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Reddit makes easier to share and view linked posts on social media sites
Admitting that "we didn't make it easy to" share posts on other social media platforms, Reddit has announced that it's rolling out new features to do just that.
Facebook removes posts promoting anti-quarantine protests
Facebook removed posts promoting anti-quarantine events that violate social distancing orders in at least three states.
Facebook plans to clarify when pro-Bloomberg posts come from staffers
Thanks to Mike Bloomberg, Facebook wants to make it more obvious when paid campaign staffers share posts promoting candidates, CNBC reports. This is a direct response to Bloomberg paying organizers to post on social media, but it could apply to any campaign staffers sharing political views on Facebook.
An old Instagram hoax is back, and it's duping celebrities
An Instagram hoax that first circulated in 2012 is back, and celebrities from Usher to Waka Flocka Flame, Julianne Moore, Julia Roberts and Rob Lowe have allegedly fallen for it. The post claims Instagram is changing its rules and everything you've ever posted will become public, NBC News reports.
Instagram users can now flag false content
Beginning today, Instagram users can report content that they believe to be false. Instagram will use those flags to better understand misinformation on the platform and to train its AI to spot false content. In time, Instagram will use the feedback, as well as other "signals" -- like how old a post is and the account's previous behavior -- to determine if a post needs to be reviewed by third-party fact checkers. This is slightly different than the pilot program Instagram launched in May, which allows users to flag false content for review by fact checkers. For now, that will remain a pilot.
Facebook will rank comments to make conversations more meaningful
Facebook wants to make conversations on public posts more meaningful. Today, it will start ranking comments to promote those that are most relevant to users. It will give priority to comments that have interactions from the original poster, as well as comments or reactions from friends of the person who created the post.
Facebook contractors categorize your private posts to train AI
At any given time, Facebook has thousands of third-party staffers around the world looking at and labeling Facebook and Instagram posts. The work is meant to help train AI and to inform new products. But because the contractors see users' public and private posts, some view it as a violation of privacy.
Instagram's redesigned Explore tab sorts everything into topics
As if you weren't already spending hours falling down the rabbit hole that is Instagram's Explore tab, the site is making a few tweaks that'll make it even easier to spend time getting lost in other people's pics. Announced at Facebook's F8 event earlier this year, a redesigned Explore tab is now rolling out to users. It has the same tile-style interface as before, with curated posts based on the things you're already looking at, but now you can explore additional topic channels, too.
Facebook demotes video clickbait posts to improve your feeds
In a bid to promote "authentic communication," Facebook will now demote clickbait stories that present static images as video along with images with fake playback buttons in them. While the former practice just ends up confusing users, the latter actually tricks people into clicking through to a website. Both techniques are frowned upon by the social network, which says it wants to "improve the integrity of information on Facebook."
Facebook tests News Feed-only posts that avoid your Timeline
Being able to hide a Facebook update after it posts isn't entirely new, but the social network is testing a way to let users keep things from ever hitting their Timeline. A "Hide From Your Timeline" checkbox will allow you to only publish something in the News Feed, without the need to remove it afterwards. CNET reports that any post you keep off your Timeline will still show up in search results and they'll be listed alongside your other activity on the "Your Posts" page that only you can view. The feature appears to available for a select few on the web, and Facebook isn't saying when or if it'll be a permanent addition.
Facebook is making product endorsements more obvious
Ads have been a staple in your Facebook News Feed for quite sometime. Today, the social network announced changes to its branded content policy that will make it more obvious when a celebrity or other publisher posts about third-party goods and services. There's a new tagging feature that must be used by anyone posting something tied to a marketer. The tag will alert the company being referenced so that they can view analytics, share and boost the post. What's more, the original post from the publisher or "influencer" will get a "with" tag just like you see when you tag friends in updates. Adding "with" will help users identify brand posts, but the content still won't be obvious if you're only giving the News Feed a passing glance.
Ask Massively: Why we write about only the games you hate
Welcome back to Ask Massively because why not? You're here; I'm here. We've previously discussed defining MMOs and how we select the games and the news Massively covers. This week, let's talk about column selection and perception of story frequency. tomrobbins asked, "Why do you guys cover [WildStar] so intensely yet other MMOs you barely mention? This game can't do a thing with out getting an article written about it here, yet it's not even out. Other MMOs barely get mentioned. This site seems only about WildStar, EverQuest II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Star Trek Online lately." Does it sometimes feel as if we're reading different sites entirely?
Facebook Timeline feature, unflattering photos being pushed out to all users in next few weeks
Okay, so now that we've all had sufficient time to go on an untagging spree, Facebook is finally getting ready to begin pushing its new layout to all users. Timeline will be rolled out to everyone over the next few weeks, with the social network giving you seven days to preview it before going live, you know, just in case...
Google offers updates for Google+ this holiday season, fruitcake en route
If Google's idea of a stocking stuffer is tweaking Google+, its engineers are getting the gift-giving over with a few days early. Today, the company announced that it'll be introducing a few new features to its social network, including new controls that adjust how posts from a given circle are blended into the overall stream of posts, along with which posts are highlighted for your attention. The outfit also says it's working on refining its toolbar to highlight newer posts and see how widely your posts have been shared. For advertisers, up to 50 named managers can now administrate a Google+ Page, and a fix to the photo side of the site allow for improved navigation and better tagging. Head past the break to see full clips of the changes in action, and since Google bought out Santa's operation, expect to hear Eric Schmidt's footsteps on your roof come the 24th. Update: The Google+ Android app has also seen an update tonight, gaining the ability to start a hangout from a Messenger conversation, new photo album design and more. Hit the Android Market for more details.
