Yet Another Guide to Facebook

Problem: Facebook’s interface is not brilliant – it’s too cluttered. Solution: Perhaps if we all keep complaining… But you can do some decluttering yourself. Read on.

Problem: When you join FB and friend people you were at primary school with, they bombard you with Farmville requests.

Solution: Go to a Farmville request and hover about the right-hand corner – a down arrow will appear. Click on it, and you’ll see an option to “Hide all from Farmville”. Select it.

Problem: I love my friends, but I don’t want to view all these funny videos about cats they keep posting.
Solution: As above, find the down arrow next to the funny cat video and click on it. You’ll be given the options:

Follow Post
Hide Story
Report story or spam

Select "Hide Story".

Now you will see the options:

Change what updates you get from [person's name]
Organize who you see in news feed

Select "Change what updates you get".

Now you will see:

How many updates?
All updates
Most updates
Only important

What types of updates?
Life events
Status updates
Photos
Games
Comments and Likes
Music and Videos
Other activity
Unsubscribe

Select as appropriate. (Though remember FB’s idea of important may be different from yours.)

Problem: You join FB and friend one person who happens to be a Mormon. “And now 20 Mormons want to be my friend!”

Solution: They aren’t requests from Mormons – they are friend suggestions from FB. All it knows about you is that you know a Mormon. Friend a few more people.

Problem: I’m still seeing too many status updates.
Solution: Make a group for your family, and one for your close friends (select Groups from the menu on the left). When you go to your “friend group” you’ll only see updates from close friends.

Problem: I keep getting emails from FB.
Solution:

If you go to your own page (click on your name), you’ll see a down arrow next to “Home’. Click on it. You get these options:

Account Settings
Privacy Settings
Log Out
Help

Click Account Settings, and go to Notifications. Here you can “change which applications and features can send you notifications”. You can even turn off all email notifications.

Updates:
Top left of the screen are three icons for Friend Requests, Messages and Notifications. They reveal their identity if you click on them, but NOT if you hover over them. If you have any requests, messages or notifications a red spot will appear on the appropriate icon with the number of requests, messages or notifications. (And I never noticed that - duh!)

Friend YR writes:  I thought posting a pix or a link was enough for ppl to see it, apparently you also have to share it! Dah! (And if you set up an Event, you have to Invite people to it. Oh.)

That useful box with short-cuts to your friends' activity has reappeared top right. Your browser box needs to be quite wide to see it. Also there's a list of friends below it - the green spot shows if they are online and available for chat.

Latest update: Of course this is a guide to "curating" your Facebook experience.