Twitter Works Again, and About Using Facebook Connect

A few details for regular readers.   First, my twitter feed was down for about a week, but is back up now.  Why was it down?  I have no idea, if I had to guess it would be that Twitter’s automated and poorly aimed anti-spam nets somehow snagged me.  I emailed them and after waiting patiently for 5 days they turned it back on without ever acknowledging me in any way.  Secondly, some of you may have noticed the Facebook Connect item that started in the sidebar and now sits next to the comment form.

I have been experimenting with various social network enhancements to this site, including Google FriendConnect, MyBlogLog, Blog Catalog, and TheGoodBlogs.   I finally went with the one I ignored at first, Facebook Connect.  Why? Because it integrates with comments without stepping on what is already there.  You can still post anonymously – and I know many readers would rather not leave a trail.  Even if you have logged in, you can log out to post an anonymous comment.  You can still log in the old way (for those few who do) – you don’t need to become a facebook member to leave your pic/icon/symbol behind since gravatars still work.  But now you can log in via facebook and not even bother to register yet still leave a personalized comment.   You can even choose to have your comment posted to your facebook profile.  For those who just want to leave their pic behind to offer their support without commenting or just to say the equivalent of ‘Kilroy was here!’, they can simply log in via the facebook connect icon.

To try it out, look down below this post to the right of the comment form.  There is a blue button that says “Connect With Facebook”, just click it and log into facebook via the popup, and you’re all set.  It won’t add any friends in facebook or share information that you don’t already have public there, just log you in and leave your name/pic on this site.  If anyone has any suggestions for this feature, let me know.

Another thing that now works properly is nested comments.  If you want to reply to a particular comment, just click the ‘reply’ button beneath it and your response will appear there rather than last in the list.  Hopefully this will allow for better conversations down the line.

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Categories: Information