Is There A Way To Prevent A Thread From Being "Featured" on Facebook? - Page 5

[Three~Little~Birds]

Ok. I have to chime in.
I have been visiting this forum since 2002, even though my join date is later.
I tend to lurk more than I post, but I am on this form just about every day. Sometimes for hours.
I also have a Facebook account. I recently only 'liked' mothering on FB as a result of some contest giveaway. Had I not done that, I would have had no idea that 'our' threads were being published there. As it is, I only noticed it the other day with the 'gun play' thread. It was the first time that I actually clicked on one of the threads in FB. I was horrified to see that it was the actual thread from our community. I don't know what i was actually expecting, but I was really glad that I hadn't posted in that thread. I am a shy person (hence my lurking!!) and don't want my opinions randomly posted on FB an twitter, or anywhere else in the future! I did feel like it was a violation.

So, if our posts are the property of MDC, does that mean that once they are on FB they become the property of FB too?

I really value the experiences and opinions of the senior members in this forum and it would be such a shame to lose any more of them as a result of this poorly managed issue.

[philomom]

Originally Posted by AislinCarys 

If posts written by me appear on threads on F-book, and I remove the posts from the thread back here, will they still appear on F-book? If that is the case, I'm leaving this Forum. And I will remove every post I've written here, to prevent them appearing on F-book in the future. I feel betrayed.

As I am not on either F-book or Twitter, I cannot check if any of my stuff is there.

Sweetie, I feel bad, too.

Maybe the length of this thread will convince the admin that we need something different in place here.

[robinia]

So here is some food for thought - I posted above re the other site that I visit.  It is not like Mothering one bit - nothing remotely natural parenting about it, not US-based, attached to a large media organisation - I visit it because it is local to me (I'm not in the US) so it's helpful for school issues etc.  I went there after logging off here, and what do you know, there was a new thread started on one of the exact topics that I saw in a new thread on Mothering when I was here earlier today.  I don't want to be too sarcastic about this, because I really love Mothering, but this seems off.

Anyway, if nothing else I think it would be appropriate to alert people, in a prominent way, to the fact that your thread may be featured on unrelated social networking sites.  The opt-in idea would be preferable.

[MusicianDad]

Originally Posted by BarefootScientist 

Originally Posted by AislinCarys 

If posts written by me appear on threads on F-book, and I remove the posts from the thread back here, will they still appear on F-book? If that is the case, I'm leaving this Forum. And I will remove every post I've written here, to prevent them appearing on F-book in the future. I feel betrayed.

As I am not on either F-book or Twitter, I cannot check if any of my stuff is there.

You can actually. At least Twitter, I was just there. Just go to twitter.com and search for mothering, it will pull up their feed and you can see what threads they have linked. On facebook I think you will probably be able to see it too. Mothering's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/mothering.magazine

And like someone else mentioned, it is a link TO the thread. So people can comment about it on facebook, for example, but in order to see your posts, they have to click through here to mothering.com.

Unless you are the original poster, in which case the first couple of lines or so appear on facebook.
 

[BarefootScientist]

Originally Posted by MusicianDad 

Unless you are the original poster, in which case the first couple of lines or so appear on facebook.
 

True that.

[luv my 2 sweeties]

Adding my voice to the list of those concerned (and a bit shocked) by this "hidden" practice.  I joined Mothering.com long before FB or Twitter existed and I had no idea until I saw this thread that this was happening.  I find it disturbing that a post can be discussed on a third party site -- said discussion initiated by Mothering.com -- without the OP having any clue that the discussion is going on!

At the very least, there needs to be an opt in button at the time a new thread is started.  Something like, "Do we have your permission to invite our fans on various social networking sites to view and comment on this post?"  Secondarily, once permission is granted, there should be some indication on a thread that permission has been given so that members can choose whether to comment and/or how much to comment.  Third, I would prefer not to allow comments on FB about links to posts -- I'd prefer that anyone who wants to comment would have to do so on Mothering.com -- but this is 3rd on the list for me and not necessarily a deal-breaker.  Informed consent is a much higher priority.

[Linda on the move]

I found the moderator response to this topic on the Talk Among Ourselves board to be offensive.

It was snarky, and she she knew it was snarky!

http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/1314350/threads-cross-posting-to-facebook-do-you-care#post_16462118

Does her response represent the Mothering.com response to long time members who are concerned? 

[Cynthia Mosher]

Thank you all for your input and for assuming the best of us and our intentions. We've featured threads for awhile now and we never meant to hide the fact that we were doing so on Facebook and Twitter. It didn't even cross our minds that it would be viewed in the way some of you have expressed. 

