Social Networking

  • Facebook Reactions: What do they mean for your News Feed?

    February 24, 2016

    Facebook Reactions just went live today.

  • The Hidden Pinterest Stack

    October 23, 2015

    After our site took a hit in Google this year, we realized we needed to double down on the social media front. We targeted Pinterest first.

  • How to Win Arguments Online

    August 17, 2015

    How do you win an argument online?

  • Pinterest Image Overlays

    February 28, 2013

    Some code snippets to give you a nice looking Pinterest overlay for your images.

  • “Hey Facebook, Stop Spamming Me!”

    October 27, 2010

    I overheard my wife chatting about Facebook with a friend the other day, and she said something that might be a rather common sentiment for many Facebook users these days: “I loved that picture, but I didn’t click Like because I knew I’d get spammed with everyone else’s comments.” If you’re unfamiliar with Facebook friend... Read More

  • A Lesson In Comment Policy from Gawker

    April 15, 2010

    Last year, Gawker Media took a big step in stemming the tide of bad commenters on their media properties by introducing tiered commenting. Nieman Journalism Lab provides a thorough write-up of their experiment. From the article: “In essence, Gawker’s ‘class system’ means unknown commenters get stuck behind a ‘show all discussions’ link few users will... Read More

  • In Good Company

    January 11, 2010

    For reasons that I can neither understand nor explain, it seems that a good number of people are interested in what I have to say—I just recently crossed the 900 follower mark on Twitter. Numbers don’t mean that much to me. I’d be writing in much the same way whether I had 9 followers or... Read More

  • How I Nearly Got Swindled Out Of $1500 Via Facebook Chat But Instead Scared The Living Daylights Out Of A Hacker

    August 18, 2009

    So the other day, I was working hard, minding my own business when suddenly a Facebook chat message from an old college friend popped up on Adium. I hadn’t talked to this friend since college, so I was a bit surprised when I received his message. It started ordinary enough, a quick exchange of greetings.... Read More

  • Twitster: Twitter Groups For Your Site

    March 30, 2009

    I’m really psyched to release the first public beta of Twitster into the wild today. But first, let me tell you a story. I work a lot with the Movable Type community. It’s a small community, but there are some really talented developers and designers doing some really cool stuff. One day I sat back... Read More

  • The Psychological Implications of Social Networking

    February 24, 2009

    The Daily Mail just ran a thought-provoking article about the effect that social websites have on childhood development. In short, eminent neuroscientist Susan Greenfield claims that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter shorten attention spans and contribute to an instant gratification, self-centered mindset. From the article: We know how small babies need constant reassurance... Read More

  • SXSW: A Critical Look At OpenID

    March 10, 2008

    Arguably one of the more interesting panels here at SXSW, A Critical Look at OpenID gave people the chance to ask a lot of question that as a non-developer I found relevant. The panel opened with a helpful comparison of OpenID to email. Your email address tells people something about you. (@gmail.com tells people you... Read More

  • Twittering Isn’t Just For Pansies

    November 9, 2007

    First, kudos to Joy for the reminder that not everyone knows about Twitter. Now, lest you all, upon seeing “Jesse is twittering:” in my Facebook status, think that I’m “giggling nervously” or “tittering” all the time, allow me to explain. What Is Twitter? Twitter is a social network and microblogging site that lets you post... Read More

  • Five Things You Need To Know About Movable Type Open Source

    November 6, 2007

    In June, Six Apart announced that it would be offering it’s flagship product, Movable Type, under an open source model later this year. Lots of speculation has been swirling around it, so here are a few things you should know about Movable Type Open Source: 1. MTOS will be released under a GPL license. “If... Read More

  • The Social Graph in Plain Language

    September 20, 2007

    David Recordon over at Six Apart just published an article called We Are Opening The Social Graph. It explains the company’s goal of using OpenID and some other non-proprietary technologies to help make your “social graph” an open platform. Have I lost you? Let’s start again. Let’s talk about how annoying it is to have... Read More