How To Block Spammers From Your Facebook Page

Here are a few tips on blocking spammers from your Facebook Page.

Make a note of the web address of the SPAM site

Hover over the spam, click on the arrow to the right of it, Mark As Spam.
Then, click on the arrow again and choose Delete. Choose Delete and Ban User.

Up at the top, click on Edit Page, Manage Permissions.
Go down to Moderate Permissions
Type in the core of the address you took note of earlier (example: address.com), and, Save Changes.
Now, anyone (from any Facebook account) trying to spam you with that site will not be able to.

The above info is from this brief video by Mike Mueller.

Facebook hoax - To all my FB friends…I want to stay PRIVATELY connected…mouse over my name

 http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/hoax-alert-to-all-my-fb-friends-i-want-to-stay-privately-connected-mouse-over-my-name.html

 

This is a Facebook hoax that has been going around for quite some time, in various forms. 

 

In case you didn't already know...

Excerpt:
If you follow the instructions in the message, you won’t be protecting your privacy or that of your friend. The only thing you’ll be doing is unsubscribing from any of their Facebook comments and likes. This kind of defeats the purpose of being friends with them in the first place.
...
The best thing you and your friends can do to protect your privacy is to set all of your privacy and sharing settings to ‘friends only.’ As we have mentioned in another blog post, sharing with friends of friends can potentially expose your post to almost 150,000 people! Also keep in mind that if you comment or like items that are public or set to ‘friends of friends,’ then your likes and comments are exposed to everyone who can view the shared item.

 

Click the link at the top for more details.

Facebook - Remove Location From Status Updates

Facebook will automatically add your location to your status updates. If you don't want this to happen, here is the solution:

To fix this, when you update your status you will need to, before you post it, remove the location. Hover over the location below the status you have just written and click on the X to the right of it to remove it. Post your update. Done.

In the future, it shouldn't automatically add the location again. However, if you had to delete your cookies, or if you are on a different computer, it may try to add the location again.

Note, you can also use this feature to change your location, including to somewhere you are not.

See also:
http://www.doncaprio.com/2012/01/how-to-remove-or-show-location-under-facebook-status-updates.html

Facebook Privacy Hoax

See:
[Hoax Alert] To all my Facebook friends ... I want to stay PRIVATELY connected ... mouse over my name.
 Key info from the article:

"If you follow the instructions in the message, you won’t be protecting your privacy or that of your friend. The only thing you’ll be doing is unsubscribing from any of their Facebook comments and likes. This kind of defeats the purpose of being friends with them in the first place.  When the original hoax first hit, our friends at Sophos posted a detailed article as to why it doesn’t work.

They also shared this important piece of advice:
“It is not just your settings that control what goes in your Facebook newsfeed and appears on your friends’ tickers. Anyone’s posts which have privacy set to more than “Friends” will go to all the friends of all the commenters. This is a fact! We’ve tested it!”

The best thing you and your friends can do to protect your privacy is to set all of your privacy and sharing settings to ‘friends only.’ As we have mentioned in another blog post, sharing with friends of friends can potentially expose your post to almost 150,000 people! Also keep in mind that if you comment or like items that are public or set to ‘friends of friends,’ then your likes and comments are exposed to everyone who can view the shared item."

........

If you want to share something with Friends of Friends or with the Public, you can do so (but just remember, that item will then be shared with Friends of Friend, or with the Public, depending on which you choose). You can choose who to share each individual post with by clicking on Custom - choosing who can see it and then you can also choose who can't see it. You can also do this after the fact from your own wall/Timeline. 

How to post links to your blog on blogspot dot ca on Facebook

As of May 27, 2012, Facebook blocked all links and text referring to blogspot dot ca (written out here as dot ca instead of ".ca" so it won't be blocked when posted to FB).
I am assuming they blocked this due to a number of complaints about SPAM sites using Blogger in Canada.
However, this blanket blocking of Blogger sites from Canada is unfair to the thousands of legitimate bloggers in Canada who use Blogger. 

