Facebook & Twitter share buttons

@Moderator 1
https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…witter-buttons
This poll is a small sample size, but you can see there’s some degree of concern about the new Facebook / Twitter buttons that now appear in every post in the profile window.

  • Can you please provide some details on how these buttons may affect data sharing (if any) with the FB & Twitter platforms?
  • Will Mods consider removing them if we start to see a negative impact (eg, trainwrecks getting amplified by new people who come to the thread based on posted links)
  • If we are stuck with them, Is there a way to at least be more efficient about their placement, so they don't take up so much screen space? For example, they could be horizontally aligned in the post footer (where the Quote/Like options are).
Thank you

I posted this in the feedback thread, but I’ll share it here, too.

There is zero difference between sharing to facebook from the “share” button and copying and pasting a link.

I shared both ways to my own facebook–copy/pasted a link at the top, used the share button below. They are identical.

[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“title”:“k4R5DJu.jpg”,“data-attachmentid”:10666319}[/ATTACH]

While I don’t really see the point of sharing to facebook or twitter, it’s NO DIFFERENT than pasting a link. This is, and always has been, a public board. People can paste links to other platforms and it’s indexed by google, and what’s written will show up in searches there.

20200607_082824.jpg

Yes, I said that in my poll-- copy/paste has always been possible, and acknowledged that posts are public. But adding one-clock functionality next to every post makes it easier, and therefore possibly more likely that FB/Twitter users get invited to participate to a thread. I and others question whether that would improve or degrade the coth experience. I personally believe Twitter is a rank cesspool that represents the worst of the internet. FB is a little less rank, but it’s like standing in the grass near the overflowing cesspool, and after a few minutes realizing the grass is actually pretty soggy and now your shoes and socks are all wet and stinky. :lol:

And no, it’s not known to you or me whether it is NO DIFFERENT-- what you see on your screen may look the same, but it’s fair to ask what (if any) user profile information is shared with these other platforms when you use these buttons (vs when you copy/paste). FB and Twitter’s entire revenue model is based on selling info about its users based on what people click. So what (again, if any!) info is COTH sharing about us.

I’ve asked the questions respectfully and without jumping to conclusions, so I respectfully ask that you allow the person I asked (Mod1) to answer, rather than try to shout down the questions as if they’re unreasonable.

4 Likes

It seems like it would have made more sense to tag Mod 1 in your other thread than to simply start yet another thread on this topic.

There are lots of features here that are not set up yet. I would guess this is simply one of them. (But this was said in your other thread so you already know this.)

I see a difference between the two, YMMV.

Off Course: hey fellow users, anyone else share this concern, or am I off base? (Narrator: Over the course of multiple posts by several people, the OP concludes that yes, it appears others do share the concern)

Tech Help: Hey Coth technical peeps: there’s this concern shared by about 30 users, and rather than ask you to wade through a whole discussion on a horse discussion forum, I’ve distilled those concerns into one concise, actionable post, on a forum that you actually “patrol”. (Narrator: if Mods say yes, this will be addressed, then poof! it’s resolved).

Not entirely clear to me why pages and pages of redundant “Edit doesn’t work!” posts don’t seem objectionable or inefficient, but this one is? Anyway, feel free to use your time in better ways than following inefficient threads.

4 Likes

These were a default setting that we haven’t yet really talked about as a team other than me noting they existed and not being sure if people would like them. I just sent out a message to get the conversation going now that we’ve got some of the bigger rocks back in place.

3 Likes

@Moderator 1 It may be that posting to Facebook or Twitter constitutes republication of content. I’m not sure. If it does, it violates your terms of service. (Posting a link brings users back here; reposting does not.I have no idea what that share button really is doing.)

Please have legal team evaluate this functionality on light of your TOS. If the TOS are modified, please provide a clear and complete explanation.

I appreciate @HungarianHippo pointing this out. We all need to be well-informed in our dealings with these social media platforms.

4 Likes

I have shown what the share button does above. Using the share button does indeed bring users back here. The way it posts to Facebook is identical to copy and pasting a link. Content isn’t going anywhere.

