adamgreenough
Well-known member
Hi everyone! 
I'm a web designer & developer from the sunny south coast of the UK and I run the Webwide web design forums.
OpenGraph and Twitter Card images are the images that social networks and messaging apps grab for your posts and display alongside the links. By default, the XenForo ones are either missing and show no image or grab some random image from the page which is rarely optimal and make your links on social media look unenticing.
With custom, automatically generated OpenGraph/Twitter Card images you can stand out in the feed, provide more context about the link and reinforce your brand image (as well as making links more enticing to share for your users with their avatar & name featured).
I can custom design the cards and pull through almost any thread info using the XenForo API that you like, here's what I've gone for on my forum. I have a variety of background colours that it picks at random. All images are generated automatically from a template when they are requested by the networks.
See more live here:
Try sharing any thread from my forum to see how it works.
Looks great, how much will it cost me?
Hosting (use your existing hosting)
We can set this up alongside your existing forum hosting or any other hosting that will run XenForo. You will need some storage space to store the images. They are around 60kb each but only one is generated per thread (only on threads that are shared) and then saved. 1,000 threads will be 60mb. 20,000 threads will be about 1.2GB.
Bandwidth (minimal)
Almost always these are saved and cached by the social networks themselves and they are not downloaded by users as part of a normal page load. Bandwidth usage is very minimal under normal circumstances.
Screenshot API (from free)
For small forums with under 100 threads per month: you can use the free APIFlash screenshot API which gives you 100 free screenshots a month (upgrade to 1,000 for $7/m or 10,000 for $35/m in future). https://apiflash.com/
For forums with over 100 threads per month: GetScreenshot is much cheaper at $5/m for up to 2,500 screenshots, $10/m for 6000 or $20/m for 15000. https://getscreenshot.rasterwise.com/#pricing
For very large forums (or those with server management experience): it will be cheapest to run your own screenshot service from a VPS. Around $15/m for an unmanaged service or $30/m for one with a managed control panel. If you can provide VPS access I can set this up for £20 extra one-time. This is what I do currently just because I can.
Hi! Is there any way to see the stats/analytics from my Makerlog ad? Views:Clicks would be great. According to my own rough analytics I have had 1 clicks that weren't me.
I was expecting to be able to see a view/click count since the links pass through an analytics forwarder.
You will require an account at either of these. You just need to sign-up and sort plan billing if required, I can take care of the rest of the set-up. Images are saved so if you cancel or go over your quota at any time, all existing images will continue to function.
Card Design, Script & API set-up (£50 one-time)
This is where I come in! I will work with you to design a card template you love, get the script set-up on your web hosting and make the necessary template modifications to include the social images detection tags in to your forum code for just £50. That's a one time cost.
Please let me know if you have any questions at all!
Many thanks.
Adam
I'm a web designer & developer from the sunny south coast of the UK and I run the Webwide web design forums.
OpenGraph and Twitter Card images are the images that social networks and messaging apps grab for your posts and display alongside the links. By default, the XenForo ones are either missing and show no image or grab some random image from the page which is rarely optimal and make your links on social media look unenticing.
With custom, automatically generated OpenGraph/Twitter Card images you can stand out in the feed, provide more context about the link and reinforce your brand image (as well as making links more enticing to share for your users with their avatar & name featured).
I can custom design the cards and pull through almost any thread info using the XenForo API that you like, here's what I've gone for on my forum. I have a variety of background colours that it picks at random. All images are generated automatically from a template when they are requested by the networks.
See more live here:
Try sharing any thread from my forum to see how it works.
Looks great, how much will it cost me?
Hosting (use your existing hosting)
We can set this up alongside your existing forum hosting or any other hosting that will run XenForo. You will need some storage space to store the images. They are around 60kb each but only one is generated per thread (only on threads that are shared) and then saved. 1,000 threads will be 60mb. 20,000 threads will be about 1.2GB.
Bandwidth (minimal)
Almost always these are saved and cached by the social networks themselves and they are not downloaded by users as part of a normal page load. Bandwidth usage is very minimal under normal circumstances.
Screenshot API (from free)
For small forums with under 100 threads per month: you can use the free APIFlash screenshot API which gives you 100 free screenshots a month (upgrade to 1,000 for $7/m or 10,000 for $35/m in future). https://apiflash.com/
For forums with over 100 threads per month: GetScreenshot is much cheaper at $5/m for up to 2,500 screenshots, $10/m for 6000 or $20/m for 15000. https://getscreenshot.rasterwise.com/#pricing
For very large forums (or those with server management experience): it will be cheapest to run your own screenshot service from a VPS. Around $15/m for an unmanaged service or $30/m for one with a managed control panel. If you can provide VPS access I can set this up for £20 extra one-time. This is what I do currently just because I can.
Hi! Is there any way to see the stats/analytics from my Makerlog ad? Views:Clicks would be great. According to my own rough analytics I have had 1 clicks that weren't me.
I was expecting to be able to see a view/click count since the links pass through an analytics forwarder.
You will require an account at either of these. You just need to sign-up and sort plan billing if required, I can take care of the rest of the set-up. Images are saved so if you cancel or go over your quota at any time, all existing images will continue to function.
Card Design, Script & API set-up (£50 one-time)
This is where I come in! I will work with you to design a card template you love, get the script set-up on your web hosting and make the necessary template modifications to include the social images detection tags in to your forum code for just £50. That's a one time cost.
Please let me know if you have any questions at all!
Many thanks.
Adam
Last edited:
PM'd.