Sharing to facebook?

Is it just me, or are others not able to share to facebook? It's happened a couple of times in the past few days (the last two books I've posted a review for). I try and I'm getting the message:

"Facebook sharing is temporarily disabled. Check back soon."

Thanks!

I have had this since Wednesday 15 August, and have just tried again now and it is still not working. Hope this is sorted soon.

Posting to Twitter works fine.

I was talking about this on Facebook and was told the problem is with Facebook. As I understand it, Facebook changed something at the start of August.

Curious. Earlier in August I didn't notice anything wrong when I shared a review to FB (most recently on 12 Aug), things seemed to click through okay, but I can't see any of my reviews on my FB page now from after July.

Well, at least I know I'm not alone.
Thanks.

Yep >3 FAMeulstee: is right. Facebook made some changes for requirements in how their API is used, so we've got to make some updates on our end. We're actively working on it, though I'm afraid I don't have an ETA just yet. Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

Thank you!

Thanks from me also (and fro your reply to my FB post, Lorannen). Hope this gets sorted fairly soon, but good to know you're on it - thanks for all your efforts :)

Any news?

>9 cyderry: Nothing yet, I'm sorry. We've got some staff out of the office this week which has delayed things a bit.

It's worth noting that Twitter has completely disabled their post-to-facebook capability due to the Facebook changes, so it's not just LT. Although LT might have an easier time fixing it since LT had a confirmation step and twitter did not.

same goes for flickr and goodreads

Is there any idea of when this will be fixed?

It's been a month since this bug thread was started, Should I just trash my reviews and move on? Will this be fixed soon? I have 17 reviews to be posted on Facebook. I even made a new collection so I wouldn't lose track of which ones were waiting.

>14 cyderry: I'm sorry I don't have better news for you, but we're still working on it. We've had some staff out of the office, and some other priorities to attend to, as well. I know it's frustrating, but please hang in there.

For context, this was a pretty big change on Facebook's end. As >11 norabelle414: mentioned, Twitter completely disabled their automated post-to-Facebook (documented here), so it's not just an LT thing.

It's not a quick, easy thing to fix, but it is a priority for us.

So, just so everyone is clear:

1. Facebook changes their API, disabling automatic posting to Facebook from *anywhere*. Not just LT, but anywhere. This appears to not have been clearly communicated in advance.

2. LT members notice they can no longer automatically post to Facebook, and report bugs.

3. LT starts working on a fix/workaround, which probably will require some approvals from Facebook as well.

4. LT members, upset that LT has not been able to fix a problem caused by Facebook, start with: (a) guilt trips (b) entitled pouting and (c) threats that they'll leave LT if this issue isn't addressed immediately, but don't actually direct any of their anger at the actual cause of the problem.

Seem about right?

>16 lorax: Seem about right?
It does not. I've seen no guilt trips, pouting of any kind, and no one has come close to mentioning that they'll leave LT. One person asked if they should stop waiting to be able to post reviews on Facebook. That's all.

norabelle414 (#17):

I've seen no guilt trips, pouting of any kind, and no one has come close to mentioning that they'll leave LT.

You must be interpreting the "sad teddy bear staring at the rain" very differently than I did then; to me it's "Look how you made the poor little teddy bear cry!", and "Should I just trash my reviews and move on?" read to me like "Delete all my reviews from LT, since posting to Facebook is my actual goal and posting on LT a means to that end". I suppose the latter could just be a threat to delete reviews, rather than an account, but you can't convince me a sad teddy bear isn't a guilt trip.

>14 cyderry: If you'd rather not wait, you could post the reviews to Facebook manually. A pain, I know, but there's no telling how long it's going to take to jump through all of Facebook's hoops to get LT reconnected.

>18 lorax: The only one who could possibly make me leave LT is you. You always seem to misinterpret what others say in the nastiest of ways IMO. I never said that I was going to delete all my reviews nor was the sad teddy bear meant as a guilt trip. My "sad Teddy Bear" was saying that I was waiting for the staff here at LT. It was supposed to signify a cute way of saying I'll try to be patient. I believe that I am not alone in asking you to keep your interpretations to yourself because obviously they are, IMO, incorrect 99% of the time.

