were reinventing the wheel a bit because many of these services offer widgets. As Social Apps have become more popular to include on your profile page, we have been gathering millions of discrete bits of info: every song played, every photo uploaded, every tweet tweeted. We've decided to use the official widgets from these services instead, and stop aggregating the content.
A side effect of this change will be the loss of our aggregate Twitter, Last.fm, and Flickr pages. We took a look at how many people were using these pages and decided that the amount of data we were gathering and managing wasn't worth their utility. We know some folks will be disappointed losing these but we'll be saving millions of records in the database—gigabytes of data—and will make the site more reliable going forward.
We're adding widgets for Vimeo and LibraryThing today, and we have widgets for Twitter, Last.fm, and Flickr. We also added the ability to exclude widgets from profile pages if you'd rather not have content from these services included.
If there's a service you'd like to see added to the list you can make your suggestion at the MetaFilter Wiki.
MLKSHK! yay! I had to fight for that one.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:57 AM on June 28, 2011 [7 favorites]
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:57 AM on June 28, 2011 [7 favorites]
mathowie: Sticking it to the Metafilter man since 1999.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:59 AM on June 28, 2011 [17 favorites]
posted by shakespeherian at 11:59 AM on June 28, 2011 [17 favorites]
I had to fight for that one.
That's funny, I just asked pb and he said "sure, okay."
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:01 PM on June 28, 2011 [18 favorites]
That's funny, I just asked pb and he said "sure, okay."
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:01 PM on June 28, 2011 [18 favorites]
I've always heard that mathowie's MLKSHK brings all the boys to ... oh never mind.
posted by jbickers at 12:02 PM on June 28, 2011 [10 favorites]
posted by jbickers at 12:02 PM on June 28, 2011 [10 favorites]
Wait. Why does Tumblr comply with the rule #2?
I'm still of the school of thought that people should link to their tumblogs as their primary website, or elsewhere in their profile, if they so desire...
(Or does Tumblr now have profile pages?)
posted by schmod at 12:04 PM on June 28, 2011
I'm still of the school of thought that people should link to their tumblogs as their primary website, or elsewhere in their profile, if they so desire...
(Or does Tumblr now have profile pages?)
posted by schmod at 12:04 PM on June 28, 2011
Tumblr does have a stream of output that some people use in a personal way. Tumblr, Blogger, and Posterous are odd cases because they can be used in non-personal ways too. But these have been frequent requests and we'd like to make them available to people.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:09 PM on June 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by pb (staff) at 12:09 PM on June 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Hmm. I have an author profile on goodreads and I'm having trouble having it show up. :(
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:15 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 12:15 PM on June 28, 2011
I've never heard of MLKSHK but I thought for sure it was something about Martin Luther King, Jr. until I sounded it out. Huh.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:17 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:17 PM on June 28, 2011
We know some folks will be disappointed losing these but we'll be saving millions of records in the database—gigabytes of data—and will make the site more reliable going forward.
Couldn't you just delete all the incomplete/unused profiles here and save 5 times as much space?
I kid
posted by LionIndex at 12:23 PM on June 28, 2011
Couldn't you just delete all the incomplete/unused profiles here and save 5 times as much space?
I kid
posted by LionIndex at 12:23 PM on June 28, 2011
mathowie: "MLKSHK! yay! I had to fight for that one"
Don't you own this place?
posted by I am the Walrus at 12:31 PM on June 28, 2011 [5 favorites]
Don't you own this place?
posted by I am the Walrus at 12:31 PM on June 28, 2011 [5 favorites]
Woo! I just noticed the twitter thing looked different and I was all "Hey, sneaky..." and now it's not so sneaky.
posted by jillithd at 12:45 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by jillithd at 12:45 PM on June 28, 2011
I totally understand the reasoning behind losing the group flickr page, but I'll miss it. Maybe I'll hold a wake tonight.
posted by COBRA! at 12:46 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by COBRA! at 12:46 PM on June 28, 2011
Is there documentation somewhere for how it works that I missed? (For instance, you have to add your blogs "blogspot.com" prefix, not, as you might expect, the number of your profile page.)
posted by Jahaza at 12:52 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by Jahaza at 12:52 PM on June 28, 2011
Is there documentation somewhere for how it works that I missed?
