Flattr Blog

Get notified when flattred

Simon Gate — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:23:07 +0000

Last week we added a activities in our API. That means you can get a atom feed containing all your activities that occurs on Flattr. At the time of the writing of this article there is only one activity and that is when you get flattred. We have a few other activities coming soon. To get a mail or get notified on your mobile phone you can use IF This Then That. IFTTT is a service that scans feeds and when something new is acts upon the new feed item. This means that if we would add the Flattr feed to IFTTT and we could trigger actions when someone Flattrs you. Actions can for example be SMS, e-mail or Boxcar.

To add the Flattr activity feed to IFTTT and add a action that will send you a e-mail when you someone flattrs you do the following.

1. Get a account over at ifttt.com
2. When you have signed up create a new task and click “this”
3. In the list of available trigger channels select “Feed” and click “New feed item”
4. As the feed URL add https://api.flattr.com/rest/v2/users/USERNAME/activities.atom?type=incoming ( change USERNAME to your flattr username) and create the trigger.
5. Click “That” and select a “Action channel” for example “Email”. I currently use “Boxcar” so I can get push notifications to my phone.
6. When you have clicked “Email” select the action “Send me an email”
7. The default message will suffice, now click “create action”
8. Add a description and click “create task”

Now you have added your first task to IFTTT that will send you an email every time you receive a flattr. Flattr activities also support ‘outgoing’ activities, i.e. activities you do, example is flattr or add a new thing. If you would like to use the outgoing activities you change the type parameter to outgoing instead, https://api.flattr.com/rest/v2/users/USERNAME/activities.atom?type=outgoing. The activities is only available if you have public flattrs. You can change that in your Privacy settings.

Another wonderful solution is to send get notified on your mobile phone when you get flattred. I use Boxcar to enable this. Boxcar makes it easy to send push notifications iPhone. Boxcar has a set of actions available over at IFTTT, so instead of setting up the e-mail action choose Boxcar. You can setup a Boxcar account over at their homepage where you also will find links to download Boxcar for you iPhone and Mac.

If you have any questions you can tweet me or send me a e-mail.

It’s a boy!… erm, widget! Beta testers wanted

Siim Teller — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:26:11 +0000

In the spirit of releasing stuff earlier rather than later let me introduce a little something we’ve cooked up – a Flattr widget for your website. The idea with the widget was to make it possible to show your supporters, get a little social recognition and take the fear off from your visitors in the “Flattr? What’s that? Who’s using it?” worry.

It’s still in beta but you can get yours here: flattr.com/widgets/thing?thing=450790

If you’re logged in then use the drop-down to pick your own Thing, if you’re not then just play around with the ID in the URL.

Now – love it? Hate it? Would you use it? If not then why not? How would you change it? Would you want a totally different widget? What should it look like and do? So many questions, so little answers :)

As I wrote it’s a beta and we keep changing it so if you stick it on your website then keep an eye out for upgrades.

Turn ad blockers into supporters – lesson from AlternativeTo

Siim Teller — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:44:55 +0000

Ad blockers are a blessing for web surfers and a curse to website owners as it cuts down their ability to earn money from visitors taking advantage of their (hopefully) great content. AlternativeTo has found a very intriguing solution to this problem.

AlternativeTo is a website that offers good advice on software – if you’re looking for an alternative to the software you are currently using then they probably have a good idea what that might be, all based on user recommendations. Run by just two guys called Ola and Markus it gets around 70-80 thousand unique visitors every day.

What AlternativeTo does is show a special non-banner ad looking block in place of the topmost banner with the following text:

Hi! For some reason we can’t display an ad here, probably because of an ad blocker. If this ad is not displayed our design gets screwed up. We have full respect if you want to run an ad blocker but we would appreciate if you add us to your white list or consider donating via Flattr or Paypal. The free web is dependent on ads to continue to be free. Thank you, and we hope you find a great alternative!

While the guys behind the site haven’t measured how well the banner is performing Ola wrote that it’s gotten them plenty good feedback. Stuff like:

I saw your appeal to disable adblock, and I have done so because I appreciate the good work you are doing compiling list of alternative applications. Keep up the good work!

When I saw it the first time I was immediately stuck with what a nice way it is in engaging visitors who normally ignore that area of the website and turn the whole experience more positive.

For the curious – technically they just look for some div like (#google_ads_div_AlternativeTo_Header_ad_container) and if it can’t be found then they know that the ad was not loaded for whatever reason. Most likely because the visitor is using ad blocker.

You can flattr AlternativeTo or you can hear the other side aka the guy who builds ad blockers: Michael Gundlach, the man who’s blocked 100 billion ads (the number is now more like 150 billion by now).

If you’re interested in why advertising won over micropayments 15 years ago when the whole internet thing was just taking off and everything was possible then How Stuff Works podcast had a good show on just this topic back in November last year: TechStuff’s Two Cents on Micropayments (iTunes link)