1 Like

@Simkie please share your web developer expertise, because what you are saying is simply not supported by the amount of information we have. Unless you know the programming behind the buttons, you do not know that it’s the same as when you cut/paste a URL into the browser bar. All indications point otherwise, actually.
[INDENT]Why Most Share Buttons Go Against Your Privacy Policy: “Even if they’re not used by a visitor, share buttons place cookies on a user’s device when they view a website.”[/INDENT]

Please read Facebook’s data policy and tell me that you are 100% confident that a Facebook-branded share button does not in fact meet this definition: [INDENT]“What are the Facebook Products?
The Facebook Products include Facebook (including the Facebook mobile app and in-app browser), Messenger, Instagram (including apps like Direct and Boomerang), Portal-branded devices, Bonfire, Facebook Mentions, Facebook Shops, Spark AR Studio, Audience Network, NPE Team apps and any other features, apps, technologies, software, products, or services offered by Facebook Inc. or Facebook Ireland Limited under our Data Policy. The Facebook Products also include Facebook Business Tools, which are tools used by website owners and publishers, app developers, business partners (including advertisers) and their customers to support business services and exchange information with Facebook, such as social plugins (like the “Like” or “Share” button) and our SDKs and APIs.”[/INDENT]

And now tell me that you (and all COTH users) consent to the following [INDENT]Data that Facebook Collects:
Information and content you provide. We collect the content, communications and other information you provide when you use our Products, including when you sign up for an account, create or share content, and message or communicate with others. This can include information in or about the content you provide (like metadata), such as the location of a photo or the date a file was created. It can also include what you see through features we provide, such as our camera, so we can do things like suggest masks and filters that you might like, or give you tips on using camera formats. Our systems automatically process content and communications you and others provide to analyze context and what’s in them for the purposes described below. Learn more about how you can control who can see the things you share.
Data with special protections: You can choose to provide information in your Facebook profile fields or Life Events about your religious views, political views, who you are “interested in,” or your health. This and other information (such as racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership) could be subject to special protections under the laws of your country.
Networks and connections. We collect information about the people, Pages, accounts, hashtags and groups you are connected to and how you interact with them across our Products, such as people you communicate with the most or groups you are part of. We also collect contact information if you choose to upload, sync or import it from a device (such as an address book or call log or SMS log history), which we use for things like helping you and others find people you may know and for the other purposes listed below.
Your usage. We collect information about how you use our Products, such as the types of content you view or engage with; the features you use; the actions you take; the people or accounts you interact with; and the time, frequency and duration of your activities. For example, we log when you’re using and have last used our Products, and what posts, videos and other content you view on our Products. We also collect information about how you use features like our camera.
Information about transactions made on our Products. If you use our Products for purchases or other financial transactions (such as when you make a purchase in a game or make a donation), we collect information about the purchase or transaction. This includes payment information, such as your credit or debit card number and other card information; other account and authentication information; and billing, shipping and contact details.
Things others do and information they provide about you. We also receive and analyze content, communications and information that other people provide when they use our Products. This can include information about you, such as when others share or comment on a photo of you, send a message to you, or upload, sync or import your contact information.[/INDENT]

2 Likes

This link leads to a 404, can you please share it in a way that the whole article can be accessed?

Facebook’s data policy and tell me that you are 100% confident that a Facebook-branded share button does not in fact meet this definition: [INDENT]“What are the Facebook Products?
The Facebook Products include Facebook (including the Facebook mobile app and in-app browser), Messenger, Instagram (including apps like Direct and Boomerang), Portal-branded devices, Bonfire, Facebook Mentions, Facebook Shops, Spark AR Studio, Audience Network, NPE Team apps and any other features, apps, technologies, software, products, or services offered by Facebook Inc. or Facebook Ireland Limited under our Data Policy. The Facebook Products also include Facebook Business Tools, which are tools used by website owners and publishers, app developers, business partners (including advertisers) and their customers to support business services and exchange information with Facebook, such as social plugins (like the “Like” or “Share” button)and our SDKs and APIs.”[/INDENT]

Yeah, this looks to relate to the “share” option on Facebook, not the “share to Facebook” here. Different things.

What data do you think is at risk here with these buttons? Because you don’t have to be logged in or even a user to click them. They’re not sending your coth user data to Facebook. I’d really like to understand what you think this is doing that you think copy/paste is not doing. And why you think YOU’RE at risk, if you never use these buttons.

I’ve laid out in extensive detail what (I believe, and am asking COTH programmers to investigate) the difference is. If you don’t have actual experience in the code that underlies website programming, I’m struggling to understand why you are so committed to disproving this.

