F.B. Purity FAQ - Clean Up Your Facebook Homepage
If you're tired of seeing quiz results and other silly facebook application stories, 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 (FB) 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, "Like" the FB (Fluff Busting) Purity Fan Page, and I will keep you updated with news of the latest releases, bug fixes, tips and tricks etc. Though in order to make sure you get the updates, you should subscribe to the FB Purity News Interest List: that should make sure that posts from this page appear in your newsfeed. Another option which makes it even more likely you will receive the news as it happens, as it actually gives you a notification whenever theres an important post about FB Purity. To enable notifications when I post an update, go to the FBP Fan Page and hover over the "Liked" button, then select "Get Notifications". Alternatively You might like 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 update announcements on the offical F.B. Purity Twitter account. If you want instant notification of updates, you can subscribe to F.B. Purity updates via SMS on the F.B. 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: F.B. Purity Extras guide

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.

Does F.B. Purity have or will it in the future have a functionality to disable the Photo Lightbox viewer / Theatre view Popup windows?

No, its easy to disable the Photo Lightbox / Theatre view yourself without any add-on at all, simply "right click" on any photo in the newsfeed, and then select "Open Link in New Window" or "Open link in new tab". Another way to get rid of it is: If you have a three button mouse or a mouse with a scroll wheel, click the photo with the middle button / scroll wheel, that should open the photo without the lightbox in a new tab, though this may depend on your browser's settings.

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 F.B. Purity options screen. (Please note if you dont have your Facebook interface set to English, it wont work, and you will either have to set the interface to English or else put your own Custom Text into the Custom Text Filter to filter these and other "extras" out.)

How can i hide youtube videos from my news feeds?

The latest version of FB Purity, now has a built in filter for hiding Youtube videos. Its under the newsfeed filters / Video section of the FBP options screen.

How can i Hide the "Trending Articles" / "Trending Videos" box, and also the "Read an article type stories?

Just tick the hide "Read an article / Trending Articles" option on the FBP options screen. BTW this filter will also hide the "Most Shared On" and "Recent Articles About" story types too.

Can I hide the "Pages Feed", "Games Feed", "Likes Pages" or the "App Center", or any of the other Links in the left hand column?

Yes you can, the latest version of FBP has built in options for hiding most of these links. Look for the "Hide Links in Left Column" section of the options screen.

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 Stories" "Hide" checkbox on the F.B. Purity options screen.

Why are my Games Feed and Apps and Games-Friend Activity feeds blank after installing F.B. Purity?

Its because by default F.B. Purity filters out all game and application posts. If you want to see those posts, you can turn off the application/game filtering, to do this, untick the "Application Stories" "Hide" checkbox on the F.B. Purity options screen.

Can i hide the "Games Feed" and "Apps and Games" sections in the left column?

Yes you can do that, you can also hide many of the other links in the left hand column. The latest version of FB Purity has a section on the FBP options screen, titled "Hide links in left hand column", there you can turn off most of those links.

Is there a quicker way to submit a comment, than having to click the comment button then press "Enter"

Yes there is, theres a shortcut for submitting a comment, when you are ready to do so, Just press the "Tab" key then "Enter", then "Enter" again, that way you dont even have to reach for the mouse to submit a comment.

Why does F.B. Puritys comment button restore function make commenting a 2 step process?

The reason for this is due to the technical difficulty of getting the restored comment button to submit the comment directly with a single click. If you are a javascript ninja, and know how to make it work as a single click, please do let me know via the contact form.

Is it possible to turn off the "Restore 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 unticking the "Restore Comment Button" option on the FBP options screen.

Can i hide the green TL Button (for selecting the single column timeline layout) that F.B. Purity inserts next to the search box?

Yes, you can, see the Custom CSS page for the solution.

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, Games Feed, Pages Feed etc" under the "Apps and Games" heading in the left hand column of the homepage?

Yes, the latest version of F.B. Purity has built in options for hiding the links in the left hand column.

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?

Yes F.B. Purity does have an option to let you force Facebook to sort your newsfeed by "Most Recent", which is necessary because Facebook seems to keep forgetting the users prefernce.

