F.B. Purity FAQ - Clean Up Your Facebook Homepage
If you're tired of seeing quiz results and other silly facebook application messages, you need F.B Purity. Its a browser extension that removes the annoying quiz messages and other silly app spam from your fb homepage. Leaving just the messages you want,e.g status updates, links, photos, etc.

F.B. Purity Frequently Asked Questions / Help

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, and 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: twitter.com/steeev and also the offical FB Purity Twitter account. If you want instant notification of updates, you can subscribe to FB Purity updates via SMS on the FB Purity fan page (see the bottom of the left column of the fbp fan page) or you can also subscribe to SMS updates via the FB Purity Twitter page.

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 is a Web Browser extension (or addon)?

A web browser extension is a program that extends and enhances the functionality of your web browser.

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.

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

In the custom text filter, is it possible to hide whole words only, eg hide any mentions of "hat" but not words containing the letters "hat" such as "what" or "that" etc?

Yes, in order to do this you need to use some special Regular Expression syntax. In this case, you need to use the word boundary signifier "\b", you need to put it at the start and end of the whole word that you want to filter out. So in the case of this example you would put "\bhat\b" (without the quotes) into the Custom Text Filter box, and it should then only filter out any occurrences of the word "hat".

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

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

Can I hide the new Facebook Actions (aka frictionless sharing) with FB Purity? (e.g read an article, watched a film, played a game, listened to a song etc)

Yes you can, just tick the hide "read an article (FB Actions)" option on the FBP options screen, and it will hide the new Facebook actions stories.

Is it possible to use wildcard search patterns In the custom text filter?

Yes, it is possible, you need to use "Regular Expressions" syntax. Examples: If you wanted to match anything that occurs between the words "this" and "program" you would use the following "regex" "this .* program". If you wanted to hide any numeric variation of "added 12 photos to an album" you would use the following regular expression "added \d* photos to an album". Google "Regular Expressions" to learn more about the syntax.

How can i turn off (hide) the Suggestions (aka People you may know + Recommended Pages, Find Friends, Get Connected, Connect with Friends, Find More Friends, People to subscribe to) box?

Just tick the Hide "Sponsored box" option on the F.B Purity options screen.

How can i hide the list suggestions box on friends list pages?

You can do this with a little CSS code snippet that you can find on the FBP CSS Page

How can i hide the "Friends Photos" and the "Memorable status updates" boxes on the homepage

If you tick the "hide Sponsored box" option on the FBP options screen, it will hide the ads (sponsored box) as well as the "friends photos" box and "memorable status updates" box.

How can i hide the Facebook Chat box?

You can hide Facebook Chat box / interface using FBP (N.B. It doesnt log you out of chat or disable the chat, it just hides the interface) Simply tick the hide "Chat box" option on the FBP settings screen to hide it.

How can i turn off / hide / filter the new Facebook Questions posts from my news feed?

You can hide Facebook Questions stories from showing up in your newsfeeds by ticking the "Hide Facebook Questions" option on the FB Purity options screen.

How can i hide youtube videos from my news feeds?

If you enter "youtube.com" (without the quotes) into the Custom Text Filter field of the FBP options screen, all youtube videos will be hidden along with the other "extras", you can do this with other video hosting sites too, such as vimeo etc.

Can FB Purity hide or disable the new photo viewer (theatre view)

No, but you can easily disable it yourself, by pressing the "F5" function key when the new photo viewer pops up, this reloads the page and image with the old photo viewer. BTW if you are using the Safari web browser, ive heard reports that it makes viewing photos too slow, i would suggest trying Google Chrome instead, as its a lot faster.

Can i add custom CSS rules to Facebook using F.B. Purity?

Yes, you can add custom CSS rules, so you can style Facebook the way you like it, more info and lots of CSS examples here: Custom CSS

Is it possible to turn off FBP's application / games filtering?

Yes, you can turn off the application filtering, to do this, untick the "Application Messages" "Hide" checkbox on the FB Purity options screen.

Is it possible to turn off the Comment Button feature, to revert the commenting system to Facebooks Default, where pressing Enter or Return submits a comment instead of adding a new line?

Yes, you can turn off this feature by ticking the Hide "Comment Button" option on the FBP options screen.

My whole feed is getting filtered out by the Extras filter, whats causing that?

If you have put a space on its own after a comma in the custom text filter, FBP will filter out any stories with a space in them, remove the comma and the space from the filter, and it should go back to normal.

