PI on Twitter

shellyboo

I've noticed that one of the boards Twitter accounts is publicising popular threads, which I think is a fantastic feature - takes me to parts of the site I'd never usually look at. I do notice though that it's also putting PI threads up there, which worries me.


As far as I can see, the whole ethos of PI is that you can post anonymously and decide how much info to reveal so that you won't be identified - but do posters know that the info might be going out to the wider public on Twitter as well? It just seems to me that it adds another level of exposure to something that's supposed to be private. It would only take about two degrees of separation (a boardsie RTing, a non-boardsie seeing it and clicking through) for someone to possibly recognise an OP - which is par for the course, I guess, online - but I think if OPs knew that there was a possibility that their thread would be pimped on Twitter, they'd think twice about what details they put up there, or possibly they wouldn't post at all.


It just struck me as a bit inappropriate, tbh. Like recording a Samaritans phone call and putting it on YouTube for the lulz. Or am I being ridiculously oversensitive?

I understand it would be a pain to fix, btw, since it's clearly automated.

Nevyn

shellyboo wrote: »

I've noticed that one of the boards Twitter accounts is publicising popular threads, which I think is a fantastic feature - takes me to parts of the site I'd never usually look at. I do notice though that it's also putting PI threads up there, which worries me.

I am not impressed by it either.

shellyboo wrote: »

- but I think if OPs knew that there was a possibility that their thread would be pimped on Twitter, they'd think twice about what details they put up there, or possibly they wouldn't post at all.

I agree, while pages on boards are indexed in google, google does not have a targeted audience unlike the @boardstop tweets.

shellyboo wrote: »

It just struck me as a bit inappropriate, tbh. Like recording a Samaritans phone call and putting it on YouTube for the lulz. Or am I being ridiculously oversensitive?

I honestly think it goes against the ethos of PI/RI has a safe space.

shellyboo wrote: »

I understand it would be a pain to fix, btw, since it's clearly automated.

I don't know what critea are used to select the threads so I have no idea how difficult it may be to rule pi/ri threads out.

Gordon

Are PI/RI latest posts shown on the front page?

Gordon

Gordon wrote: »

Are PI/RI latest posts shown on the front page?

Yah, they are.

Ponster

shellyboo wrote: »

It just seems to me that it adds another level of exposure to something that's supposed to be private.

PI isn't private. It can be anonymous but it's far from private seeing as the posts show up in Google.

Nevyn

As I already said else where there is a difference between posting an issue in PI or responding in PI and then having those posts highlighted via a 3rd party system such as twitter.

Ponster

Thaedydal wrote: »

As I already said else where there is a difference between posting an issue in PI or responding in PI and then having those posts highlighted via a 3rd party system such as twitter.

Agreeded.

I was addressing the often believed 'fact' that PI is a private forum, 'non-indexed by Google' forum.

Silverfish

I think if I was to post how I was abused, or my husband / wife had an affair, or my partner was dying, I would know I posted it, and I would be aware the post will be on the front page, and if I searched the terms on google I would get my own thread.

What I would NOT be prepared for is "Popular thread: <your problem here>!!' when I log in to twitter.

Gordon

Google is third party too. The only way that people read this rss feed is if they have chosen to sign up to follow the feed really. I'm not sure how different that is to the rss feed of the front page tbh.

Nevyn

Have you seen how quickly and widereaching a retweet on twitter can be?
Big difference between a person having an rss from the front page in thier personal feeds and that.
Also the pages get lost in the wash in google unlike with this pointed and selected broadcast push.

Nerin

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=boards.ie+personal+issues&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=personal+issues&btnG=Search&meta=

very first search for "personal issues" shows boards.ie.

http://boardreader.com/fp/boards_ie_15682/Personal_Issues_104532.html

gives the option to see "hot threads".

i see where people are coming from not liking an automated system "slapping PI in their faces" but the front page is automated and they show up there yes?*

PI gets respect from us here, we dont allow people to make fun of PI threads in public forums. We don't give people crap about their PIs on other forums.

its a tricky one, but imo its fine having it on an automatic updater like the twitter.
it can be RSS'd anyway.

(*i dunno, i used my subbed list as front page posts.)

edit: beaten to it

Silverfish

Sigh. There's a difference between searching for something, and having it spammed at you.

Anyway, if everyone believes this is fine, perhaps a warning should be posted permanently in announcements on PI to let people know their threads can be tweeted by a board.ie account on twitter.

Then that way whoever doesn't care about it being found on twitter will be able to post.

