The HelpCenter™ for 10/30 - Have a Gather Question? or Need Help?

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The original Gather help series -- assisting members since 2006.

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Bookmarking your Gather content to social networking sites such as Twitter , Facebook , and Digg , (among many others) can potentially result in an increase in exposure for your work. However, efforts in this area can also end up wasting a significant amount of your time, leading only to an increase in frustration or disappointment.

Bookmarking: What Is It?

'Social Bookmarking' is very similar to the bookmarking of web pages in your browser or adding them to your 'favorites'. Bookmarked pages can be quickly located and viewed later. Some sites, like Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and Digg provide the ability for you to bookmark pages to their site, share them with others, and even search through all public bookmarks on the site for specific topics. Adding/bookmarking links to your Gather content on these sites can be a great way to let others know about or discover your work.

View a listing of popular social bookmarking sites »

Bookmarking: Is It For You?

Many of the social bookmarking sites also have a 'social' element, so the larger your social footprint or network/influence is on each site, the more success you will likely have leading others to your stuff on Gather through bookmarking.

As an example:

Do you already participate on a site like Facebook or Twitter and currently use each service to keep up with friends and family?

If yes, then linking to your Gather content from each site can help connect these friends and family members with what you share here on Gather. If however you currently do not have an active account or network on these sites, then bookmarking your Gather content there will likely not be very effective or beneficial unless your content is related to a topic that is currently popular (and heavily searched for) on that service.

The example above is also applicable to many of the other social bookmarking services available for your Gather content. See "Other Considerations" below for more information.

Bookmarking Comments: A Good Idea?

Gather now provides the ability for you to bookmark/post your comments to the Facebook and Twitter service(s). Unfortunately the majority of members will receive little value from posting comments on Gather to another service. The bookmarking of comments often leads to either:

1. Disjointed statements posted to another service which are without proper context; or,
2. Comments which appear out of place within a discussion thread on Gather, and come across as an advertisement.

• Don't have an established active network on any social bookmarking site? ...No problem!

  Almost all content on Gather can be bookmarked by anyone...even non-member visitors. Therefore, you might consider asking others to bookmark content of yours that they find interesting and would like to share with their network on other sites. Your posts, photos and videos can then potentially gain significant exposure through the connections of others.

  You can easily add your own custom bookmarking button to your posts or captions or use the default buttons provided by Gather on each content display page.

• Always ensure that the Gather content you bookmark elsewhere is a good fit for the subjects shared or discussed on that site. For example, sites that cater to computers and technology likely wouldn't appreciate your recipes or poetry. In some cases, bookmarking content that does not fit the premise for a site can lead to you or Gather being banned from that service.

• When bookmarking your Gather content, many sites provide you with an ability to define or change aspects of how your bookmark will appear on their site. This includes defining the title, tags, photo icon, and even the addition of a short description. By modifying these elements for your bookmarked content you control how others will view and discover your links on that site. Matching this appearance to that site's 'search trends' or popular topics can potentially lead to an increase in visitors to your bookmarked content on Gather.

  Also, changing link descriptions and other related data across multiple bookmarking sites can, in some cases, reduce the likelihood that search engines will discard your bookmarked links and content as duplications.

• Your "tweets" on Twitter, and the tweets of other Twitter users, are now available to Google, Bing, and their respective search partners. Soon, this real-time Twitter data will be factored into all search results on these services. This recent development may potentially lead to a significant opportunity for expanding the reach of content promoted via the Twitter service. Note: Content bookmarked on Facebook will also be factored into Google and Bing search results sometime in 2010.

• A 'social submission service', such as Socialmarker , Social Poster  or Shareaholic  can be helpful when bookmarking your content to multiple sites. Some services provide bookmarking recommendations for your content, as well as the 'page rank' or importance of each bookmarking site, in addition to other useful information.

  

  Note that Gather does not provide the ability to prevent your content from being bookmarked on other sites. To minimize this ability for select work, designate content as ‘adult’ when publishing, or limit publishing to select friend sets or private groups.

Syndication (RSS)

Syndication, or RSS, is another method for extending the reach of your Gather content, as well as strengthening your readership base. Gather automatically creates a listing of recent post content for every member and group in the community. This listing is referred to as an 'RSS feed'.

Your RSS feed(s) can easily be added by anyone to almost all personal online home pages such as My AOL, My Yahoo, MSN and iGoogle, as well as most browsers. You may also add your RSS feed(s) to a variety of online feed aggregation services that collect and categorize feeds for others to discover (Google's Feedburner , Bloglines , etc.). This is especially useful for group or member content that consistently follows a specific topic.

• RSS feed, containing links to your recent photos and videos, in addition to posts and other information.
• RSS feed banner, or headline animator which scrolls through your recent post titles or other content.
• Widgets, gadgets and other objects displaying your RSS feed information.

Good morning everyone!

...have a great Friday, and thanks for stopping by!  

Good morning! ...The point you make about NOT sharing content is very valid. Some members look upon Gather as their 'get away' space, and a place where they can share thoughts publicly without family/friend involvement. However, once they find you here, then you have little control over their access to your public content and comments.

As for the upgrade, I'm looking forward to it. Just about anything would be better than the current design on the affected pages.

Randee —There are many Gather members congregating on other sites lately...and I can certainly understand why. Hopefully the upcoming changes will make it easier to establish and maintain friendships here, but I have a feeling that it will fall short of what's needed.  

Thanks Kay! ...I love the costume on your icon!

Scoldings? From ME? Never!

I've simply been busy dealing with changes in my Mother's treatment/care and haven't had enough time to really participate again until now.

I do hope to have the Drama Guide up and running again this weekend!  

That's the current plan from what I understand. Of course, that is subject to change without notice. Hopefully more details will be forthcoming on Monday. This is one change I'm actually looking forward too.

Elaine,

Both problems can be related. Here are a few questions for you:

• What browser are you using?
  
• Have you tried using another browser to upload and comment, and does the same problem occur?
  
• When did this start happening?

Thanks!

I will be unavailable until approximately 4:30pm EDT.

Please leave your question below, and other members will hopefully be able to help out in my absence. If not, I will respond to open inquiries and problems when I return.

Thank You!

Hello Wilma!

I'm hopeful that the changes will be beneficial. However, just about anything would be better than what is in place today. Hopefully the changes will be close to what I envision.

Hello Janet! ...Thanks for stopping by!