Weekend feature testing: linkage tools
Hey, I’ve finally been spurred into action on throwing one of them social media link-o-matic things on the site. I’ll probably test at least two options this weekend, so if you see one, either in the posts or on the sidebar, give it a quick test and let us know how it went. I’ll be watching performance and issues, and if people really like one option (or the concept generally) I’ll integrate it more seriously on Monday.
You kids today, with your social media. When I first got online we didn’t have social media, we called Facebook “Stonehenge” or “Citadel” and you only got there with a modem and there wasn’t any link sharing because we didn’t have links. And we loved it! We invented all those “25 things” memes that have been re-infecting Myspace and Facebook and Overshare. It’s like 2008 was the year the Internet dug up a time capsule from the mid-1980s, cracked it open, stuck its head in, inhaled deeply of all the stored viruses, and said “oh yeah, that’s the stuff.”
And then “Hayes? Who the hell is Hayes, and what are these blinking lights?”
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13 Responses to “Weekend feature testing: linkage tools”
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I’m still waiting for a Dave and/or DMZ-approved USS Mariner Facebook group.
Or not. How about alt.fan.ussm? I’d suggest Fidonet, but damn, times are even harder there…
What would Jack Burton do?
Since you’re doing site work I have a site-related question. If it’s the wrong time or place sorry but I’ve wondered about this for some time. Unlike any other site I visit regularly, if I open a link (hypertext, featured, whatever) here at USSM the link opens in the window/tab occupied by USSM. Everywhere else, if I ‘click’ on a link within a site it opens a new tab or window. This is xp pro, firefox (which is set to open new pages in a new tab), all fully up dated. It’s a fairly minor point (and annoyance) but why does it work that way here at USSM only and could it be ‘fixed’?
Just shared a link on Facebook worked GREAT!! Excellent job USSM crew.
Ugh, yeah.
Next step: analysis from Dave via Twitter, 140 characters at a time.
140 characters ought to cover your basic Washburn start.
argh: I don’t know what the issue could be, this is the only case I’ve heard reported, and I can’t get it to repro.
I don’t know what else to do at this point.
The Facebook linkage using the tool that’s active right now works pretty well, but you should probably figure out a way for a real site logo to appear as a choice for thumbnail. Currently only the Digital Forest and Cheater’s Guide images are listed.
If people start really using the StumbleUpon link in ShareThis, you could see significant bumps to traffic for individual posts. We added this tool to SmokeLong’s stories a few months back, and our top ten page views in any given month since then have been dominated by stories that folks Stumbled. (That said, I think you have higher traffic than we do, so it might not be quite as noticeable; we do about 100,000 page views/month.)
Thanks for the look, DMZ – odd thing.
I don’t know how to do that. Suggestions welcome.
I’m pretty sure it’s just picking up “normal” images of a certain size from the page itself. Adding a smallish logo file to the page somewhere should do it.