Conor

They get indexed by Google/Yahoo!/etc., appear on the front page, appear in Google Alerts and are generally pretty well publicised. You can even get a stream of the threads in PI by subscribing to an RSS feed of it. PI isn't private by any stretch of the imagination.

Personally, I don't think putting them out on Twitter from the boards_top account will increase their publicity either quantitatively or qualitatively. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, I don't know.

Ross implemented this, so I don't know how the threads are selected. If ye think that PI/RI threads are appearing more often than they would by virtue of their relative popularity, I'm sure he'll be open to suggestions.

Conor

Silverfish wrote: »

Sigh. There's a difference between searching for something, and having it spammed at you.

It's only "spammed at you" if you follow boards_top or happen to be watching the public timeline.

Silverfish wrote: »

Then that way whoever doesn't care about it being found on twitter will be able to post.

Remember, even if we don't automatically post some of them to Twitter, there's still nothing stopping anyone making a Twitter feed out of the PI RSS feed or even just tweeting links to PI threads that interest them.

Ludo

In fairness, anyone who puts an personal issue on the internet kinda knows already that people can read it...whether it be just boards.ie members, someone googling or someone watching a twitter feed. Don't see the difference between them myself. In fact I had never even heard of that twitter feed until now...thanks for publicising it :-)

shellyboo

Nerin wrote: »

PI gets respect from us here, we dont allow people to make fun of PI threads in public forums. We don't give people crap about their PIs on other forums.

That's exactly my worry... PI holds a special status on boards, and publicising it on Twitter leaves the forum, and its posters, open to identifaction and possible trouble.

Silverfish wrote: »

I think if I was to post how I was abused, or my husband / wife had an affair, or my partner was dying, I would know I posted it, and I would be aware the post will be on the front page, and if I searched the terms on google I would get my own thread.

What I would NOT be prepared for is "Popular thread: <your problem here>!!' when I log in to twitter.

Exactly. I'm out of thanks, but this is what I'm trying to say.

Gordon wrote: »

Google is third party too. The only way that people read this rss feed is if they have chosen to sign up to follow the feed really. I'm not sure how different that is to the rss feed of the front page tbh.

You have to literall go and type things into Google though, look for something. Same with the boards front page - people know that boardsies look at that.

Twitter is not like Google. What could happen is, one boardsie RTs a PI tweet. That goes out to his 500 followers, some of whom are non-boardsies. Ireland is a small, small place. Who's to say that one of those non-boardises won't click through and identify their partner or brother or sister?

Yes, I accept that this is the risk you take online. I have no problem with the Twitter feed itself - the problem I have is that PI posters do not know, and have no way of knowing, that their thread could appear on Twitter. They're deciding whether or not to post, and how much information to post, without knowing that Twitter is a factor. That's not ok, imo.

Nerin

Ludo wrote: »

In fairness, anyone who puts an personal issue on the internet kinda knows already that people can read it...whether it be just boards.ie members, someone googling or someone watching a twitter feed. Don't see the difference between them myself.

pretty much my feelings on it.
i think its proper that other forums on boards respect it, but its google-able, rss-able and twitter-able by anyone.

shellyboo wrote: »

That's exactly my worry... PI holds a special status on boards, and publicising it on Twitter leaves the forum, and its posters, open to identifaction and possible trouble.

yes, it holds status on boards and i agree with that status. but its not private, it has the ability to post unregistered and it has our respect here.
i see anything other than that as putting it up on a pedestal that imo it doesnt deserve.
sounds harsh, but in reality, if /b/ or anyone else wanna troll, they'll troll.
An Rss or retweet isnt going to set them off in a special way.

You have to literall go and type things into Google though, look for something. Same with the boards front page - people know that boardsies look at that.

just because it takes less clicks or typing doesnt change it in my eyes.
its just potluck.

Twitter is not like Google. What could happen is, one boardsie RTs a PI tweet. That goes out to his 500 followers, some of whom are non-boardsies.

That can be done on msn, facebook, bebo, my website, thumped etc etc.

Yes, I accept that this is the risk you take online. I have no problem with the Twitter feed itself - the problem I have is that PI posters do not know, and have no way of knowing, that their thread could appear on Twitter. They're deciding whether or not to post, and how much information to post, without knowing that Twitter is a factor. That's not ok, imo.

And i agree with Silverfish idea, it can be announced. actually, having a guide to the find-ability of info online would be a good addition to the charter.

Silverfish wrote: »

I find it to be intrusive spam. But that's besides the point.

can you simply block it then? im actually gonna check twitter, because i havent paid attention to it in a while.