No, we need to add documentation for the new services to the FAQ. We'll get that added this afternoon.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:56 PM on June 28, 2011
No, we need to add documentation for the new services to the FAQ. We'll get that added this afternoon.
posted by pb (staff) at 12:56 PM on June 28, 2011
I've been putting cat pictures on mlkshk for a couple weeks now! This is a great way to let mefites know that if they can't find cat pictures anywhere else on the internet, they can come to my mlkshk!
posted by rtha at 1:01 PM on June 28, 2011 [5 favorites]
posted by rtha at 1:01 PM on June 28, 2011 [5 favorites]
All those other places are just websites. MetaFilter is MY Social App.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:01 PM on June 28, 2011 [6 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:01 PM on June 28, 2011 [6 favorites]
Thanks for adding Urban Spoon, pb. I think that was one I had requested. Also, you may wanna add this link to the MeFi Social Explorer to your post - it's very helpful!
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 1:03 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 1:03 PM on June 28, 2011
Oy vey. I meant this link.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 1:07 PM on June 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 1:07 PM on June 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
PhoBWanKenobi, are author profiles different from goodreads user profiles?
posted by pb (staff) at 1:07 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 1:07 PM on June 28, 2011
PhoBWanKenobi, are author profiles different from goodreads user profiles?
They are, but once you have an author profile, it merges with your user profile and supercedes it. The URL for my author profile is: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4649673.Phoebe_North
Part of the problem might be that I have a custom URL that I used for my reader profile (which now redirects to the author profile) at http://www.goodreads.com/phoebereading. I can't for the life of me figure out how to find the user ID# on any of these.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:25 PM on June 28, 2011
They are, but once you have an author profile, it merges with your user profile and supercedes it. The URL for my author profile is: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4649673.Phoebe_North
Part of the problem might be that I have a custom URL that I used for my reader profile (which now redirects to the author profile) at http://www.goodreads.com/phoebereading. I can't for the life of me figure out how to find the user ID# on any of these.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:25 PM on June 28, 2011
Don't you own this place?
There's no I in MLKSHK
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:26 PM on June 28, 2011 [25 favorites]
There's no I in MLKSHK
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:26 PM on June 28, 2011 [25 favorites]
Sorry PhoBWanKenobi, unless that becomes the norm for everyone we won't be able to support it. Sounds like you'll just need to link your Goodreads profile from your user info instead of the Social Apps.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:28 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 1:28 PM on June 28, 2011
Sadface! Are you sure? GR is my most frequently used social networking service, and there are quite a few authors on here . . .
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:31 PM on June 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:31 PM on June 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Have you tried just entering 4649673 under GoodReads?
posted by pb (staff) at 1:34 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 1:34 PM on June 28, 2011
Yeah, it leads to some random girl's profile.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:35 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:35 PM on June 28, 2011
That random girl will SOMEDAY BECOME YOUR WIFE
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:36 PM on June 28, 2011 [13 favorites]
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:36 PM on June 28, 2011 [13 favorites]
Someone is high on carrageenan.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:37 PM on June 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:37 PM on June 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
Thanks pb, especially for the LibraryThing thing I asked for!
posted by Apropos of Something at 1:40 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by Apropos of Something at 1:40 PM on June 28, 2011
The intern's presence has made Matt drunk with power.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:40 PM on June 28, 2011 [5 favorites]
posted by shakespeherian at 1:40 PM on June 28, 2011 [5 favorites]
Oooh ooh wait I think I just discovered an incredibly convoluted way to figure out my usernumber over there.
