Facebook Purity Frequently Asked Questions

What is Facebook Purity?

Facebook 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".

Where can i get Facebook Purity?

You can get the script here: http://bit.ly/fbpurity

How much does Facebook Purity cost?

At present Facebook Purity is free, but is supported by donations. If the script helps you out and you appreciate and respect the hard work put into the script and would like to thank the developer, you can do so by donating some money to me via the secure PayPal Donate button above.

Where can i find out the latest news about Facebook Purity, including latest releases etc ?

You can find out the latest news by becoming a fan of this page. I will keep you updated with news of the latest releases, bug fixes, tips and tricks etc. You can also subscribe to my blog, Excellatronic Communications and follow me on Twitter: http://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 lists of customised 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 Facebook Purity?

Facebook Purity is compatible with Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and also Safari

Is Facebook Purity available for Internet Explorer?

No, see above.

What operating systems are compatible with Facebook Purity?

The operating system doesnt really matter, whatever operating systems run the following web browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari will work fine with Facebook Purity

How can I edit the list of applications that Facebook Purity blocks?

Theres a guide to editing the Facebook Purity application whitelist here : http://bit.ly/fbpwhitelist

How can i edit the list of "Extra" stories that Facebook Purity blocks?

Instructions on changing which "Extra" stories get hidden are here : http://bit.ly/fbpextras

How can i turn off the Facebook Suggestions box?

Theres a guide to turning off the Facebook suggestions box here : http://bit.ly/fbpsuggboxoff

How can I help spread the word about Facebook Purity?

You can suggest this page to your facebook friends who you think might be interested.
There are some other suggestions of what you can do to help me out here.
Or you can let all your friends know about it, by posting this page to your stream via the Share button:

Another way to spread the word is to mention facebook purity in your status updates. If you mention facebook purity, by typing "@face-book-purity" in one of your status updates, it automatically turns that mention into a link to this page :)

Where can I make suggestions about the script?

You can make general suggestions for the script here: http://steeev.freehostia.com/contact/. Please note i may not have time to answer all emails, but will definitely read them. You can make suggestions for additions to the default application whitelist that is built into the script here: http://bit.ly/fbpwhitelist

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

1) 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 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) and see if that fixes the problem

3) Check that you have the latest version of the script installed. Visit http://bit.ly/fbpure and check the date of the latest release. If it is more recent than the version h you have installed, update it.

4) 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 FB Purity script will need to be updated to work with the new code. Check my blog, or the FBP fan page for news of a a new version of the script,

5) Try re-installing the script, perhaps the script has become corrupted or you've edited it and introduced an error.

6) If none of the above work, you can file a bug report with as much info as possible via my contact form

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. 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 and copy and paste any errors you see into the report too.

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.

How can I uninstall Greasemonkey scripts?

In Firefox you can uninstall Greasemonkey scripts via the Tools/Greasemonkey/Manage User Scripts menu. In 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://steeev.freehostia.com/contact/ Please note i may not have time to answer all emails, but will definitely read them.

BTW Ive also written some scripts for the Flickr.com photo sharing website, you can check them out here: http://steeev.freehostia.com/flickr