0

Trying to set up a follow button with Facebook's plugin here:

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/follow/

I've found that any profile url I enter that contains periods (for example, http://www.facebook.com/John.Smith) will return an error.

From the error console I receive

Failed to load resource: The requested URL was not found on this server.

This happens with the HTML5, iframe and URL versions of the plugin. Just out of curiosity I tried encoding the period with %2E, and I also tried using the numeric profile ID, but neither worked.

Is there any other trick I can try to make this work?

Cody Gray - on strike
  • 239,200
  • 50
  • 490
  • 574
Jeremy
  • 3
  • 1
  • 2
  • Are you sure you are using the Follow button for an actual Facebook _page_? Following is only available for those, not for personal accounts. – CBroe Feb 04 '13 at 15:52
  • Ah you may be confusing this with the Like button. The follow button (formerly the Subscribe button) is specifically for users, not pages. From Facebook: _The Follow button allows people to subscribe to other Facebook users directly from your site._ – Jeremy Feb 04 '13 at 16:02

1 Answers1

1

I don't think it's a problem with the social plugin. please enter the profile https://www.facebook.com/michael.kamleitner for testing purposes - everything's fine here.

If I open the profile url of John Smith I'm getting an error ("Page not found") - so imho the profile is restricted/not public at all. If it's privacy restricted, you can't use it for the follow-plugin. If you have access to John Smith's account, please double check his follower-settings: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=followers

Johannes N.
  • 2,364
  • 3
  • 28
  • 45
  • Thank you Johannes, you were exactly right! I turned on 'Follow' in the settings and now the plugin is working perfectly. – Jeremy Feb 07 '13 at 14:51