Recently, one of our users on PMSE, a high rep user and a moderator, pointed out that the Twitter and Facebook share links that appeared to the left of questions are no longer present. I vaguely recall Waffles mentioning something to the effect of them being silently removed in a comment he left somewhere, but I've not been able to locate this comment.
If memory serves, I believe the reason for removing these share links may have been because they're perceived as noise. The comment wasn't specific, and I couldn't find any information on the decision leading to their removal.
PMSE currently gets about 2 questions per day on average. These links encourage beta users to easily share questions that they perceive as interesting. The links make it easy to quickly share content with followers.
Without them, one must first click the "link" element, then open a new tab in the browser, login to Twitter or Facebook, then copy and paste a hyperlink into that social network and finally write a description. While I admit this isn't a difficult process, the social media share links made it much easier for someone to share content quickly, especially if one is at work and doesn't want to spend much time on such a task.
Can we reinstate these share links, if not on all beta sites, at least for PMSE? Our plan is to encourage as much sharing of questions as possible to help our site grow. Thank you!
Please note that I'm not referring to the share links that appear when a question is upvoted. Instead, I'm referring to the Twitter and Facebook links that appear below the favorite icon: