I posted a bit ago about keeping your Facebook feed clean and clear of unwanted items. Since that posting, the interface of Facebook is quite different, so I thought I would update some items.
Topics covered in this post include:
- Differences between your News Feed and Wall
- Removing unwanted posts from your News Feed
- Blocking all future updates from a user, page or application from your News Feed
- Removing your own posts due to errors, etc.
- Blocking application and event invitations
- Blocking Facebook users entirely.
- Managing/removing your Blocks and Hides.
Keep Your Facebook Wall and News Feed Clean
If there are items on your Facebook news feed that you do not want to see, you may remove them. Not only can you remove them, but you can also choose never to see future updates from the user/page they came from, or the Facebook Application that posted them.
Note here, first, that what you see on your Facebook News Feed is seen as-is by you, only... not anyone else. This is as opposed to your personal profile page (your 'Wall'), which is what is seen by your friends or others who may visit your Wall. Each person's own News Feed is made up of a collection of the updates of all of their friends and pages of which they are fans. So anything you do to your News Feed only affects what you see - not anyone else. There is one exception to this: If you remove one of your own posts from the News Feed page, you are also removing it from your Wall.
Identify your News Feed by seeing this at the top (may vary based on your Facebook language settings, and when Facebook changes their interface)
Unlike or Unfriend a Facebook Profile
If you see something on your news feed that you would prefer never to see again, your first option is to Unlike the page or remove yourself as a Friend for the person. That is the most extreme option, of course, as it effectively severs all Facebook ties you have with them. But it means that you can not receive any more contacts/updates from them, except if you permit Facebook messages from the public.
To do this, click on the name of the profile/person you wish to remove to bring up their profile Wall, then look to the left-side column, and scroll down for the list of links. For a Page, you will see an option named "Unlike" and for a personal profile, you will see "Unfriend". Those links will sever your Facebook connection.
Remove Facebook Posts Without Unliking or Unfriending
Maybe you don't want to go that far, but you would like to remove a post. There are a few different options you have here. The key to removing posts, whether from your Wall or your News Feed, is the tiny, blue "X" symbol which, by default, is not even visible. To find that X, you need to move your mouse over toward the right-top area of a post and look for the X to appear. See the image to the left to see that X highlighted. When you see it, you may click it to open up a sub-menu or dialog which gives you access to the options you have to remove posts.
First, for your own posts or for all posts on your own Wall, a dialog box will pop up asking if you wish to remove the post. Note that this is basically permanent, and effects anyone who goes to your Wall. Click 'Remove' or 'Cancel', as you desire.
For posts that are on your News Feed which were made by Friends or Facebook Pages you like, you will instead see a menu drop-down similar to the one at the right. Note that this menu uses the word 'hide' to tell you what you are doing; it is only hiding the post(s) on your own News Feed, not affecting anyone else's view of it in their own news feed. Also, no one knows if you are hiding their posts, so feel free to do this without hurting someone's feelings!
Finally, note that when you hide posts like this, you can still see those posts by going to the Wall of the profile in question. You have no control over what shows up on other persons' walls; only over what you see from them in your own News Feed.
- You may click on the first option, "Hide this post" to simply hide that single post, without affecting any future posts from that profile at all.
- You may click the second option, "Hide all by [Profile name here]" to not see any posts made by that user in your news feed again. This can be very useful if you have someone as a Friend or a Facebook page you Like but which has too-frequent updates which take up too much space in your News Feed. You can still go to their profile directly to see all their updates when you want. You can also remove this hiding later, if you change your mind (more on that later).
- If the post was made via a Facebook Application (such as a game), you will see the option "Hide all by [FB App name here]". This is a fantastic way to keep all the updates from your friends' Facebook games out of your News Feed; If the name of a game you don't care about appears here, click that, and all updates from that app, no matter by what user, will never appear in your News Feed. You will still see those updates if you go to the user's Wall, of course, and you can remove individual applications from your 'Hide' list, too. (more on that later)
- Below the horizontal line in the menu will be an option named "Mark as spam". This does the same as "Hide this post", but it also sends a report to Facebook claiming that the post is spam. Do not use this lightly; It is not for posts that you merely do not wish to see any more (that's what the above options are for), but for genuine spam, such as out-of-place advertisements posted via some automated means. People and businesses are allowed to advertise via their Facebook pages and profiles. I can't recall ever using this option.