SOLUTION
For now, here is a workaround:
To post a link, first, copy the link to notepad, then replace .ca with .com in the URL. Now, copy and paste this edited version of the URL to Facebook. The link will direct to the correct location. 

Please write to Facebook and ask them to stop blocking all of Blogger in Canada. If they have complaints of specific blogs in Canada, they should block those specific URLs, not the core URL.


UPDATE
As of a couple of days ago, Facebook unblocked blogspot.ca
  

Facebook Tips Update - Notifications Overload and Social Fixer

Notifications.
After the recent changes on Facebook, if you moved any friends into the close friends list, you may have noticed that you get tons of notices now about everything they do. If you don't want this - if you just want to be notified about the usual stuff you used to be notified about - here is the fix:
Go to your Facebook homepage, look on the left for Lists, find Close Friends and click on it. 
In Close Friends, click on the Notifications button and choose Off.

If you do have one or two friends who you want to be notified about everything, go to their page, hover over their name on a post and Subscribe. When you Subscribe for the first time, you subscribe to everything. You can modify this by going to the Subscribe button and clicking it and then checking/unchecking your desired settings.

Social Fixer/Better Facebook
I wrote, a while ago, about Better Facebook and how it was a great script to use. Then Facebook kept changing things and the script didn't work so well any more (or at all).

Now the script has become an add-on and it has been much improved. 
So, remove the script (or disable it) and go here to install the add-on for your browser. 
Once installed, you may need to restart your browser.
Then, go to Facebook and click through the wizard that pops up. When you get to the sign-in page, cancel the wizard. Once you log in, the wizard will pop up again - go through it this time.

Settings
I found that some settings I made in the wizard did not stick. I had to open up the Social Fixer options (icon beside your name on the Facebook toolbar) and re-do them.
 

Here are some of the settings I found to be very useful:

- Comments: Popular, check off: Fix "Enter Key" behaviour...   Also, in Posts: check off Fix the missing cursor problem ...

- Chat: Popular: check off Change profile pictures in Chat to names. And, Chat: check off: Show all online friends in chat list, group friends by online status, and Use compact chat list (no thumbnail images).

- Images: Popular: check Show full image previews when hovering your mouse over pictures.

- Applications/Games - if you play games and use applications, you may like to show different game/application stories in different tabs - to do so: Popular, check off Automatically move posts from Applications (games) into their own tabs. Also, if you play games and don't like the new game sidebar that shows up on the right of your screen, you can get rid of it: Layout: hide the game icon sidebar

 

- Filters: Don't play games or use applications and don't want to see stories about these filling up your newsfeed? To hide these stories: Filtering, Type, scroll down and click on Posts by any application, then check off Hide under Action.

 

- Ticker/Friends Activity: to hide this: Layout: Hide the ticker feed of friends activity

Once done with the settings, SAVE, and then reload the Facebook page (don't just click on "Facebook" - use your browser function to reload the whole page.)

Better Facebook

There are a lot of things that annoy Facebook users, especially when FB makes big changes. Some changes are good and take some getting used to. But a lot of changes can make things more annoying. Better Facebook is a script that works in all browsers except IE. It combines controls that many different scripts have individually into one great script. I was using FFixer, Unfuck Facebook, Facebook Comment Fixer, and a couple of Adblock Plus filters to make Facebook work in a better way. I've switched to only using Better Facebook (for now, as of Sept. 2011) as it takes care of all that the above-mentioned did and more.

Go to

http://betterfacebook.net

to install.

