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Why is it that Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons are not available on SOFU and their meta sites? Is it because SOFU sites are so popular that they don't need further promotion?

Note: The sharing buttons are available on SOFU now, but not on the meta sites.

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  • 24
    We do not want people to get here.
    – Ladybug Killer
    Aug 24, 2010 at 12:15
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    @Ladybug, please seriously consider to post your comment as an answer, so that I can accept it as the Accepted Answer.
    – Graviton
    Aug 24, 2010 at 15:54
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    +10000 I think that this is a great question. It would seem to me that this functionality is perceived to add value to sites in "public beta" status, but not for "official" sites. I personally thing this is rediculous considering any value it adds to a BETA site would certainly help users of the official site.
    – RSolberg
    Aug 26, 2010 at 16:46
  • Partly [status-completed] for questions with zero answers.
    – Arjan
    Jan 18, 2011 at 11:09

2 Answers 2

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Partly because these sites are no longer in public beta.

But mostly because of historical reasons. Across the network, we do invite people to share unanswered questions as Fretje correctly pointed out:

Know someone who can answer? Share a link to this question via email, twitter, or facebook.

This is displayed directly below the question for questions with zero answers.

edit: for consistency, we decided to enable this on all sites except meta.so (which is itself an exception..)

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    (drumroll) And we have a winner. Simple. Clear. Effective :)
    – BinaryMisfit
    Aug 24, 2010 at 13:14
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    So the difference between public beta and non-public beta is what? Seems like the functionality is worth something regardless of beta status?
    – RSolberg
    Aug 26, 2010 at 16:41
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    Well, this is a reason, but it doesn't make sense to me.
    – Peter Ajtai
    Aug 26, 2010 at 21:05
  • @Chester, in this context, the answer to your question as written is that there's no point to having these links in a private beta, since non-committers can't access the site, while in a public beta, anyone can. I think you meant to ask what the difference between a public beta and a post-beta, "official" site is, at least as it realates to the desirability of using social networking links to refer others in.
    – Jaydles
    Aug 27, 2010 at 19:20
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    still would be nice to have a facebook/twitter link on post-beta sites.
    – Engineer2021
    Aug 27, 2010 at 19:28
  • @jaydles - you mean a private beta implies that something is private? Wow, interesting concept. Unfortunately, the trilogy sites are not in private beta and have launched thus are "official"... I'm not really sure what you are getting at since my comment said what is the difference between public beta and non-public beta which would also include "launched" sites.
    – RSolberg
    Aug 27, 2010 at 20:16
  • @Chester, no need to be sarcastic; I meant no offense. But I still fear that I don't agree (or maybe just don't follow)? I wouldn't describe launched sites (the current Trilogy or any future SE 2.0 sites) as being in any kind of beta. So if the question is about why we wouldn't want those social links on the trilogy, while we apparently do on the public beta sites, it seems like the private beta isn't relevant, as it's not one of the things being contrasted. Apologies if I'm simply misunderstanding you.
    – Jaydles
    Aug 27, 2010 at 20:58
  • I clearly need to share worthy questions the same way I share any other thing on the internet.. It's more of a feature request than a real question..This is not about the new badges you announce before blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/… but just for the sake of facilitating sharing knowledge.. Duh!isn't that SO is about? Actually the other day, I was even wondering why Wikipedia articles don't have a "share" button (FB, twitter, etc)!! twitter.com/mShady/status/24016532702
    – Shady M. Najib
    Sep 9, 2010 at 16:16
  • Can we please have all questions as sharable? I don't see what the problem would be. Low priority feature, but it would be nice to share questions that are just plain interesting (see the cycles in family tree question, and so on). Thanks, Jeff.
    – Thomas Owens
    Jun 5, 2011 at 19:36
  • @Jeff This is available on non-beta sites as well so long as they are on the SE network. Can we move to have SU and SF also do this? Should I make a FeatureReq for this?
    – jcolebrand
    Jun 6, 2011 at 20:16
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Because there can only be value in link distribution through beta sites?

Because the triliogy sites are not for social networking?

Because... Just because...?

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