We’re being social: TB/SVM Directory Notifications Pre-Launch!!!

Posted on by hisviks

The future SVM/TB Directory: Fangbangers Anonymous is now on twitter and facebook and here’s why:

There’s one major drawback with WordPress and it’s this: it can for absolutely no discernible reason stop sending followers of a blog notifications of updates through email and/or the WP reader for an unknown period of time. Usually clicking unfollow and following again helps alleviate the problem or simply waiting it out while WP restores itself but you may not be aware you’re missing notifications in the meantime.

I have been hearing a lot of noises of complaints lately that this is happening again and since this was already a known grievance I have been experimenting with a workaround solution for the new TB/SVM Directory site so that we can provide notifications without arbitrary interruption. Launch of that solution was scheduled to coincide with the actual site but since it appears so difficult to get all your story updates in a dedicated place now, it was decided to release this feature early. Please note that because of this it should be treated as a beta version (test phase) since it’s an automated system.

Here’s how it works: the RSS feeds from all the different blogs dedicated to TB/SVM Fanfic writing are automatically published on a twitter feed within 30 minutes of a writer posting a notification (we are using the service twitterfeed for those of you who would like to set up a custom version of this for themselves, just add ‘/feed/’ at the end of the WP blog address as the RSS source link). 

twitter

The twitter feed is then automatically published to a dedicated facebook page. Either of those pages can be viewed by anyone without a need to be subscribed to either social network, however, to follow it and be updated you will need an account with either one.

fb

For those of you simply wanting to use it as a back up tool just bookmark either page and use it accordingly. However, we will be using both these social media platforms to incidentally keep you updated on all things ongoing with the new site so be sure to follow at the links provided below!

https://twitter.com/fangbanganon (@FangbangAnon)

https://www.facebook.com/fangbangersanonymous

Small note for the writers: twitter only displays the first few lines of your announcement on the feed (the title and part of the first sentence, a full link with image is provided in a preview) so when posting take that into consideration. All tweets of your specific RSS feed are prefixed with your username but mentioning the story you are updating in the title helps communicate the content of your announcement post best.

Reblogging of this post is welcomed, despite how annoying it might be (apologies once more, I’m well aware my username pretty much equals spam by now…) but considering that it appears not everyone is receiving their updates as they should this would be most useful.

35 thoughts on “We’re being social: TB/SVM Directory Notifications Pre-Launch!!!”

  1. Will the WP not auto tweet or post to FB regardless of its own notification?

    And FB will tweet and post to WP I think auto but I am not that bright. Lol. I know it will tweet auto.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. LOL, no they’re not set up to continually tweet and post back and forth in an endless conversation with themselves… it just takes the RSS feeds from WP (the writers have nothing to do with it, every WP page has it) and tweets that with a link and then the twitter feed is automatically posted to a FB page (does that make sense… if there’s genuine interest in this I can set up a quick tutorial it really wasn’t that hard once I figured it out…)

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      1. I just know my old FB page auto tweets new posts. And not sure if free WP does it but on hosted domains WP will tweet and post to FB among other social media for new blog posts. I know how to set up the WP but not the tweeting FB page. Lol. Just thinking out loud about options.

        I am very glad it is moving so quickly for y’all. I haven’t gotten WP notices for two weeks. Lol. But that’s not why I am happy it’s just nice to see peeps working together.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Yes it depends how you set it up, for this site it automatically post to my fb wall but I can switch it off on a per post basis. This version of WP uses Publicize for that. ifitt.com was suggested to me as useful as a cross media posting tool too but I found it too much hassle for what we needed, twitterfeed.com appears to work great because it’s simple and straightforward (even though the name really makes the thing more confusing than it is), you can also set twitterfeed up to post to your fb page/wall directly (and a whole host of other social media platforms) but since you have to manually input each site one by one connecting twitter to fb in a one way direction was a lot easier.

          Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes, there will be a WordPress page soon, it’s getting user tested as we speak and then the writers will get to post their individual profile pages on it. The twitter and fb concerns itself solely with providing the story updates as they come out while the blog attached to the WP page will focus itself more with cherry picking stories for spotlights, recommendations, introducing new writers, etc.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. OOPS– I don’t tweet or fb as my “author persona.” I guess the WP can provide my “page” for people to see, but not necessarily updates? Sorry, but I don’t have the time to do the fb and twittering, especially as two “people.” It’s not that I’m ashamed of the California Kat in me, but I wouldn’t want my boss to get a hold of my riskier scenes. LOL. 🙂

        Liked by 3 people

        1. It really doesn’t matter if you are on fb/twitter as a ‘writer/author persona’ the twitter and thus fb just uses the automatic RSS feed your WP page already provides as input (you may have noticed the past couple of days that your notifications have been tweeted [there’s a little ‘1’ visible on the twitter share button] that was the fangbanganon twitter account) so that happens automatically for your chapter updates regardless of your own social media activity or lack thereof and requires nothing from the writers. I’ve purposefully set it up so anyone can view both pages without having to hassle with signing up to twitter or fb (I too firmly separate private and public persona with good reason) it’s just if you want to be updated by all those notifications yourself that you’ll need an account for either one otherwise just look up one of the pages if you feel you’re missing updates and scroll through. The future WP Fangbangers Anonymous site will have a the twitter feed in the sidebar too so that it’s always easy to find.

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          1. You just spoke in Latin to me, but I’ll take your word for it. By the way, thank you. Not only are you an amazing writer, but you are an excellent member of this TB/SVM community. I sometimes wish that I could be better at all that, but then I realize that there are people better suited to it. You–my dear–are one of them. Many, MANY thanks.
            Best, Kat

            Liked by 2 people

            1. Gratias! This technical social media stuff all makes sense somehow (especially when you’ve been knee deep in it for a few days) but is indeed a pain to explain, just rest assured everyone’s stuff gets tweeted and notified where necessary with no human interaction needed.

              Pfft, I’m not much of a socializer at all in this community. I just stick my nose in at opportune times and take charge when stuff isn’t working… story of my life and probably also the reason why I write fanfiction…

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                    1. I shall take that under advisement too then… although my ‘getting things done’ persona can be quite stifling once thing are up and running. I actually have dedicated people to stop me from developing every brain fart I have because of it…

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  6. Ahh, so that’s why I sometimes see people who’ve been following my WP longterm alluvasudden re-following…
    As far as Twitter is concerned, if notice of my wee posts are automatically made, that’s awesome. If not, I’ll remember to tout myself once in a blue-ish, or, rather, pale aqua, moon anyway. Sometimes. Maybe.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yeah that’s often the case… except when it’s me then it’s more likely that instead of clicking ‘like’ in the top left hand corner of that black bar I sometimes don’t pay attention and click unfollow instead and then quickly refollow (and it has happened that I had to do that twice more because I’m an incessant clicker… oops my bad)

      Pale aqua? No, go for the full blown aqua and fuchsia combo because for whatever reason that shit is HAWT!

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  7. So I have to join twitter or facebook (I hate them both so much) to get the updates in order to find out about new authors? I follow my favorites on WP so I’ll get emails when they post but authors new to me will remain a mystery until they are spotlighted on the WP page? I’m so confused. I just want to read the fanfiction.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. No you don’t, the Twitter and Facebook pages just track the updates in one dedicated place and you can look those up without needing an account with either. As long as your emails are coming in as they should you should be fine but if you have the feeling you’re not getting updated you can use those pages as reference. For new writers you’ll just have to do it the old fashioned way: by word of mouth until the site is up and running, we’re not using fb or Twitter to introduce any in the meantime either, just posting their story updates as they come along.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Hi Hiviks,
    That all sounds like a great way to do it to me. I don’t twitter or FB , but just being able to go to one twitter feed, one place to see what’s been updated is a great idea — especially for me. (I’m weird, don’t use notifications, just check people’s pages.)

    And using the WP for more indepth stuff & featured authors sounds awesome. Well done for organising all this. Thank you!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You’re welcome! Do whatever works for you, but the twitter feed is a nice backup to it all and seems to be functioning better than WP is at the moment 🙂

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