If you have Greasemonkey in Firefox, and you know how to use it, you can install it that way instead (make sure to disable other scripts first before installing Better Facebook as there may be conflicts) 

Here are my settings in Better Facebook

• all the recommended default changes plus:
• Added the old Comment button
• Lock the header bar at the top so it scrolls
• Change profile images in Chat to names
• Force the News Feed to be chronological and hide Top Stories
• Layout, Right Column: Hide the live feed (The Ticker) of friends activity (you can do this instead of using the AdBlock Plus filters).
• Chat: Show all online friends in chat list, Group friends by online status, Use compact chat list,
• Theme: Light Sky (yes, there are different themes available that will change the background from white to other things)

Facebook Notifications Overload

Since the recent Facebook updates (Sept. 2011), you may have noticed that you are getting far more notifications than before. This is most likely due to adding some people into the Close Friends group. Depending on how you have arranged your lists, you may need to follow these instructions for more than just the Close Friends list.

To get the notifications back to normal (this applies to notifications from everyone on the list):
* In Facebook, on your Home page
* On the left, click on Close Friends
* In the top right, click on Manage List
* Click on Choose Update Types ...
* You will see: Updates to Show - under this: Status Updates, Photos, Games, Comments and Likes, Other Activity.
* The one that will generate the most notifications is Comments and Likes. Un-check this. I would also recommend un-checking Games if any of your close friends play Facebook games because now, you will be sent a notification any time they do anything in a game
* Depending on how many things show up in your notifications you may want to leave checked or un-check other of the items on this list.

If, for some reason, you like all the notifications you are getting, but just not from certain individuals, you can adjust only the notifications from each person by hovering over a link to their name, hovering over Subscribed, and then choosing which items you want to be notified about or not.

More Facebook Changes - Ticker, News Feed, Lists...

Facebook has just rolled out more changes as of Sept. 21, 2011.

Ticker
This is a mini real-time news feed at the top of the right column. Many people find this very annoying/useless and would like to hide it. Here are some tips on hiding it:
How to Kill the Facebook News Ticker
The AdBlock solution should work until FB changes the code again.

News Feed and Ticker
Here is more information about the changes to the News Feed, and scroll down a bit for more info on the Ticker.

Menu Bar
Links on the menu bar have been changed. Now, to get to your profile, click on your name. To get to the regular home page, click on Facebook, or Home. The arrow beside Home will show other options, like your Account and Privacy settings. 

Friends Lists/Lists
Facebook has also made some changes to Friends Lists, introducing some handy (or not so handy) default lists, allowing you to merge lists, and more. How to edit your lists has changed. 
To see and edit Friend List(s) now, you will need to go to Lists, on he left, and hover over Lists and then click More, to the right of it. You should now your various lists and the new default lists. To manage/edit a list, click on it. Now you will see a feed of those people only, but to the top right, there will be a Manage List button. You can make adjustments to the list here. For more info on this, click here.

If you want to see a list of all your friends, click on your name at the top of the FB page, then click on Friends on the left side. They have added more ways to search, but seem to have removed the Recently Added Friends list. If you know where to find this, please let me know.

Subscribe
Information about this here.

Facebook Contacts List - Do Not Be Alarmed

I see a lot of alarmist notes going around about the Facebook Contacts List as if it is a big invasion of privacy. It's not. It is as private or un-private as you want it to be.

If you want to see a list of your friends phone numbers (of the friends who have posted phone numbers for their friends to see on Facebook), go to edit your Friends List, and click on Contacts. Notice, you will only see your Facebook friends phone numbers (and not the phone numbers of everyone else on Facebook).

If you want only your friends to see your phone number and/or your mobile/cell phone number, you can post these on your Facebook Page (with your info). If you want anyone, including people you don't know, on Facebook to see your information, then you can adjust this in your Facebook Privacy settings. If you don't want anyone to see your phone numbers at all, don't post them in Facebook.

There is no scary privacy issue here. Whether your phone number appears or not, and who can see it, is up to you.

UPDATE

If you have an iPhone (this might work on other smartphones too), and you find that suddenly a lot of non-facebook people's numbers are on your contact list (your whole contact list from your phone), then you would have allowed a Facebook application on your phone to do this. There is not a lot of harm in this happening as this list is private for you only. However, if you have email addresses in your contacts of people who are not on Facebook, these people will receive automatic invitations from you to join Facebook every couple of weeks. You can disable this reminder on Facebook here.