Nevyn

The site is google indexed but this is different this is a boards member of staff pushing threads to give them more publicity and broadcasting them on a 3rd party service.


Yes pi/ri threads appear on the front page but you have to be lookin at the front page to see them.

shellyboo

Nerin wrote: »

And i agree with Silverfish idea, it can be announced. actually, having a guide to the find-ability of info online would be a good addition to the charter.
.

This is the least that should be done, IMO. All I know is that knowing it *might* appear on Twitter, which a vast, vast majority of my friends (who would never look at boards in a million years) use would stop me from posting.

I just think everyone should be able to make that same call.

Fajitas!

Tbh, I wouldn't have known about this whole fandango if it weren't for Thaed's RT from earlier on.

I'd be against it, but then again, I'm against PI appearing on the front page too.

Silverfish

I'm finding it weird that the search function was removed from PI to protect the privacy of the posters there, then there's a boards twitter account set up to retweet threads.

Nerin

Thaedydal wrote: »

The site is google indexed but this is different this is a boards member of staff pushing threads to give them more publicity and broadcasting them on a 3rd party service.

Thats hardly relevant. i could do it.
you could do it. some smart ass on another site could do it for bad reasons.
a member of staff doing it (and not SPECIFICALLY doing it,as its about the popularity of the thread) would make me more comfortable tbh.

Yes pi/ri threads appear on the front page but you have to be lookin at the front page to see them.

The front page is the first thing you see on boards.
Boards is one of the first search results on google.

shellyboo wrote: »

This is the least that should be done, IMO.

Agreed, charter update and announcement would be great, no matter the outcome of this feedback.

All I know is that knowing it *might* appear on Twitter, which a vast, vast majority of my friends (who would never look at boards in a million years) use would stop me from posting.

Thats your choice. there are many people that are probably put off posting when they see the 4000+ Online notice in the top left of the page.

I just think everyone should be able to make that same call.

Totally agree. I liked this idea, and added it. theres lotsa resources on boards/for boards that get neglected and go un-noticed.
There should be an announcement on PI.

Nevyn

Which puts them on the twitter servers and feeds which are archived and searched by several other 3rd party sites.

shellyboo

Silverfish wrote: »

I'm finding it weird that the search function was removed from PI to protect the privacy of the posters there, then there's a boards twitter account set up to retweet threads.

+1


Either we're trying to keep it as private as possible, or we're not.

Nevyn

Nerin wrote: »

Thats hardly relevant. i could do it.
you could do it. some smart ass on another site could do it for bad reasons.
a member of staff doing it (and not SPECIFICALLY doing it,as its about the popularity of the thread) would make me more comfortable tbh.

I am not happy that it was set up as a 'project' and we were not told or informed about it or asked for feedback and I learned about it first on the 31st of July when I saw a PI thread highligthed by the @boards_top bot and I flagged it as an issue and never got a response to only see the same thing happen again this evening.

Gordon

Weird that search is disabled but Google is indexing at will with no objections from anyone? I guess.

Nevyn

Not werid, big difference between someone finding at thread in an ocean of threads on google and having it pointedly pushed on twitter.

Silverfish

Gordon wrote: »

Weird that search is disabled but Google is indexing at will with no objections from anyone? I guess.

Not for me, I'd have to actually go to google and put in specific search terms, its not coming direct to my inbox / twitter etc.

Nerin

Thaedydal wrote: »

I am not happy that it was set up as a 'project' and we were not told or informed about it or asked for feedback and

In fairness,i dont think anyone would have thought to inform the PI mods.
Its something i would have forgotten. Human error maybe, but its not like we HAVE to be informed of everything, we are just mods.

]I learned about it first on the 31st of July when I saw a PI thread highligthed by the @boards_top bot and I flagged it as an issue and never got a response to only see the same thing happen again this evening.

em, you did get a response, approx five hours later, and didnt reply.
the thread in question wasnt bumped by someone else until 3 days ago, and then you posted again today, but not really as indepth as this feedback.

shellyboo

Gordon wrote: »

Weird that search is disabled but Google is indexing at will with no objections from anyone? I guess.

Am I being stupid, or can no-one else see the difference between people who use boards seeing/finding the threads (something that OPs expect) and people who have never used, seen, or heard of boards having a thread from PI popping up in their Twitter feed?

There is quite clearly a difference between that and being able to find a thread in Google if you go and specifically look for it.

As for the "anyone could do it" angle... no-one who knows anything about boards would. Because they know what PI is about.

Ponster

Gordon wrote: »

Weird that search is disabled.