- Finally, if the post in question was from a Facebook Page's profile (rather than a personal one), you will see the "Unlike Page" option; This is a shortcut to unlike the page, which of course also means you will never see their updates in your News Feed.
Once you have made a selection in that menu, you will see any posts in your feed which apply immediately disappear, assuming you have a modern browser. Before you navigate to any other location, you will also see a message take the place of the post informing you what it did, and allowing you to cancel the operation, if you wish.
Use This on Yourself, Too!
Remember that you can use this on your own posts, as well. Perhaps you misspelled something, or changed your mind about a post you have made. Or, you might have accidentally clicked a link to a rogue Facebook application which posted some spam message on your profile itself. Either way, you can look for that little blue X and delete it permanently.
Block Event and Application Invites
You may block future Event and Application invites when you receive them. For Event and Application invites, you can choose to block all future invites from the friend who sent it. Event and App invites are separate here; blocking one does not block the other. Also, this only applies to future invites from that person. If they already sent you multiple invites, you may still have to delete them, as well. Also, for Application invites (games or otherwise), you can choose to block all future invites from that application, regardless who sends them.
Many Facebook Games applications have built-in systems which encourage and make it easy for users to send out mass invites, so these options can help keep your invites a bit cleaner. As with the 'hide' options above, you can change your mind in the future.
When you have blocked a person or an application like this, your invitations simply disappear when your friends attempt to send them. They do not get any indication that you have blocked their invites.
Blocking Facebook Users
You can also block a Facebook user entirely. This is a last-line sort of thing that you really only do if someone is harassing you, or you want to make it harder for them to see anything you post on your Facebook Wall. This differs from the 'Hide' and invite block options above in that the user(s) you block may explicitly become aware of this fact if they try to visit your Facebook Wall; they will not be able to view your profile, even what an anonymous user can normally view. This removes that user as a friend if they are one already, and prevents them from sending you friend requests, Facebook messages, or any other invites via Facebook. It also prevents you from viewing their profile or from them showing up in your searches on Facebook. It essentially works as a two-way block - it blocks you from interacting with them in the same ways.
Important Note: This should never be used as a way to keep information on your profile private from someone. Due to the nature of social networking sites, there is often some other way they can get that information, including seeing when common friends you have comment on any of your updates. There are some privacy options which can limit your exposure in case like this, but I recommend never posting anything via your social networking sites which you would not want to be public to some degree at all.
You can block a user from their profile Wall; look for the left-side column, and scroll down to the links. You will see a link titled "Report/Block this Person". That takes you to an interface to block them and optionally report them to Facebook for some violation of the FB terms of service. You can also block users from the Block Lists interface I will discuss now.
Managing Your Block Lists
You can manage your lists of blocked users and apps, as well as users who you have blocked event and application invites from. To do so, look to the very top-right of the Facebook interface for the "Account" button, and click it to open the drop-down menu, from which you should choose "Privacy Settings". At the bottom of the main Privacy page, you will see the option pictured to the right; click the link to go there.
The page that appears allows you to add/remove users that you are blocking entirely, or from whom you are blocking Application or Event invitations. Either begin to type in a person's name and choose the correct option to add someone new, or click the "Unblock" link to remove someone from the list.
For apps you have blocked, there is no ability to add new ones from this page, but you can remove blocks apps you wish to use.
Managing Your Hidden Profiles and Applications
Getting to the interface to remove users, pages and applications that you have 'hidden' from showing up in your own News Feed is a little bit tricky. Maybe someone knows of an easier way to do this. The tricky part is that you get to the interface for this by going to the very bottom of your News Feed page and clicking the "Edit Options" link shown and highlighted here:
The problem is, whenever you scroll down to the bottom of your News Feed page, Facebook may automatically begin loading older posts, before you can click the Edit Options link. I usually have to scroll to the top and use my "End" button on the computer's keyboard to do this without that behavior.
Any way, once you click it, a popup window appears with a list of all the persons, applications and pages you have selected to be 'hidden' from your feed. There is a drop-down at the top to restrict the list somewhat only to those with which you 'frequently interact', but that may or may not be helpful. If you are like me, the list of Applications will be quite large indeed; People (friends) are listed first, then apps, then pages at the bottom. Find the one(s) you wish to remove, and click the X next to their name to remove them.
Conclusion
This turned out to be quite a post, but once you are familiar with the items here, keeping your News Feed clean will be fairly easy to do on a day-to-day basis.