Facebook posts thumbnail is a thumbnail of the first post in a topic, not a thumbnail of the post itself

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  • Maltair
    Senior Member
    • Feb 2009
    • 575
    • 5.7.5

    [Bug / Issue] Facebook posts thumbnail is a thumbnail of the first post in a topic, not a thumbnail of the post itself

    When you post something and check to have it posted also on Facebook, the resulting thumbnail on FB contains the text from the first post of that topic (thread), versus content from that post itself.

    In other words, if you say keep checking to post multiple posts in a topic to FB, the thumbnail of each will look identical, and on FB it will look like you are repeatedly posting the same thing.
  • rhens
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2012
    • 197

    #2
    5 years ago, the stated purpose of vB5 was to "connect"......now, every other medium on the market can quickly and easily post legible content to facebook.....except vB5. you would think someone within the braintrust of the software development group would consider this a priority

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    • glennrocksvb
      Former vBulletin Developer
      • Mar 2011
      • 4011
      • 5.7.X

      #3
      When sharing a post in a topic, you're actually sharing the topic url itself and it just redirects and scrolls to that post There's no dedicated page for individual posts in vB5. So the open graph tags are for the topic (first post) only.

      Flag Icon Postbit Insert GIPHY Impersonate User BETTER INITIALS AVATAR Better Name Card Quote Selected Text Bookmark Posts Post Footer Translate Stop Links in Posts +MORE!

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      • glennrocksvb
        Former vBulletin Developer
        • Mar 2011
        • 4011
        • 5.7.X

        #4
        That's why I think the Share buttons in postbit are misleading. I turned them off on my site.

        Flag Icon Postbit Insert GIPHY Impersonate User BETTER INITIALS AVATAR Better Name Card Quote Selected Text Bookmark Posts Post Footer Translate Stop Links in Posts +MORE!

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        • Maltair
          Senior Member
          • Feb 2009
          • 575
          • 5.7.5

          #5
          It wasn't like this at certain points...been doing this for a few years now...there were times in the past when the Publish to Facebook would post a thumbnail of the individual post not of always the first post of the entire topic (thread).

          In fact, I just looked back...in June of this year (2017) I made a "Publish to FB" post of a brand new topic...the thumbnail contained the text from the first post. At that time there was only that one post in the thread.
          The very next day, I made a second post in that same topic, and also published to FB...the FB thumbnail for that second post contained the text from the second post, not the first.

          Also have been times when the FB thumbnail has been completely empty:


          Or the post hasn't published to FB at all:
          Last edited by Maltair; Sat 2 Dec '17, 2:24pm.

          Comment


          • glennrocksvb
            glennrocksvb commented
            Editing a comment
            Oh ok, I thought you were referring to FB Share button in postbit.
        • Mark.B
          vBulletin Support
          • Feb 2004
          • 24286
          • 6.0.X

          #6
          Part of the issue is that Facebook are constantly moving the goalposts and software developers rarely know what they (Facebook) are doing from one day to the next.

          It is worth logging a bug if you feel it isn't working as it should, so it can be tested.
          MARK.B
          vBulletin Support
          ------------
          My Unofficial vBulletin 6.0.0 Demo: https://www.talknewsuk.com
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          • Maltair
            Senior Member
            • Feb 2009
            • 575
            • 5.7.5

            #7
            Just created the JIRA, please vote for it:

            Comment

            • Maltair
              Senior Member
              • Feb 2009
              • 575
              • 5.7.5

              #8
              This is actually a big deal, because now when you publish to Facebook more than one post from the same topic, people think you are just mindlessly repeating the same thing, because they keep seeing the identical thumbnail text on Facebook.

              Comment

              • Maltair
                Senior Member
                • Feb 2009
                • 575
                • 5.7.5

                #9
                By the way, been testing it with the Facebook blue Share button, and it's the same basic issue - it posts the text from the first post of the topic in the thumbnail. It's actually even worse because sometimes it doesn't even post the text from the first post of the topic, instead it just posts the www.whatever.com URL of the website in the thumbnail box....

                One advantage to the Facebook blue Share button is that you are at least allowed to write up a few words, sentence of two "Say something about this....", that will appear at the top of the Facebook post as a description of your post.

                Comment

                • glennrocksvb
                  Former vBulletin Developer
                  • Mar 2011
                  • 4011
                  • 5.7.X

                  #10
                  The underlying issue here for the Share on Facebook is that there's no dedicated page for individual post as I mentioned in my previous post (#3). A ​​​​link to a post is essentially the link to the topic, only with some parameters that redirect to the appropriate page number (if post is in page 2 or above) and scroll down to that post. If there was an individual page for a single post, then the Share button should share the URL for that single post and not the topic.

