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I know how TeleRead’s readers feel about privacy so I’ve asked our owners, North American Publishing Company (NAPCO), to provide a detailed explanation of how our new commenting system will work.  One important take-away is that you can still participate in comments but bypass the new system if you post your comment as a Guest.  Here’s what they say:

You likely have noticed a new share toolbar, social sign-on functionality and commenting system we are testing. It is done through a company called Gigya, which powers many websites such as Reuters, USA Today and CBS.com.

We have implemented the new website social media tools to offer visitors the ability to connect with TeleRead by utilizing social network accounts. These new features make it easier to share content and add Comments, as well as “react” to posts—all with just a click or two of a mouse. Using the new tools is entirely optional and does not require a site visitor to have or use a social media account with Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Along with adding the capability to register a Thumbs-up (Agree) or Thumbs-down (Disagree) reaction to any content item, the “Share and Reactions Bar” that brackets all content also simplifies sharing of content on popular social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Enhancements include auto-generation of shortened URLs and simultaneous sharing to multiple networks for easier posting.

The upgraded Comment function at the bottom of each story and blog post now features the ability to “login” using a social media account, in which case the Comment will be immediately posted to the web page. Since the identity of the poster is being verified and displayed, this should help ensure such Comments are legitimate and kept professional. However, there is a “Flag” function available at the lower left of every Comment to express concerns about unsuitable content or language.

Posting as a “Guest” will mean the Comment is still subject to approval by the TeleRead admin prior to posting on the page, in order to weed out any spam or unprofessional content. Posters can also elect to “Reply” directly to any existing Comment, as well as the original story or blog itself.

The “Recent Activity” panel located along on the right-hand side of web pages displays a live feed of all visitor activity—Sharing, Commenting, Reacting, etc.—on TeleRead.com in the “Everyone” tab. Signed-in users can see a running record of their actions (‘Me’ tab) on the site, as well as those of their social media connections (‘Friends’ tab).

TeleRead is also encouraging users to be more social with new social sign-on technology. By sign-in with a preferred social account, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo and others, visitors can give us access to informative and useful social media data that will give TeleRead greater subscriber insight. This will enable us to offer a better user experience by allowing site visitors to not just consume content, but be an active participate in the website’s ongoing improvement.

As always, the use of personal data is explained in the NAPCO privacy policy, which appears at the bottom of every page on TeleRead.com This privacy policy is being updated to better explain tools like Gigya (social sign-on) and what it means to user’s privacy.

I asked for clarification of the statement By sign-in with a preferred social account, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo and others, visitors can give us access to informative and useful social media data that will give TeleRead greater subscriber insight:

First and foremost, it’s not required. No site functionality will be blocked if someone decides not to use social sign-on.

Second, when someone uses the social sign-on functionality, depending on the site (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) the user will be shown exactly what is being shared, which also is part of the terms of service of the respective site (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) that the user already agreed to. Regardless, we’re not collecting the users “Friends” data, but get normalized profile data that includes the users email address.

I am confident in the integrity of the NAPCO people and so I’m looking forward to seeing how this all works and hoping that it will help TeleRead to grow.

NAPCO’s privacy policy can be found here.

12 COMMENTS

  1. (looks around) Hmm… seems harmless enough… but even though I’m already logged into the page, the site seems to be forcing me to register through the social media, or as a guest. Only after logging in (again) is it allowing me to post here. I can’t say I’m thrilled with so many sites forcing you to log in through social media: Many people don’t use social media (really!), and as SM systems come and go, so does your connection to the sites that go through it. But as long as we’re changing things: Could we have our site comments displayed above the Around the Web box, as it was before?

  2. I’m an outlier, I guess, because I won’t use social media, especially Facebook. The one thing that is assured with the social media sites is that you need to hire a lawyer and spend too many hours each week reviewing the privacy terms that keep on changing. I guess I’ll be writing my comments simply with the guest option. Sorry, Paul, if that creates more work for you. There was nothing wrong with the old system other than there wasn’t a good method to gather saleable data.

  3. There are lots of little icons and numbers under each post on the front page, but none of them seem to be the number of comments on each post. To find if there are any comments, I have to “click to continue” and scroll past all the social media stuff. Yes, I know the comments are in the window on the right, but it looks like they’re also going to be intermingled with all the social media sharing as well, One of the major features of this website to me is the active and informative commenter community. I understand how the social media stuff can be useful to you as the website owner, but it really does nothing for me as the website consumer, and this change in focus takes away from one of the major features of the website for me. Maybe I’m just an old fogey, but I don’t get what I’m supposed to do with the knowledge that 4 people have tweeted this post, and 3 have “shared’ it in some way.

  4. I don’t use my Facebook login—ever—on any non-Facebook site because my workplace requires me to have very strict privacy settings and my full, real name is unusual and trackable. Frankly, I find the increasing marriage of ‘Facebook’ with ‘anything one might do on-line’ to be quite creepy. I will not be using these new features.

  5. I am puzzled by this obsession with social media sites as the sole log in routes. I have never seen this limitation anywhere else and I do visit a LOT of other sites. If internal registration is being shunned (though I accept that Rob claims it is coming), then why not consider popular and widely used Web Commenting utilities like “DISQUS” ? or WordPress ? (Posted from my friend’s Windows machine…yuk 🙂 )

  6. Like it or not, and I don’t like it, this is the trend I see creeping in day by day on one site after another. Either sign in as a guest, which, unless I’m mistaken, means your anonymous, or you give away information for advertisers to use. And there’s really no point in pretending that this isn’t about advertising. Or are we really supposed to believe that we’ve all been clamoring for more sociability? The only reason I’m using my Yahoo ID is because I’ve been forced to use it in so many places already, that refusing now is pointless. Resistance is useless. You will be assimilated.

  7. Paul, and others at Teleread, As I mentioned Tuesday the 28th in email I did respond as “Guest” to http://newteleread.com/wordpress/paul-biba/pottermore-defends-cutting-out-retailers-from-ebook-sales/ I saw the automated pop-up message to my attempted comment, — it said that my post was being moderated and might be posted later. Even as of now, about 20 hours later, the comment hasn’t been posted. Here is what I see if I choose Facebook sign-in instead, so you can see what I saw. At first I chose Yahoo and the response was that my Yahoo contacts would be available to Teleread. This one is for Facebook (and I’ve not gone for it — it’s just a screenshot) http://bit.ly/teleread-comment-facebook I’ll send this to you in email too as it may not post here due to changes not being completely in place yet.

  8. I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but there’s at least one way in which this new system is far *less* social. There’s no longer any way for readers to check out each other’s blogs or websites. Adding the poster’s link is not only a long-accepted self-promotional device, it allows readers to discover new blogs. Hover over a name or avatar now, and you get… nothing. So why is this supposed to be more social?

  9. Teletext is now the official new Fictionwise. Completely useless as a social commenting site regarding news and discussions surrounding ereading. This is what happens when you sell your soul to an advertising based company.

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