If you can't understand what people are saying, it would be better to ask then assume that you know. Apparently you don't.

>20 cyderry:

I'm sorry. I misinterpreted "trash" as "delete", and unfairly assumed the graphic was indicating your feelings on the matter.

as far as I know, it's not a bug but a choice of Facebook :-(

I'm pleased to report that sharing to Facebook is finally back and working smoothly!

In case you disconnected your Facebook from your LibraryThing account (or never set up that connection to begin with), you can connect your Facebook account by going into your Settings here: https://www.librarything.com/settings/sites.

Thanks for your patience, everyone. Let us know if you run into any trouble.

I tried to post a review, fixed my connection to Facebook, and still nothing. When I try to Post to Facebook, nothing happens, no error message, no confirmation.

I reopened it.

>25 cyderry: Thanks for the info. Can you walk me through how you're attempting to post your review? Are you starting from Your Feed, from the book or review page? We've been testing a lot lately, and it looks like it should be working as far as I can tell.

>25 cyderry: Think we've got a handle on it. Stand by!

Should be fixed now. Let us know if it's working for you?

>24 lorannen: YAY!!! Thank you

>30 LibraryCin: Thank YOU (and all other members) for your patience. We know it was a long wait, but this was quite a bear to redo the entire sharing process.

Thanks so much for continuing to work on this when many other sites have just given up!

Still not working for me.

I go to the review that I have previously written and saved here at LT.
Click the Facebook box and click save.
The window pops up to Post to Facebook aand when I push the button, nothing happens.

Am I doing something wrong?

>33 cyderry: I don't think so—that sounds right up until the "nothing happens" part. I'm not seeing this behavior myself, either. I assume you've checked your FB page and the post isn't showing up there, either? Can you try on private/incognito mode?

I can confirm it works for me but now on Firefox it pesters me to open a (second) pop-up, which I am fairly sure it did not before. Is that a non-negotiable part of the solution?

>35 Kuiperdolin: I'm assuming the second pop-up you mention is the pop-up from Facebook itself which either prompts you to log in or else gives you the Facebook dialog from which to share. This part is required because sharing is only possible in this way, now.

>33 cyderry: Are you by chance using Internet Explorer? I'm seeing some Internet Explorers not opening the Facebook dialog (e.g. IE11).

Investigating that.

Update: I've switched the Facebook share dialog display type from 'popup' to 'iframe' so as to avoid popup blockers getting in the way.

Hopefully that will help generally.

As for Internet Explorer - it looks as if LT is forcing IE8 emulation mode on work pages which is causing javascript issues.

Looking into whether we (still) need that.

>34 lorannen: I am using Chrome. However, I did attempt to post my review with Firefox and it connected my LT account with Facebook (after I logged in) but did not post my review. It only posted a link back to the book on LT but not even the review page.

What is private/incognito mode?

The pop-up I'm referring to is the LT box that previously was saying that the function was temporarily unavailable.

I relinked my Facebook account. However I still see a notice:

Facebook sharing is temporarily disabled. Check back soon.

Posting on FB now works for me again, though unlike before, the first para of the review does not appear on FB, just the title/author name and a link to my review, which is less likely to attract any interest. Presumably this is outside LT's control, though.

>42 john257hopper: Presumably this is outside LT's control, though.

I posted one last night to find the same thing. That is what I assumed - that it was not LT that decided exactly what/how much to share.

>34 lorannen: Is that what the postings will be - just a link to our review on LT? If so, I think I'll just forget the whole thing. I have friends that are not big readers that read my reviews on Facebook and on occasion will pick up the book. They are not going to go to another site and read a review. I just wish I knew what was going to be the final resolution.

>44 cyderry: a workaround would be to copy and paste the review, or the first paragraph of it, in the sharing box before posting the link to FB, though admittedly that is an extra step. I will try that next review I post and see what happens.