W00t! Awesome. Worked. Sorry about that. I realize that was GR's design stupidness, not yours (they really should list that usernumber SOMEWHERE--I had to copy and paste it from a discussion thread about some random book).
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:40 PM on June 28, 2011
W00t! Awesome. Worked. Sorry about that. I realize that was GR's design stupidness, not yours (they really should list that usernumber SOMEWHERE--I had to copy and paste it from a discussion thread about some random book).
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:40 PM on June 28, 2011
That's frustrating, PhoBWanKenobi, but without a consistant URL we don't know which type of profile to link to. We could add a second goodreads app for authors, but I think that will lead to more confusion.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:41 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 1:41 PM on June 28, 2011
On non-preview, hooray! If there's an easy way to explain how you find the user number I can add it to the FAQ.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:43 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 1:43 PM on June 28, 2011
I'm not sure how FAQable it is: it's displayed in discussion threads on mouse-over, but once you click on it, you get redirected to the author page or custom URL site. Everything is kind of a mess of redirects. I'd say it would be easier to just offer an option for users to enter their custom URLs, but I'm not sure how utilized those are, either.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:47 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 1:47 PM on June 28, 2011
We may need to export the entire FAQ entry to a wiki page that is more easily editable and where it's easier to just sort of explain that [I get what you're saying PWK and I bet between you and I, we could explain it to others] but I htink this is a step in the right direction. Let us know if youfind an easier way to tease it out of GR.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:00 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:00 PM on June 28, 2011
MLKSHK & Tumblr! Hooray for adding new services! Thanks, pb.
posted by immlass at 2:03 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by immlass at 2:03 PM on June 28, 2011
There seems to be a limit of no more than 3 Tumblr accounts listed — is that the case, or is there something I'm not clicking that I should be clicking to make it work? (If this is a deliberate choice to reduce Tumblr proliferation, cool enough.)
posted by Lexica at 2:05 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by Lexica at 2:05 PM on June 28, 2011
A side effect of this change will be the loss of our aggregate Twitter, Last.fm, and Flickr pages.
Awww. Those pages were cool. On the other hand, yeah, I almost never used them.
Flickr looks good. The "Join the conversation" Twitter widget is yucky and marketingy though. From the widget source it looks like there is a
posted by grouse at 2:22 PM on June 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
Awww. Those pages were cool. On the other hand, yeah, I almost never used them.
Flickr looks good. The "Join the conversation" Twitter widget is yucky and marketingy though. From the widget source it looks like there is a
footer option you can set to false to disable it. Can we do this?posted by grouse at 2:22 PM on June 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
footer = gone!
posted by pb (staff) at 2:32 PM on June 28, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by pb (staff) at 2:32 PM on June 28, 2011 [3 favorites]
Bug report: I have two Twitter accounts linked (work me and home me), but the output of the first one is just displaying twice in my profile.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:33 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:33 PM on June 28, 2011
pb: "We took a look at how many people were using these pages and decided that the amount of data we were gathering and managing wasn't worth their utility. We know some folks will be disappointed losing these but we'll be saving millions of records in the database—gigabytes of data—and will make the site more reliable going forward."
Not entirely sure I understand this. pb, were y'all archiving posts from those services?
posted by zarq at 2:34 PM on June 28, 2011
Not entirely sure I understand this. pb, were y'all archiving posts from those services?
posted by zarq at 2:34 PM on June 28, 2011
Yes, we were archiving 30 days worth of data from Flickr, Last.fm, and Twitter. Some folks had dozens of tweets, photos, or tracks each day. We had thousands of individual accounts from each of those services. It added up quickly.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:38 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 2:38 PM on June 28, 2011
Holy cow. I can only imagine how much space that must have taken.
posted by zarq at 2:41 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by zarq at 2:41 PM on June 28, 2011
I see that the profile page also has a nicer layout on the mobile stylesheet. thanks for that.
posted by zarq at 3:33 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by zarq at 3:33 PM on June 28, 2011
I see that the profile page also has a nicer layout
That was part of the thing that Dominic-the-intern was alluding to before. We wanted to get something at least mostly working.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:34 PM on June 28, 2011
That was part of the thing that Dominic-the-intern was alluding to before. We wanted to get something at least mostly working.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:34 PM on June 28, 2011
Yay more tiny boxes!
