Seems to be the big craze at the moment. I have an account and use it to catch up with news etc, but dont tweet much. Has taken me a long time to get to grips with it to be honest.
Any other A4All-ers on twitter? Do you use it much? If you tweet do you tweet about gardening or other stuff?
Did a search on twitter for allotments4all and came up with a profile called 'AllotmentsUK' which seemed to have a4all forum postings in its tweet timeline, including a reply to a question i had made and hadnt read yet! Whats this all about?
Thanks for flagging this up. I certainly wasn't aware of it. Someone (at Walsall Road Allotments?) appears to be populating their Twitter account with random posts from here. I don't get what the purpose is. I could see the point of tweeting an odd post that was of interest to the tweeter who wanted to discuss it with other tweeters who aren't forum members but there isn't any discusssion going on. I could also see the point of a tweeter tweeting their own A4A posts but these are the posts of lots of random members.
Have to say I'm not keen. I guess since Dan put the social networking buttons on last year, he's happy with the idea but I'm not. It's enough to make me stop posting here.
Hmmm, yes I just checked this and the latest 'tweet' on there is MY post on the small polytunnels thread. I am not happy about this as I left Twitter last year, along with many other social network sites, and vowed not to return >:(
Is there a way of opting out so our forum posts are not available externally?
Forums are open to anybody the whole world over so do not see the point in being selective about where posts pop up.
Quote from: banksy on January 05, 2012, 15:42:57
Hmmm, yes I just checked this and the latest 'tweet' on there is MY post on the small polytunnels thread. I am not happy about this as I left Twitter last year, along with many other social network sites, and vowed not to return >:(
Is there a way of opting out so our forum posts are not available externally?
There isn't at the moment. If enough people are unhappy about it, we could ask Dan to reconsider. There was a thread about it at the time that Dan added the buttons, only a limited number of people commented and most of them weren't in favour but it wasn't taken any further. I admit to being naive about it at the time - I never expected this kind of thing happening.
What is it that upsets you about it ?
Quote from: betula on January 05, 2012, 15:52:21
Forums are open to anybody the whole world over so do not see the point in being selective about where posts pop up.
Thats true, but I
choose to post here on A4A, not Twitter.
Its Twitter I have the issue with - for reasons I do not have to go into here, not forums per se.
Quote from: ceres on January 05, 2012, 13:21:16
Thanks for flagging this up. I certainly wasn't aware of it. Someone (at Walsall Road Allotments?) appears to be populating their Twitter account with random posts from here. I don't get what the purpose is. I could see the point of tweeting an odd post that was of interest to the tweeter who wanted to discuss it with other tweeters who aren't forum members but there isn't any discusssion going on. I could also see the point of a tweeter tweeting their own A4A posts but these are the posts of lots of random members.
Have to say I'm not keen. I guess since Dan put the social networking buttons on last year, he's happy with the idea but I'm not. It's enough to make me stop posting here.
Shirl just phoned me and asked me if I'd seen this thread. I hadn't, because Twitter doesn't really interest me. Just wanted to let you all know that it's nothing to do with me or with Shirl, we might be twits but we're not on twitter.
I did join it a few months ago but haven't looked at it since. I doubt if I can even remember my login details but I'll go and have a look.
Quote from: betula on January 05, 2012, 15:57:01
What is it that upsets you about it ?
I choose to post on A4A. Someone else thinks it's OK to take what I have said and post it in a forum I have not chosen to post in. It's a kind of theft of intellectual property.
It probably isn't in the least sinister but why would anyone knowingly do it without asking first?
Thanks Betty! Do you happen to know who it is - PM me if you prefer.
The picture on the Twitter page might give you a clue?
http://fr.twitter.com/AllotmentsUK (http://fr.twitter.com/AllotmentsUK)
Quote from: ceres on January 05, 2012, 16:37:09
Thanks Betty! Do you happen to know who it is - PM me if you prefer.
Well, I'm shocked! I was still logged in from when I joined so I didn't have a problem finding it. It is nothing to do with me - I would never do something like that but I have a very good idea who it is. I've just tried to phone them but no answer. I will pm you Ceres.
Thanks Betty. I was just getting a bit concerned in case it was something malign connected to recent events. Hopefully not and maybe just overenthusiasm / misunderstanding.
Intrigued to see I'm commenting too.... :-\
Not a user but I have an account for work purposes.
I'm afraid there is nothing Dan or anyone can technically do about this. Removing the twitter buttons doesnt stop anyone linking directly to any url here or anywhere else.
Ill delete this but I just linked a tweet to this post - https://twitter.com/barriedalenick just by copying the url in to a tweet.
