# Testing Facebook Share and AddThis buttons **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 13, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363 "2010-05-13T23:52:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/41 "2010-05-14T10:18:24Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Perhaps [this](http://www.addthis.com/help/custom-buttons) would be of use, then. > > ETA: So you prefer on-mouseover, rather than on-click? I prefer the latter. Yeah, I don’t care for the image. And I’m leaning towards keeping the mouseover pop-up only because it’s so much more intuitive when you actually want to share a link. Your previous link has a text only option that I’m going to test now. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/42 "2010-05-14T10:30:29Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Perhaps [this](http://www.addthis.com/help/custom-buttons) would be of use, then. > > ETA: So you prefer on-mouseover, rather than on-click? I prefer the latter. Awesome! I think you just solved all my remaining issues: 1. No orange plus sign 2. Mouse-over pop-up on the text “Share” 3. “Share” aligned with Thread Tools text 4. Display correctly and consistently on Opera, Chrome and Firefox The trick was to use class=addthis\_button (no orange plus sign, but class still invoked to allow for mouseover pop-up) instead of… class=addthis\_button\_compact (orange plus sign) or… no class, which didn’t invoke the menu at all unless you click on “Share” and go to a new page (as in Button #3 currently). So, now I’ve left it at: Button #1: Facebook Share. Looks ugly (will probably be deleted soon) Button #2: no orange plus sign, Share text aligned in all browsers, looks clean, blends with template, and mouseover on pop-up Button #3: no orange plus sign, Share text aligned in all browsers, looks clean, blends with template, but needs click through to a new page to share, and Facebook share is buried on Page 2 of that new page, which requires scrolling. So I think I’m going to go with Button #2 in its current state unless the majority has an issue with the mouse-over pop-up. ETA: Oh, and even if we choose to go with no mouseover pop-up, Button #2 still wins! Why? Because I can easily use your previously discovered ui\_click: true to disable the pop-up. So I guess we’re done with Button #3! Deleting it now. For those late to the party, screenshots in previous posts might give you an idea of the changing states of buttons. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/43 "2010-05-14T10:40:38Z")
I’m killing Button #1 (Facebook Share) as well. It’s redundant. The winner is Button #2. Only thing left to decide is with mousover pop-up or without. We’ll decide that tomorrow or over the week. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/44 "2010-05-14T10:51:17Z")
> [@xash](#): > > I’m killing Button #1 (Facebook Share) as well. It’s redundant. > > The winner is Button #2. Only thing left to decide is with mousover pop-up or without. We’ll decide that tomorrow or over the week. Sweet! Glad those hours were only almost completely wasted. 😃 Oh, and you might want to look into the popup delay. I think it’s on the first Addthis FAQ I linked above. I’m actually warming up to on-mouseover, but it bugs me when it happens just when I’m just passing through. A short delay, maybe just a few hundred milliseconds might work, too. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/45 "2010-05-14T11:13:32Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Oh, and you might want to look into the popup delay. I think it’s on the first Addthis FAQ I linked above. I’m actually warming up to on-mouseover, but it bugs me when it happens just when I’m just passing through. A short delay, maybe just a few hundred milliseconds might work, too. Perfect. ui\_delay: 350 milliseconds seemed like the sweet spot. Long enough to avoid accidental pop-up, short enough to be responsive. There’s a max. limit of 500ms, but that seemed a bit long to me. I guess that covers everything. Thanks for all your help! ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/46 "2010-05-14T11:29:57Z")
Love it. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/47 "2010-05-14T12:40:34Z")
VERY nice implementation, **xash**. Clean and useful. I dig it. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/48 "2010-05-14T13:30:42Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Please help the techno-peasant: what do these new button-do-ma-hickeys do, exactly? why are they cool? They make it easier to share threads with outside sources. F’rinstance, on occasion I’d post a link to particularly relevant/amusing dope threads to my facebook. I had to copy the link, go into facebook, write a status of "Hey, check out this conversation that I came across on a message board I frequent, paste the link into my status, wait for it to set up the link info and then remove the url I had just pasted (for aesthetics sake). It only took a few seconds, but there was much to do. Now I can click the “facebook” button under “share”, add my comment, and it’ll be automatically posted on my facebook feed. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/49 "2010-05-15T00:07:23Z")
