So, we’ve been working on expanding the Press’ web presence. Part of this involves signing up for every possible social network imaginable: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WordPress, ad infinitum. One of the nice things about all these websites is that they are designed to be linked with each other. This creates a huge cyber-claw (is cyber still an “in” word for technology?) that can ensnare all of our buzzing, fleeting web-thoughts. The problem with this is that it doesn’t always work, at least not quickly or easily.
The first order of business was to beef up our Facebook page. Facebook is one of those internet phenomena that has transcended its niche; to analogize in as modern a way possible, Facebook has become the Google of social networking. Everyone is on Facebook now, it’s hard to have a house party without your grandmother and second cousin twice-removed getting invites. I wasn’t immediately aware that we had a Facebook page, as there was also a UA Press Facebook profile. As everyone already knows (and if you don’t, where have you been?) Facebook lets you create profiles for your own personal self and pages for entities. There are also groups, but we aren’t going to get started on groups (unless we’re talking about The Akron Series in Poetry Group). When I discovered the page, a Jones-esque Golden Idol hiding in the Facebookian jungle, I had the same result as Indiana. By grasping onto the elusive page, I have had to outrun the menacing boulder of technology.
The initial idea was, and remains, that the Facebook page acts as the hub for all the other non-website-web-based stuff. When we post a YouTube video, this is embedded in our Facebook page. When new events are scheduled, you hear about this on our Facebook page. When Bessie, the Lake Erie Monster, is spotted vacationing in Summit Lake, this is on our Facebook page. Everything was going smoothly, the page was becoming more streamlined, the world was calm and all was well. Then came Twitter.
We created a Twitter account and, at first, it ran perfectly. When the Facebook page was updated, Twitter was updated. We even had 8 followers, without any work! I had no experience with Twitter up to this point but had heard the whispers:
“It’s like a blog, but teeny tiny!”
“It’s quick, and so so so fun!”
“It will change the way you look at the interweb!”
I even had a rough idea of what Twitter was. My rough idea turned out to exactly right, Twitter lets you post updates that are the length of an SMS text message. There’s a few flourishes here and there, but that pretty much sums it up. So what’s so special about this, and why has it become the source of such frustration? Well, it was immediately cool that when I updated the Facebook, Twitter “tweeted” the update. Then I found that Twitter could be embedded on the blog (look to your right). All this was fairly cool, kind of fun, and I was beginning to think that the way I looked at the interweb was changing (not really). Then an ominous button appeared on Facebook: “Allow Twitter to update your status.”
If we backtrack a bit, my initial confusion with the Press’ Facebook was the distinction between profile and page. The page is set up to be run by administrators. The old profile is an administrator and remains as a convenient way to update the page. The problem with many Facebook applications is that they default to the profile. Some (such as Twitter) allow the page to be used in lieu of the profile. This is how Twitter was set up initially. Once the “update status” button was clicked, this began to publish Twitter posts to the profile. It was some kind of strange feedback semi-loop, I would post an event on the Facebook page, it would bounce to Twitter, then Twitter would shoot it over to the Facebook profile. This was a problem, as the profile serves to redirect people to the page. We don’t want new posts. The tweets were crowding out the only relevant post, which says go here. So I removed the connection between Facebook and Twitter, assuming that I could reestablish it as it was before the button was pressed. I was wrong.
As of now, I have deleted the Facebook Twitter application, the Twitter account, and reinitiated these several times. The closest I can get is that Twitter will update the profile. No Twitter updates from Facebook! I’m baffled and convinced that I found some Facebook/Twitter wormhole that has since closed. I’m going to remain optimistic in my search though, which is why I’m titling this post “Pt. 1″ in anticipation of some great breakthrough. Then the “Joys” can refer to actual “hey, that’s cools” rather than an expression of ironic WWW frustration.
I’ll keep you posted.
- Curt
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1 Comment
October 12, 2009 at 11:36 am
Yeah, I remember looking at that and having my head spin. I was never sure what would update what. Glad to see you’re making progress.