Hah... reminds of the Wikipedia userbox controversy... but without all recrimination!
posted by Jahaza at 3:47 PM on June 28, 2011
Hah... reminds of the Wikipedia userbox controversy... but without all recrimination!
posted by Jahaza at 3:47 PM on June 28, 2011
Oh, don't be silly. Thread's only been open for a few hours. I'm sure we can come up with some recrimination eventually.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:52 PM on June 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:52 PM on June 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
"A side effect of this change will be the loss of our aggregate Twitter, Last.fm, and Flickr pages."
As an alternative could you set up a page that would just grab the most recent flickr image from say a 100 random Mefites who link to flickr? I didn't hit that page all that often but it was awesome when insomnia would strike for a couple nights running.
posted by Mitheral at 4:04 PM on June 28, 2011
As an alternative could you set up a page that would just grab the most recent flickr image from say a 100 random Mefites who link to flickr? I didn't hit that page all that often but it was awesome when insomnia would strike for a couple nights running.
posted by Mitheral at 4:04 PM on June 28, 2011
So: if I create a widgety thingo for Gamefilter member profiles, would you include them on profile pages here if I asked nice?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:08 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:08 PM on June 28, 2011
Mitheral, no that's not something we're interested in building right now. We're going to take a break from aggregating things for a bit. But we do have the social explorer which could make some good late night Flickr browsing.
Sure stavros, but what would be on it? The titles of your latest posts?
posted by pb (staff) at 4:12 PM on June 28, 2011
Sure stavros, but what would be on it? The titles of your latest posts?
posted by pb (staff) at 4:12 PM on June 28, 2011
Yeah, last five post links/titles, I reckon.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:16 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:16 PM on June 28, 2011
Gah! Now my real name is on my MeFi profile (via Twitter). Not a biggie, but I didn't expect to see that.
posted by iamkimiam at 4:16 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by iamkimiam at 4:16 PM on June 28, 2011
Or maybe last five activity records...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:17 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:17 PM on June 28, 2011
Gah! Now my real name is on my MeFi profile
Yeah there's going to be a little adjustment since the Twitter widget contains slightly different information than what we had access to from Twitter before. Since people's profile pages aren't Google indexed, they can just either remove their real name from Twitter or disable the widget functionality on their profile page [and still have Twitter just as a link] with no lasting ill effects. We'll make some sort of larger scale announcement about this once we're sure it's all running smoothly.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:30 PM on June 28, 2011
Yeah there's going to be a little adjustment since the Twitter widget contains slightly different information than what we had access to from Twitter before. Since people's profile pages aren't Google indexed, they can just either remove their real name from Twitter or disable the widget functionality on their profile page [and still have Twitter just as a link] with no lasting ill effects. We'll make some sort of larger scale announcement about this once we're sure it's all running smoothly.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:30 PM on June 28, 2011
3.) The service and linked page must be human-readable (no RSS) and available to the public without a login. [emphasis mine]
A lot of people's Facebook profiles aren't available to the public without a login.
Not that it's any of my business since I don't link to any social apps in my own profile, but as a verynosey curious person I'm just wondering how you police something like that or if some of the services are exempted?
posted by amyms at 5:03 PM on June 28, 2011
A lot of people's Facebook profiles aren't available to the public without a login.
Not that it's any of my business since I don't link to any social apps in my own profile, but as a very
posted by amyms at 5:03 PM on June 28, 2011
Is my information visible to people who aren't logged into Facebook?There is then some bla bla about how to change your privacy settings, but there is, in fact, a public profile for everyone on Facebook even if there's not much there.