I expect you could do something drastic if you really wanted to - like block a whole load of IPs from refering you from twitter but it would be messy.
I don't like this either and it actually is a little odd but from a tech point of view I don't see a solution.
Quote from: BarriedaleNick on January 05, 2012, 17:13:26
I'm afraid there is nothing Dan or anyone can technically do about this. Removing the twitter buttons doesnt stop anyone linking directly to any url here or anywhere else.
It looks like they are just recycling the SMF RSS feed, I suppose that could be disabled, but then we lose a very useful feature for the forum :(
Maybe do that temporarily to break their habit. So to speak.
I'm also tempted to retweet on my post there and say I am not on your allotment, so whyam I being posted
I can't see the problem,has it caused any problems?
Curious??
If you google A4A it will come up with many posts.............one thing for sure is it never has been and never will be private.
Quote from: betula on January 05, 2012, 17:30:38
I can't see the problem,has it caused any problems?
Curious??
If you google A4A it will come up with many posts.............one thing for sure is it never has been and never will be private.
I've got a problem trying to understand why this person is doing it and making it look as though it's something to do with me. Everyone here knows I'm from Walsall Rd Allotments and WRA is mentioned on the twitter page.
I have found out who is doing it, and I am trying to sort it out.
Betty,I can not understand that this is anything to get stressed about.
So don't stress.
It is not your argument and if people feel so strongly they should contact the tweeter themselves.
Once I got past logging in on there I gave up ,totally mind numbing.
Squash64, I truly would not let this get to you. I wouldn't assume this was you for an instant. Far too sensible and you like cats :)
It isn't possible to contact the tweeter unless you have a Twitter account.
Well open one then and don't stress Betty.
Ah, right. So even if you don't want a Twitter account, you have to open one anyway to contact a tweeter to have them remove a post you wrote on A4A that you never gave them permission to use. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
It's being dealt with and Betty isn't being stressed by anyone here.
Quote from: betula on January 05, 2012, 17:56:43
Well open one then and don't stress Betty.
I for one do not think it's Betty, so there is need for her to worry, also as previously mentioned I closed my twitter account for very personal reasons, hence the irritation caused by seeing someone 'tweet' my posts from here on their twitter page.
Quote from: betula on January 05, 2012, 17:30:38
I can't see the problem,has it caused any problems?
Curious??
If you google A4A it will come up with many posts.............one thing for sure is it never has been and never will be private.
Yes and those search results will link to the A4A forum, not twitter. My issue is with the reposting without my permission on a site I want nothing to do with. In my case its not a privacy thing as I know forums are public.
You can only DM(Direct Message) someone on Twitter if that person is following you.
I guess that Betty's concern is that whoever it is is showing the allotment website there when perhaps they shouldn't be.
I don't like it and it does seem rather pointless, all the more so if they're not even a member here.
Whoever it is there now appears to playing silly buggers!
The Twitter user does create the impression that he/she is Betty with the link to the Wallsall Road homepage and the abbreviated version of Betty's welcome message from its Homepage.
I wouldn't like that.
Amd I would prefer not to see any of my posts reproduced on twitter without being asked.
But I don't think people on here thought it was Betty, no need to be sensitive about that.
I'm not getting stressed at all by anyone here - honestly! But I am getting a bit stressed at what has been done, apparently in my name.
I'm sure that most of the regular posters here know me by now, so if I say it's nothing to do with me, then I know they believe me. I'm just having trouble understanding why it was done in the first place.
Whoever it is has now changed their Twitter page as the WRA website no longer appears on it.
and they have started posting links to the bbc rather than here!! I am sure we are moire informative than the beeb..
I take it you need a twatter account to access these messages, as I'm finding it hard to follow. :-\
I've spoken to the person concerned and told them to stop and to remove the links. It looks as though this has to be done one by one.
Unfortunately, I can't get to the bottom of why it was done in the first place.
Quote from: Hector on January 05, 2012, 17:54:52
Squash64, I truly would not let this get to you. I wouldn't assume this was you for an instant. Far too sensible and you like cats :)
:) :)
did you ask them why?
It was probably innocently meant,and I hope a form of flattery for all your good works,both on plot and online! x x
Obviously, I don't know this person but perhaps they were just a bit thoughtless and meant no offence?
Can they delete their account and start a new one? The only thing they use this account for is reposting A4A posts after all.
Its not nice when things like this happen but we all know that it wasn't you Betty.
Anyway lets hope its all sorted now :-*
You can follow the fun even if you arent a thingy ..sorry twit ;-)
http://fr.twitter.com/AllotmentsUK
Betty - thanks for posting that. They now seem to be posting random stuff to move the a4a links off the first page.