Can i hide the application links, such as "Music, Pokes, Questions, etc" under the "Apps and Games" heading in the left hand column of the homepage?

Yes you can, see the FBP CSS Page for some Custom CSS code snippets that do just that.

Is there an option to set "Most Recent" as the default news feed, in order to get all stories in chronological order, and hide the "top news" stories?

Facebook now gives you the option to set the sorting order to "most recent" or "highlighted stories first", look for the "Sort" option at the top of your newsfeed. *UPDATE* Though its nice to have the sort option back, it seems facebook doesnt seem to remember your settings. The solution to this is to add a bookmark to your browser's bookmarks toolbar for the following link https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr then whenever you want to view your feed chronologically, click the bookmark. Alternatively, another solution is to create a friend list, and add all your friends to that list, then whenever you want to view the feed in most recent order, just click on that friends list, and it will show your feed in chronological order.

Why isnt the hide sponsored box option hiding the ads?

Check that you have the latest version of FBP installed, also check the FBP fan page for any news as the CSS of the page may have changed. If neither of those works, its possible that you have installed a sneaky program known as "adware" that inserts adverts into web pages that you view, facebook has a list of such programs/applications/extensions here.

Why doesnt the hide Chat box feature work?

It does work, but you first need to click the button at the bottom right corner of your browser screen that looks like an arrow pointing out through a door. That is the built in facebook method for hiding the chat sidebar. The FBP hide chat box function hides the box that remains after that process.

Why do some elements of the page (such as graphs on "Page Insights") become hidden when i set the background colour in the fbp options?

If you set the background colour to be slightly transparent, using the following CSS colour function "rgba(225,0,0,0.5)" (without the quotes) in place of a colour name, in the background colour box, the elements should no longer be hidden. the way the colour function works is the first 3 numbers are the red, green and blue components, and the last number is the transparency value, which has a range from zero to one, 0 being completely transparent and 1 being completely solid.

Can i change the colour of the FB purity Info Bar?

Yes, you can, using the Custom CSS box. Copy and paste the following into the Custom CSS box: #fbpurityinfobar {background-color:lightyellow !important} you can change the colour to any valid HTML/CSS colour code you like.

How can i Export and Import my FBP settings data?

The ability to import and export your settings data is new in v3.6a. If you click the "Export Settings" link at the bottom of the FBP Options screen, a text box will appear with your FBP settings data inside. To export the data, simply select and copy the text in the box and save it to a text file or document. When you want to Import your settings, click the "Import Settings" link at the bottom of the FBP Options screen and a dialog box will pop up, just paste the FBP settings data you have previously saved into the box and click OK, thats it. This feature is cross browser compatible, so you can copy settings from one browser to another.

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

How can I unblock an application once its been blocked via the "BA" (Block Application) 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 FB Purity?

You can make general suggestions for the FB Purity and also suggestions for additions to the default application whitelist that is built into the script here: FB Purity Contact Form. Please note I may not have time to answer all emails, but I will definitely read them, suggestions from donors will get higher priority attention.

Troubleshooting

 

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

FBP 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 FB Purity whitelist in order to stop FBP hiding those updates.

Does FB Purity work on Groups pages?

No, FB Purity does not currently work on Group's pages, maybe one day it will, but it will be a lot of work to add it, so currently no, it doesnt.

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

A possibile cause of this behaviour is if you have set your browser to clear all cookies when you close your browser. FBP saves your settings data in whats known as localstorage, but most browsers also wipe out the localstorage area when the cookies are cleared, so that will cause your settings to be reset. If the browser gives you an option to make exceptions for cookies from certain websites, when cleaning the cookies, then make an exception for "facebook.com" and that should stop your settings being wiped out.

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, its important you also do the same for "www.facebook.com"

In Chrome, Safari and Opera, FBP stores your settings via the browser's Localstorage API, localstorage is stored separately on different subdomains and also different protocols, e.g if you start using the HTTPS version of facebook, you will initially have the default FBP settings, though you can go back to the http version and export your settings, and then go to the https version and import your settings.

If you are using the Private Browsing mode of Safari you will not be able to change/save the FBP settings, as safari disables localstorage in Private Browsing mode, a solution to this is to use Firefox or Chrome in their privacy modes.

If you are using the Incognito mode of Google Chrome, you will not be able to save your settings between sessions, as the browser wipes out the localstorage area where the settings are stored, when the browser is closed.

