Facebook Login

[Facebook Bob]

Ok, that seems to work. 

[roddy]

Had some reports of Facebook log-in not working lately - seems to be ok now. Apologies for any inconvenience (and remember, it won't work from China!)

Thanks Bob!

[889]

For those of us who don't have -- and will never have -- Facebook accounts, are we nonetheless being tracked around the web by Facebook because Facebook has a linked log-in here, and on other sites we visit? What information if any is Facebook given about users here? (The privacy policy only mentions "advertisers" here putting cookies on our machines.)

[roddy]

Nothing from the log-in. The share buttons aren't loaded from Facebook, so there's no info there. The only thing I can see that we load from a Facebook server for all members is some people's avatars - for example, @AaronUK's avatar. 

 

I'd actually be interested to know if people in China can see Aaron's avatar on his profile.

[889]

But that avatar looks like it serves as a web beacon, and loads even though I don't see any avatar on the home page:

 

side.facebook.com/platform/profilepic/?asid=10100330959703764&height=200&width=200&ext=1524577195&hash=AeRgr2o2aCP7pSes

 

Does everyone get the same link?

 

[roddy]

Yes, everyone gets the same link - it's hardcoded into the profile pic field for the user in the database, not dynamically generated. The image is visible on the homepage for me.

[889]

That's interesting. Maybe my adblocker or something blocks it. I just get a blank.

[roddy]

Would be interested to know if it appears with the adblocker turned off. 

[889]

Tried it on the phone, and with Opera instead of Firefox. Nothing. Then tried it through a VPN on the phone. Nothing again.

 

Let's wait and see who else can't see AaronUK.

 

(But I do get the word at the top "AaronUK" in tiny letters which links to his profile. Is that his avatar, without an image?)

[roddy]

That's the ALT(ernative) text which is used if the image doesn't load, or if you're using, say, screenreader technology. 

[ChTTay]

I am in Beijing and AaronUK’s aviator appears as a blank white space to me. 

[AaronUK]

I like the Facebook login, it’s pretty convenient but I hadn’t considered that I will struggle when I finally get to china haha

[Jim]

That's not THE Facebook Bob? We are not worthy.

[edelweis]

I'm in Europe. I can't see AaronUK's avatar either.

Note: I'm not on Facebook.

 

 

[roddy]

I'll see if I can stop those avatars - it kind of happens automatically when someone signs up via Facebook and wants to automatically have their profile photo update here if they change it on Facebook.

[Lu]

This is what I see. No image.

[roddy]

Looks like this wasn't intended behaviour - it should be creating a local copy. Working on getting it fixed.

[AaronUK]

where did my images go  haha

do many other people even use Facebook sign in? I also use it on italki and they have an option to set a password after so you can login using the email they acquired from Facebook and the newly set password, so you no longer need to use the FB log in buttons. I can see there is a password update in account settings. I kind of am wondering if I created an account the regular way and linked my Facebook after or if I just joined solely through Facebook login. I don't really remember now.

 

Anyway, if you ever want me to go through some test scenarios let me know. 

 

[roddy]

This'll be fixed with the next update, which I've got pencilled in for early May. Something to do with Facebook changing how they delivered images and a quick fix being needed. 

[AaronUK]

3 minutes ago, roddy said:

This'll be fixed with the next update, which I've got pencilled in for early May. Something to do with Facebook changing how they delivered images and a quick fix being needed. 

没事 considering FB media attention with sharing data with other platforms I imagine their APIs will get a lot of random changes.