For a very long time, SportingPulse have built commenting engines into our core software. We actually did this back in 2000, but realised we were a fair way ahead of the curve.
With social networking and conversation so prevalent online now, we are looking to plug in to Facebook to again drive engagement through sites throughout the Network.
It is simple enough to do and we've polled a few users who are positive about this. The benefits are that you engage discussion on social networks and in turn, those conversations drive people to your site.
At Step 1, we'd be looking to add a Facebook plug-in to your news pages, as follows:
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| Commenting to be added to all news pages |
In Step 2, we'd like to add the same type of plug-in firstly to your summary results pages; and then ultimately to detailed results and stats.
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| Adding comments to match results |
People know their comments are watched and the responsibilities around this. There are also moderation tools, from not publishing profanity, through to community flagging of anything deemed offensive.
Let us know if you have any concerns. Whilst we allow people to socialise scores and stats, its time we started to push forward on commenting on results and news on your websites.
We'd love to hear your feedback on this.
Cheers, Andrew
An awesome addition. I would certainly embrace it for our website!
ReplyDeleteYes good idea...
ReplyDeleteExcellent addition
ReplyDeleteExcellent initiative.. our world is revolving now around Social Networking.
ReplyDeleteSaves repeatedly answering the same member query by email
ReplyDeleteWe would definitely use this
ReplyDeletewould use
ReplyDeleteYes we would be interested in using it - when will this be available? Also we have our own facebook page already so it would just tie in year I assume
ReplyDeleteThis would be great for our club. We have a very active facebook page so ways of linking are much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteTim Scott
Sounds like a good idea, but I would like an option to be able to turn this feature ON or OFF so we can decide if we want to allow comments for for either news and or match results. As part of local government, we may need the ability to do this in accordance with our own IT and communications policies.
ReplyDeleteperfect!
ReplyDeleteHi all - thanks for the feedback; both here and by email and phone.
ReplyDeleteWe've put Facebook comments LIVE on news items today and will gauge the reaction and comments over the next week or 2.
The reason for this, is that at this stage we cannot turn it off on a site-by-site basis.
We know that news items will be responded to more positively (potentially) than results, that can be a little more emotive. So, we're trialling across News pages and will give an update on the numbers and potentially when we'll add to Results and Ladders pages
Cheers, Andrew
Is it really not possible to turn this feature off? Is there no ability to control posted content?
ReplyDeleteOur clubs and associations can't possibly have users adding unmoderated comments to their sites.
Hi Paul - at this stage we can't turn it off on a site-by-site basis. That's why we're trialling it on news.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the comments are not un-moderated - there are 2 forms of moderation:
1/ Facebook has filters for things like profanity
2/ There is community moderation, whereby comments can be flagged and followed-up
There have been many comments today and as expected, people are very +ve about the addition, given they get to comment on their news, share with Facebook friends; Plus, every comment can be tracked back to individuals through Facebook
Cheers, Andrew
I'm also a website developer/programmer, and it would seem to me that a simple if...then...else statement should be able to determine whether or not to display/include Facebook comments from a club's website. It seems to me that you're staff are either lazy or you need a better web programmer. And while I'm at it, the usability of your admin area is pretty awful and I've had to use it for several years now. Some simple CSS styling of error or success messages would help a lot.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark S. Fair comments - we've got a lot to do and I understand that there are things we need to continually improve.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in defence of our developers, we have also achieved some amazing results and the community engagement speaks for itself.
Thanks again, Andrew
Is it possible to remove the Facebook plug in as I wish to delete it.? I am the editor of our site and I do not have a facebook account, nor do I wish to have one.
ReplyDeleteRoy Stevens.
Please add the ability to turn this feature off.
ReplyDeleteI am a volunteer updating our website. I was very upset to see my personal facebook profile picture associated with the club website. I have managed to turn to remove that but would appreciate it if you could please provide an "OFF" option as we prefer to stick with our current policy of using email to correspond with our players and families and do not have the capacity to monitor another medium for queries.
ReplyDeleteHi all - thanks for the feedback here on the blog, and via email, etc. The response is overwhelmingly positive, but I want to address the 3 points above and let you know our next steps.
ReplyDelete1/ "I was very upset to see my personal facebook profile picture associated with the club website"
This is only on the computer on which you are logged into Facebook - no-one else will see your profile unless a/ you post a comment and b/ the comment passes moderation. The fact that you are an administrator is not related to seeing your image in the comment area.
2/ "I am the editor of our site and I do not have a facebook account, nor do I wish to have one".
There is no need for you to have a Facebook account. This is purely for those who want to share your stories through Facebook; which in turn gives your website publicity and drives engagement back to the stories you are writing.
NEXT STEPS:
As you have read, we've launched this with strict moderation guidelines (all comments are moderated by staff before live) and we are yet to see any issues with its use. The point is that Facebook is transparent. People are connected and know who is posting, so the risk of anonymous / aggressive commenting is virtually non-existent.
However, we have 2 more steps to take here:
1/ We will add the ability to turn this plug-in off.
2/ We will add a commenting policy to the sites - alerting users to the fact that all comments are easily traced back to facebook accounts, etc.
Thanks again for the feedback
Andrew
Yes please as we already have an FB page but it would be great to integrate both.
ReplyDeleteWe use a news page for the home page. The facebook plug in has created large unwanted voids in the content of the page and is even worse once the comments guidlines were added. Can you please advise when and how this can be removed.
ReplyDeleteNo worries Heath,
ReplyDeleteWe are building the ability to turn off..
However, in your case (and some others) there's a certain type of news layout (blog style / single page) that was embedding the comments after each news post. It was ungamely as you've noted, so we've removed it from that style in the interim (it is at the base of the page only).
cheers, Andrew
SO IS THIS AVAILABLE NOW ..??? HOW DO i SET THIS UP ON MY FOOTY CLUB SITE PLEASE
ReplyDelete