Cstar1

Last year, Delphi enabled an Add This button at the bottom of threads, which gave you the ability to post a tickler on other services linking back to the Delphi discussion. Unfortunately, technical difficulties ensued when Add This changed their code, and the button caused performance problems for some members, so we had to remove it

Another member, entrances, has found a way to add an Add This button on individual posts on Delphi.

 

 

You can put that little block in your signature, and it will link any post and allow you to push the URL out to other services.  

The results on Twitter are a bit grim - the long version of the Delphi post number, followed by a shortened version, and "via @addthis" puts you over 140 characters right away. But if you remove the long version of the URL and just keep the short one, you've got some room for text.

I tried the Google bookmark one, which worked nicely, as did the gmail link, and Google Reader. Newsvine appeared to work though I didn't post through because they prohibit self-promotion. StumbleUpon looked like it would work too, though I didn't post through.

Squidoo did not work, nor did Xanga, nor iGoogle, all three because they need a widget to post to, and there isn't a corresponding one. Facebook worked, posting just a longer version of the basic message URL, and there's plenty of room to add your own text.

Here's one that might be fun to use: Amazon. I can see using this one on some of our book forums - posting through adds the URL to your Amazon Wish List.

I hope some of you will try out posting to some of the other services on the Add This list, and let us know how they worked. Obviously we'd want to hear if the Add This button causes anyone any problems too, but since this one is straight HTML, not javascript, and is not installed on our system, hopefully the same issues won't be encountered.

Thanks, entrances!

If you hit that sign up page and don't see the Guest button, the forum you're clicking through to doesn't allow Guest access. That's a shame, really. Any forum that's interested in growing their membership - and in particular any forum that's actively promoting it - MUST have Guest access enabled. If you don't, you're missing out on a huge percentage of potential new members. How many? I'm only guessing, but I think you'll lose 80% or more of your potential new members. (Would you sign up for an account to view a page? Vote in the poll to give us some real statistics. Guess what? Guests can vote in polls too!)

 

I know the arguments about allowing Guests in forums, and I even agree with them in some types of forums like trauma support forums, but for general interest, hobby, fan, and opinion forums, not allowing guest access is cutting off your nose to spite your face. You don't sign up for an account at every news or website you read, do you? Why would you expect every brand new reader of your forum to sign up for an account their first time through? Once they decide to participate by posting or making a repeat visit, they've made a committment to you, and that's plenty of time to ask them to sign up.

 

Let the public freely sample what you and your forum are all about, and let them know that you welcome Guests.

 

Do you have Guest access enabled in your forum? Put out the pineapple*, and welcome Guests into your online home.

*Pineapples are a traditional symbol of welcome and hospitality.

Twitter has now released their own Twitter Bookmarklet.

Works like a charm on Delphi!

Drag the button to your bookmarks bar on your browser, and you can tweet about any page with an instant link, regardless if there's a Tweet button already installed.

Great for tweeting messages from your forum, but if you want to encourage retweets, putting one of the birdbrain icons on your message would still be the way to go.

Installing it on Google Chrome couldn't have been easier. Just drag the button to the favorites bar. IE7 took a bit more manipulation - right click on the button, save to Favorites, then file the favorite in Links.

I edited both of mine to simply read Tweet instead of Share on Twitter, so they don't take up as much room. Would have been nice if they'd had a little birdie icon or the Twitter "t".