                  Flag Icon Postbit Insert GIPHY Impersonate User BETTER INITIALS AVATAR Better Name Card Quote Selected Text Bookmark Posts Post Footer Translate Stop Links in Posts +MORE!

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                  • Mark.B
                    vBulletin Support
                    • Feb 2004
                    • 24286
                    • 6.0.X

                    #11
                    Part of the reason for what Glenn mentions is that there used to be separate page for individual posts in vB3. There were hundreds of complaints about this being "duplicate content" and that it should be done using an anchor only. So it was disabled in vB4 and removed entirely in vB5. Now it's done with an anchor. I very much doubt this will ever be changed back. The architecture is no longer present in vB5.
                    MARK.B
                    vBulletin Support
                    ------------
                    My Unofficial vBulletin 6.0.0 Demo: https://www.talknewsuk.com
                    My Unofficial vBulletin Cloud Demo: https://www.adminammo.com

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                    • In Omnibus
                      Senior Member
                      • Apr 2010
                      • 2310

                      #12
                      Why would you want Facebook posts of every post or comment in a thread? I'm looking for the logic in that. The node URL directs users to the same discussion regardless of which post or comment is referenced and to have someone click on a link to post number 77 in a discussion is a non sequitur. How does anyone follow a discussion if they enter into the middle of it? What am I missing here?

                      Comment

                      • Maltair
                        Senior Member
                        • Feb 2009
                        • 575
                        • 5.7.5

                        #13
                        What version of vbulletin 5 was running in June 2017, because as noted above: "in June of this year (2017) I made a "Publish to FB" post of a brand new topic...the thumbnail contained the text from the first post. At that time there was only that one post in the thread.
                        The very next day, I made a second post in that same topic, and also published to FB...the FB thumbnail for that second post contained the text from the second post, not the first."

                        As far as the WHY, sometimes a topic will go on for months if not years at my forum, such as say if we are discussing a stock, and if someone wants to post an update on the stock and publish to FB he doesn't want everyone on his FB page thinking that he is merely repeating the same thing.

                        Actually when you click on the post that has been published to FB, you are taken to that post, not to the beginning of the topic.

                        Comment


                        • In Omnibus
                          In Omnibus commented
                          Editing a comment
                          Stocks change several times daily, do they not? I agree, no one wants to look as though they are posting the same thing over and over but, in reality, that's exactly what is being done. How would I know the difference between the opening bell post and the closing bell post for a stock by looking at Facebook? I'm not even sure changing the thumbnails resolves that. In all of my testing you actually have to click on the links to know there is any difference between them.

                        • Wayne Luke
                          Wayne Luke commented
                          Editing a comment
                          The difference is probably the OpenGraph tags that were added. They will take precedence over any URL.

                          However, Facebook changes their linking rules every month and their API changes every 3-6 months.
                      • Maltair
                        Senior Member
                        • Feb 2009
                        • 575
                        • 5.7.5

                        #14
                        <<I'm not even sure changing the thumbnails resolves that. In all of my testing you actually have to click on the links to know there is any difference between them.>>

                        That's the bug!


                        Did you read what I wrote above?

                        When the system is working, the thumbnail contains the first sentence or so from the post being posted, not the text from the first post of the topic. It has worked correctly like this in the past, but does not today.

                        Comment

                        • Wayne Luke
                          vBulletin Technical Support Lead
                          • Aug 2000
                          • 73976

                          #15
                          In 5.3.4, every topic has a hardcoded description that Facebook will use based on the Open Graph tags in the header. Adding Opengraph tags has been a long outstanding request from customers. Individual posts do not have their own OpenGraph tags and Facebook doesn't even allow for that. The only way for you to go to the older (and buggy) behavior is to remove the tags. An option is being added to do this and hopefully will be in the next version.

                          Here are the open graph tags for this page:
                          Code:
                          	<meta property="og:site_name" content="vBulletin Community Forum" />
                          	<meta property="og:description" content="When you post something and check to have it posted also on Facebook, the resulting thumbnail on FB contains the text from the first post of that topic (thread), versus content from that post itself.
                          
                          In other" />
                          	<meta property="og:url" content="https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/vbulletin-5-connect/vbulletin-5-connect-questions-problems-troubleshooting/vbulletin-5-support-issues-questions/4382495-facebook-posts-thumbnail-is-a-thumbnail-of-the-first-post-in-a-topic-not-a-thumbnail-of-the-post-itself" />
                          Translations provided by Google.

                          Wayne Luke
                          The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
                          vBulletin 5 API

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