Alex King’s Twitter Tools plugin has entered beta for the 3.0 version. For this release King has reworked the plugin to extend his Social plugin to improve the user experience issues his users have had since Twitter switched to oAuth. We’ve written about troubles users have had with Twitter and oAuth, so perhaps this will be useful for them.

This is a beta, so it hasn’t been tested extensively. Install it at your own risk. You can read more about it at his blog post or grab the code directly from GitHub.

It’s always nice to have diversity in plugin selection. What about you guys, do you have a favorite Twitter plugin to use?

Late Wednesday Twitter suspended BraveNewCode’s OAuth token for their WordTwit plugin, which allows users to send out tweets when they publish posts and at scheduled intervals. In plain English, this means that the default settings for WordTwit would no longer function, and anyone using WordTwit would soon realize none of their post tweets were going out anymore.

Twitter suspended the OAuth token without warning, according to BraveNewCode, and cited the following as their reason for the decision:

“[WordTwit Pro] facilitates serial posting across multiple accounts, tweet/retweet automation, tweet branding and automated affiliate advertising.”

At the moment BraveNewCode doesn’t see a way to resolve the issue, so they are directing users to use the second setup option WordTwit offers. It involves setting up a Twitter app that will handle the tweeting of posts (instead of using BraveNewCode’s you use your own). The setup process is a bit more complicated, but then again it works where the old way no longer does.

WPCandy was hit by this particular issue last week, since we use WordTwit Pro to tweet out posts as they are published (which probably means I should update this post). I was able to use the documentation BraveNewCode provided to roll out our own Twitter app and get everything back on track in less than an hour, so kudos to them for handling the situation well.

Scott Berkun announced today that WordPress.com blogs now allow the validation of comments via Facebook and Twitter accounts. Users can be signed in to multiple accounts and choose which one they would like identified with their comment.

What does this mean for dot org, self hosted users? Today it doesn’t mean much, but according to Automattic’s Michael Adams, the features will “likely” be added to a future version of the Jetpack plugin. Jetpack was released by Automattic a few months ago and brings WordPress.com features to self hosted WordPress users.

By the way, the WordPress.com team gets extra points for their Fight Club reference in their post image (seen above). His name is Robert Paulsen…

How do you choose to let your users comment on your blogs? Are you interested in easily letting your visitors comment using Twitter and Facebook accounts?

Last Thursday, Twitter launched its official Tweet Button with the aim of simplifying the sharing of content.

Rather than having to switch between tabs or windows and visit the Twitter site directly, users of sites who sport the new button will, upon clicking, be greeted by a Tweet box. The Tweet box will contain a shortened link to the content being shared and allow users to add their own messages before tweeting it. Once tweeted, users will also be given the opportunity to follow other Twitter accounts that publishers choose to share with their followers.

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