When I click on “Search” in a thread the first time, it simply highlights the “share” button: to actually go to “Search” I have to click Search again. This is happening in IE 7. ETA: on several different computers. ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/50 "2010-05-15T00:43:28Z")
Right now, I only see the “Share” link, without any picture. I like this much more, although I’m not likely to use it anyway (my facebook friends are morons – nice morons, but morons no less – for the mos part, and I don’t use twitter or any other sites of the like). ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/51 "2010-05-15T00:53:40Z")
> [@Todderbob](#): > > Right now, I only see the “Share” link, without any picture. I like this much more Yes, I [de-suckified](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12452894#post12452894) it for you. * * * **DE-SUCKIFYING THE SDMB SINCE 1973. It’s taking more suck than we thought.[sup]TM[/sup]** ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/52 "2010-05-15T00:59:27Z")
It’s probably a brilliant implementation of something very useful to many, and a tribute to **xash** ’s coding skills, that it’s been added. However, my opinion is, get rid of it. I don’t use Facebook, don’t support its use by others, and I consider that the new buttons clutter the spartan SDMB interface, pop up dropdowns unexpectedly, and are generally of no value and some annoyance to me. I’m quite willing to go along with the majority — but since you sought feedback, I’m giving my personal take. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/53 "2010-05-15T01:14:18Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I don’t use Facebook, don’t support its use by others, The new Share button supports much more than just Facebook. I could easily see just the Email option being useful to many members/guests who might want to privately share a thread with a select few people (although analytics currently shows 43% of shares were done on Facebook and only 14% on email). > [@](#): > > and I consider that the new buttons clutter the spartan SDMB interface, The current implementation using the plain text “Share” button is spartan and blends well with the SDMB look in my opinion. > [@](#): > > with the pop up dropdowns unexpectedly, Sure, this might happen from time to time, but I think the overall benefit to the SDMB (in terms of increased traffic) and members/guests (in terms of being able to easily share threads with friends and family) outweighs the minor annoyance of the dropdown popping up unexpectedly. In fact, in the current implementation, this should typically happen only if your mouse pointer stops on top of the “Share” text, not while moving across it to go to some other button. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/54 "2010-05-15T01:58:25Z")
> [@xash](#): > > In fact, in the current implementation, this should typically happen only if your mouse pointer stops on top of the “Share” text, not while moving across it to go to some other button. It happens if I’m moving it very slowly even if I don’t stop on it. But this is much better. ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/55 "2010-05-15T02:21:07Z")
I think you did an excellent job, **xash**. I agree that the button is set up to blend into the existing interface. I think the delay you built in should keep the pop-up from annoying the people who are most likely to be annoyed by it. Thanks! GT ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/56 "2010-05-15T02:28:31Z")
To make it blend a bit more, you might want to consider adding that little arrow. It looks like you add it after the script. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/57 "2010-05-15T03:34:18Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > To make it blend a bit more, you might want to consider adding that little arrow. It looks like you add it after the script. Clever! I just added the image. It looks great in Opera and Chrome, but for some reason on FireFox the image has a white border around it. Any ideas? ETA: BORDER = 0 solved it! ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363/58 "2010-05-15T08:19:54Z")
> [@xash](#): > > Yes, I [de-suckified](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12452894#post12452894) it for you. > > * * * > > **DE-SUCKIFYING THE SDMB SINCE 1973. It’s taking more suck than we thought.[sup]TM[/sup]** Thank you for the desuckification. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-facebook-share-and-addthis-buttons/539363.md?page=2)