If you are using Google Chrome on Mac OS X and your settings are being reset each time, it seems theres a bug in the Mac version of Chrome, where it seems like you have to go into the options and under the Basics/On Startup section, you need to select the "Reopen the pages that were open last" option, for FBP to be able to save its settings correctly.

V3.6a (and above) of FBP fixes the above mentioned problems with losing settings in Firefox when cookies are cleared, as it uses the more persistent GM_SetValue API, which unfortunately Safari and Chrome do not have.

If F.B. Purity is not working properly or has stopped working, what should i do?

1. If you are using the GM Script version of FBP, 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.
2. Check that the problem is not caused by other scripts or extensions running on the same page and clashing with FB Purity. You can do this by temporarily disabling the other scripts/extensions (in firefox you can do this via the Tools/Greasemonkey/Manage Userscripts menu for GM Scripts and the "Tools/Addons/Extensions" menu for firefox extensions, in Chrome, Safari and Opera you can do this in the Extensions menu) and see if that fixes the problem
3. 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, then install FB Purity, and see if it works ok on its own, if it does, you know it must be an addon/script "collision"
4. Check that you have the latest version of FB Purity installed. Visit the F.B. Purity Homepage 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 fb homepage or clicking that link to open the Options screen, as the version number is in the title of that screen.) If you have installed FBP via a site other than FBpurity.com try re-installing directly from fbpurity.com as the version on this site will always be the most up to date version (even if the version numbers are the same, sometimes last minute fixes get put in without updating the version number)
5. Make sure you are not using an unsupported browser, if the browser is too old or too new (beta or alpha etc) FBP may not work, to be safe and sure FBP will work for you, try it in the latest stable version of either Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera
6. If you are having a problem where the red error is coming up saying "you have 2 versions of FBP running at the same time" If you have just updated your FBP firefox extension to version 6.x from version 5.x and you are getting this error, try uninstalling FBP then restarting your browser, then reinstalling it again, as that should fix it. If thats not the case, If you are using firefox, first check the "Tools/Addons" menu to see if F.B. Purity is listed there, also check if the Greasemonkey addon is installed and if it is, click its options button and now check if you have the GM script version of F.B Purity installed, if you have both GM Script version and Addon version of FBP, you need to disable or uninstall one or the other. If you have checked and there definitely arent 2 versions, check if you are running AVG antivirus on your system, as this could be causing the problem, try disabling AVG temporarily and see if that fixes it. If it is AVG, i suggest uninstalling AVG and installing Avast antivirus instead. *UPDATE 9/12/10* Ive heard that its specifically the AVG Link Scanner / Safe Search Firefox plugin that is causing the problems, disabling that addon should also fix the problem.
7. If you are getting the error 'Error: document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0] is undefined' when you start up Firefox, its most probably caused by the McAfee Firefox extension clashing with FBP. Solution: Either disable the MacAfee add-on, or Install a different AV software entirely.
8. If FBP has stopped filtering all application messages, check that you havent accidentally ticked the "Hide" "Application Messages" option in the FBP options screen.
9. Check if the layout of the Facebook.com 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 F.B. Purity will need to be updated to work with the new code. Check the FB Purity News Page, or the F.B. Purity Fan Page or the FB Purity Twitter account or my own Twitter account for news of a new version of the script
10. If you are using Google Chrome, and you find sometimes the F.B Purity Info Bar (show/hide links) has disappeared, try reloading the page and it should come back again
11. Try re-installing F.B. Purity, perhaps the installation has somehow become corrupted.
12. If the "Show" apps/extras links are not working, i.e nothing happens when you click them, its probably the same issue as below (2 versions of FBP running at the same time, you need to disable or uninstall one of them)
13. If you are using Opera or Greasekit or another GM compatible system that requires you to save userscripts to a specific directory, check the userscript directory to make sure you dont have two or more copies of fbpurity in the directory, as multiple copies will interfere with each other and cause the script to stop working properly
14. If you are using Opera and you have enabled HTTPS security on your Facebook account, FBP will not work unless you, allow the extension to access secure pages. To do this you need to go to the Extensions screen and click the Settings button, to the right of the "Uninstall" button, then select "Privacy" and then tick "allow interaction with secure pages". FBP should work fine after that.
15. If you are using Chrome, check you are not browsing in Incognito mode, as by default the extension wont work in that mode, if you want it to, you need to enable it on the extensions page, but be aware your settings will not be saved between sessions in Incognito mode.
16. If the "became friends with" messages are not getting filtered out despite you ticking that option in the settings, try setting your Facebook user interface to "English" as that will probably fix the problem
17. If the welcome screen keeps popping up and wont go away, it means your browser or another program is not stopping FBP from saving its settings, if you are using chrome, safari or opera, you need to enable cookies so FBP can save its settings. If it pops up even though you have used FBP before, it probably means your browser settings have been wiped somehow.
18. If you are getting the following error message "Error: JSON.parse" it means your settings have become corrupted somehow. In order to fix it, if you are using the GM version of FBP, is to uninstall the script and also make sure you choose the delete settings option, then reinstall it. If you are using the Firefox extension version you will need to delete the FBP settings from Firefox's "about:config" page. If you are using Chrome, Safari or Opera, in order to reset your FBP settings, find the localstorage variable named fbpoptsjson (under the domain www.facebook.com) in the browsers settings and reset it (make it blank) or delete it completely.
19. If you are getting the following error message "F.B Purity: regex error building custom text filter", it means you may have mistakenly pasted in CSS code into the Custom Text Filter box instead of the Custom CSS box. If possible you need to remove the CSS code from the Custom Text Filter box and put it into the Custom CSS box. If you cannot access the FBP options screen, you will need to reset your FBP settings. In order to do this, if you are using the GM version of FBP, is to uninstall the script and also make sure you choose the delete settings option, then reinstall it. If you are using the Firefox extension version you will need to delete the FBP settings from Firefox's "about:config" page (once at the "about:config" page, type "fbpoptsjson" without the quotes into the "filter" box at the top of the screen, and it should display the relevant line, then right click and select "reset". be careful to only edit the relevant line). If you are using Chrome, Safari or Opera, in order to reset your FBP settings, find the localstorage variable named fbpoptsjson (under the domain www.facebook.com) in the browsers settings and reset it (make it blank) or delete it completely.
20. Font size and CSS effects set within FBP will not work on Facebook application pages (on the apps.facebook.com domain) if you are using Chrome, Opera or Safari, due to Localstorage restrictions. This should work ok in Firefox though as FBP for firefox doesnt use Localstorage to store its settings.
21. If parts of the page that you could normally see, but seem to have disappeared when you are using FBP, though you have not selected to hide them, and you are also using FBP's font and background colour changing function, try turning off the colour changing function, as that should fix the problem.
22. If none of the above work, you can file a bug report with as much info about the bug as possible
    
