Social Media Integration

Hi all...

Been thinking about the SnarkPit redesign some more and I thought maybe I should get my ideas out here in the open to see if anything sticks.

This discussion is about features we all like and dislike about social media and other mass-content websites, like Twitter, Facebook and even Pinterest.

Social Media sites everyone likes to integrate into their website:

[list=][*]Facebook
[*] Twitter
[*] YouTube
[*] Reddit
[*] StumbleUpon
[*] Linkedin
[*] Google+
[*] Pinterest
[*] Tumblr
[*] Flickr
[*] Delicious
[*] Digg
[*] Instagram
[*] DeviantArt
[*] Meetup
[*] SnarkMark Social
[*] Steam / Steam Workshop
[/list]

Recommend any to add or remove?

Now,... I won't claim to use all of these. In fact, the only ones I use on any regular bases are Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Twitter. The rest I am fairly ignorant about when it comes to features or requirements.

I like the idea of being able to let people's hard work be recognized easily across the internet for their friends. Furthermore, I think it would be great if there were a way to integrate our existing database into some of these social media sites, so we get a base to work from moving on.

Now I think this is of course an integral feature for any web 2.0 site to work, but with the rise of the Steam workshop, does that make a review site like SnarkPit obsolete? If we could integrate user's maps, models or whatever we see appear on Steam with downloadable content originating from the SnarkPit, but be searchable through Steam,... don't you think there is a way to make that still useful for those users who want to find out more, make their way back to the Pit for discussions and other related content? -Or does Steam do this satisfactorily enough?

Features I like about some social media sites:

• Pinterest: Because they have a great system for finding similar collections of things. Posting images of maps you've made, could potentially end a single shot of your stuff on somebody's gaming board.
• Twitter, because we could have a short comments section, that reads like a Twitter Feed but with critical comments only.
• LinkedIn: A great resource for potential portfolio work, and links to credible content.

So, Do you guys have any recommendations? Any warnings perhaps?

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

If there is a way to allow Steam to take on the duties of hosting maps/work under the workshop and still showcase them on the pit, then that is something I think would benefit you in the long term. Save you some work and hard drive/server space. Facebook is huge and could give the pit much more recognition, but at the same time it is riddled with advertising and problems. I am not sure I would tack that on, unless you use it as a way for people to link and log into the site via their facebook account. I like Google Plus, it supports video as well as images, so people could link from their G+ account a video tutorial or walk through as well as pictures of their works, that is also tied into youtube.. so yeah I would seriously look into a G+ integration. Pintrest is getting lots of interest.. so I would consider it, only thing is it may open people up to a bunch of unrelated pins they don't care to see. My LinkedIn account is used for work related stuff, but I can see it also used for hobbies such as my level design work. May even draw attention of some studio for those who aspire for a job in level and game design, so that is all positive. Twitter is also a nice deal, but with what only a 140 characters, it may be a bit of an issue when doing description and chatting about projects forum side. I also have a DivantArt account and think that would be a nice tie in with what we do here.

Steam allows discussion in the comment section of the workshop on each project. I am not sure how much control the user has for negative comments or troll based comments.. But Steam does have a nice rate process, but I can see how the pit could add to the whole concept. Instead of logging into the pit vie facebook, I would much prefer to log into it via steam and have the two services work together. I think this needs further discussion.

http://www.pinterest.com/g4mer/

http://muhnayshot.deviantart.com/

https://twitter.com/G4MER

another cool social media thing you should look into as a profile thing for the pit Riven is http://about.me/ check it out.

http://about.me/j.r.mcdowell

Also consider Photobucket.

Hey thanks for the feedback!

So if I'm hearing you right, you think Facebook, is not such a great idea because of the adverts? Fine with me.

I gotta say, Deviantart, every friend's profile I look at on there, is sorely outdated. I don't get the vibe, that's a place people like to go to much nowadays.

About Pinterest: Good point about getting irrelevant pins... If done right, it could be a good portal by which people find SnarkPit.

So it sounds like the heavy hitters are:

Steam Integration
Pinterest syncs
LinkedIn Portfolio generators
G+ for everything else Google related.

AboutMe is cool, but could easily just be a link you add personally in your description, or clickable name. Not worthy of 'integration' into the site code. -Or am I missing something?

I've been on some sites now, that use the Steam API. That's pretty cool. From the looks of it, hooking into Steam is encouraged, and easily implemented. I agree with that. Link up your existing SnarkPit account with your Steam account, and all new SnarkPit accounts will simply copy over your info from Steam.

All good thoughts... putting together some layout ideas soon....

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

It might be nice to have the ability to Facebook "like" a map or to have somebody manage a Twitter feed for Snarkpit.

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Aaron's Stuff

should the 'like' system replace the star ratings? The point is to bring the cream of the crop to the top right?

I am definitely in favor of some kind of Twitter SnarkPit account. I'd imagine, it might help post events, or news, or at least some kind of helpful tip/ something worth reading coming from an experienced user.

Thanks for the feedback! And glad to see you around Aaron.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

star ratings are silly, because it's so subversive. Even in a controlled environment like a news outlet, it's difficult to get any consistency in ratings. It even usually comes down to whether that person is liked or not.

A "Yay/Nay" system makes the most sense. All anyone can really say is that they liked it or they didn't. Options like "don't care" don't fit, so there's not really any other way to go. If you wanted levels of like ... then a multi-stage rating system (like stars) makes sense. But it takes a lot of data to be able to use it for anything useful. The most obvious thing to use them for is suggestions, a mult-stage rating system makes sense for suggestions.

I would say, though, that it'd be important to have other feedback metrics. People could like something, but if it only half works that needs to be reflected somehow.

Maybe, A Yay or Nay as well as a categorical selection. So you can say the primary reason why you liked it. Make 3 or 4 fundamental categories for why you can like something, then the person says they like it, and why. It would probably be a lot more accurate than any point system.

There's also other metrics to consider like trends.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yeah I think that the current star rating system is highly subjective and quite often I've seen good maps with a 3/5 rating and not so good maps with a 5/5 rating. I think the ability to comment on a map + the ability to "like" or "recommend" a map if somebody particularly liked it is a nice system. And then in a user's profile it could list all the maps they have liked/recommended. If a map is terrible then people can leave that feedback in the comments and it wont receive any likes/recommends.

P.s Glad to be around.

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Aaron's Stuff

No I think you got it.. hope to see a new Snark Pit soon. Even though I'll miss my old graphic work.

You should hook up with https://www.17buddies.rocks/17b2/index.php the host hl maps,models,sprite and a mapping section and get the domain snarkpit.rocks cause snarkpit rocks when it comes to anything halflife plus discord wouldnt hurt aswell