People who are not logged in to Facebook (for example, friends who search for you on sites like Google or Bing) can only see:
* Your name, profile picture, gender and networks. This basic information is always visible to everyone so it's easier for friends find you — even friends who aren't on Facebook yet.
* Your friend list and your likes, activities and interests. You can limit the visibility of this information by changing the settings in the "Connecting on Facebook" section of your Privacy Settings.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:20 PM on June 28, 2011
Sorry to be a pain, but that's not true in practice. For instance, when I click on the Facebook icon in your Metafilter profile, Jessamyn, it redirects to the Facebook login/signup page (even though a mouseover shows that it's supposed to go to your Facebook profile page).
posted by amyms at 5:42 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by amyms at 5:42 PM on June 28, 2011
The SocialStuffs wiki page lists Furl and Diigo separately, but Diigo bought Furl and the Furl link redirects to Diigo.
posted by Houstonian at 5:50 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by Houstonian at 5:50 PM on June 28, 2011
Sorry to be a pain, but that's not true in practice.
Sure enough, I logged out and saw what you're describing. We may need to adjust our definition somewhat since I'm sure we're not going to disallow facebook on that basis.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:52 PM on June 28, 2011
Sure enough, I logged out and saw what you're describing. We may need to adjust our definition somewhat since I'm sure we're not going to disallow facebook on that basis.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:52 PM on June 28, 2011
I would be comfortable leaving the definition alone and if anybody asks about Facebook we just sigh heavily and glare in Zuckerberg's general direction.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:54 PM on June 28, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:54 PM on June 28, 2011 [4 favorites]
Or like "If you have fewer than 100 million members you need to have a public profile"
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:55 PM on June 28, 2011 [5 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:55 PM on June 28, 2011 [5 favorites]
No problem. I didn't mean to sound like I was saying "Well you can't allow Facebook then!" (although I do sound that way by even bringing it up in the first place, heh).
posted by amyms at 6:06 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by amyms at 6:06 PM on June 28, 2011
Stupid question: how do I find my "Amazon.com name"? I've tried my email address (my login) and my First M. Last (displayed name on amazon) and neither makes the amazon badge link to anything.
posted by churl at 6:26 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by churl at 6:26 PM on June 28, 2011
nah, not stupid. The process is painful. I added the painful process to the FAQ earlier today (at the bottom).
posted by pb (staff) at 6:40 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 6:40 PM on June 28, 2011
Is there any member who's on all 98? Because he really needs to get out more.
posted by jonmc at 6:41 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by jonmc at 6:41 PM on June 28, 2011
oh, as you're adding Social Apps, look for the little "help" link near the example. We try to link up to the FAQ when finding your username for a particular service isn't obvious.
posted by pb (staff) at 6:41 PM on June 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by pb (staff) at 6:41 PM on June 28, 2011 [1 favorite]
I would be comfortable leaving the definition alone and if anybody asks about Facebook we just sigh heavily and glare in Zuckerberg's general direction.
Facebook exceptionalism?
posted by Chuckles at 6:49 PM on June 28, 2011
Facebook exceptionalism?
posted by Chuckles at 6:49 PM on June 28, 2011
Oh hay, just added my tumblr. That was a clever way to help people figure out what's going on. GOOD JORB
posted by The Devil Tesla at 7:09 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by The Devil Tesla at 7:09 PM on June 28, 2011
Oh wow. I came to the gray to see what was up with the fancy rounded corners on profile widgets, and turns out this is it. Well, I'm definitely going to miss the aggregate Last.fm and Twitter pages—especially the latter, as I used to scroll through it on slow days to find new people to follow. But the fancy rounded corners on the widgets are kinda nice.
posted by limeonaire at 7:30 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by limeonaire at 7:30 PM on June 28, 2011
Sadly, the Last.fm widget looks significantly worse than the old Last.fm box. Is there anything that can be done to re-format the text in that? It seems like it's poorly anti-aliased, or something, and it's awfully small. Are you just stuck with what they provide?
