Google+ vs Forum

els · 2013-05-15 19:21:15

I agree with most of the above. I like G+ a lot, but it’s not good for storing and retrieving information.

mrdale wrote:

Crossposting isn’t a bad idea, though. or is it?

Is there a way to display the G+ posts here? It could limit the impression of an inactive community, or at least put it in perspective.

wet · 2013-05-16 04:20:38

Els wrote:

Is there a way to display the G+ posts here?

“What happens in G+ stays in G+”, per their walled garden business model. I think they don’t even offer a feed.

tye · 2013-05-16 07:27:20

Good – I’m glad its not just me :)

Who mentioned something about not liking the interface on G+ – looks like they listened.

wet – 3rd party so not sure if you want to use it – but this a rss feed off the TXP Google+ page – more info here

I have to agree with bloke on getting a txp hq up and running – I’ll have a think about that

carlahearne · 2013-05-16 08:39:11

It looks like Google have tried to make the Google+ experience look a little more like the Facebook timeline experience to me.. Not sure I like it yet, I’ll have to see how I feel after I’ve used it for a while..

etc · 2013-05-16 09:45:26

tye wrote:

wet – 3rd party so not sure if you want to use it – but this a rss feed off the TXP Google+ page – more info here

Were this forum run on Textpattern, a 1st party solution could be

<txp:etc_query url="https://plus.google.com/communities/111366418300163664690"
	query="//div[@class='qf ii']/div[position()<3]"
	replace=".//script|.//@*[starts-with(name(),'on')]"
/>

or something like that, assuming G+ class names are stable enough. This extracts not only headers, but also the OP themselves.

But isn’t G+ itself 3rd party? I don’t see the interest to discuss there rather than here. All that G+ JS takes hell to load on old smartphones. The forum would gain from some responsive lift-up, though.

philwareham · 2013-05-16 10:02:04

I’ve really got to get a move on with the Textpattern site redesigns. I got a good way into it and other workloads got in the way. There is a responsive theme for FluxBB (the forum software) already so we can customise that for our own needs.

etc · 2013-05-16 10:22:41

philwareham wrote:

I’ve really got to get a move on with the Textpattern site redesigns. I got a good way into it and other workloads got in the way. There is a responsive theme for FluxBB (the forum software) already so we can customise that for our own needs.

Looks and sounds good, my eyes thank you in advance, Phil!

Gocom · 2013-05-16 13:43:24

etc wrote:

Were this forum run on Textpattern, a 1st party solution could be

Good for parsing trusted input, but doesn’t really work scraping 3rd party content. Especially when talking about HTML structures (that a XML parser can not handle) which are fed through Textpattern (where we literally are evaling any content) to browsers.

We pretty much would need a trustworthy data format enclosing the content. Given how Textpattern’s templates work, I wouldn’t necessarily either handle it through Textpattern.

etc · 2013-05-16 14:15:16

Gocom wrote:

Good for parsing trusted input, but doesn’t really work scraping 3rd party content. Especially when talking about HTML structures (that a XML parser can not handle) which are fed through Textpattern (where we literally are evaling any content) to browsers.

PHP DOM can handle HTML, though one has to struggle with things like self-closing tags and such. When importing HTML, it gets minimally sanitized. In particular, all namespaces are stripped out, so <txp:php> and such become harmless <php>. The snippet above works as far (tested), though more cleanup might be necessary to insure security (doable).

We pretty much would need a trustworthy data format enclosing the content. Given how Textpattern’s templates work, I wouldn’t necessarily either handle it through Textpattern.

Sure, but Google does not seem to provide it. And Textpattern is not really needed, yes, but since it can do it with ease, why not?

Gocom · 2013-05-16 18:41:19

etc wrote:

PHP DOM can handle HTML

<a><script>alert('</a>')</script></a>

Last edited by Gocom (2013-05-16 18:41:32)

etc · 2013-05-16 20:33:13

Nice one, thanks! This wouldn’t allow script injection, since we are removing them anyway, and actually we could strip all <script>s before parsing, but I feel dumb.

bici · 2013-05-17 05:16:26

I am starting to really dislike Google’s apps. Gmail is almost unusable via their web interface or via MailPlane. I can only use it via Apple Mail. Google + has always been a pain.

philwareham · 2013-05-17 07:08:47

Google make some really good design decisions, and some really bad ones. The latest Google+ update is worse than the older one I feel. I’m moving most of my discussion back to the forums.

Also, IMHO we should move the Textpattern project from Google Code onto GitHub proper. Promote the GitHub repo on the Textpattern homepage, encourage forking and pull requests etc.

etc · 2013-05-17 14:45:45

Slightly OT: I’ve made a test page to see if G+ posts can be reliably imported. Everyone is welcome to break it, in the spirit of Jukka.

The page is cached for one hour, so new posts will not appear immediately.

Destry · 2013-05-17 23:51:26

Ha-ha. You guys crack me up. Sound like a bunch of old fogies pissing about the good ‘ol days. As if.

There’s about 10,000 accounts in this forum, no doubt a lot of those are unverified spam (see the first three pages alone). But hey, 10K! By contrast, the G+ community has 191 members (every one a real person). Not exactly a mass exodus. I’d even guess many of those people are new to Textpattern, and maybe because the G+ community existed, and maybe they found it after seeing a tweet, or whatever.

Who knows. Anybody ever conduct a survey with members about how they came to find Txp? Btw, Google forms have gotten really good and integrating nicely with G+ posts, improving all the time. And you can link a Google spreadsheet to catch form data and run fancy stats on the results. All for free in a matter of minutes. Yeah, those apps suck. Damn Skynet!

Speaking of Twitter, any body use that? Well, maybe you don’t, but new Textpattern users certainly do, and they like to shout about this thing they found called Textpattern, through social media channels…

https://twitter.com/techpsychsoc/status/332815807568572416

https://twitter.com/4l3d/status/335100410601799680

https://twitter.com/claudiabusetto/status/335384966852657153

https://twitter.com/bashirnoori/status/335408806655844352

I don’t remember anybody posting a “Facebook vs. Forum” thread, but I do remember when being in the Textpattern Facebook group there were a lot of names there I’ve never seen here.

I think you see what I’m saying. There’s certainly room for both G+ and this forum. I’d even say Txp is not using it’s G+ Page to full advantage for both visibility and rank juice, but I won’t go into that.

Just don’t get tunnel-visioned and start navel-gazing again, like the good ol’ days.

@etc: That is useful. I could put that to work. Where’s the plugin? ;)

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#16 2013-05-15 19:21:15

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#17 2013-05-16 04:20:38

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#18 2013-05-16 07:27:20

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#19 2013-05-16 08:39:11

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#20 2013-05-16 09:45:26

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#21 2013-05-16 10:02:04

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#22 2013-05-16 10:22:41

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#23 2013-05-16 13:43:24

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#24 2013-05-16 14:15:16

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#25 2013-05-16 18:41:19

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#26 2013-05-16 20:33:13

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#27 2013-05-17 05:16:26

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#28 2013-05-17 07:08:47

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#29 2013-05-17 14:45:45

Re: Google+ vs Forum

#30 2013-05-17 23:51:26

Re: Google+ vs Forum

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