Issues with Facebook’s New “Feeds” button, and FBP’s News sort: most recent feature

Posted on April 19, 2023 by admin

Facebook have rolled out a major new change for the Newsfeed, they’ve  added a “Feeds” button in the left column which lets you access separate “Feeds” for Favorites, Friends, Groups and Pages.

If you have the change and are using FBP‘s “News Sort: Most Recent” option, which permanently and automatically keeps your newsfeed page set to “Most Recent“, you will have noticed that when viewing the feed sorted by most recent, Facebook has decided to remove the left hand column and the right hand column (which removes the chat functionality etc) and also the status composer box at the top (though you can still make a post by clicking the 3 by 3 grid button either in the far left column (or in the top navigation bar, then clicking the “Create / Post” button).

Facebook have also removed the “Most Recent” button, that lets you manually select to view the “Most Recent” version of the newsfeed. However, they have actually replaced that button with the “Feeds” button, which when clicked will show your Newsfeed sorted by “Most Recent”. They have also resurrected the “Pages Feed” and “Friends Feed”, and bundled them with the Groups Feed and Favorites Feed, in the “Feeds” Menu. Each of these individual feeds are also sorted by “Most Recent” by default.

If you turn off FBP’s “News Sort: Most Recent” option, your right and left hand column will come back, but your feed will no longer be automatically sorted by “Most Recent”.
I’m looking into the implications of this new code change and how it affects FBP users.
What do you think of this new Facebook change, if you have it?
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For those who don’t already know, F.B. Purity is a safe, free & top rated browser extension that lets you clean up and customize Facebook, letting you hide the parts of the site such as Sponsored Posts, Reels, Rooms, Stories etc & newsfeed posts you don’t want to see. FBP is available for Chrome, FIrefox, Opera, Edge, Safari (and any other Chrome clone browsers such as Brave, Vivaldi, etc)
You can get F.B. Purity via FBPURITY.COM
Posted in Facebook, FB Purity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 29 Comments

Calling all Google Chrome Users – Please join the campaign against Google and Facebook!

Posted on October 24, 2022 by admin

Calling all Google Chrome users!!! Please support FBP in our fight against Google and Facebook.

Dear google, if you remove F.B. Purity from the Chrome webstore, I will remove Google chrome from my comptuer

Dear google, if you remove F.B. Purity from the Chrome webstore, I will remove Google chrome from my comptuer

 
Facebook are trying out their usual corporate bullying tactics, and are pressurising Google to remove the F.B. (Fluff Busting) Purity browser extension from the Google Chrome webstore.
 
Facebook (via a company called AppDetex) have submitted a badly worded trademark dispute to Google, claiming the F.B. (Fluff Busting) Purity is violating their trademarks, and google have given me just a few days to correct the issues that Facebook have with the extension.
 
Their complaint is not clear to read, or understand, and is not detailed enough to know exactly what their problems are with it, they are also very unresponsive to any requests for clarification. I have done my best to comply with their demands, and have submitted the changes i have made to them for approval. I am however not holding much hope of them getting back to me, or giving any further clarification, as I have dealt with them in the past, and their modus operandi seems to be ignore all emails and just let the clock run down, and then tell google i didnt comply with their requiests, so google will automatically remove my extension from the web store.
 
I have implored google to give me more time to sort it out, as last time this happened, they just removed my extension from the webstore, without any way of appealing, or fixing any problems facebook had with the extension.
 

If google do go ahead and remove my extension from the webstore, I would appreciate it if all Google Chrome users stand with me, and do a mass uninstall of google chrome. I know i certainly will be removing Google Chrome from my computer if they go through with this.

As well as changing browser, even non chrome users can help out with this idea: change your usual search engine from google.com to another like duckduckgo.com for example, which does not track all your searches like google does. In firefox you can change the default search engine your browser users by copying and pasting the following text into your browser’s Address/URL bar at the top of the screen
about:preferences#search

then select “duckduckgo” from the dropdown menu options.

In chrome based browsers, you can do it by going to your browsers settings menu, then selecting “Search Engine” then selecting “duckduckgo” from the drop down menu option.

 
There are many other browser options out there these days, and they dont track everything you all day and night, like Google does, for example Brave, Firefox, and Opera,, and are mostly compatible with Google Chrome, and have the same browser extensions available, and also let you import all your chrome bookmarks and passwords, and other settings, so you wont be starting off from scratch. Its also possible to move your FBP settings from one browser to another, which you can do via the Export Settings, and Import Settings links at the bottom of the FBP options screen.
 
Browser migration really is straight forwards these days, and takes very little time. You can try a trial run of your new browser before booting chrome off your computer.
 
There are currently over 204,000 users of the F.B. Purity Chrome extension, imagine if every FBP supporter uninstalled Chrome in favour of an alternative web browser, and switch the search engine you use to another like duckduckgo.com for example that will really send Google a clear message, that they should not “f” about with us!
 
If You are with me, please pledge your agreement to boot Google Chrome off your computer if google kick FBP out of the Webstore!
 