Im sure there was no ill intent. No harm done.
Now that Betty has sorted that particular Twitter account, I think there is still a discussion to be had about whether we want to make it easy to put A4A posts on Twitter. Taking away the buttons won't stop it but it takes a bit more effort to copy a URL than click a button. I vote for remove them.
How very strange!
Quote from: ceres on January 05, 2012, 19:02:49
I vote for remove them.
Me too. We can't stop people taking what we wright & randomly sticking it around the place, but we shouldn't give them buttons to do it with!
Ceres I agree, and was against it at the outset!
Is this April the first or maybe some should get out more .
Quote from: OllieC on January 05, 2012, 19:10:43
Quote from: ceres on January 05, 2012, 19:02:49
I vote for remove them.
Me too. We can't stop people taking what we wright & randomly sticking it around the place, but we shouldn't give them buttons to do it with!
My thoughts exactly!
I would like to see them go, I was one of the members who did not like it when they went up and do not feel any different now.
So what are you going to put instead of buttons. A zip! ???
Quote from: grawrc on January 05, 2012, 16:35:38
I choose to post on A4A. Someone else thinks it's OK to take what I have said and post it in a forum I have not chosen to post in. It's a kind of theft of intellectual property.
It probably isn't in the least sinister but why would anyone knowingly do it without asking first?
Me too. I very much approve of A4A and I'm completely happy to be associated with it and the members who post here, but that doesn't extend to Twitter.
For my penn'orth you can get rid off them too..
Ace... I much prefer lacing to zips... :-*
Quote from: OllieC on January 05, 2012, 19:10:43
Quote from: ceres on January 05, 2012, 19:02:49
I vote for remove them.
Me too. We can't stop people taking what we wright & randomly sticking it around the place, but we shouldn't give them buttons to do it with!
Me too!
Oh, and burn the witches if we've any left over from halloween. I like the smell.
May I just point out that removing the Twitter button (and Facebook and Delicious) won't stop anyone setting up a script to scrape postings from here and publish them elsewhere.
This particular prank had nothing to do with the Twitter button.
Hi All,
I've just been alerted to this and while I do some research and investigations I've removed the buttons.
When added it was to try and increase visibility of A4A to help bring members into the site and increase the size of the comunity, obviously some members do not want contributions on A4A being easily distributed across other social media sites (which I understand).
Will do my investigations and update.
Thanks
Dan
As the contents of this forum can be easily distributed anyway I can not see the point of removing them.
If its for the benefit of A4A then I think it should be removed
But if it means more visitors and traffic for A4A and Dan then isn't that a good thing?
Maybe I should get me coat........
Quote from: banksy on January 05, 2012, 15:42:57
Hmmm, yes I just checked this and the latest 'tweet' on there is MY post on the small polytunnels thread. I am not happy about this as I left Twitter last year, along with many other social network sites, and vowed not to return >:(
Is there a way of opting out so our forum posts are not available externally?
This was what i found. I had just started a thread on the forum then when i found this twitter account the topmost tweet was my last posting. Rather spooky but i havent a big problem with it. Just wonder how they manage to put so many posts on twitter. When i tried the button all it did was copy the address of the topic as a tweet not the posting. Would be quite handy from time to time to tweet forum posts but not nessesarily direct non members from twitter to A4All.
Well the danger seems to have passed now............gosh, hope I have not spoke too soon. :D
Quote from: Garden Manager on January 06, 2012, 17:40:52
Just wonder how they manage to put so many posts on twitter.
The posts are put there by an automated feed - there are approx. 5000 A4A posts on there. Those appear to have stopped but an A4A member's image has just been posted. Not usre how that works.
Where Ceres,I can't see it?
They were probably using an automated process to post the tweets. There is an RSS feed - http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php?action=.xml;type=rss2
and there are programs that will take that feed and repost them to twitter. Useful for bloggers as you can automate your twitter direct just by posting a article on a blog.
Nothing really wrong with it but in this case around 5000 a4a topics had been tweeted which seemed a little unusual!!
Oops double posted with Ceres - cant see a pic either tho..
I spoke to the person concerned and was told that they had set up an automated feed of our posts to Twitter. I still have no logical explanation as to why the page was set up in Walsall Road Allotments' name in the first place but I do know that it was not done maliciously.
They told me they have now switched off the feed so hopefully there will be no more of our posts on there.
Squash no there haven't been any more. They're now tweeting BBC News items and show a link to the BBC Gardening website!
I'll keep an eye on it when I'm on Twitter just in case.
Thanks for letting me know that my messages and pictures have been used. I am not really concerned about it, but am impressed that it is being dealt with. Thank you.