The Soapbox: The best complaint is an empty seat
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. This is a public service announcement for you. Yes, you, with the post open for the message board and your finger hovering over the "post" button. I can't see what you've got written there, but I'm willing to bet some form of "turning the game into World of Warcraft" is there if you're posting about another game. Or possibly FarmVille. Hopefully I'm getting warm. Look, the point is that I now you're about to post this hateful diatribe about threatening to leave. But I've got a better suggestion for you. How about you delete that post, unsubscribe, and then head outside for a walk with some friends. Play a different game, maybe an offline one, for a couple of days. Don't whine and just leave.
Zarhym muses about 15-man raids
Recently, a player on the official forums asked about the potential for 15-man raids in World of Warcraft. Zarhym responded to the post, stating that he believes that 15-man raiding numbers are a "pretty optimal number of raiders" since class representation is easier to deal with. However, there is no plan in the near future for Blizzard to implement three different raid sizes in the near future, which most likely means 10- and 25-man raiding is here to stay. But what if we lived in a world of 15-man raiding? There are many benefits to 15-man raids that work around the scaling problems of 25-mans and the tuning issues of 10-mans. The big issues with 25-man raids include scaling and filling out the roster. Many guilds cannot field 25 people for their weekly raid and usually have to resort to pugging a few stragglers who aren't in tune with the group. Other guilds who cannot field 25 players choose to do two 10-man raids, but the issue of group composition takes center stage; where two 10-mans require a total of four tanks and five to six healers, the 25-man requires two tanks and six to eight healers. You can get a nasty split if you don't have just the right number of specific classes.
Lonely Planet's Best in Travel free on iBookstore
Lonely Planet has a deal going on in the iBookstore to advertise some of its published offerings there. For a limited time, the Best in Travel 2011 book can be downloaded in iBooks for free. The book ranks the top 10 places to visit around the world this year, featuring special one-time only events and even a travel planner, along with value tips and other fun extras. The download is free until June 14, so feel free to grab it right now in iBooks. Lonely Planet has other books for sale on Apple's service, and a quick browse through the top free books in iBooks shows there's some recipe guides and Apple's own iPad User Guide to be had right now. I've really been using iBooks a lot lately as both an e-reader and a reference app, and while most free e-book lists are dominated by copyright-free classics, hopefully we'll see some newer titles like this come out and provide some solid free content on the iBookstore.
Captain's Log: Back to the future
Captain's Log, Stardate 64884.1... Hello, computer (and players)! Guess what's back? That's right! Hailing frequencies are now reopened -- Captain's Log is no longer on hiatus. Over the past few weeks, there has been some great news released about the Star Trek Online universe: the winner of the Design the Next Enterprise Contest was announced, the May Ask Cryptic was released, the dev team revealed the 500-day veteran rewards, and the Featured Episode reruns began. While everyone has had his or her own opinions on these stories, there is one piece of news that everyone can agree on: the awesomesauceness of the latest Engineering Report. As first announced earlier this week, Executive Producer Dan Stahl dropped his latest report, which describes the updates to the game coming in Season Four. As usual, aside from the imminent new content, Dan foreshadows the future for us. Captain's Log is no stranger to talking about the future of the game, so I am excited to share some more details about the upcoming updates with you. Since Season Four is right around the corner and I believe it will be the "game changing update this game has needed since launch," let's get on to this week's Log entry. Ensign, warp 10! Let's talk about Season 4 and beyond...
Captain's Log: Warp trails through deliberation
Captain's Log, Stardate 64806.6... Hello, computer (and players)! It has been said that the development of a MMO and the direction it takes can attributed to those who were not afraid to speak out and gather followers who are in support of abstract ideas. As I have preached about since I took over the helm of the Captain's Log, the community has been at the forefront of the Star Trek Online universe. Bolstered by numerous fan sites and thousands of fleets and cemented by transparent developer posts and interviews, STO wouldn't be where it is today without such a passionate community. A lot of this passion takes its form through posts in Cryptic's official forums. Whether the residence of your most beloved troll or the dwellings of your favorite developer, a game's official forums are a place to come together to rant, rave, and be that person who stands out and speaks up. The STO forums are no different. While the past few columns of mine have been about what the developers have said are coming in the future, I thought we should set a course this week for the forums and blaze a trail through the vast expanse filled with wants, desires, and demands. Shields up. Red alert. Ensign, warp 10! What are the players asking for this week?
Farewell and thank you, WoW.com
I've told this story a few times before: I actually started out on WoW.com as a comment troll. A few years back, Jennie Lees was the lead blogger here, and she posted something silly about a wallpaper or a plush doll, I don't remember. I was also reading the forums at the time, and Blizzard had just dropped new priest patch notes. "Why are you posting this junk," I commented angrily, "when the priest notes just dropped?" She was nice about it -- she actually emailed me and said that the priest updates post was coming soon. And I felt so bad about it, I never activated the comment. But a little while after that, when WoW Insider posted that they were looking for some new writers, I applied, and said that I was sorry for that comment, but that I was working on becoming a writer and could help out with posting on the site when needed. When I started writing for WoW Insider (now WoW.com, obviously), I was working retail in Chicago, writing part-time in the evenings. The site itself got only a few thousand hits a month, with one or two weekly features and maybe ten comments per post. Now, over three years later, I'm a fulltime freelance writer, I've been to three BlizzCons, I've written over 1.7 million words in over 3,300 posts here about everything in Azeroth, and the site itself rivals some of the best blogs on the Internet, routinely garnering millions of hits a month. I helped build this site with my own two hands, and while I definitely can't claim all the credit (there was and is a huge team of people who keep this thing running), it's with a fair amount of sorrow that I'm here to tell you today will be my last day on WoW.com.
