Breaking the Wall

What is up with this new "in share" link that is on everyone blog?

awesome you got to see Paul.

Josse:

I wanted to add some kind of a "like" feature, the first thing I thought of was Facebook "like", so I set up a Facebook account and added what I needed to the code, then while testing it I got completely disgusted with Facebook - it was in my face with suggestions for half naked friends, half-naked movie covers, and half-naked celebrity blogs - I do not know how so many people can handle it. There must be a way around it since our missionaries are now starting to use it, but it was not obvious to me, and I did not like the feeling of digging inside the toilet for any longer than I already have. So the next thing I thought was LinkedIn share. I liked that better since I work for LinkedIn. When I find a moment I will add Google Plus, and maybe even Twitter - I assuming I can tolerate the testing. I might even finish the Facebook integration if I could find the magic option in the profile that turns off all suggestions - I do not want to see any content unless I specifically searched for it.

Sasha- can you somehow make the Share feature an option we can choose in our profile to have or not have? Because I really don't want it, and it looks pretty tacky and takes up lots of screen space.

I think most runners would agree that we would be far more likely to share runs with social friends (facebook, twitter) than professional acquaintances (LinkedIn). But I really like the old FRB with the low-key, not tied in format. If there is any way to make it optional, we would really appreciate if you would do it. Or just delete it. I don't want business recruiters seeing how much I run, I want them thinking how technically competent I am. I want to be the Engineer, not the Crazy-Runner-Guy.

I think facebook and FRB are better aligned than Linkedin and FRB. There are 1.15 billion active users on facebook partly because you can choose to see and share as much or as little as you want. Just search "Privacy Settings" in the facebook search to see how to do it. Just my two cents.

Jon:

If you never share anything using your LinkedIn login, even if somebody else shares your runs on their LinkedIn profile, the recruiters will not associate your Fast Running Blog profile with your professional profile unless they match the pictures.

That said, I was just talking to Paul and he said they recent hired an elite triathlete as a GIS professional. His athletic profile was looked at during the decision making process and played a positive role. I personally mention my running and have a link to my blog in my professional profile. I consider it a part of myself that the recruiters better be at peace with. I have not had a shortage of recruiters approaching me, currently have a telecommuting job with a nice salary and stock options living in Orem while the company is in Silicon Valley, and have been offered similar deals by other well-known Silicon Valley companies. Maybe some recruiters look at a runner and have second thoughts, but you cannot make everyone happy, and there are enough of them out there that at least respect runners if they do not run themselves.

Fritz:

I thought that too at first, but then I got a positive comment today about the LinkedIn share feature. Different people like different things. I'll give Facebook another try when I have a moment. For now, we have LinkedIn and Google Plus.

I am with Jon. A simple like that is contained within the FRB universe is a nice idea. This, however, is visually unappealing clutter with the undesired consequence of linking with social sites. Some want to share more of their running life than others and those who don't mind sharing still don't want to inundate others with their daily activities.

I like Jon's idea of making it an option. I don't know how difficult it would be, but it'd be great to have a choice.

Regardless, thanks for creating this blog.

I also like the idea of opting out. I like this blog for its simplicity of not have all the bells and whistle you find on all the social media sites.

+1 here on making it an option.

Thanks for all that you do Sasha!

But make that +1 more on making it an option.

First, let me explain where I stand when the blog is concerned. I have a certain set of values and ideas that I believe to be of benefit to everyone. I want to share those ideas. To the extent that the blog is accomplishing it, I am willing to invest the time and the effort to keep it running regardless of the revenue it generates for me. When something is not exactly aligned with those ideas, but at least is not directly contrary to them, I am willing to put in some work to support it if their is at least partial compensation for the work.

Social media links help in two ways by increasing the number of unique visitors. More unique visitors means more people are learning the principles that have helped a good number of people on this site run their PRs, but more than that - learn that what they thought was impossible was actually possible and thus experience what faith feels like.