I actually add a couple of lines (rating and a brief title for the review)

>38 ccatalfo: Can confirm I no longer get the pop-up alert.

I do get the first few few lines of my review in the link on Facebook, not sure why it would be different for others.

>47 Kuiperdolin: I also see the first few lines of my review, as well.

Wanted to mention one thing, though.

If I check off that I want to share to both f/b and twitter, f/b always comes up first. It used to post to f/b, then immediately give me the option to post to twitter (assuming I checked both of them off). Now, a separate f/b-specific pop-up appears and when I post from there, the LT popup (that used to continue to give me the twitter option to post) just disappears as if I never wanted to post to twitter. I then have to click to edit it again, and do it over again to post to twitter.

Maybe the order can simply be changed, so that the twitter one will post first, then automatically switch so I can also post to f/b without have to open the edit page again?

Does this make sense!? :-)

>49 LibraryCin: Thanks for the feedback on posting to both FB and Twitter at once.

I'll take a look at what's going on there.

>41 .mau.: Thanks for noting that, I've removed that area as auto-sharing via the FB linking is no longer possible.

>49 LibraryCin: Ok I've updated the LT share dialog so that it does not auto-close after sharing. This will allow you to post to twitter or facebook after sharing to the other.

>44 cyderry: It's looking like Facebook's new protocol is not allowing us to input the text of reviews into the post itself—your friends would have to click through to read your full review (the post will include a snippet of the beginning of your review text). I'm confirming with Chris C., our developer in charge of this feature, but I believe that's where we're at right now, unfortunately.

Maybe I need to show you what is happening to me.

Step 1 I go to the book page and click the Facebook box directly below my review and press the save review button.



Step 2 A box pops up and I press the Post to Facebook button.



Step 3 Another box pops up on top of the previous one however, it only gives a link below the book cover to send the reader back to LT if the Post to Facebook button is pressed (it is a little farther done on the screen and I couldn't get the print screen to keep the scroll lower.)



Step 4 - This is what appears on my Facebook - a picture of the cover and a link to LT but not the review.



Is anyone else using Chrome? Is this related to Chrome?
I did try it again in Firefox and got the same results.

Should I just give up?

>54 cyderry: Thanks! I see it now. That's interesting, as I'm not having the same experience. From editing or entering a review, on the review page, my links as posted on FB are going to the review page (showing my review first), and it also appears as a link with a snippet of my review included. I'm also using Chrome, on Mac. See screenshots below.

This is a long shot, but, do you currently have your FB and LT accounts linked here in your Sites/Apps settings page: https://athena.librarything.com/settings/sites? Linked or unlinked you should still be able to share, I'm just trying to figure out what's different about what you're doing such that I'm not seeing this behavior. It looks like you're on Windows, right? If I can just replicate what you're seeing, we should be able to get to the bottom of it.

Beyond the obvious, I also notice another discrepancy between what you and I are each seeing—your Post to Facebook window has no instructions, where mine has a little "Click the button to post to Facebook" message (as shown in the last screenshot).

>52 ccatalfo: Yay! Thank you so much!

>51 ccatalfo: I was wondering if it is easy, when opening the popup windows for sharing on Facebook the review, to populate it with the actual content of the review itself.

If you look at https://www.facebook.com/mauFanClub/posts/10151106877849996 (sorry for the post in Italian, but it's the structure which is important, anyway) you may notice that Zapier copies the text of my post in the status, besides leaving the URL which shows the snippet from my own site.

This approach still has drawbacks, since all HTML is stripped down, but it should be sufficient for most uses.

>57 .mau.: Thanks - I do not believe we are supposed to pre-populate any text. Also I believe sharing to Facebook Groups is more lenient as far as what is possible compared to individual feeds.

I'll take a look though.

Further info on >54 cyderry: and >55 lorannen: Talked this over with Chris C. and here's what's going on—our sharing system is tied to our "blast system"—a blast being an item that appears on your feed when you click "Share" in the upper-right corner: https://www.librarything.com/yourfeed.php.