Doing things to get traffic to the site is certainly something we put our efforts into and while the revenue we gain is certainly beneficial to keep the site running, Mothering's primary purpose on the web is to spread the word of Natural Family Living and Attachment Parenting and to be a place of resource, information and support for parents. That is the main drive behind what we do. We use what resources we can that do not cost us money ( our budget is slim and with having to close the magazine I'm sure you can all appreciate that fact). Social media is now a big piece of marketing your site for lots of websites. We really had no idea this would be such an issue for some of you and I'm sorry we didn't consider it more carefully and discuss it with you beforehand.

We appreciate all of the ideas and suggestions as well as the concern about privacy and opt-in. We've come up with a number of alternative ways to feature MDC on Mothering's Twitter and Facebook, one being our Question of the Day thread that is featured on the Community homepage. It is a discussion we start every day so it is Mothering-initiated. We will no longer feature member-started threads on Facebook and Twitter. If for some reason we do decide a thread is important and we want to feature it we will request permission from the person who started the thread. 

Does that cover everyone's concerns? 

[robinia]

[MamieCole]

Originally Posted by Cynthia Mosher 

Thank you all for your input and for assuming the best of us and our intentions. We've featured threads for awhile now and we never meant to hide the fact that we were doing so on Facebook and Twitter. It didn't even cross our minds that it would be viewed in the way some of you have expressed. 

Doing things to get traffic to the site is certainly something we put our efforts into and while the revenue we gain is certainly beneficial to keep the site running, Mothering's primary purpose on the web is to spread the word of Natural Family Living and Attachment Parenting and to be a place of resource, information and support for parents. That is the main drive behind what we do. We use what resources we can that do not cost us money ( our budget is slim and with having to close the magazine I'm sure you can all appreciate that fact). Social media is now a big piece of marketing your site for lots of websites. We really had no idea this would be such an issue for some of you and I'm sorry we didn't consider it more carefully and discuss it with you beforehand.

We appreciate all of the ideas and suggestions as well as the concern about privacy and opt-in. We've come up with a number of alternative ways to feature MDC on Mothering's Twitter and Facebook, one being our Question of the Day thread that is featured on the Community homepage. It is a discussion we start every day so it is Mothering-initiated. We will no longer feature member-started threads on Facebook and Twitter. If for some reason we do decide a thread is important and we want to feature it we will request permission from the person who started the thread. 

Does that cover everyone's concerns? 

Yes! Thank you!

And thank you for listening to our concerns and looking at it from a different perspective. THAT's the Mothering I know and love. 

[BarefootScientist]

I'm so glad you are taking our concerns into consideration. Thank you!

[sunnysandiegan]

Thank you!!!

[azgirl]

Yay for MDC addressing the concerns of members!!

That said...I am super confused about this reaction. Both FB and Twitter require more effort to see posts than Google. The way MDC was using the FB page and Twitter was simply as an extension of mothering.com, rather than going to the mothering.com page, you go to the page on FB or Twitter or subscribe to the news feed or tweets. You would not see any of the posts in question if you didn't already "like" mothering on FB or specifically go to the Facebook or Twitter page or subscribe to Twitter feed. The chances of someone who wouldn't come to mothering.com seeing your posts is quite small. Like many of you I discovered the Mothering forums when I Googled something. I did not have to "jump" through the hoops of searching for Mothering like I would on FB or Twitter. As I think more about this, I suppose a thread featured on Twitter could become popular and be reTweeted (or whatever it's called) and go viral or something...but people do that with lots of random stuff on the internet and are much more likely to stumble across a Mothering thread on Google accidentally. I dunno, I am pretty private and it stresses me that all my posts here are so easy to stumble upon. BUT that is how I found Mothering in the first place...I can see being upset about this if Mothering was a totally private forum, but it isn't. The private posts weren't featured on FB or Twitter.

Are you guys comfortable with your threads showing up on Google without someone having to express an interest in Mothering (like they do for FB and Twitter)?? Should we have an opt-in button in order for our posts to be findable on Google?

I share all your concerns with privacy, but after looking at the Mothering Twitter feed, I feel like in responding to the concerns presented here Mothering has lost a really important tool in using the media and technology options that are available to reach people who are interested in Natural Living and Attachment Parenting. Our privacy was much less of an issue than it currently is with Google searches...

I get the third party thing...but Google is a third party also...is it that we all understand and use Google and it's just obvious that we will show up in Google searches? I can see why MDC didn't feel the need to tell us about FB and Twitter. If they post a link to our post on FB we aren't suddenly on FB. Anybody can post a link to one of our posts to his/her Facebook page...

I am glad the Mothering.com was able to come to a solution that made upset posters happy, that's a good thing. I had no idea about FB or Twitter, but I am too private to "like" many things on FB and I don't use Twitter...but I still feel a little bummed about this.

Oh well, it's all a moot point. Some of the posters that are upset about this are ones I find are almost always perceptive and "get it". Maybe you all can explain what I am missing?

And no, I didn't feel comfortable going against the crowd until after the issue was resolved. I can be a weanie.

[philomom]

Wow, yes... much better.