It's not disabled for me. Is that because I'm a mod ?

Nerin

(sorry for continuously replying, i just find this all interesting and stuff )

shellyboo wrote: »

Am I being stupid, or can no-one else see the difference between people who use boards seeing/finding the threads (something that OPs expect) and people who have never used, seen, or heard of boards having a thread from PI popping up in their Twitter feed?

No you arent being stupid
im finding it hard to see it so black and white though.
if i dont use boards, or have never used boards, id hardly subscribe,search,sign up or sub to tweets for boards.

i think thats what im failing to grasp here.

shellyboo

Nerin wrote: »

(sorry for continuously replying, i just find this all interesting and stuff )


No you arent being stupid
im finding it hard to see it so black and white though.
if i dont use boards, or have never used boards, id hardly subscribe,search,sign up or sub to tweets for boards.

i think thats what im failing to grasp here.

I'm talking about the possibility of RTs though Ner Random boardsie follows boards on Twitter, RTs boards_top Tweet, all his followers (non-boardsies) see it, they RT it... you know yourself how it works.

Gordon

Silverfish wrote: »

Not for me, I'd have to actually go to google and put in specific search terms, its not coming direct to my inbox / twitter etc.

So you follow boards_top on twitter?

I think so Ponster, yeah.

Silverfish

Nerin wrote: »

(sorry for continuously replying, i just find this all interesting and stuff )


No you arent being stupid
im finding it hard to see it so black and white though.
if i dont use boards, or have never used boards, id hardly subscribe,search,sign up or sub to tweets for boards.

i think thats what im failing to grasp here.

As previously explained, they come up in the public timeline on twitter.

Silverfish

Gordon wrote: »

So you follow boards_top on twitter?

.

No, I saw it in the public timeline. And I have seen it retweeted by people I follow.

Nevyn

The point of that @boards_top account is to drive people to the site as people will retweet the posts and they will have non boardsies on thier list of followers, the point is to bring in new people to the site, fine and fair enough but I do not think PI threads should be used for that.

Gordon

Thaedydal wrote: »

Have you seen how quickly and widereaching a retweet on twitter can be?
Big difference between a person having an rss from the front page in thier personal feeds and that.

2 hours ago you just retweeted a personal issues post. If you are against this, why are you seemingly supporting it?

Nerin

shellyboo wrote: »

I'm talking about the possibility of RTs though Ner Random boardsie follows boards on Twitter, RTs boards_top Tweet, all his followers (non-boardsies) see it, they RT it... you know yourself how it works.

im semi aware how it works (i havent paid as much attention to twitter as i should i guess :P), i never look at the public timeline tbh, i only read peoples tweets that i follow.

Silverfish wrote: »

As previously explained, they come up in the public timeline on twitter.

Dont all tweets do that?
And isnt that similar to them being bumped on the front page, Boards own public timeline of sorts?

Nevyn

Gordon wrote: »

2 hours ago you just retweeted a personal issues post. If you are against this, why are you seemingly supporting it?

Yes I retweeted the @boards_top post to protest it. I am not supportive of it at all, as the threads I have started on this shows.

Nevyn

Nerin wrote: »

And isnt that similar to them being bumped on the front page, Boards own public timeline of sorts?

It is not the same it is disseminating it off site in a manner which pushes and promots this site, which as several of the PI mods have already said is not in keeping with PI.

Silverfish

Nerin wrote: »

im semi aware how it works (i havent paid as much attention to twitter as i should i guess :P), i never look at the public timeline tbh, i only read peoples tweets that i follow.


Dont all tweets do that?
And isnt that similar to them being bumped on the front page, Boards own public timeline of sorts?

Yes Nerin, all tweets appear in the public timeline. The @boards_top bot is to encourage more visitors to boards. So the boards.ie front page is not the same, since most people looking at it are already members. Not all posts on the front page will be from PI at any one given time.

Now, if this @boards_top is encouraging more visitors to boards by using the juicy hook of a nice scandalous problem from the PI forum, then I - and a few others, feel that's pretty damn low.

Add that to the fact that PI allows unregistered posting, so people can see the @boards_top tweets in the public timeline, click the link, go straight to PI, not bother registering, read the problem, and in many cases, reply with their hilarious input.

Yes, 'Google! Rar! Google!'. Here's the tricky bit. To get the same threads that are posted on twitter by @boards_top, you go to google, type in some very specific search terms, and hopefully get the thread.

Now, thats the difference.

shellyboo

Nerin wrote: »

im semi aware how it works (i havent paid as much attention to twitter as i should i guess :P), i never look at the public timeline tbh, i only read peoples tweets that i follow.

