Minor Facebook difficulty

[Spider]

This isn't a big deal but is giving me cause to waste a disproportionate amount of time. You know when you want to share something on Facebook or you want to enter a link to another page or website? When the link details come up, there is a thumbnail picture from that website. Some websites have a number of pictures from which you can choose - the notation next to the thumbnail says 1 of 4 (if there are 4 thumbnails to choose from.

Okay - with me so far?

When I click on the Facebook share button on my 'Making Business Fun' blog I get as a thumbnail the only picture on my blog, which is a mugshot of me. (I presume the same happens for everyone else who wants to share my blog with their FB friends.)

Thinking that I would like a different thumbnail - even give sharers a choice of thumbnails - I entered some icon-type images to my blog hoping that they would be picked up by the Facebook 'share' app. But they are not being picked up.

Any idea how to get these other pictures to display at FB?

[Harold Mansfield]

From the way it looks, the function scans for photos on the page. If they aren't directly on the page, it won't pick them up. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it will pickup all images.
That's pretty much all I know about it since it is a Facebook function and not something that we have any control over.

[Spider]

You don't suppose there is something we do at FB? I ask because I was trying do this a couple of days ago and it took one of my thumbnails. But I didn't like that thumbnail so I removed it from the blog page AND deleted it from the WP gallery, but it continued to show as an alternative at Facebook - but only if I entered the url at FB as a link to be shared. If I clicked on the Share button at the blog, it only showed 1 of 1 thumbnails.

But now we have a new development. In order to check that the above was accurate, I went to Facebook and tested it. Lo and behold, I have 9 thumbnails to choose from - the very ones that wouldn't show up yesterday. So, clearly, there is a time element involved here.

But wait! (the man says!) There's more! When I click the Share button at the blog, I still only get 1 of 1 thumbnails. So, FB takes these thumbnails and stores them for future use, at some time that doesn't relate to the clicking of a Share button. And it doesn't relate to the position on the page - like, perhaps it will only take one thumbnail. Because when I moved one of the thumbnails to be first, in front of my headshot, my headshot was still the only one available.

Curiouser and curiouser!

Just thought I'd give you the latest in case you run into this yourself and wonder what's going on.

[Harold Mansfield]

Sharing from the blog and sharing inside of Facebook are going to give you different results because they are not the same script written by the same people. The only way that I have found to get the choice of available images to use as thumbnails is to physically share the link inside of Facebook, ie; post to my wall or activity stream.

[Spider]

Yeah - that's what is happening to me, too.

It's not that I don't want my mugshot to be too prevalent on Facebook - I just don't want a crowd of teenage girls hanging around my house all the time!

[Harold Mansfield]

It's not that I don't want my mugshot to be too prevalent on Facebook - I just don't want a crowd of teenage girls hanging around my house all the time!

Yeah, I know. It's get's old after a while, doesn't it?
I meant the groupies, not your mugshot.

[greenoak]

im having kind of the same trouble...i think...i want my blog on the facebook sometimes so i put the link on and walla....the wrong picture comes up...not the current main blog picture...which i meant to relate to the facebook post......and even more confusing..... i think it goes on my personal page just right....
im trying to get used to the new lay out...

[jamesray50]

Just wait another month or so and Face Book will change everything again and no one will know what's going on.

[Spider]

I don't know what's going on now!

Actually, another "don't know what to do with it" thingy has arrived - Community pages. What on earth are community pages - nothing to do with communities, from what I can see.

The new personal profile page now has no linked tabs at the top, has dropped the About me box that used to reside under one's picture, and has limited information under one's name in the center column. I have my own coaching practice of a name not recognized by Facebook as a company employer, so what I entered there as become a "community page" which no-one owns, according to Facebook. But it is my domain name, so I do own it. And, try as I may, I cannot claim ownership of it, even though Facebook seems to provide a way for one to claim community pages. But if a person can claim a community page as their own, it's hardly a community page, is it?

I guess it will all come out in the wash!


ADDED: Digging around further, I find--
What are community pages? Why would I want to link my profile to community pages?
Community pages — the pages that link from fields you fill out in your profile — are for general topics and all kinds of unofficial but interesting things. You "like" these pages to connect with them, but they aren't run by a single author, and they don't generate News Feed stories.

So - now there is a community page called "frederickpearce.com" that is about all kinds of unofficial but interesting things that are not run by a single author - So, who the hell is going to adding these unofficial but interesting things about my website? Jeez!


MORE ADDED: Community pages are meant to be the best collection of shared knowledge on topics that interest you. Where available, they show Wikipedia content for the relevant topic, which Facebook has licensed under the creative commons license. If we can’t find the right article from Wikipedia, we might be asking for help from the community. You may see messaging on these community pages inviting you to make these pages more useful and interesting by signing up to contribute in the future or by suggesting a Wikipedia article.

WHAT?! This could be good, but considering how shitty some people can be on the web, I'm not sure if I like the idea of having my website open to general comment from people who seemingly don't even have to go there and consider it before making a comment. And, as far as I can tell, I will have no redress or means of removing false information. This is beginning to sound like a nightmare in the making!


MORE STILL: And it seems that this community page with my domain name as its title now belongs to the community and cannot be removed! WHAT THE HELL!!!

[Spider]

BTW, Harold - Have you noticed that there is a community page at Facebook called "1st Internet Media" over which, apparently, you have no control.

I just posted my status from my Facebook homepage saying you made great webpages, but I could have written that you do crap and I don't think you are able to delete it. And, in fact, I don't seem to be able to delete it, either! (Oh. wait! I can delete it on my profile so, that will presumable remove it from the community page.)

Can you understand what is going on here, because this is driving me crazy!