Can i turn off the notification sounds when people make a new post?

Facebook has a built in option for turning off the notification sounds, you can access it here.

Is it possible to force the left hand navigation bar of the newsfeed to stay in a fixed position?

Yes, the latest version of FBP has an option for making the left hand nav bar stick where it is, so you can scroll the newsfeed but the nav bar will stay where it is.

Why isnt the hide sponsored box option hiding the ads?

Check that you have the latest version of FBP installed, as Facebook often update the code for the ads section, which means F.B. Purity needs to be updated to hide the ads again, also check the FBP fan page for any news as the CSS of the page may have changed. If neither of those works, and the ads say "ads not by facebook" or something similar, 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.

What should i do if i accidentally set the background colour and the font colour to the same color, and can no longer see any text?

Locate where the F.B. Purity link, for opening the options screen, would normally be at the top of the feed, and click it, when your mouse is over the link, it should display the version number of the currently installed version of FBP. It should be located just under the "Facebook Questions" link and above and to the left of the gap where the newsfeed sort option is. On the FBP Options screen, simply untick the two checkboxes next to where the colour options for font and background are, and then click the "Save and close" button. If you cant manage that, try googling the "Zap CSS bookmarklet" and using that to reset all CSS on the page.

Why are "friend x recommends y" posts being hidden, there are no options for hiding/unhiding recommends posts

Basically "recommends" is equivalent to "likes" on Facebook, so the FBP options that relate to "likes" apply to "recommends" too.

Can i hide Facebook Offers and Sponsored Stories from my news feed?

Yes you can, by default F.B. Purity hides all "Offers" stories such as "Claimed an Offer" or "Posted an Offer" and Sponsored stories from your newsfeed, this because they are basically ads, if you dont want them hidden, untick the "hide sponsored box" option.

Can I hide "Upcoming Events" from showing up in my Facebook newsfeed?

Yes the latest version of FB Purity has an option for hiding Upcoming Events, its under the Events heading in the Newsfeed filters section.

How Can I hide "Suggested Events" from showing up in my events list page?

You can hide "Suggested Events" from your events list page, using facebooks built in controls, by clicking the "cog wheel" next to where it says "Today" at the top right of the events list page, then select "Settings" then tick the "hide suggested events" option

Is it possible to block posts from a Facebook Page / Facebook Group / Facebook Event from showing up in my newsfeed?

Yes, you can use the Custom Text Filter to achieve this. Just put the name of the Page / Group or Event into FBP's Custom Text Filter, and FBP will filter out any posts from that entity

Can I hide the new "Like Suggestions" Bar that shows up after I click the like button on a Facebook Page?

Yes the latest version of FB Purity will hide the "Like Suggestions" Bar, if you have the "hide sponsored box" option ticked.

Can I hide the "Page Suggestions" Bar that shows up at the top of the Pages Feed?

Yes, see the Custom CSS page for instructions on how to do that.

Can i hide/ block all Instagram photos / posts from my newsfeed?

Yes, see the Custom CSS page for instructions on how to do that.

Does F.B. Purity work on Groups pages?

No, F.B. 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.

Is FB Purity compatible with Seamonkey?

Yes, but you need to use the Greasemonkey script version of FBP and have the Greasemonkey extension or compatible extension (such as Scriptish) installed.

Can i change the colour of the F.B. 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 F.B. Purity?

You can make general suggestions for the F.B. Purity and also suggestions for additions to the default application whitelist that is built into the script here: F.B. 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

If you are having an issue that is not covered above, please keep reading below for more troubleshooting tips

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

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.

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 F.B. Purity whitelist in order to stop FBP hiding those updates.

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 F.B. 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 F.B. 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 F.B. 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 stories, check that you havent accidentally ticked the "Hide" "Application Stories" 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 F.B. Purity News Page, or the F.B. Purity Fan Page or the F.B. 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" or "Facebook Questions" messages or any other "extras" 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, Safari or Opera 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 F.B. 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 F.B. Purity news page, or the FBP fan page

How can I temporarily disable F.B. 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 Wrench or "3 Hotdogs" 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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