If you don't want all your contacts from your phone to be in your Facebook on-line too, you can remove them by going here and following the instructions.

You can keep your number and your contacts list private in the Facebook Account Privacy settings on your Facebook page.

Some people have their privacy set so nothing is private. Then anyone can see their private info. These people are either unaware, want everyone to see their private info, or they don't care.

For more details on this, go to this link.

How to Stop Spam on Facebook

How to Stop Spam on Facebook - Scameo
Here are instructions on how to deal with and help stop Spam on Facebook.
The first step when you see Spam posted on your wall:
Hover at the top right of this post. An X mark will appear. Click this x mark to remove the post or report as spam.

Read the link for further details.

Facebook navigation bar scrolling

Scrolling Facebook Navigation bar for Greasemonkey
To keep the navigation bar visible at the top of the page, even when you scroll down the page, install this script. Note, you will need the Greasemonkey add-on installed to.
This works in Firefox 5 and earlier and in Google Chrome.

If you have the FFixer script installed, you don't need this - in FFixer, in Menus/Chat, check off: Keep the top menu bar on the screen always, even after scrolling down.

Facebook's new Sidebar Feature

Facebook has a new feature called The Sidebar. Some of you may have already bumped into it, while others haven't seen it yet. As usual, things like this are rolled out, meaning they release it to some people a bit at a time. Also, the Sidebar appearing depends on your screen size/space. If you have a widescreen monitor, you will most likely see the Sidebar sooner/more frequently.

I've checked it out and it seems useful and a good interface so far.

The sidebar is a new way to connect with friends you often connect with on FB. When it is open, it replaces the Friends on Chat list on the left.

from the help page:
The sidebar lets you quickly contact some of the friends you message most. Just clicking on a friend’s name opens a chat window. If your friend isn’t available to chat, you can still send messages for them to read later.

How you know a friend is available to chat:

Friends with a green dot next to their names are available to chat
Friends with a gray moon next to their names are available but inactive
Friends with no icon next to their names are unavailable

The sidebar is sensitive to the amount of free space you have on your screen, so it only appears if there’s enough room for it. If you don’t see the sidebar, just click Chat in the bottom right corner of your screen, which shows the same list of friends you’ll find in your sidebar.
...
The list of friends in your sidebar is based on who you’ve interacted with most frequently or recently on Facebook. Since it updates dynamically, you can’t manually add friends to the list.

The list shows both friends who are available to chat and friends who aren’t. Clicking on a friend’s name opens a chat window. If your friend isn’t available to chat, you can still send messages for them to read later.
...
To collapse the sidebar, select Hide Sidebar from the actions menu in the bottom right corner of the sidebar.

To expand the sidebar again, click Chat in the bottom right corner of your screen.

For more details:
Facebook Using the Sidebar
https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=194010440647624

Facebook Privacy for chat:
https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=130254323719420

Facebook vs Google+

By now, you have probably heard of Google+, a new social networking system to rival (or not) Facebook.

There are a lot of similarities, and some differences are not much different.

Below is an excerpt from WXP News Social Networking Showdown: Facebook vs. Google+

I've been testing Google+ for the past week, and it has some advantages - and some disadvantages - when compared to Facebook. And there's a lot that was obviously lifted directly from its rival, including the "It's complicated" choice for relationship status (G+ also gives you a choice that FB doesn't: "I don't want to say"). The much-hyped Circles feature is undisputedly useful, but it requires a bit more work on the part of the user. Now whenever you want to add a friend, you have to decide which circle(s) he/she belongs in. You start with some default circles (Friends, Acquaintances, Family, Following) and you can then create your own custom circles (for example, I made circles for Tech industry professionals, fellow Dog Owners, Law Enforcement friends, Writers, and so forth).