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:25 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:25 PM on June 28, 2011
Yes, we're using what Last.fm provides. I agree it's not as nice, but it is saving us some serious headaches on the back end. Last.fm was the worst offender of the bunch in terms of data. We just can't keep up with it.
I used their chart designer to put together something simple. If there's a better design that fits in with the current size and simple aesthetic we have going for widgets we could make a switch.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:39 PM on June 28, 2011
I used their chart designer to put together something simple. If there's a better design that fits in with the current size and simple aesthetic we have going for widgets we could make a switch.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:39 PM on June 28, 2011
It's too bad that it's an either/or thing -- I certainly don't begrudge you the changes. That chart designer thingy doesn't seem to work very well, anyway. Maybe they'll provide a few font options some day down the road.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:16 PM on June 28, 2011
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:16 PM on June 28, 2011
Did Profile pics get purged with these changes? Was it something earlier and I missed it? Or did I mess it up?
posted by Mitheral at 12:10 AM on June 29, 2011
posted by Mitheral at 12:10 AM on June 29, 2011
Thanks for all the nice changes :)
I don't know where to put my suggestions, so I'll just say it here: how about Mubi and Blip.fm?
posted by pleasebekind at 3:16 AM on June 29, 2011
I don't know where to put my suggestions, so I'll just say it here: how about Mubi and Blip.fm?
posted by pleasebekind at 3:16 AM on June 29, 2011
Yep, the new mobile profile pages are really nice.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:26 AM on June 29, 2011
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:26 AM on June 29, 2011
pleasebekind, the standard method for suggestions is adding them at the wiki.
Mitheral, nope, no changes to profile pics.
posted by pb (staff) at 6:00 AM on June 29, 2011
Mitheral, nope, no changes to profile pics.
posted by pb (staff) at 6:00 AM on June 29, 2011
Just added my World of Warcraft account, and the helper text for adding the information is wrong.
It says to put it in in this format:
r=[realm]&n=[charactername]
The proper format is:
[realmname]/[[charactername]
For example: "EldreThalas/Sihada".
posted by DWRoelands at 6:38 AM on June 29, 2011
It says to put it in in this format:
r=[realm]&n=[charactername]
The proper format is:
[realmname]/[[charactername]
For example: "EldreThalas/Sihada".
posted by DWRoelands at 6:38 AM on June 29, 2011
Looks like someone was too modest to mention that the Profile page is now specially formatted for mobile users, too.
Thanks!
posted by Asparagirl at 8:31 AM on June 29, 2011
Thanks!
posted by Asparagirl at 8:31 AM on June 29, 2011
if anybody asks about Facebook we just sigh heavily and glare in Zuckerberg's general direction - I did this in a workshop I led over the weekend; pretty much my SOP where Facebook is concerned.
posted by epersonae at 9:47 AM on June 29, 2011
posted by epersonae at 9:47 AM on June 29, 2011
Alright pb. I'm struggling how to add to the wiki but I'll read up and suggest over there. Thanks.
posted by pleasebekind at 10:05 AM on June 29, 2011
posted by pleasebekind at 10:05 AM on June 29, 2011
In fact, the list of services we just added are: Tumblr, Blogger, Posterous, Crazy Guy on a Bike, Urban Spoon, Rateyourmusic.com, Fitbit.com, Amazon, and MLKSHK.
OMG YAY! You mods, you make me so happy :)
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:34 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
OMG YAY! You mods, you make me so happy :)
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:34 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'm struggling how to add to the wiki but I'll read up and suggest over there.
You'll need to do a few things, none of which are too complicated though they can seem that way sometimes.
