Facebook Threads

[rcantor77]

Now I appreciate that this may not be very common but it is still something that maybe of value.

This morning I really enjoyed reading through the entire Space Harrier thread on the UKVAC Facebook Public Group and I know this only started out as a Sales thread, but the technical discussion that followed really should have been on the forum and it just seems a shame for this to be lost to the Facebook Archives.

So my question is... is there a way that this inof can be scraped from Facebook (using an API that already exists on FB) and stored on the forum in a Facebook Archive. At least that way it would enable the members not reading Facebook to still see the discussion, it would enable the forum to retain that info going forward and lastly it would help show the forum as being more active for prospective new members lookign to join.

Its only a thought... whats everyone else think..?

 

[mathj]

i second that comment

 

[Nes4life]

Agreed. I do not use Facebook and (for the foreseeable future) will not sign up.
If it's UK-Vac based then it should somehow be accessible through this awesome forum.

 

[Deathrow]

I don't use facebook either so have missed it all

 

[RGP]

I agree too, Facebook is linear only you can't search it for anything other than an entity.

The API is easy to navigate, I wrote an import routine using the Koala library for Ruby on Rails for the Arcade Club website to get the FB reviews into the site in real-time in about 5 lines of code.

The Graph API is the easiest method to pull this in by - you just have to do some faffing with OAuth2 to get the right access token initially but you can store for a while.

All the data objects all link to other data objects uniformly.

I wouldn't suggest writing something that polled the FB public group all the time but something the admin/dev/mod team could point at a specific thread like this to drag in - its going to happen a few times I would think.

The discussion was great to watch unfold and a 30 year old problem was circumvented. Its now lead to a further discussion on doing some bugfixes to the code.

 

[Mr20to5]

I agree too, Facebook is linear only you can't search it for anything other than an entity.

Hi guys.

Slightly off topic, but on the off chance that this can help people. ........

Every site is searchable for anything. Sometimes Google will find stuff anyway on a regular search, however here's my IT tip of the day, for you to do with what you want.

From Google homepage select 'advanced search'. Then type your word to be searched in the search box inside " ". Then in the box called 'domain' type in Facebook.com and hit search.

This will effectively search Facebook, including all the posts you thought you had deleted and include posts made by people who have included security to ensure their posts cannot be seen.

For the record I HATE FACEBOOK !!

Neil