What happened to the Flipboard share buttons?

1. 97

   Glenn Stokposted 7 years ago

   I noticed tonight that the Flipboard share button is missing on all hubs. I checked a few niche sites and they are all missing. It doesn't matter if you're logged in or not.
   
   In addition, the problem I reported a few weeks ago with Pinterest banning ToughNickel is still not fixed.

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      Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I sort of forgot the thread, but think it was a few weeks ago staff said they were discontinued.

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         Venkatachari Mposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         They never informed like that. Rather, HP told that it is a good platform to attract the audience and so they have introduced the Flip button instead of Twitter and G+ buttons.

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            Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, they inform like that. It was either Twitter or Flipboad. Something was discontinued and the staff confirmed such.

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               ChristinSposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               That was Twitter, they never mentioned Flipboard. 
               
               My guess would have to be if it is removed without some announcement it is a glitch of some sort.  The other scenario is perhaps we are being pinged for spamming, much like what has happened with Pinterest in the past because people can't figure out a simple concept of how not to spam or overly self-promote.
               
               The lingering issue with Pinterest is starting to really make me mad now.  I had hubs that did extremely well on Pinterest that were moved to ToughNickel and their traffic has gone through the floor since this has been going on.

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      Venkatachari Mposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Glenn, I just noticed that the Flipboard button is missing after reading your post. Otherwise, I wouldn't have noticed it until I feel any need to share something.

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      sallybeaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I had not noticed, maybe the twitter button can come back then:)

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      Ashish Dadgaaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      @Glenn Stok,
      
      I reckon Flipboard is not driving traffic for everyone so that could be the reason for removal.

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      CatherineGiordanoposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I also had a problem with pinterest blocking a toughnickel hub yesterday.

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         CatherineGiordanoposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I noticed today that the share button for flipboard no longer appears; now there is only a facebook button.  However, I do see flipboard as a referrer in stats.
         
         For a coup of hubs I got 1000-2000 views from flipboard; 50-100 is more typical. Some only get a handful from flipboard.
         
         What really bothers me is that featured hubs won't get indexed on flipboard. And also the crazy way flipboard indexes, but the latter issue is not really anything HP can do anything about.

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            Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Catherine, I don't have any trouble flipping hubs. I just did a few this past week. And when they get moved to niche sites, I delete the old index and re flip. They always index the hubs on niche sites much better for some unknown reason.

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               CatherineGiordanoposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               I don't have trouble flipping, but the Flip button was easier. Just wondering why HP took it away. In my previous post I said I got 50-100 hits typically, and sometimes thousands.  I realized that I typically get several hundred hits from Flipboard, maybe 300 or so. It all happens in the first couple of days, then fades away.

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2. 97

   Glenn Stokposted 7 years ago

   Based on all the replies in this thread, I need to set the record straight.
   
   It was the Twitter share button that HubPages announced they had removed because Twitter was not bringing much traffic. That was months ago. They also announced at that time that they'd added a Flipboard share button because they saw that flipboard was working very well.
   
   I used to tweet other people's hubs as well as my own. I never had much success with it, so I was not surprised to see it go.
   
   As for Flipboard, I wrote a hub about it because it was bringing tremendous traffic, as many people who commented about it had attested to. That was why HubPages added the Flip Button, and said they added it for that reason.
   
   I had flipped many other people's hubs into a magazine of Recommended Hubs. I also flipped many of my own. I do have to admit that recently I noticed a major reduction in flipboard traffic, but then again, we all know that Google traffic is presently in bad shape too.
   
   I always read each weekly newsletter from HubPages, so I would know if they announced anything about this. I assume it must be a glitch until they say something to the contrary.

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      Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Sorry for the confusion on your thread Glenn. I probably shouldn't speculate it just adds confusion. I remember Twitter now, but I could almost swear staff came on and said Flipboard was phased out as well. Christy or Robin will finish their morning coffee and hop in lol.

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         Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Since you're insisting staff said they phased it out, tell me which HP newsletter you had read that in. As I said, I read every newsletter. Do you?

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            Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            No, I'm not insisting. And I apologize for speculating, I just thought they came on and said so. Yes, I read all sorts of newsletters. Get over yourself. No reason to get rude and offensive, kind sir.

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               Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Speculating without confirmation is not being helpful to anyone. I am sure you would agree with that. I'm trying hard to keep people from getting confused by unconfirmed guesses.
               
