Fluff Busting Purity Frequently Asked Questions / Help - F.B. Purity Cleaning Your Facebook Homepage From Application Spam Since March 2009

F.B. Purity Frequently Asked Questions / Help

If you are having problems getting FB Purity to work, please read and follow the steps in the Troubleshooting Guide.

What is F.B. Purity?

Fluff Busting Purity is a Greasemonkey script that helps you to take control of the News Feeds on your Facebook home page. It does this by filtering out the application spam, such as quizzes etc, and also the messages such as "x became a fan of y", "x joined group y", "x became friends with y", "x is attending event y". See the features page for the full list of what the script can do.

How much does F.B. Purity cost?

FB Purity is donationware, which means if you like the script and it helps you out and you appreciate and respect the hard work put into the script, you can thank the developer by donating some money.

Where Can I Get F.B. Purity?

You can get the script here: http://www.fbpurity.com

Where can i find out the latest news about Fluff Busting Purity, including latest releases etc

If you want the latest news and information about the script beamed to your computer screen directly when its updated, become a fan of Fluff Busting Purity on Facebook: fans.fbpurity.com I will keep you updated with news of the latest releases, bug fixes, tips and tricks etc. You might also want to subscribe to the Fluff Busting Purity News RSS feed, Fluff Busting Purity News, you can also subscribe to the news feed via email. I will also be making script update announcements on my Twitter account too: twitter.com/steeev

What is Greasemonkey?

Greasemonkey is an add-on on for the Firefox web browser (and certain other browsers too), that lets you alter the way websites are displayed to you in your browser. The way it works is you download scripts (small sets of custom instructions) for the sites you want to alter, once installed the script changes the page in some useful way, perhaps changing the layout or adding new features to the site, or even removing features you dont like.

What is Firefox

Firefox also known as "Mozilla Firefox" is a cool web browser available for all major operating systems, i.e Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Linux. The cool thing about it is, there are hundreds of useful addons available for it from third party developers that offer extra functionality.

What is a Web Browser?

A web browser is the program you use to visit and view websites on the World Wide Web. Its what you are using right now to view this site. There are various web browsers out there for various operating systems.

What Web Browsers are compatible with F.B. Purity?

F.B. Purity is compatible with Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and also Opera

Is F.B. Purity available for Internet Explorer?

No, and i dont intend to release an I.E version, the browsers the script work with are listed above. Why not try out a new web browser? You might just like it. N.B if you are stuck with I.E due to workplace restrictions on installing software, you could try using a "portable" version of Firefox, Chrome or Opera, that runs from a USB memory stick.

What operating systems are compatible with F.B. Purity?

The operating system doesnt really matter, whatever operating systems run the following web browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari will work fine with F.B. Purity. e.g Windows, Linux, Mac etc. Please note that the script will not run on mobile browsers, as they are not compatible with greasemonkey.

How do I access the F.B. Purity Options screen?

You can access the options screen by clicking the "F.B. Purity" link in the F.B. Purity bar at the top of your facebook homepage.

How can I edit the list of applications that F.B. Purity hides?

Theres a guide to editing the F.B. Purity application whitelist here : FB Purity Whitelist Guide

How can i edit the list of "extras" that F.B. Purity hides?

Instructions on customising the "Extra" stories that get hidden are here: FB Purity Extras guide

How can I hide posts that feature specific words or phrases?

The custom text filter lets you hide posts that feature words or phrases that you specify. You can read how to use this feature here: Custom Text Filter Guide

How can i turn off (hide) the Suggestions box? (People you may know + Recommended Pages)

Theres a guide to turning off the Facebook suggestions box here : Hide Suggestions Box

How can i turn off (hide) the Sponsored box?

Theres a guide to turning off the Sponsored box here : Hide Sponsored Box

How can i turn off the Connect with friends box?

Theres a guide to turning off the Facebook Connect with friends box here : Hide Connect With Friends Box

How can i hide youtube videos from my "Top News", "Most Recent" and custom friend feeds?

If you enter "www.youtube.com" in the custom text filter field of the FBP options screen, all youtube videos will be hidden along with the other "extras"

How can I help spread the word about F.B. Purity?

You can suggest F.B. Purity to your all your Facebook friends by posting about this page to your stream via the Share button:

Share on Facebook

You can also let the world know about F.B. Purity, by posting to the following networks
Bookmark on Delicious Share on Twitter Stumble It Reddit Digg It Google Buzz It

How can I unblock an application once its been blocked via the "Block App" button?

If you used the "block app" button, it means the application has been placed on your blocked applications list, which you can view and edit by going to your privacy settings page here:http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy then clicking the "Edit your lists" link under the "Block Lists" heading at the bottom of the page. If you used Facebook's Hide button to "hide" the application you need to go to the "Top News" page, then click the "edit options" link at the bottom of the page, your list of applications that you have "hidden" will be displayed there, and you can unhide them from there.

Where can I make suggestions about the script?

You can make general suggestions for the script and also suggestions for additions to the default application whitelist that is built into the script here: http://contact.fbpurity.com. Please note I may not have time to answer all emails, but I will definitely read them.

Troubleshooting

Why is F.B. Purity hiding status updates from one of my Facebook Pages or Friends?

The script does not hide status updates from Pages or Friends. The Page or friend in question is probably posting their status updates via an application. Look at the bottom of one of the status updates that are being hidden and see if there is a "via (some application)" link. You will need to add that application to the FBP whitelist in order to stop FBP hiding those updates.

