OG Read Action doesn't post to FB Timeline, & no FB Activity Log.

We just submitted a bug report to Facebook about this and are investigating if there's anything more we should be doing. Facebook is being very cagey about whether the automatic actions are allowed anymore, though all their documentation still says they are valid.

Please read the bug report and use the "Does this repro describe your issue?" link to raise the priority of the bug report:
developers.facebook.com/bugs/149874215169614

Thanks,
Alex

Thanks for helping up it's priority. Hopefully, we'll get a response soon.

Alex

Allen,
Access to your site won't really help. We can recreate the error too, which is why we submitted the bug report. The bug report was marked as a duplicate of the other bug report I referenced, and that one was closed saying the bug is 'as designed'. If that's true, it means that Facebook's documentation and lots of other information is all wrong and that built-in actions no longer should be used.

I sent an email to a Facebook rep asking for clarification, and they're looking into it more internally. Hopefully, we'll have an answer early next week. If they say the bug report is correct, and that built-in actions aren't supposed to be used, then there's not much we can do about that problem. Open Graph Actions will still work, but the automatic actions on page load, like "read" or "watch" just won't work.. which seems silly.

Thanks,
Alex

Allen,
We understand your frustration. We're not sure what's going on either. Facebook is heavily promoting the use of Open Graph Actions, and they still do function. It seems that the automatic posting "as users consume content", like when they read an article, watch a video, listen to a song, etc is not functioning right now. Their documentation still heavily emphasizes the use of 'consuming' actions, like news.reads, which is why I've contacted our rep for clarification. There's definitely conflicting information about what to do right now.

With all that said, Open Graph Actions still function within JFBConnect. Things like "uploading a photo", "voting for an article", "commenting on an article" or even a special button that users can click to say "I read this article" can be created. Right now, the automatic posting for just sitting on a page don't work. Hopefully, it's a bug and a mistake on Facebook's part, but I have no power over that.

Should you wish a refund, no problem. We have a 30-day money back guarantee for just these reasons. Regardless of how this resolves itself, Facebook does change and remove functionality all the time. This is by far the biggest in recent memory, but Authenticated Referrals, Guest Commenting, the Live Stream widget and lots of other features are things we once supported, but Facebook removed. There's nothing we can do when that happens other than notify our users and keep up with changes in their feature-set.

Finally, the best thing you can do to help is make sure you've clicked the "Does this repro describe your issue?" link in that bug report and fill in your information. Additionally, make a comment in the bottom expressing your unhappiness that the news.reads action is still promoted by Facebook to be used but doesn't work.

Hope that explains everything,
Alex

All,
Fortunately, Facebook re-opened the bug report from the other thread and clarified their position. It sounds like news.reads will start functioning again soon, but will display differently than they do now. That's not terribly surprising, but we're still unhappy with how the change was [not] conveyed.

So, for now, please bear with no news.reads actions appearing in the Timeline. I'd recommend subscribing to the bug report below as well which will hopefully be updated periodically with status about the change from Facebook themselves:
developers.facebook.com/bugs/452585014808810

Allen,
What you're looking for can be done with a custom Open Graph Action. However, I'd probably recommend instead using the Like button. That has multiple advantages over a custom Open Graph action:
* It's easier to setup and can be automatically added to any of your articles from the Social configuration area of JFBConnect
* You'll want to configure the Like button settings, but you can change the "Verb" to "Recommend" (like you're looking for) instead of "Like"
* The Like/Recommend button is a common, well known button from Facebook. Therefore, it actually gets a slightly higher priority and likelihood of displaying in a feed over a custom Open Graph action.
* On a side-note, built-in actions are also (generally) a higher visibility action over custom actions because Facebook 'knows' the actions (since they created them) over your custom ones which can be very niche-y.

I hope that explains things a little more. If not though, or you want to pursue a Custom Action, no problem. It'd probably be best to create a new thread though to keep that explanation separate from this (already lengthy) thread.

Thanks,
Alex