What you see on the screen is not what’s “happening.” This is what’s happening behind that Share button:
[TABLE]
[TR=“class: cke_show_border”]
[/TR]
[TR=“class: cke_show_border”]
[TD]<ul class=“b-sharing-menu js-sharing-menu js-comp-menu-horizontal js-comp-menu–dropdown-on-small b-post__hide-when-deleted” data-dropdown-trigger-phrase=“share” data-dropdown-icon-classes=“b-icon b-icon__share” data-dropdown-content-classes=“b-sharing-menu–dropdown” data-dropdown-menu-classes=“b-sharing-menu–right-on-small”>[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR=“class: cke_show_border”]
[TD] [/TD]
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[TD]<li class=“b-sharing-menu__item”>[/TD]
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[TR=“class: cke_show_border”]
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[TR=“class: cke_show_border”]
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[TD]<a class=“js-fb-share-dialog b-sharing-menu__item-link b-sharing-menu__item-link–facebook” href=“https://www.facebook.com/sharer/shar…23post10666442” data-url-not-encoded=“https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/forum/technical-assistance/help-forum/10666299-facebook-twitter-share-buttons?p=10666442#post10666442” target="_blank">[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR=“class: cke_show_border”]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD]<svg class=“b-sharing-menu__item-link-img” xmlns=“http://www.w3.org/2000/svg” viewBox=“0 0 16 16” color="#ffffff">[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR=“class: cke_show_border”]
[TD] [/TD]
[TD]<path fill="#ffffff" fill-rule=“evenodd” d=“M8 14H3.667C2.733 13.9 2 13.167 2 12.233V3.667A1.65 1.65 0 0 1 3.667 2h8.666A1.65 1.65 0 0 1 14 3.667v8.566c0 .934-.733 1.667-1.667 1.767H10v-3.967h1.3l.7-2.066h-2V6.933c0-.466.167-.9.867-.9H12v-1.8c.033 0-.933-.266-1.533-.266-1.267 0-2.434.7-2.467 2.133v1.867H6v2.066h2V14z”></path>[/TD]
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[TD]</svg>[/TD]
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[TD]Share[/TD]
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[TD]</a>[/TD]
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[TD]</li>[/TD]
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IF the above is stock code provided by Facebook (I don’t know-- COTH developers will), then yes, that button is likely allowing Facebook to track COTH users as described in my prior post.

From an article “Responsible Social Share Links” written by actual coders, they say: [INDENT]“The privacy of your users is another thing to consider—loading third-party share scripts allows them to track users on your site. Using share links not dependent on third-party scripts is not only faster, but you’re being more responsible and cautious with the privacy of your users, which is another huge plus.”[/INDENT]

It’s truly baffling how firmly you are standing on this stump that you’re on, but I’m not going to continue to try to convince you. I will allow the Mods, who have said they do plan to look into it, to actually look into it.

1 Like

:confused:

You are standing pretty firm on your stump too.

I personally see no reason to have the share buttons there but I am fine with waiting until the fine, and very busy, people at COTH get around to getting rid of them.

1 Like

@HungarianHippo

Okay, so we have coding as to where the button is placed on the page, and what it looks like. And a link is sent to facebook. That is ALL I see. What do you see in the code that you find frightening?

I want to understand why you’re so afraid here.

And if you’re talking about this article? https://jonsuh.com/blog/social-share-links/

What we have here IS what he’s outlined as “responsible social share” links :confused:

If you’re not talking about that article, will you please post a live link for what you ARE talking about?

@trubandloki I have expressed zero urgency to the fine and busy people at COTH. I have not once said that I know for sure I’m right. I’ve said here’s what I suspect and am concerned about, please look into this and let us know.
I have consistently responded to the requests for more information from another user (who has followed me from thread to thread to definitively say in all caps that there’s no way what I’m asking could be true, without having offered any basis for this strong belief other than what they’re seeing on the screen).

It’s like saying you’re not going to call the vet to investigate a possible colic, despite your experience that certain symptoms are common with colic, because you can’t physically see the impaction. All I’m doing is calling the vet. If it’s not colic, then great.

2 Likes

:lol: Frankly, I’m afraid of you Simke. This is truly bizarre. That, and I’m really afraid FB will find out that I have a secret, goat fetish. And that sometimes I eat Dots candy and diet pepsi for breakfast.

1 Like

@HungarianHippo did you know that you can look at the cookies a website is loading?

Here are the cookies from COTH:

I used the “share to FB” link and these did not change.

This site has a good rundown of what most of these are.

https://greenronin.com/cookie-policy/

vBulletin sets a number of cookies to make our Community Forum functional. Disabling these cookies may make some parts of the Support Forum non-functional.