Same as me, I don't look at the public timeline either. But if I retweeted a PI post, 86 people - not all of whom are on boards - would see it too. And that's just ME. My profile was protected up until last week, random people couldn't follow me.

Gordon

Thaedydal wrote: »

Yes I retweeted the @boards_top post to protest it. I am not supportive of it at all, as the threads I have started on this shows.

Err, ok, you're not happy that someone is posting PI threads on twitter, but you're happy to do it yourself in protest. Has the OP of the thread you posted on twitter been notified that you have posted their thread on twitter? Did you discuss this move with your co-mods? If not, then I don't see the difference tbh.

shellyboo

Gordon wrote: »

Err, ok, you're not happy that someone is posting PI threads on twitter, but you're happy to do it yourself in protest. Has the OP of the thread you posted on twitter been notified that you have posted their thread on twitter? Did you discuss this move with your co-mods? If not, then I don't see the difference tbh.

I didn't retweet anything, and I *still* have a problem with it. Does it matter what Thaed did? Other people than her have an issue with this.

Nevyn

Gordon wrote: »

Err, ok, you're not happy that someone is posting PI threads on twitter, but you're happy to do it yourself in protest. Has the OP of the thread you posted on twitter been notified that you have posted their thread on twitter? Did you discuss this move with your co-mods? If not, then I don't see the difference tbh.

Gordon do you know how twitter works?
I retweeted the tweet so it was the exact same link which was selected by the board bot, I did not do further damage so stop trying to make out that I did I won't be used as a strawman thank you very much.

Nerin

Silverfish wrote: »

Yes Nerin, all tweets appear in the public timeline. The @boards_top bot is to encourage more visitors to boards. So the boards.ie front page is not the same, since most people looking at it are already members. Not all posts on the front page will be from PI at any one given time.

Cheers, i honestly dont know ALL the ins and outs of twitter (im only back sampling facebook :P)
i also didnt know the reason behind the bot other than to bring popular threads to attention, i didnt see it as advertising or incentive.

Now, if this @boards_top is encouraging more visitors to boards by using the juicy hook of a nice scandalous problem from the PI forum, then I - and a few others, feel that's pretty damn low.

I wouldnt see that as the reasoning behind it though..

Add that to the fact that PI allows unregistered posting, so people can see the @boards_top tweets in the public timeline, click the link, go straight to PI, not bother registering, read the problem, and in many cases, reply with their hilarious input.

Well in my eyes thatd be the same as googling and finding a thread, but yes, i see how that gets around charters and warnings, which will cause all sorts of hassle. (although it could be argued if anyones gonna troll they wont give a toss about charters)

edit- btw, i wish we could still thank posts in feedback

Silverfish

Silverfish wrote: »

Now, if this @boards_top is encouraging more visitors to boards by using the juicy hook of a nice scandalous problem from the PI forum, then I - and a few others, feel that's pretty damn low.

That makes the whole concept sound malicious. I'm sure that Ross didn't even think about PI being used in @boards_top, let alone intentionally include it to draw in more posters. @boards_top just merely takes certain popular threads; it doesn't discriminate against certain forums and it doesn't have a bias towards PI. How do I know this? I know it because the intentions weren't malicious or conniving.

shellyboo

Nerin wrote: »

Well in my eyes thatd be the same as googling and finding a thread, but yes, i see how that gets around charters and warnings, which will cause all sorts of hassle. (although it could be argued if anyones gonna troll they wont give a toss about charters)

edit- btw, i wish we could still thank posts in feedback

It's not the same. It's the difference between a phone number being on a billboard in the street and it being in a phone book. One you will see in passing and opportunistically use, the other you have to intentionally find.

Gordon

Thaedydal wrote: »

Gordon do you know how twitter works?
I retweeted the tweet so it was the exact same link which was selected by the board bot, I did not do further damage so stop trying to make out that I did I won't be used as a strawman thank you very much.

You disseminated the link to a wider audience, not quite sure what you're getting at here tbh.

Silverfish

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

That makes the whole concept sound malicious. I'm sure that Ross didn't even think about PI being used in @boards_top, let alone intentionally include it to draw in more posters. @boards_top just merely takes certain popular threads; it doesn't discriminate against certain forums and it doesn't have a bias towards PI. How do I know this? I know it because the intentions weren't malicious or conniving.

Grand. I'm not sure I'd think that if it was a thread I posted that I saw marked as a 'Popular thread!' and linked via twitter to be perfectly honest, regardless of the initial intention.