- register for an account
- go to this page once you are logged in
- you will see a little "edit" tab at the top of the page, but it will probably be easier to go to the specific section which you can also get to by clicking here (when you're logged in)
- you can copy the line that's already there and paste it below and then just edit it to make it point ot what you want
- you can preview before you actually make it public, if you want
- click save. check back in to see if pb has made any requests or questions that need answering.
If you're still having trouble, let me know or post here.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:27 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
You'll need to do a few things, none of which are too complicated though they can seem that way sometimes.
- register for an account
- go to this page once you are logged in
- you will see a little "edit" tab at the top of the page, but it will probably be easier to go to the specific section which you can also get to by clicking here (when you're logged in)
- you can copy the line that's already there and paste it below and then just edit it to make it point ot what you want
- you can preview before you actually make it public, if you want
- click save. check back in to see if pb has made any requests or questions that need answering.
If you're still having trouble, let me know or post here.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:27 AM on June 29, 2011 [2 favorites]
Next, we're changing how we bring in content from services. You might have seen Twitter, Last.fm, and Flickr content on profile pages. These widgets were created here by gathering content from these service locally. We were reinventing the wheel a bit because many of these services offer widgets. As Social Apps have become more popular to include on your profile page, we have been gathering millions of discrete bits of info: every song played, every photo uploaded, every tweet tweeted. We've decided to use the official widgets from these services instead, and stop aggregating the content.
this is history. archival quality history of the evolution of the social world wide web of humanity
way to go, mefi
no hamburger please, we're hindu ;p
posted by infini at 11:40 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
this is history. archival quality history of the evolution of the social world wide web of humanity
way to go, mefi
no hamburger please, we're hindu ;p
posted by infini at 11:40 AM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
And these services should be preserving this history. Twitter works with the Library of Congress to archive tweets. Hopefully Last.fm and Flickr will be around for a while or find an archival home for things if not. We only kept 30 days worth of data, so we weren't acting as a permanent archive.
I know you're mostly joking, but I value this content and think it should be saved. We were looking at a tiny fraction of that data. It's not and never was our intent to act as an archive for the bits of data we pulled in—that responsibility should lie with the services themselves.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:13 PM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
I know you're mostly joking, but I value this content and think it should be saved. We were looking at a tiny fraction of that data. It's not and never was our intent to act as an archive for the bits of data we pulled in—that responsibility should lie with the services themselves.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:13 PM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
I didn't even think about the data. Oh wow.
I was just thinking about how MeFi runs at the edge of the revolution, influencing and being influenced by real time improvements and changes - often made due to the voice of the community or adapted and shaped by them
no joking at all.
posted by infini at 1:35 PM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
I was just thinking about how MeFi runs at the edge of the revolution, influencing and being influenced by real time improvements and changes - often made due to the voice of the community or adapted and shaped by them
no joking at all.
posted by infini at 1:35 PM on June 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
ah, I misunderstood. When you work with data everything looks like a database. I think see what you're saying now.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:46 PM on June 29, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 1:46 PM on June 29, 2011
Thanks, jessamyn. I saw that I have to provide a sample profile page. Does it have to be mine?
posted by pleasebekind at 9:25 PM on June 29, 2011
posted by pleasebekind at 9:25 PM on June 29, 2011
You can take the web address of yours and just replace your username/number with the word username or number. So my MeFi profle would be
http://www.metafilter.com/user/######
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:18 AM on June 30, 2011
http://www.metafilter.com/user/######
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:18 AM on June 30, 2011
True, but it's nice to see a working example of a profile so we can evaluate it. Sometimes it's not obvious where to find a generic user page when you go to the homepage. So it's nice if someone familiar with the service can provide a working link.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:45 AM on June 30, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 8:45 AM on June 30, 2011
Thank you!
posted by jason's_planet at 6:47 PM on June 30, 2011
posted by jason's_planet at 6:47 PM on June 30, 2011
Possible bug report: I have a last.fm account linked but their widget isn't showing up on my profile page.