What do you say guys, are you with me?
 
Cheers,
 
Steve FBP
Posted in Facebook, FB Purity | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

FBP v35.2.2 is out now! (it fixes some mistakes in a release i published prematurely)

Posted on October 24, 2022 by admin

I released an FBP update v35.2.1 that attempted to fix hiding sponsored posts for those people who that function isnt currently working. I initially released it as a test version via the fbp dev/test page at fb.com/puritytest and initial user reports seemed positive, though there weren’t many testers available, but as it seemed to be working ok, i decided to go ahead with a full release. This turned out to be a big mistake, as it turned out to have some serious bugs in it (causing the newsfeed to go blank, and repeatedly processing the same posts). When i realised my mistake I quickly rolled back the code to the previous version, and published v35.2.2 with the bad code removed. Although the browser companies had quickly approved the previous update v35.2.1 unfortunately they have been a lot slower to approve the rolled back version, probably due to it being the weekend now.

v35.2.2 is now available for all versions of FBP (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge and GM Script) and your extension or script should autoupdate at some point, or you can also manually update it, via your script manager dashboard or your browser’s extensions management page, if you know how.

Please note that v35.2.2 won’t fix hiding the sponsored posts (and newsfeed filtering in general), if you are one of the people who it wasnt working for previously, which according to the poll in the previous post seems to be approximately a third of the total number of fbp users. I will need to work on it some more to get it fixed for those people. Also please note, I am getting a lot of people reporting the “Zap the ads” function is not working, this is correct, its no longer working because it was designed to work with the older version of Facebooks sponsored post code, the “Zap the ads” function is now obsolete, and should not be used.

In other news, Facebook are pressuring Google to remove FBP from the Chrome webstore. They are claiming trademark violations, so I will need to investigate that and see if i can stop them, google have given me 5 days to sort it out, which is not very long, and they do not give any way to appeal once the 5 days is up, and the other party is not satisfied. Also the email i received with the complaint is not very clear as to exactly what their problem is. So will have to investigate further.

Anyway hope that clears up some of the confusion with the latest version of FBP.

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If you have any problems with or questions about FBP, please use the available help resources on FBPURITY.COM including the FBP User Guide page, and FBP FAQ page which includes a comprehensive Troubleshooting Guide that you should follow if you have any problems.

If you wish to support F.B. Purity, please Donate via donate.fbpurity.com to ensure the continuation of this project: Many heartfelt thanks to those people who have generously donated! 🙂

Please tell all your friends about F.B. Purity too, as I’m sure they will appreciate it. One way you can help spread the word about FBP, is to go to fb.com/fluffbustingpurity and click the red “Invite Friends” link that appears near the top of the Page, then invite all your friends

Facebook driving you crazy? Don’t get mad, Get F.B. Purity!

Posted in Facebook, FB Purity | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Facebook made a new change that broke newsfeed filtering completely! FB Purity v35.0.1 should fix that

Posted on September 27, 2022 by admin

Facebook made a new change that broke newsfeed filtering completely!

I managed to get it working again in FB Purity v35.0.1. This release is available for all browsers, (apart from Chrome (And chrome clones) right now, as I’m still waiting for Google to approve the Chrome extension update)

The clicking links in the newsfeed issue is still not fixed however, the workaround should still work (right click, open in new tab or middle click/ mousewheel click on the link)

There is also a new weird facebook bug, where after 40 posts are loaded in the feed, as well as bumping off posts off the top of the feed whenever more posts are loaded, theres also now extra weirdness where even facebook links stop working properly, and weird text appears in the left column.

Cheers,

Steve

Posted in FB Purity | 12 Comments

F.B. Purity v34.9.0 is out now! It should fix hiding “Sponsored Posts”

Posted on September 25, 2022 by admin

F.B. Purity v34.9.0 is out now! It should fix hiding “Sponsored Posts” in the Newsfeed. Its currently available for Chrome, Firefox and GM Script.The Edge and Opera versions will become available when those companies approve the update.

This release doesn’t yet fix the link click issue mentioned in the previous post, as I’ve not figured out exactly whats causing it yet, and am still working on it. Will release a new update when I figure it out.

A workaround for the links not opening issue is to right click the link and select “open in new tab” or if you have a 3 button mouse or a mouse with a clickable wheel, click the middle button/mouse wheel on the link should open it.

Cheers,

Steve

Posted in FB Purity | 14 Comments

FB Purity Update v34.6.7 – Fixes hiding Sponsored Posts

Posted on August 16, 2022 by admin
As you are probably aware by now, Facebook have changed their Sponsored Post code again, which means most people will be seeing Sponsored posts again in their Newsfeed.
 
I’ve released an updated version of F.B. Purity (v34.6.7) which should fix this for most people:. This release is now available for Chrome, Firefox, Opera and GM Script. Your version of FBP should autoupdate at some point to the new version, if it doesn’t or if you want to get the update right away, use your browser’s extensions/addons management page to check for updates.
 