[Arduinna]

Thank you Cynthia

[7thDaughter]

I too had no idea our postings were being linked elsewhere on social media. I am deeply concerned about my net privacy, my own and everyone else's.  I have always preferred to keep my personal/family life, working life, and social life separate. 

Many of us put very personal and painful worries out on MDC in order to plug into a community of very smart and knowledgeable women (and men), with an understanding that most of us are highly thoughtful parents with an understanding of AP & GD that often leads us to non-vaxing, non-circing, home schooling, ecologically minded family life which goes against the mainstream and also sometimes against unreasonable laws.  For some of us, MDC is the only place where we have found AP community and a tribe that gets us.  So, finding more weird stuff recently and fewer threads of value to me, I have been visiting less. Now finding that MDC threads were going out to people who did not self-select into this community, explains why. 

Thank you MDC for listening to our concerns and making changes to policy.  We speak up because we don't want to lose you!

[MusicianDad]

Thank you!

[treegardner]

Originally Posted by azgirl 

Yay for MDC addressing the concerns of members!!

That said...I am super confused about this reaction. Both FB and Twitter require more effort to see posts than Google. The way MDC was using the FB page and Twitter was simply as an extension of mothering.com, rather than going to the mothering.com page, you go to the page on FB or Twitter or subscribe to the news feed or tweets. You would not see any of the posts in question if you didn't already "like" mothering on FB or specifically go to the Facebook or Twitter page or subscribe to Twitter feed. The chances of someone who wouldn't come to mothering.com seeing your posts is quite small. Like many of you I discovered the Mothering forums when I Googled something. I did not have to "jump" through the hoops of searching for Mothering like I would on FB or Twitter. As I think more about this, I suppose a thread featured on Twitter could become popular and be reTweeted (or whatever it's called) and go viral or something...but people do that with lots of random stuff on the internet and are much more likely to stumble across a Mothering thread on Google accidentally. I dunno, I am pretty private and it stresses me that all my posts here are so easy to stumble upon. BUT that is how I found Mothering in the first place...I can see being upset about this if Mothering was a totally private forum, but it isn't. The private posts weren't featured on FB or Twitter.

Are you guys comfortable with your threads showing up on Google without someone having to express an interest in Mothering (like they do for FB and Twitter)?? Should we have an opt-in button in order for our posts to be findable on Google?

I share all your concerns with privacy, but after looking at the Mothering Twitter feed, I feel like in responding to the concerns presented here Mothering has lost a really important tool in using the media and technology options that are available to reach people who are interested in Natural Living and Attachment Parenting. Our privacy was much less of an issue than it currently is with Google searches...

I get the third party thing...but Google is a third party also...is it that we all understand and use Google and it's just obvious that we will show up in Google searches? I can see why MDC didn't feel the need to tell us about FB and Twitter. If they post a link to our post on FB we aren't suddenly on FB. Anybody can post a link to one of our posts to his/her Facebook page...

I am glad the Mothering.com was able to come to a solution that made upset posters happy, that's a good thing. I had no idea about FB or Twitter, but I am too private to "like" many things on FB and I don't use Twitter...but I still feel a little bummed about this.

Oh well, it's all a moot point. Some of the posters that are upset about this are ones I find are almost always perceptive and "get it". Maybe you all can explain what I am missing?

And no, I didn't feel comfortable going against the crowd until after the issue was resolved. I can be a weanie.

I completely agree with all of this. I'm a member of a few different forums and for the ones that have FB fan pages and Twitter accounts this is pretty standard practice. 
 

 

[katelove]

Originally Posted by Cynthia Mosher 

. If for some reason we do decide a thread is important and we want to feature it we will request permission from the person who started the thread. 

Does that cover everyone's concerns? 

And will that thread then be flagged in some way so that the rest of the posters, not just the OP, know that it has gone on FB/Twitter?

To answer the PP who asked about the difference between FB and Google, this is what it is for me...

1. I knew MDC appeared on Google searches. I'm pretty sure that's how I found it. So it was a case of being forewarned about that. It's always in the back of my mind when I post.

2. I feel like Google is an extra degree of separation from my real life compared to FB. Someone who knows me who stumbled across a post of mine while searching Google may not put it together that I was the person they know IRL but if they see a post of mine *from* my FB newsfeed it's just that little bit more likely that they'll put two and two together KWIM. It may not be a wholely rational concern but that's my issue.

[dawningmama]

Originally Posted by Linda on the move 

I found the moderator response to this topic on the Talk Among Ourselves board to be offensive.

It was snarky, and she she knew it was snarky!

http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/1314350/threads-cross-posting-to-facebook-do-you-care#post_16462118

Does her response represent the Mothering.com response to long time members who are concerned? 

I quite clearly said that I didn't mean it to be snarky but I realized it might be read that way.

I do not represent mothering in this regard. I was speaking of my own experience and understanding of online social networking. I apologize if that was unclear.
Edited by dawningmama - 5/24/11 at 4:35am