My FBP settings are being reset every time i close the browser, what is causing this, and how can i fix it?

If you have the "Better Privacy" firefox addon installed, by default it wipes out the browser's localstorage area, where FBP stores your settings, everytime you close the browser. In order to stop this occurring, you should untick the "Auto-delete DOMStorage file" in the addon's settings.

Another possibile cause of this behaviour is if you have set your browser to clear all cookies when you close your browser. The script saves your settings data in whats known as localstorage, but some browsers also wipe out the localstorage area when the cookies are cleared, so that will cause your settings to be reset.

If you use CrapCleaner (CCleaner) to clear all cookies from your browser, this will also reset your FBP options, to avoid this, you need to create an exception for cookies from facebook.com. To do this, go to CCleaner options, select cookies, then enter facebook.com into the search box, then click on "facebook.com" in the "cookies to delete" section and then click the arrow button in the middle of the dialog box to move it to the "cookies to keep" section

If the script is not working properly or has stopped working, what should i do?

Check that greasemonkey is enabled (in firefox, you can look for the brown monkey icon in the bottom right of your screen, if its grey it means greasemonkey is disabled, click it once to re-enable it) Another way to check is to see if other scripts you have installed are working.
Check that the problem is not caused by other scripts running on the same page. You can do this by temporarily disabling the other GM scripts (in firefox you can do this via the Tools/Greasemonkey/Manage Userscripts menu, in Chrome you can do this in the Extensions menu) and see if that fixes the problem
Another way to check its not other addons or scripts "clashing" with F.B. Purity causing the problem in Firefox, is to create a fresh Firefox profile, install greasemonkey and then the script, and see if it works ok on its own, if it does, you know it must be an addon/script "collision"
Check that you have the latest version of the script installed. Visit http://www.fbpurity.com and check the version number of the latest release. If it is more recent than the version you have installed, update it. (You can check the version number of your installed version by hovering over the "F.B. Purity" link on your homepage or clicking that link to open the Options screen, as the version number is in the title of that screen.)
Check if the layout of the site has changed, if the site looks different or has new features, it probably means Facebook have changed the underlying code of the site, which means the F.B. Purity script will need to be updated to work with the new code. Check http://news.fbpurity.com, or the FBP fan page or my Twitter account for news of a new version of the script
Try re-installing the script, perhaps the script has become corrupted.
If you are using firefox 3.6 and cant get the script to work, you may need to first change a browser preferences setting like so: a) enter "about:config" in the address bar b) enter "dom.storage.enabled" in the filter box c) change the value to "true" (double click on "false")
If none of the above work, you can file a bug report with as much info as possible via my contact form
N.B Important information you should include in your report: What Operating System you are using, What Browser and what browser version number. Script version number. What exactly is the bug, a clear and concise description is essential, just saying "it doesnt work" isnt very helpful. What steps did you take that lead up to the appearance of the bug, what exactly do you see on the screen, a screenshot can also be helpful. If using Firefox open the "Tools/Error Console" menu, click the round red button with the white cross inside it, marked "Errors" and copy and paste any errors you see into your report. If you are using Google Chrome, open the Developers Menu, then select the Javascript Console, and copy and paste any errors from there.

How can I find out what version of the script i am using?

If you hover your mouse over the "F.B. Purity" link in the F.B. Purity bar near the top of your facebook homepage, the version number will be displayed. The version number is also displayed in the title at the top of the script's options screen.

In Google Chrome, on the extensions menu, why does it say F.B. Purity is version 1.0?

Its due to the way Chrome converts greasemonkey scripts into extensions. You can find the actual version number of the script by using the method mentioned above.

In Google Chrome, on the extensions menu, why doesnt the options button work?

Again, this is due to the way Chrome converts the script into an extension. The F.B. Purity options screen is accessible via the "F.B. Purity" link in the F.B. Purity bar at the top of your Facebook homepage.

In Google Chrome, when i install the script, why does it say "this extension needs access to all your data on all websites" ?

The script does *not* access or collect your data from any websites, this message that is displayed is just the standard installation message when you install a Greasemonkey userscript on Google Chrome. The only data the script stores are the options you set in the options screen, and that data is not sent to me or stored anywhere other than on your own computer.

How can I turn off Greasemonkey?

In firefox you can temporarily disable Greasemonkey by clicking the little brown monkey icon in the bottom right of the browser window, it will then turn grey, meaning its been disabled. Clicking it again will re-enable Greasemonkey. In Google Chrome you can temorarily disable scripts via the Extensions menu.

How can I uninstall Greasemonkey scripts?

In Firefox you can uninstall Greasemonkey scripts via the "Tools/Greasemonkey/Manage User Scripts" menu. In Google Chrome v4+ you can remove a script via the extensions menu. In most other browsers, its simply a case of removing the script from your scripts directory.

Who is the author of the script?

Its me, Steve! :) You can contact me here: http://contact.fbpurity.com Please note i may not have time to answer all emails, but will definitely read them.

BTW If you like the script, please make a donation to show your appreciation for all the hard work i have put into developing this and keeping it running.

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N.B "Facebook" is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc. This site and script are neither endorsed by or affiliated with Facebook.

F.B. Purity Cleans Up Your Facebook Homepage