I have no idea where they went… nor have I found either culprit or motive… but someone has been kidnapping Tweets.
It started about a week ago. I was going about my business, blogging as usual… writing, reading, pressing those share buttons…
…and it was then that it happened.
There was no Tweet.
Well, to be exact, there was a Tweet…but all it contained was a simple URL. No attribution, no title, no Twitter handle. In fact, the thing had no identifying marks at all…
It seemed pointless pressing ‘Tweet’ at all… even more pointless than when you try and Tweet someone’s work, only to find they have not connected their twitter handle to their WordPress account, thus doing themselves out of countless possible followers and much online exposure.
I wouldn’t mind…but that is so easy to do… all you have to do is click ‘My Sites’ top left of the screen, scroll down to WP Admin and click hover over settings, click ‘sharing’, scroll down to where it asks for the Twitter handle and pop it in the box… not forgetting to click save at the bottom of the page. (WP have a full set of instructions on using the Publicize feature on .com sites here. Self hosted sites have other options.)
But this is different. It isn’t happening on all sites…maybe it is just the self hosted sites? A problem with a plug-in?
However, instead of this…complete with title and handle…
…all I get is the link:
…which isn’t a lot of use to anyone as few on Twitter will bother to cut and paste an untite URL into the search bar to see who wrote what where…
I have no idea what has gone wrong, nor do I know how to put it right…but I’ll bet WP Support can help if your blog is affected.
If you’ve noticed your Twitter referrals have gone down, this might be why. But how do you know? Easy…
Take a look at one of your posts with sharing buttons. If the Twitter button has gone missing and it just says ‘Tweet’, you may have a problem. (Judy Martin… this is from your site).
I have no answers… except to say please connect your blog to your Twitter account if you have one, so that others can share effectively for you… but you might want to check your posts….
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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Thank you.
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Good point Sue, I do try to encourage those who haven’t, to add a Twitter handle…I’d rather share, and they find out, than @WordPress getting the credit (when the handles deign to appear!)
I haven’t noticed any disappearing handles recently, but I shall check!
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I’d be interested to know if the problem is my end or a wider glitch.
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I tweeted a few this morning, and they were okay…!
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Most people’s are.. but just when I think the problem has been solved, I hit another one.
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Definitely gremlins at work… but are they WP or twitter?!
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Or something my end?
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Possibly… are you self hosted?
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Me? No… I like .com
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Me too!
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🙂
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It usually happens when it’s time for the blog administrator to refresh a connection to their media, Sue – a message to refresh XYZ appears in the Publish part of the Post Editor 😀
What I find more annoying is having to go to FB and change the ‘Only Me’ to ‘Global’ view icon for every post uploaded automatically – it’s been like that since beginning of November 2017 – even though my FB settings say ‘Global’
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I have a similar problem with Google and no matter how often I refresh the darned thing, it keeps asking…
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Oh, I must check that one, Sue ❤️
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It is frustrating ❤
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Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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Thanks, Jaye x
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I’d add my Twitter handle to my blog, except I’m on Blogger, and there doesn’t seem to be an option to do so. Either that, or I haven’t found it.
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I don’t know my way around Blogger all that well.
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Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
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I’ve noticed that, too. I was then taking the time to go back to the original site, get the title, search for an associated Twitter account… It was taking too much time, so I gave up and stopped tweeting those posts. Wonder what’s going on? It’s not a self-hosted thing; at least one of the blogs I’ve tried it with is definitely free. Hmm…
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It is rather odd. I was copying and pasting too… but there are only so many hours in the day. I was pretty sure that it was across .com and .org sites too.
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I don’t know what’s going on with me. I tend to leave it on “automatic.” When we get home. Which would mean TOMORROW. We are currently still in Connecticut …
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Yours looks fine, Marilyn.
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I haven’t noticed that Sue. But I’ll tell you I have noticed a similar problem with Google. Some sites I share something to Google, no photo or link shows up and ‘invalid link’ pops up. Technical gremlins at large! ❤
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Well, we know they have been playing again… that’s always trouble… xx
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Always something! xx
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Always… x
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Yet another ‘odd’ interwebz moment. 🙂
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Or WP….
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I’ve not come across this problem (yet), Sue. I agree with what Chris said about the link between our blog and social media accounts sometimes breaking. It’s happened to me a few times and WordPress usually place a warning (in red) in the settings on the draft page of a post which asks you to reconnect the account.
Strangely, my Throwback Thursday post scheduled for tomorrow is about adding a Twitter account to a WordPress blog, so I’ll also link back to this post.
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Thanks, Hugh… I do wish everyone with a Twitter account would link it… it makes sharing so much simpler 🙂
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Agreed, Sue. I’ve stopped tweeting when it’s ‘@WordPress.Com’ that comes up on the tweet.
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Me too, Hugh…and that is a shame.
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Pingback: How To Add Your Twitter Username To Your WordPress Blog #throwbackthursday – Hugh's Views & News
Interesting, Sue. I haven’t had this with Twitter but I have had it with Facebook. Twice over the past week. Hmmmm!
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There seems to be a whole series of glitches at the moment.
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