  • [B]bblastactivity (session, functionality cookie)[/B] records the time you were last active on the forum to update your public profile .
  • [B]bblastvisit (session, functionality necessary cookie)[/B] records the time of your last visit to the forum, so you can be brought updates.
  • [B]bbpasword (persistent, functionality cookie)[/B] enables auto-login on subsequent visits. Your password is stored only if ‘Remember me’ is checked on loggin. The cookie expires in one year.
  • [B]bbsessionhash (session, functionality necessary cookie)[/B] is a randomly generated hexadecimal string used for security purposes.
  • [B]bbuserid (persistent, functionality cookie)[/B] enables auto-login on subsequent visits. Your User Name is stored if ‘Remember me’ is checked on loggin. This cookie expires in one year.
  • [B]PHPSESSID (session, strictly necessary cookie)[/B] establishes a user session and passes state data via a session cookie. It helps maintain a logged-in status for a user between pages.
  • [B]bbnp_notices_displayed (session, strictly necessary cookie)[/B]

Yes, I agree that this is bizarre. I’d really like to understand what you think is happening here with these buttons. Because a lot of what you’re talking about just isn’t happening.

And, to be clear, I don’t care about these. I see no real use for them. But I also don’t see why you think they’re this huge problem, and I’d really like to understand what you think they’re doing. And how you think they’re somehow impacting your privacy if you never click them.

@HungarianHippo did you know that you can look at the cookies a website is loading?

Here are the cookies from COTH:

[IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:"https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/core/image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==)”‹

I used the “share to FB” link and these did not change. You can see that they are all from this site here.

This site has a good rundown of what most of these are.

https://greenronin.com/cookie-policy/

vBulletin sets a number of cookies to make our Community Forum functional. Disabling these cookies may make some parts of the Support Forum non-functional.

  • [B]bblastactivity (session, functionality cookie)[/B] records the time you were last active on the forum to update your public profile .
  • [B]bblastvisit (session, functionality necessary cookie)[/B] records the time of your last visit to the forum, so you can be brought updates.
  • [B]bbpasword (persistent, functionality cookie)[/B] enables auto-login on subsequent visits. Your password is stored only if ‘Remember me’ is checked on loggin. The cookie expires in one year.
  • [B]bbsessionhash (session, functionality necessary cookie)[/B] is a randomly generated hexadecimal string used for security purposes.
  • [B]bbuserid (persistent, functionality cookie)[/B] enables auto-login on subsequent visits. Your User Name is stored if ‘Remember me’ is checked on loggin. This cookie expires in one year.
  • [B]PHPSESSID (session, strictly necessary cookie)[/B] establishes a user session and passes state data via a session cookie. It helps maintain a logged-in status for a user between pages.
  • [B]bbnp_notices_displayed (session, strictly necessary cookie)[/B]

Yes, I agree that this is bizarre. I’d really like to understand what you think is happening here with these buttons. Because a lot of what you’re talking about just isn’t happening.

And, to be clear, I don’t care about these. I see no real use for them. But I also don’t see why you think they’re this huge problem, and I’d really like to understand what you think they’re doing. And how you think they’re somehow impacting your privacy if you never click them.

Further, let’s look at what that button actually IS, right?

https://natehoffelder.com/blog/makin…for-beginners/

It’s not provided by facebook. It’s just a link. Here’s the link, so you can see it. I’ve added some spaces so the board won’t actually hyperlink it and shorten it.

https://www .facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://www .chronofhorse.com/forum/%2Fforum%2Ftechnical-assistance%2Fhelp-forum%2F10666299-facebook-twitter-share-buttons%3Fp%3D10666318%23post10666318

That first part, the https://www .facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php? is what launches the “share to FB” window where you can log in to FB and set how you want to share it…to your wall, limit to certain friends, to your story, whatever.

The second part is the link to be shared.

Two parts, that’s it. No cookies, nothing is being sent to FB. Other than the link.

@HungarianHippo you can look at all of this yourself–load up your cookies and SEE what the board is doing. You don’t need to take my word for it, or the COTH devs, or anyone else. Just google your browser and how to view cookies and see for yourself. Google around with this part of the link https://www .facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php? and “privacy” and see what turns up–nothing, other than this blog that talks about this being a GOOD way to do this.

Really, I hope this info eases your concerns about this stuff. There’s nothing nefarious going on, it’s all pretty basic and yeah, not different than sharing a link on FB via copy/paste…

The buttons have been removed.

8 Likes

Thank you, those were very sensitive tabs.
Just scrolling over them would open a window asking to sign on those places.
Maybe not necessary for 99.99% of the tabs we make use in these forums.

1 Like