Unique visitors also drive the revenue. I make enough from my full-time job and side jobs that I do not really care that much about increasing the blog revenue. However, doing work on the blog means using the time and the programming energy that could have been used for jobs that have immediate financial payback which I would be delaying. In the past this was a hypothetical thing - I was younger, had fewer kids, ran my own consulting business, and had plenty of time and energy for side projects like the blog. Now the time and energy are more difficult to find and there is a very real opportunity cost so I need to budget my resources.

To make the social media share optional requires work. Not a terrible amount, but it is nevertheless work, and I will only do it if I see how this aligns with the goals I stated above. I am not satisfied with the blog traffic primarily consisting of visits by 400 or so active bloggers. Implementing the feature as I see it right now is work with no payback - either visionary or financial.

So here is what I am proposing to make things fair. I will add a paying member option. For $50 a year you will have the option to view the site ad-free (including no ads on your blog) and (separate option) social-media link free - I can even make it an individual option for each social media site. I could even make it so that your blog is visible only by the people on your favorite blog list if you select that option.

So in other words what I am asking if the +1's I am hearing are strong enough to want to pay for it. If yes, I will do the work.

Thanks Sasha. That is a fair proposition. I think we would all vote for the viability of the blog with whatever it takes to get there. And I didn't personally mean to sound ungrateful. I could care less about the ads but I would pay to avoid the social media aspect.

I was going to comment this morning but didn't get a chance. So I don't want to act like after Sasha's comments then I took a voice. But seriously I don't care. The ad's, social media whatever... I don't care. Is it really that big of deal? I didn't eve notice until the above comments started to roll in. It's Sasha's blog. I've been an active member since early 2006 and love it and will continue to use it under any format.

Thanks Sasha.

just my 2 cents

OK, let's draw the line - if five people are willing to pay $50 a year to have the options proposed in my earlier post I'll get to work, or maybe even put Benjamin to it - he wants to be self-sufficient when he goes to college and it will get done faster. We have one so far.

Why not just pilot the social media add-ons to see if it increases traffic the way you would like before doing the work and having people pay 50 bucks? I am curious if and how people will use the new social media tools and if it will result in increased traffic and revenue to your site. Reason I am suggesting that is because I don't use LinkedIn or Google Plus and I don't know why I would share posts to these sites, but I may be in the minority.

I like Amiee's idea of seeing if you actually get more traffic from it.

That being said, I still think LinkedIn is the least relevant of all social sites (I don't consider it social- it's professional), and I think Google Plus is pretty much dead. If you do social tie ins, I'd have to believe Facebook and Twitter are the most used. By far.

Just an idea on aesthetics - maybe instead of the networking options being placed within the body of each blog post, they could be placed in the smaller "Add Comment" section. Most of these networks have small, sleek icons / buttons that would fit inside that box. Probably 5-8 of them would fit, the file sizes are small so they take no time to load and from an interaction perspective - they're exactly where you'd expect them to be. I'm all for you doing whatever you want with this blog, I'll keep posting as long as I don't have to enter my social security number :-) but I do like the idea of a somewhat sleek interface with these buttons. I think in terms of expanding the traffic to and use of the blog, that would be a good move.

Jake- if you won't divulge your SSN, how about just your credit card number? And don't forget the expiration date and that little code on the back ;)

Here's a visual of what I was suggesting - I'm not a graphics guy, but something along these lines is what I had in mind:

http://goo.gl/3ZOfOQ

Not sure what others would think of something like that.

The icon sets can be downloaded in pretty much any color / style scheme. I'd be happy to help in anyway possible... I'm good at plugging things into photoshop, not so much w/ the actual programming :-)

I like that jake it looks good

Like it too, Jake. Nice idea.

Jake - great idea, thanks for the contribution. Will code it up.

I'm more than happy to help you create the icons if needed. Just e-mail me.