The edge extension version will go live when Microsoft approve the update. They are the slowest at approving updates, so it may take a few days. Its worth noting however that Edge can run Chrome extensions, so you could install the chrome extension instead of the edge version, if you cant be bothered to wait. (Make sure you uninstall or disable the edge version first though, if you alreaedy have FBP installed) You could also export your FBP settings using the “Export Settings” link at the bottom of the FBP options screen, in order to transfer your settings from the edge version to the chrome version.
 
Please note that this release does not fix the “blank screen bug” mentioned in a recent post on the fbp fan page , as I have not yet had time to figure out a fix for that.
 
Please also note that I’m aware the version number showing on the FBP website does not match this release version number, i will update that later on when it becomes available for all browsers)
 
Please try out FBP v34.6.7 FBP and let me know if it fixes hiding the Sponsored Posts for you,
 
If you are not using the Edge version of the FBP extension, while you are waiting for FBP to become available for your browser, you can try using FBP’s “Zap the Ads” function, which was explained in a recent post from this Page on July 6th. By reports I am receiving, that function is working for some people at getting rid of the ads.
 
Cheers,
 
Steve
 
PS Sorry for the delay with this release, but i had a short but very much needed holiday.
Posted in Facebook, FB Purity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

FB Purity V34.6 fixes hiding Sponsored Posts and Filtering the Newsfeed – (not yet available for edge, waiting for Microsft to approve it. But available for all other browsers.)

Posted on July 24, 2022 by admin

Facebook changed their code again, which broke FB Purity’s Sponsored Post blocking and Newsfeed filtering functionality. I’ve managed to come up with a fixed version of FBP v34.6

It’s currently only available for Chrome, Firefox Opera and GM Script (via install.fbpurity.com )  the Edge browser version will follow when it is approved by Microsoft.

If you have Chrome, Firefox Opera or the GM Script version of FBP with Tampermonkey, FBP may have already autoupdated. If not you can force an update via the browser’s extensions management page, or the tampermonkey dashboard.

I am aware the latest version number listed on the install page says 34.5 i will update that when all browser versions of v34.6  are approved and available for installation/update.

I will update the news when other browser versions become availlable.

Posted in Facebook, FB Purity | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

F.B. Purity v34.5 fixes the automatic hiding of Facebook Sponsored Posts!

Posted on July 20, 2022 by admin

Hide Sponsored Posts with F.B. Purity

Clean up and Customize Facebook with F.B. Purity. By Default F.B. Purity hides all Sponsored Posts in the Facebook Newsfeed

Changes in F.B. Purity v34.5.0

  • Fixed the automatic hiding of Sponsored Posts  
  • Fixed the Hide “Shortcuts Section” Left Column Link option

This release fixes the automatic hiding of Sponsored Posts in the Newsfeed if you have the hide “Sponsored Box / Posts” option turned on, which it is by default when you first install FBP. 

As the Hide Sponsored Posts option is fixed, you shouldn’t have to use the “Zap the ads” function any more, but I have kept the Zap functionality, in case Facebook change something,  as it should still work in theory as a backup method for hiding the ads if they come back again.

This release also fixes the Hide “Shortcuts Section” left column link option, so if you suddenly notice your shortcuts section has gone missing, it just means you must have ticked the hide option for it at some point in the past. To get the shortcuts back, just un-tick the option (located in the “Left Column Links” section of the FBP options screen)

P.S I am aware the version number listed on the FBP website has not been updated, I am waiting for all versions to be available before I do that.

If you are using the Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Opera extension versions of FBP, your extension will autoupdate at some point, if it hasn’t you should be able to update it via your browser’s extensions management page.

If you are using the GM Script version of FBP and it hasn’t yet autoupdated you can update it by clicking the install fbp script link at install.fbpurity.com then follow the instructions to update the script.

Get FB Purity here: https://fbpurity.com

If you have any problems with or questions about FBP, please use the available help resources on this website, including the FBP User Guide, and FBP FAQ page which includes a comprehensive Troubleshooting Guide that you should follow if you have any problems.

If you wish to support FB Purity, please Donate to ensure the continuation of this project. Many heartfelt thanks to those people who have generously donated! :)

Please tell all your friends about F.B. Purity too, as I’m sure they will appreciate it. One way you can help spread the word about FBP, is to go to https://fb.com/fluffbustingpurity and click the red “Invite Friends” link that appears near the top of the Page, then invite all your friends.

Cheers,

Steve FBP

Facebook driving you crazy? Don’t get mad, Get FB Purity!

FB Purity Overview:

For those who don’t already know, FB Purity is a safe, free and top rated web browser extension for Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Opera & Brave. It lets you clean up the junk and customize Facebook the way you want it to be. It has many cool features, such as hiding all the ads including Sponsored Posts, alerting you when friends un-friend you, letting you change the site’s colours, fonts and background image,  it lets you stay on the “Most Recent” feed permanently and lots more. FB Purity has been reviewed and highly recommended in many places including the Washington Post, CNET, PCWorld, MacWorld, GetConnected etc and has over 478,000 users worldwide.

Posted in Facebook, FB Purity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments