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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We do not want people to get here. –  Ladybug Killer Aug 24 '10 at 12:15
@Ladybug, please seriously consider to post your comment as an answer, so that I can accept it as the Accepted Answer. –  Graviton Aug 24 '10 at 15:54
+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 '10 at 16:46
Partly [status-completed] for questions with zero answers. –  Arjan Jan 18 '11 at 11:09
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2 Answers

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:


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 :) –  Diago Aug 24 '10 at 13:14
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 '10 at 16:41
Well, this is a reason, but it doesn't make sense to me. –  Peter Ajtai Aug 26 '10 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 '10 at 19:20
still would be nice to have a facebook/twitter link on post-beta sites. –  GI Joe Aug 27 '10 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 '10 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 '10 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 '10 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 '11 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 '11 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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