@support and @matt, any thoughts on this OG issue? I really want to share my articles, but it’s hard when I have no idea what image will be used in link cards.
If we can only use the first image instead of all images in a post, that would (in theory) solve the problem.
Thanks in advance.
Hope you get your answer. I think it’s only Matt on support around here, and he seemingly only pops in from time to time.
Oh, I didn’t know it was only Matt. I thought I saw someone else helping. Maybe they used to be on the team or are just an extremely helpful fan. Ha, ha.
Anyway, I definitely wish there was more support. But I’m wholly patient. I get that it’s a small team (perhaps a team of one, as you’ve suggested) and I respect that support can be a full-time job. So when I bump a post like this, it’s because I’m very much in need. Not because I’m angry or trying to stress people out.
Thanks for the note. I hope he/they see this thread because it’s a pretty big issue that affects sharing and automatic posts to the fediverse.
Matt is a great, very thoughtful (intentional) developer. He has core principles that he sticks to. The byproduct is that movement for write.as moves at a glacial pace. By way of example, Remark.as came out a couple of years ago, and it’s in the same place without any refinement. I think it has pretty much died as a side-product, though Matt did mention renewed commitment to it. Coming from WordPress, that was an adjustment for sure. But, I’ve been using it since 2021 and have been happy with it, with no intentions of moving.
As someone who started a software company and grew it to a team of 40… the best (and first) hires I made were support. I shared that with Matt, and hopes he makes moves there.
Hey, sorry for the slow response – I appreciate your patience! This is definitely a bug I think we can fix.
When we originally implemented this, I believe we did multiple OG tags because platforms like Facebook allow you to choose between them before publishing a post. It seems that might not be the case anymore, or some platforms handle them wrong, so we can just do what we do with the Twitter cards and include the first image.
I should be able to get to that this week – will keep you updated!
I appreciate that, @justinf. I have been wanting to bring someone on for support since we haven’t had anyone else for the last few years. I’ll send you a message soon – would love to chat some more!
OMG, yes! Thank you so much.
Just fixed the og:image issue! Let me know if anything is still off, though.
I’m super stoked that this is happening. However, I’m not seeing the update. Even after hard refreshing everything. Is there a DNS delay or cache setting on your server that may be slowing down the update?
I’m seeing one image being used, but it’s the last image on my views, not the first. Example:
That should show an image of an astronauts footprint, but it’s actually showing my avatar which is in my signature.
Ah, I don’t think we’re detecting .webp URLs as images – this was recently reported here: The types of extractable image are very limited · Issue #929 · writefreely/writefreely · GitHub. I’ll bring that change over to Write.as and that should fix it.
Will let you know when that’s deployed!
Okay, just sent out that fix! Note it might take a little bit to show up on your public / custom domain blog posts like this one, due to caching. But you can see it applied to older posts like this one.
Yes! I’m seeing the updates already, even on my custom domain. Thank you so much! I’m super stoked about this. You’re the best.
As an aside, webp images used to be cutting edge. But now they’re widely supported. Not universally supported, but in all the major browsers.
Awesome, I’m glad it worked! And happy to help!
Yeah I don’t think that code has been updated since before it was widely available 
So I’m glad you pointed it out, and we could get it updated!
@matt I’m noticing another oddity. Only one image is being grabbed now, and if it’s a webp that’s working as well. However, it randomly changes the image used in the OG metadata.
For example: if you view-source on the following article, then refresh the source a few times, you’ll see the image content change.
We’re almost there.
Hey, @matt.
Here’s a screencast of the source code from an article on my site. I keep refreshing the page and you’ll see that, while we’re successfully seeing only a single image, that image is different every time. It cycles through the various images in my article as well as my avatar from the signature.
For me, this is the single biggest issue I have with Write.as. It impacts sharing and in pretty much every way. If there’s any chance we can get this fixed, I would love you so much.
I’m sure you have a lot in the queue. I appreciate you and thank you for giving us the space to express our feedback.
Thanks for double-checking, @markwyner – I confirmed it on my end too. It looks like we’re parsing out images and putting them in an un-ordered array, so potentially any one could be in spot number 1.
I just need to dig a little more to fix it, but I have this on my list for this week. Will keep you updated when it’s fixed!
Hey @markwyner, I was able to dig into this and just sent out a fix! Should really, actually be all good now!! But give it a shot and let me know if there’s still any weirdness.
OMG, yes! Verified on all fronts. I’m so grateful for your time in fixing this. Thank you so much!
@matt just a quick follow-up on this. It’s working perfectly now! I just published a fresh article, which was my first new one since you added the fix. It works exactly as I’d expect. Thank you again.
