Backfeed, AKA Reverse Syndication

Getting Feedback Back

So you've syndicated clones of your data out to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Openphoto, Tumblr, etc. But what happens when people on those other networks comment/like/otherwise respond?

Types of Response

• Comments/replies/notes - basic textual commenting
• Favourites/likes - primitive 'positive feedback' type
• Mention - A reference to the content that is perhaps not in direct reply to it
  • E.G. a 'share', 'bookmark'
  • Is this sufficiently different?

APIs

Some APIs have better functionality for this than others:

• Twitter
  • Unreliable, undocumented, unofficial 'related_results' endpoint.
  • Could the search API be used?
    • Only returns recent results
  • How else to get responses from Twitter?
    • I syndicate my posts out to Twitter and then have a cronjob that polls the replies/mentions (authenticated) API endpoint to pull in responses -- singpolyma 12:44, 12 June 2012 (PDT)
• Facebook
  • Extremely slow API, so caching/async likely to be required to avoid vexation
  • OBJECT_ID/likes connection
  • OBJECT_ID/comments connection
  • Returns extremely unclear failed results for API calls to posts by under-18s
    • This is bloody annoying for us minors. It's more "bothersome" than "protecting" -- barnabywalters
  • Anything else?
  • How best to represent external users?
    • Facebook URI (not preferable)
    • Can we grab their personal URI from their profile?
    • Detect comments from originating user?
• Flickr
  • flickr.photos.comments.getList
  • flickr.photos.getFavorites
• Others?

Debate

Do these responses belong on your indie page, at the original source of the content?

• barnabywalters: IMO yes. It pulls responses to your content in from across the web. It is preferable to storing user comments in your own space for many reasons:
  • Space
  • Legal implications
  • Gives people a choice about where to host their replies
• Anyone else?

To Rely or Not to Rely

There are plenty of reasons not to store user responses on your personal site.

Generic, open systems such as pingback are preferable to backfeed from closed silos (although open response systems are another discussion entirely). Advantages of backfeed:

• Enhanced UX (debatable depending on service used)
• Ease of use, low barrier of entry

Related

• Pingback protocol - currently implemented by most major blogging platforms, i.e. Wordpress, and available as a standalone project to use on non-Wordpress sites
• Salmon protocol
• Juvia - a commenting system you can install on your own server similar to Disqus and Intense Debate