               I simply asked you if you read the HubPages newsletters. How is that being rude and offensive. Some people don't even know about it since they opted out of emails from HubPages in their settings without realizing it. Just bringing that to your attention.

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                  Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Not all Hubpages members wear capes, I know.

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                     Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     I read right through your passive aggressive tactics too. Nice try.

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         sallybeaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I read all the notices and the only button which I know was phased out was Twitter.  As far as I know there has been no mention of Flipboard ever being phased out. I have a Flipboard button on my chrome browser so I don't really mind one way or the other.

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            Venkatachari Mposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            True, Sally. I also have my buttons for Pinterest and Flipboard on my chrome browser. So, I am not worried. For G+, I individually copy paste the URL.

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   Nell Roseposted 7 years ago

   Just in case, add the button to your tab, I already had it but not used it since we have had the link on our hubs.

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   Solarasposted 7 years ago

   Flipboard never did anything for me.  Google+ does bring in views to my blog.  I'd would prefer a google+ button to a flipboard one, but that is my personal experience speaking.

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   eugbugposted 7 years ago

   Is there any way we can determine the number of flips, pins or tweets of our hubs? Where do webpages that display these stats on the share buttons source their data from? Is it held locally or does the hub webpage interrogate the social media sites for stats?

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      If you go to your stats page and click on referrers, it will show how many flipboard hits you have received in any day, week or month.  Also, Traffic Sources on your account page will show similar info for overall flips.  I get very few any more, but feel that every little bit helps.

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         eugbugposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I knew that Sondra, but it would be nice to get a further breakdown per hub.
         When I suggested adding stats to the share buttons, I was told that it would have implications for load times. Surely it wouldn't take a huge amount of time to source stats from Flipboard, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc?

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            Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Actually it does use a significant amount of load time. Some social media share buttons are worse than others. It all depends on how they access the information.
            
            We once had the stats in each button a long time ago. HubPages removed that and comtinued the buttons without the stats just for that reason. They mentioned the fact that the issue was the load time when they made the change.

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   Farawaytreeposted 7 years ago

   That's a bummer that it's missing! I love Flipboard and I get lots of traffic for it. You can still copy and paste any hub link you like into Flipboard though...
   
   You can see how much traffic your getting from certain networks in the "traffic sources" tab.

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      Nell Roseposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I mentioned earlier that you can get the flipboard pin and put in on your tab. so when you want to flip just click on the button.

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   WryLiltposted 7 years ago

   I looked at the source code in case something was broken and the only reference to Flipboard I found was this:
   
   <div class="full module moduleAuthorBio flipboard-remove" id="mod_new4">
   
   

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8. 97

   Glenn Stokposted 7 years ago

   That's an interesting find Susannah. I had looked at the code within the <div id="social_share_widget"> and Flipboard was definitely removed.
   
   That reference you found, "flipboard-remove", isn't in the share widget. It's not even in the <div id="social_share_wrapper">.
   
   It looks like a CSS class and it should be defined in one of the four stylesheet files. I didn't go looking for it though. Maybe I'll look further into it on Monday, unless you beat me to it. 
   
   I sent an email to staff earlier today about this, but I don't expect a reply until after the weekend.

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9. 97

   Glenn Stokposted 7 years ago

   I received an answer from HubPages. They removed the Flipboard button because few people were using it.
   
   As we can see from replies in this thread, most flipers bypass the button by installing the flip button in their browser. This is also why it looks like no one is using it.
   
   As a programmer I can understand the decision to remove it, because every little bit of additional overhead slows down pageload. If few people use something, it goes. Even though Flipboard is still useful for traffic, the button isn't necessary.

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      Venkatachari Mposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Good to see that HubPages responded. Their decision is okay.
      Thanks, Glen, for letting us know it.

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      sallybeaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Good to see the reasoning behind the change.  I will continue to use it anyway.   Strange sometimes how even when we are given the tools to gain traffic we don't use them.  The niche HubPages sites should probably be more used to as I am seeing some articles from the niche sites appearing on my own facebook page.

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    DzyMsLizzyposted 7 years ago

    I wasn't using it, because:  until people started asking these questions about it, I'd never even heard of Flipboard.  I still haven't checked out the site.  Pinterest is enough of a time suck for me. 

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