Restoring the link between Twitter and Facebook status updates

This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

I make no secret of the fact that I detest Facebook.  I despise its user interface (which I find confusing and difficult to navigate).  I find Facebook’s approach to security and privacy concerning. And I’m much happier with a single web of sites than one that consists of several huge islands – even if one of those islands currently has around 600 million users.

Unfortunately, normal (i.e. non-geek/media) people, including many of my friends and family, insist on using Facebook, so I have an account there.  Actually, until earlier this week, I had two (one personal, one professional) - then I learned that was in violation of Facebook’s terms of service and, if detected, Facebook reserves the right to terminate all of your accounts, so I deleted one of them.

Because I dislike Facebook so intensely, I’m not a great citizen there – I log in from time to time, and that means that I don’t really participate in the network properly.  My Facebook status updates are populated from my personal Twitter account and I recieve e-mail updates on any comments. But recently, I noticed that the Twitter Facebook app was not updating my Facebook status and several of my friends were having the same problem.

I tried denying the app access to my Twitter account and then allowing it again, but that didn’t seem to work. Then I found a Facebook discussion thread, where Derek Lau wrote:

“Go to http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/
Uncheck the box that says ‘Allow Twitter to post updates to: Facebook Profile’
Refresh the page to make sure that the box really is unchecked.
When the box is unchecked, send a tweet. This will obviously not get posted to FB.
Go back and re-check the box. Refresh the page to make sure it is really checked.
Now send another tweet.”

Twitter app on Facebook

Sweet. Now my Twitter updates are populating Facebook again, and I can go back to ignoring it for a while longer…

2 thoughts on “Restoring the link between Twitter and Facebook status updates

  1. I tend to agree with the comparisons between Facebook and AOL of the mid-nineties. Facebook allows people who are daunted or baffled by ‘the Internet’ to communicate online. Unfortunately it means the rest of us have to dumb down to participate.

  2. Yeah, I agree about FB. I’ve been a hater almost since it started. However I still created an account to see what all the fuss was about at the beginning, circa 2006.

    About 2 years ago I deactivated my account but I notice now that if you look hard enough you can hard-delete your account so I did.

    Stick that in your book … errr … Face?

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