If the last action (i.e. blast listed there) you took was not editing/saving a review (any review), the link Facebook gets will not be to the review. This explains why I wasn't seeing the behavior you were, cyderry. My last action at the time was saving/posting a review, and I'm betting yours wasn't. I should clarify that, in editing an existing review, you have to make an actual change to your review (you can't just click the "save" button again) in order for it to count in the blast system.

We're still hashing out what to do about this. So, it's (unfortunately) expected behavior for the moment. If you add a new or update an existing review, you should start seeing the behavior I've described in >55 lorannen:, instead of the link going to the book/work page.

>57 .mau.: - yes, that is what I have just done, I posted a review short enough to fit in the FB share window without looking unduly long. It's a reasonable workaround.

When posting a review just now, I see the first paragraph automatically appeared as before, without me needing to copy and paste, so this seems to be improving.

>61 john257hopper: Yep! We're making some improvements and tweaks still. Once we're done monkeying around with it, we'll make a proper announcement post. Glad to hear that's working for you!

seems like a new issue has cropped up - while the site does allow me to post to facebook, it is no longer showing the book cover or title of the book, just a librarything logo. it links to the right book when you click through, but otherwise you can't tell what title it is from the post. this is new, it worked for me just a couple weeks ago!

>63 t-rocc: I got that yesterday! But, mine didn't link through to the book; it linked only to the main login page for LT.

Yep, that's the new problem I'm having and I would like to know if this is a LT thing or a FB thing.

What I'm showing on FB is what appears to be an advertisement for LibraryThing *sigh*

I get it too.

ditto for me. Here there is an example: https://imgur.com/a/bmCfBdv (Sorry for the text in Italian)

Also happening to me. First time I tried to click through it went to the LT main login page. When I logged in there, after that it went straight to the review, though this still does not show up on FB.

Yes, this is what is happening to me too. I just couldn't figure out how to get my screen shot posted!

I know. I need it to show up on FB so the publishers can see the reviews are being posted. Does anyone know how to make links to our reviews from either here or from Goodreads onto Facebook?

>70 Cats57: What about adding the actual link to the post? I looked at an old review of mine, and after the text there is a link (in that case, http://www.librarything.com/work/23636500/reviews/176638315 ) which may be copied.

Um, just as a point of note, this is a 2 year old bug thread that's marked FIXED. The staff is NOT going to look into this unless someone having the problem reopens the bug.

>72 gilroy: Sorry for my delay—saw the thread yesterday but am just getting to acknowledging it now. I've got this starred to look into as soon as I have another block of time to test bugs, which should be later this week.

ETA: marking as reopened.

I finally figured out that I could add a link to my blog. But I'm going try your way too.

This is where I was sent when I started my own thread -I thought it was odd that the admin would send me here but what are you going to do?

https://www.librarything.com/topic/317019

lilithcat isn't an admin. The LT employees have an icon of an L next to their names, like kristilabrie above, at least when they're posting officially.

Then more's the shame on me for not knowing that.

>75 Cats57: If you are referring to another post, please use > and the post number so we can see who you're speaking to. Just hitting "Reply" does not thread your answer to the previous post, it just drops it to the bottom of the posts.

gilroy (#78):

If you are referring to another post, please use > and the post number so we can see who you're speaking to.

The post number is really all that's needed. The auto-reference via the greater-than sign is optional and some people deliberately choose to avoid it.

78 gilroy

So sorry -I just figured that people could understand by their own questions to whom I was responding to. Since I rarely use such an unwieldy forum I did not know the rules.

BTW It looks like whatever was wrong seems to be fixed at least for me. I took a chance and posted a review this morning and it did transfer to FaceBook.

Yes, mine was fixed when I posted a review last night.

Agreed, it's fixed for me too.

Well, that saves me time looking at this tomorrow! :)

(In all seriousness, I'm glad it's back to normal.)

So, closing I guess for now, but please re-open as needed.