Not a bug report: I really like the new mobile profile pages.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 9:38 AM on July 1, 2011
Not a bug report: I really like the new mobile profile pages.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 9:38 AM on July 1, 2011
strangely stunted trees, do you have the "show widget on profile" option checked next to your Last.fm username?
posted by pb (staff) at 9:54 AM on July 1, 2011
posted by pb (staff) at 9:54 AM on July 1, 2011
Dur. I, uh, do now. Thanks!
posted by strangely stunted trees at 10:03 AM on July 1, 2011
posted by strangely stunted trees at 10:03 AM on July 1, 2011
Dur. I, uh, do now. Thanks!
Don't feel too bad -- I had the IT guy all the way across the building yesterday because I forgot to plug my router into the ethernet switch all my printers were on.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:23 AM on July 1, 2011
Don't feel too bad -- I had the IT guy all the way across the building yesterday because I forgot to plug my router into the ethernet switch all my printers were on.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:23 AM on July 1, 2011
Oh, new mobile profile pages! Thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!
posted by booksherpa at 11:22 AM on July 1, 2011
posted by booksherpa at 11:22 AM on July 1, 2011
I'm sorry to see the flickr page go, too (and I missed the wake... aaaugh!), but it does sound like it would have taken Blue Waters to keep things running well.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 6:25 PM on July 1, 2011
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 6:25 PM on July 1, 2011
I've finally begun poking around in LibraryThing, and adding some books, so that I could add it to my list of stuff in my profile. I'm having a wonderful few minutes here laughing at all the bad reviews of A Confederacy of Dunces. "I hated this book -- what a loathsome character!" Heh. Doesn't look like the Metafilter group there does much, but I joined, anyway.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:29 PM on July 1, 2011
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:29 PM on July 1, 2011
Someone is asking for an example link for MapMyFitness on the Wiki. I'd add it to the wiki, but I'm not familiar with how to do so.
http://www.mapmyrun.com/profile/
posted by TravellingCari at 7:38 PM on July 14, 2011
http://www.mapmyrun.com/profile/
posted by TravellingCari at 7:38 PM on July 14, 2011
Thanks TravellingCari, but it'd help to see a working profile page. The link you posted doesn't go to a real profile page. (Though I imagine it does go to your personal profile page if you're logged into the service. We need to find working public profile URLs that don't require a login in order to add the service.)
The wiki is a little more difficult to use than posting comments here, but jessamyn posted some good step by step instructions upthread if you'd like to give it a try.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:33 PM on July 14, 2011
The wiki is a little more difficult to use than posting comments here, but jessamyn posted some good step by step instructions upthread if you'd like to give it a try.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:33 PM on July 14, 2011
Does this work if you're not logged in? It seems to for me in a browser I just installed so can't think it would know my login. I haven't quite figured out Chrome so I may be missing something obvious
http://www.mapmyrun.com/profile/travellingcari/
posted by TravellingCari at 7:23 PM on July 15, 2011
http://www.mapmyrun.com/profile/travellingcari/
posted by TravellingCari at 7:23 PM on July 15, 2011
Yeah sorry I was away during this. I also have a mapmyrun profile and that URL looks like the good one.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:24 AM on July 16, 2011
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:24 AM on July 16, 2011
Thanks both. Now I'll go try and figure out the Wiki so I don't have to use you two as my proxy :-)
posted by TravellingCari at 12:05 PM on July 16, 2011
posted by TravellingCari at 12:05 PM on July 16, 2011
There's a part of the wiki called the Sandbox that is specifically for experimenting. You can try out a link or a sentence or whatever you want there and see what it looks like and once you get it to work you can copy it over to the page you wanted to add it to. Feel free to practice there.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:22 AM on July 17, 2011
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:22 AM on July 17, 2011
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by tommasz at 11:53 AM on June 28, 2011