editor Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Recently, one of your fellow HAIFers brought to my attention something that bothers him. It's the fact that the HAIF status sidebar on the front page of the forum also sucks in status updates from people's Facebook and Twitter accounts. He feels it pollutes the stream, and diminishes its value. He'd rather it be HAIF-only.I've pasted a portion of my response to his concern below, but I'd also like to hear from everyone else what they think about the status updates.The status update system was specifically designed to ingest Twitter and Facebook updates. It also exports status updates to Twitter and Facebook when users write them on HAIF, if the user has linked his accounts. It's part of what I'd call a "survival strategy." Facebook is killing the internet. There used to be millions of healthy web sites out there. Now thousands of mom-and-pop operations are dying every day because Facebook slurps up all of their readers' time. Millions of people visit no other web site than Facebook. I suspect millions more don't even know there is another web site other than Facebook. With Facebook trying to buy Twitter, it will give people even less time to HAIF.The good news is that the company that makes this forum software sees the writing on the wall. It realizes that if communities like HAIF fail, then it will go out of business, too. That's why it is introducing new and better features all the time (some of the improvements coming are really quite nice). Some of the features are stolen right out of Facebook. Others are meant to graft HAIF onto other social networks to make HAIF a continuing part of their everyday lives, even if they're not directly on HAIF. As for the sidebar status updates, I'm not overly attached to the feature. I, like 90% of HAIFers don't come into HAIF through the front door. I most often hit individual threads through HAIF:Now. Most other people come from Google or Bing. I don't mind having a discussion about whether it should continue or not.But because of the design and intent of the thing, the options are to either disable the sidebar entirely, which doesn't bother me; or to remove the option of linking one's Facebook/Twitter account with HAIF. This second part does bother me, because we have dozens of people who are HAIF members who signed up or signed in with their Facebook or Twitter accounts. It's obvious that to these people, FB/T is a big part of their lives. The fact that they've chosen to add HAIF to that mix is great. I don't want to discourage people from doing that, especially considering that 850 people are following HAIF's Twitter and Facebook feeds. A lot of forums that are using this software are clamoring for expanded sidebar usage. In fact, I'd say that adding the sidebar to every page on the site is the most requested feature from other forum owners. At this time there's no indication that such an option is in the works, but the forum owners are rarely informed of feature developments.Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Recently, one of your fellow HAIFers brought to my attention something that bothers him. It's the fact that the HAIF status sidebar on the front page of the forum also sucks in status updates from people's Facebook and Twitter accounts. He feels it pollutes the stream, and diminishes its value. He'd rather it be HAIF-only.I've pasted a portion of my response to his concern below, but I'd also like to hear from everyone else what they think about the status updates.Thoughts?I don't mind them at all, but like you mentioned, I don't come in through the front door. I do give them a glance every once in awhile just to see what's the HAIF'ers are thinking/doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highway6 Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I enter the front door when I'm on a desktop and I hate em. They used to be good, The community bulletin board filled with the occasional Haif-centric message made by someone who made the conscious decision to post for all HAIF to see.Now we get untargeted "Shaking & crying whenever there's a Chris Lilley post... " and random tiny urls from strangers. That being said, if I have to choose between watching HAIF die because they no longer get crossover traffic from FB.. or putting up with a flood of nonsense.. I'll choose the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I hate them for the same reason I hate FB and Twitter remarks...there is seldom anything of value in them. Like Hwy 6, I thought the occasional HAIFer remark was humorous. But, the other stuff is annoying. However, the result is not that I stop coming to HAIF, it is simply that I never read (or write) on the sidebar.If you need to leave them there to improve flow, do so. Most of us know how to ignore that side of the page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I glance at them when I feel like it, but they're not at all visually obtrusive that I 'hate' them. It doesn't matter to me much. I say keep 'em around, why not? If people don't like their fb status to be displayed here, they shouldn't sign in with fb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samagon Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I seldom even notice them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 For those of you who would like to turn off the status updates altogether, click the blue - button at the top, right corner of the update list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highway6 Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I have minimized it.Ignoring and minimizing are both fine solutions ... but at the point which everyone does that ( and given the deluge of cr@p, They will).. what's the point of keeping that Sidebar there?I'm guessing Mr. No-Name Haifer who has graced us with over a dozen twitter-fed status updates (including profanity) in his week long life as a Haifer probably has zero idea he has been sharing.He feels it pollutes the stream, and diminishes its value. Nobody swims in a polluted stream. Its value becomes zero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pumapayam Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 I would glance at them more if it were on a side bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.