David Lambert's dashboard

David Lambert replied on November 06, 2009 14:11 to the question "Why has sending links changed in Ping.fm?" in Ping.fm:

re: "Facebook adds a thumbnail, period"

Really?

A comment on the question "Why has sending links changed in Ping.fm?" in Ping.fm:

What mjgiarlo describes is all I've been asking for. I'm grateful that the change was disabled. Now I've been able to go back to letting Ping post to Facebook for me, instead of me posting everything manually. But doing the extra work of the manual post was the only way to keep the FB wall from looking too busy and cluttered, full of inappropriate icons (such as "follow us on Twitter" thumbnails!) that were being incorrectly selected. When Ping adds an option to let people (such as Jedi) who prefer the alternate way of posting do it that way, then great...just let me know and make sure I know how to pick the behavior I prefer. Thanks. – David Lambert, on November 06, 2009 13:28

A comment on the question "Why has sending links changed in Ping.fm?" in Ping.fm:

This is the latest, from about an hour ago:

http://twitter.com/pingfm/status/5439...

MySpace issues being addressed. Facebook post-as-link disabled while we update that as well. Hooray! – David Lambert, on November 05, 2009 04:38

David Lambert replied on November 04, 2009 19:20 to the question "Why has sending links changed in Ping.fm?" in Ping.fm:

This just in via Twitter:

http://twitter.com/pingfm/status/5427...

"Pushing an update that will allow links as status updates (Facebook) this afternoon. Cheers!"

YAAAAY!!! Thank you, Ping!

David Lambert replied on November 04, 2009 19:20 to the problem "Stop thumbnails on Facebook post?" in Ping.fm:

This just in via Twitter:

http://twitter.com/pingfm/status/5427...

"Pushing an update that will allow links as status updates (Facebook) this afternoon. Cheers!"

YAAAAY!!! Thank you, Ping!

A comment on the question "Why has sending links changed in Ping.fm?" in Ping.fm:

Jedi, your enthusiastically pro-Ping defend-them-at-all-costs comments in this thread and the other one you just posted in makes it sound like you work for Ping.fm; if so then you should just disclose that.

In the other thread you asked "You guys do realize that links still show in people's News Feeds, right?"

Answer: yes, but it isn't showing up the way we want.

re: "I would understand the problem with this, if Facebook didn't automatically add thumbnails when you post a link anyway. The previous way it worked is not the way Facebook normally works."

Answer: Bull. Facebook doesn't automatically add thumbnails. They automatically show you a default thumbnail, IF there are any graphics found at the destination link, and give you the option to change to other available graphics as thumbnails (if others are present at the destination) OR they allow you to show no thumbnail but still post as a link, OR they allow you to not post as a link but rather just as a regular Facebook status update. I know because I do it all day long. The way Ping is doing it now is NOT the way Facebook "normally works". Neither, for that matter, was the previous way Ping posted to Facebook, since it didn't offer any other option but the status post. However, all of us who were using Ping to post to Facebook were doing it that way for all this time, so we must have been satisfied with the way Ping was doing it. Then suddenly Ping changed and gave us no choice in the matter. Naturally there are those of us who are upset. – David Lambert, on November 04, 2009 19:17

A comment on the question "Why has sending links changed in Ping.fm?" in Ping.fm:

No, Jedi...this wasn't anything like that. Look at how their "announcement" uses the word "automagically". Somebody (or somebodies) over at Ping were soooo busy patting themselves on the back that they found the way to code this and make it happen, that they failed to take a moment and stop and ask themselves "is this something EVERYONE will like?". Because if they had, they would have realized it will be best to take the new code, take the old code, make them live and play well with each other as separate options, and add an option to the "Default Settings" page called something along the lines of "Post Links to Facebook as Facebook Links Instead of Status Updates" (check the box to turn this on, etc.). – David Lambert, on November 03, 2009 13:07

David Lambert replied on November 02, 2009 23:27 to the question "Why has sending links changed in Ping.fm?" in Ping.fm:

Yeah, they told me on Twitter that they intend to make an option:
http://twitter.com/pingfm/status/5272...

"@Dave_Lambert Play with it first and see if you aren't into it. We will make an option soon. Wanted to show it off first!"

Next time they should make the option part of the new code setups BEFORE they migrate their new code into production. That way they don't piss people off. A plan such as the one described in that tweet is too short-sighted; first rule of making a change to an existing system: "Ask yourself, 'what if people don't like this change?,' and plan accordingly."

A comment on the question "Why has sending links changed in Ping.fm?" in Ping.fm:

That link was so long it got messed up. Here's a TinyURL version of the same link, which is Ping's explanation post on FB about the change:

http://tinyurl.com/yzogkrq – David Lambert, on November 02, 2009 14:37

David Lambert replied on November 02, 2009 14:35 to the question "Why has sending links changed in Ping.fm?" in Ping.fm:

This is what happened:

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=pin.../ping.fm?v=feed&story_fbid=336801230248&ref=mf

David Lambert started following the question "Worst to look !!! why message posted to facebook trough ping now with thumbnail?? it's very worst to look,, i dont like it. please remove it" in Ping.fm.

David Lambert started following the question "Why has sending links changed in Ping.fm?" in Ping.fm.

David Lambert started following the problem "Stop thumbnails on Facebook post?" in Ping.fm.

David Lambert started following the problem "message posted to facebook trough ping now with thumbnail?? it's very worst to look,, i dont like it. please remove it." in Ping.fm.

David Lambert started following the question "Choosing Thumbnail For Facebook Fan Page Link?" in Ping.fm.

David Lambert replied on October 08, 2009 01:28 to the problem "Posting Problems" in Ping.fm:

Word for word, same problem. Been happening to me all day.

David Lambert started following the problem "Posting Problems" in Ping.fm.

David Lambert replied on September 08, 2009 19:54 to the problem "Messages not posted" in Ping.fm:

Dennis, their blog entry explaining the issue just posted, and it gives the reason for what you see:

http://ping.fm/blog/what-does-it-all-...

In a nutshell, they had to restore a backup, but as a side-effect of the problem that caused today's no-posting issue, there was no good backup until they get to 5 days ago.

So everything that happened in the last 5 days ("recent post" history, new accounts, updates to configurations of existing accts, etc.) is all gone now. New accts and accts updates will have to be re-done.

As a former IT Dept. System Analyst for years, it's my expectation that this means that any posts we emailed or SMS'ed in, which showed up in the "recent history" before they rebooted and restored the backup, will also need to be re-sent. That data would have been received, then lost during the reboot/backup (as opposed to an email or SMS that wasn't received yet when they took the system down...those will probably still go through).

I'm about to re-submit my two missing posts by way of the Dashboard at the site.

David Lambert replied on September 08, 2009 19:45 to the problem "Messages not posted" in Ping.fm:

You're welcome. Someone had to, I guess. :)

But unfortunately the misinformed me. As I just told them on Twitter:

"Ach, actually the new one I just sent posted to both Twitter & Facebook immediately, with no sign yet of the older posts. Ah, well."

David Lambert replied on September 08, 2009 19:36 to the problem "Messages not posted" in Ping.fm:

On Twitter they posted "We're back up. Blog coming soon to explain the outage."

So over there I asked: "Thanks for the fix! Will previously sent posts (email or dashboard) that are missing go thru now, or will we need to re-send them?"

Their response is: "E-mail will go through, SMS will go through. All else will need to be reposted."

I replied: "Thanks! If I send new emails in now, do you think those posts will appear before or after missing posts from earlier? (hoping after)"

The answer they gave is "They will appear after."