How-To Geek
Block Those Irritating Facebook Quiz & Application Messages
You know how it goes… you finally signed up for Facebook after your friends and family kept bugging you, and now your Facebook Wall is just covered in idiotic quizzes, applications, and other random nonsense. You can’t block everybody, so what can you do?
They forgot the stat about how many friends hate you for taking so many quizzes…
Blocking Individual Applications
If your significant other is completely addicted to some retarded Flash game on Facebook, you’ve probably ended up with a ton of messages about every tiny accomplishment in the game. The easy option is to simply click Hide –> Hide Application.
This sometimes works… but with the amount of nonsense on Facebook, you’ll quickly be overrun with new games on a daily basis, and you’ll have to hide every single one of them, defeating the whole purpose of reading this article.
Blocking Posts On Your Wall
If you’ve really given up, and don’t need your wall cluttered up with stuff that you didn’t put there, you can simply block anybody and everybody from posting to your wall by changing the settings… hit the Settings link while looking at your wall.
Then remove the checkbox by the option for “Friends may post to my Wall”.
Your friends will still be able to message you, chat, and you can still comment on their idiotic nonsense—but they won’t be able to post anything to your wall.
Use Facebook Purity to Block Annoying Applications
If you can’t disable your Wall entirely because you want your friends to be able to post real messages there, you can always use a Greasemonkey script for the Firefox browser, which will completely disable all of those idiotic quizzes, applications, and other nonsense.
You’ll need to make sure that you first install the Greasemonkey extension and restart Firefox, if you haven’t already. Once you’ve done so, head over to the Facebook Purity installation page, click the Install button, and you’ll be prompted to install the script.
The next time you load up your Facebook Wall, you should see that the idiotic nonsense is blocked, and there’s a tiny little link in the upper right that lets you unhide the hidden stuff if you so choose.
It’s the type of script that is pretty much required if you want to use Facebook without losing your mind.
Download Facebook Purity Greasemonkey Script from userscripts.org
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- By The Geek on 09/11/09
Comments (19)
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Thats really helpful…! Thanks ! :)
Thank you so much for this tip! I installed Greasemonkey and Facebook Purity and it works perfectly. I’m so happy!
GENIUS!!!
I haven’t used facebook for this very reason. It was more than annoying having my friends “in control” of what appeared on my wall. I had finally given up and not logged in for several months.Thanks again!
Pardon the name of the script, but the “Unfuck Facebook” script is far better than FB Purity IMO.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/11992
Facebook Purity also works just fine in Chrome, if you have user scripts enabled.
I use the One-Click Quiz Blocker bookmarklet. You have to manually run it once a quiz appears on your page, but then you can block all subsequent appearances (you know those things never just appear once). Search for the app in facebook and download the bookmarklet. Works pretty well.
I just wrote this script which blocks only the applications specified in it. It can be used just like Facebook Purity
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/57540
Hope it helps :)
Or, if you’re in the US or India, as of today you can use http://lite.facebook.com.
Should have been done a long time ago. It’s great.
Brilliant!! i love it, thank god i found this link lol!
I am having a problem getting on Farmville and I have Windows Vista and my friends have Windows XP and they do not have a problem getting on. Could Windows Vista cause this application not to load. I do not have problems with FarmTown or Yoville.
It looks like the Facebook team themselves realized the clutter that was being created by these apps and came up with Facebook Lite.
This plugin offers an option to ppl who want to see all that junk :)
Thanks! I was getting insane with all the notifications Farmville was spaming every time a cow has given birth. Don’t even get me started on Mafia Wars… That hide button is really well hidden.
Is it possible, in your opinion, to get viruses, worms, phishing, etc, from these Facebook Apps?
Hey Texas,
I have Vista and don’t have problems loading Farmville using Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. Happy farming, tp.
I use XP and IE7. How can I block these irritating apps like farmville free stuff from posting on my wall. The page gives no way to block them and it is just useless. Thanks.
While it is hard to find and figure out how to block certain apps it becomes even more of a task to unblock should you want to start using an application.
OMG, thank you!! I hate hearing about people’s stupid farming and jewel collecting habits. You have made my visits to FB sooo much more bearable.
I’ve been hoping for this all along. I gotta do it.
Facebook purity script only hide applications messages but doesn’t click BLOCK ALL MESSAGES FROM THIS APPLICATION for you ? Or does it ?
Thanks.