If this sounds a bit like the Facebook feature that allows you to create Friend Lists, it is - with a big difference: in Facebook, that's an option and it's not a very obvious one; many FB users don't even know it exists.. In Google+, it's mandatory; every person you add has to go into one or more circles. Then when you create a post, you have to pick which circles will be allowed to see it. It does annoy me that a number of reviews of G+ erroneously say this can't be done in FB.

Otherwise, posting and commenting is pretty much the same as on Facebook. That is, you can share a photo, video or link along with your post. On G+, you can also share your location with the click of an icon beside the status update field. This works similarly to the Check In feature on FB, but is quicker and easier to use. To me, the bigger improvement that Google brings to the table is the increased level of control that you have over your own posts. In FB, if you decide you want to change a few words (or notice a typo and want to correct it), you have to delete the post and rewrite it. In G+, there's a drop-down arrow button by each of your posts that gives you the choice to delete it, edit it, link to it, or you can disable comments on it if you want to put something out there but don't want people posting their responses on it, or you can block resharing if you don't want others to "steal" your brilliant words and repost them with a single click (of course, they can always copy and paste it into their update box, but that's a little more trouble). I like this flexibility a lot; it can save perfectionists like me a great deal of time.

Another "big deal" in G+ is its video chat feature, but Zuckerberg fired back quickly on that one, partnering with Skype to provide video chat within Facebook, a week after the debut of G+.
http://www.wxpnews.com/110712-Facebook-Skype

The biggest difference between the two, at least at the moment, is that the FB/Skype combo allows you to conduct video calls with only one person at a time. G+ gives you more of a videoconferencing experience, with the ability to chat with a group of up to ten people.
http://www.wxpnews.com/110712-Google-Plus-Hangouts
...
As I wrote in a discussion (on Facebook!) about this, it seems most people today want things to be extremely simple, even at the cost of flexibility or quality (hence the popularity of locked-down Apple products). Even a small "hassle factor" deters them from adopting something new - but they will stick with something familiar despite its level of hassle because switching isn't simple. When I put out a message on Facebook telling my friends to email me if they wanted to be invited to G+, almost everyone who responded was a techie. The rest didn't seem to be very interested. They have something that works for them and although they might get frustrated with its quirks at times, they don't want to bother with starting over with something else.

Finally, I think the biggest obstacle G+ has to overcome has to do with trust. I hear from newsletter readers all the time who say they don't trust Google with their information. Now, I'm not sure why they think Facebook is inherently more trustworthy; my philosophy is "If you would be mortified to see it on the front page of your local newspaper, don't post it on any social network." But the problem with Google isn't just about security or privacy. Because they have come out with so many new services and products and then killed them, many people don't trust that G+ will still be around a year or five years from now, so they don't want to commit to it. Google has its fingers in a lot of pies, whereas Facebook does this one thing and does it, if perhaps not extremely well, well enough. People may not trust FB about privacy, but they do trust that it's going to stay around.

One issue that is left out of the article is the user base. For social networking systems to work, your friends and potential friends have to be using it too. If they are not, it's useless. Currently, Google+ has about 70 million users worldwide. Facebook has about 750 million users.

Facebook facial recognition - Handy time-saver, or invasion of privacy?

Say hello (or goodbye) to Facebook Photo facial recognition | Sync™ Blog
Facebook is going to make it so when you upload your album of photos, you can choose to have FB automatically scan and tag your album photos with the names of your friends who are in them (so you don't have to do this one by one manually).

Some say having FB automatically tag you in friends' albums is an invasion of privacy. But, how can you say that when your friends will often tag you in these photos anyway? And, if you are tagged in a photo by a friend, you are notified on FB. If you don't like being tagged in certain photos, you can always remove the tags.

Whenever I upload photos, I usually tag friends.

Unfounded concern?
In all the information about this new feature, it only speaks of your friends and automatically tagging your friends in your photos. It does not mention that it will automatically tag strangers with their names (if they are on Facebook). