Social Bookmarks

Discussion in 'Forum Related Discussions' started by siljaline, Oct 26, 2012.

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  1. siljaline

    siljaline Registered Member

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    Just a kindly reminder to the Mod Team.

    If someone points to a thread or a stand-alone post that has been socially bookmarked, meaning shared on Twitter or Facebook, etc, if that link is moved, merged, it will break where it was shared outside of these walls.

    A good example is here:
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2136140&postcount=69
    This was a new thread until it was merged which I have no issue with, I had posted the original link to Facebook which immediately broke.

    Again, just a friendly reminder :)
     
  2. LowWaterMark

    LowWaterMark Administrator

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    I'm not sure what are you asking exactly? That we not move, merge or delete anything because someone may have linked to it from social networks? If so, how would we keep things organized? Lets say: Two people start threads near the same time, on the same subject - eg. "New release of ABC 2013 announced." Proper procedure is to merge the threads leaving the oldest thread as the survivor. If the person who posted the second thread made social bookmarks to it, (using its threadid number), that link will certainly be broken.

    So, are you suggesting that we not merge same topic threads any more?

    As an aside to whatever your answer to the above question might be. What you can do to ensure that links will never be broken is to always link to the postid number, not the threadid. Your example link above used postid, which, inspite of the merge, still survives. postid numbers don't go away unless a post is physically deleted. Moving it, or merging it into another thread, will not break its postid-based link. Links to "stand-alone posts" do not break.

    Edit:

    Linking examples:

    1. Linking to this thread by threadid:

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=334820

    2. Linking to this thread by postid:

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=2136162

    The first link would be broken if we merge these posts into another thread. The second link will never break, even if we move the thread, or merge the post(s) into an older, existing thread. So, if you always use postid links, you'll likely never end up with a broken link from outside.
     
  3. siljaline

    siljaline Registered Member

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    My statement was and is that socially shared bookmarks, when shared, if moved, merged - break. That's it.

    If a thread ID stays alive from the original post, let us know how to link to a non-existent thread ID.

    There's no veiled intention or implication of reinventing the wheel, here, or anywhere else, just a reminder in a day of more social shares than ever, it's something to keep in mind, not a note of enforcement how Wilders should govern, manage, threads, posts and overall topics.

    The post I pointed to was immediately questioned where it was on social shares, I went back to to the post and found it had been merged to an existing topic that really should not have been merged to. Why ? It was intended as a new topic, thus it was posted as a new thread and not added to an existing thread.

    Many share their posts and comments on Facebook, I do, all the time.
     
  4. LowWaterMark

    LowWaterMark Administrator

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    I added an edit while you were replying, so re-read my post. The only reason your link would have broken is because you must have linked to it by threadid. If you had linked to it by postid, it never would have broken, regardless of any move or merge operation.

    Simple solution... never link to the forum content by threadid. Always link by postid. postid links never break.
     
  5. siljaline

    siljaline Registered Member

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    I did read your edited post prior to my reply. I just checked the Tweeted link, it remains unbroken, the Facebook link was and remains broken, thus I was forced to link to the stand-alone post that I stated originally.

    I will review posting to third parties or social shares via your recommendations in lieu of how someone normally would in order to avoid link breaks.
     
  6. LowWaterMark

    LowWaterMark Administrator

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    Sounds good.

    And, I will guarantee this to you... If you link to your content with postid based links, the links will not be broken because of any move or merge operation.

    Here's the link you would use for that firefox 16.0 posting:

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=2136140

    That was the link to that posting when you made it as its own thread. And, it remained the link to that post even after it was merged to another thread. (That's what I mean by postid links never break and are the better way to link content. That link never changed.)


    Background/definitions:

    threadid linking is when the variable used in the showthread URL is "t=######"
    postid linking is when the variable used in the showthread (or showpost) URL is "p=#######"
     
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