    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. -- You can Submit bug reports via the Contact Form.

F.B. Purity Contact Form

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

The FB Purity version number is displayed in the title at the top of the FBP's options screen. Also, 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.

How can i check if theres an update available for F.B. Purity

You can click the "check for latest version" link at the top of the FBP options screen, or you can check the FB Purity news page, or the FBP fan page

How can I temporarily disable FB Purity?

Firefox: If you have the Firefox addon installed you can disable it via the "Tools/Addons" menu. If you want to temporarily switch off the FBP GM Script you can disable Greasemonkey altogether 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. You can also disable specific scripts, if you "right click" on the monkey icon, a list of the scripts operating on the current page will be displayed, with tick boxes next to them, you can disable individual scripts by unticking them.
Google Chrome: You can temorarily disable FBP via the Extensions menu.
Apple Safari: You can disable it via the Extensions tab in the Preferences menu.
Opera: You can disable it via the Extensions menu.

How can I remove / uninstall F.B Purity?

Firefox: If you can want to uninstall the FBP GM script, you can do so via the "Tools/Greasemonkey/Manage User Scripts" menu. If you have installed the Addon version, you can remove it via the Firefox Tools/Addons/Extensions menu.
Google Chrome: You can uninstall FBP via the Extensions menu, to get there first click the Spanner/Wrench Icon, then select "Tools/Extensions".
Apple Safari: You can uninstall FBP via the Extensions tab in the Preferences menu.
Opera: You can uninstall the FBP extension via the Extensions menu. If you have the script installed its simply a case of removing the FBP script from your scripts directory.

Who is the developer of F.B. Purity

Its me, Steve! :) You can contact me via the F.B. Purity Contact Form Please note i may not have time to answer all emails, but will definitely read them.

How can I show my appreciation for the work you have put into FBP and support future development?

If you like FBP, 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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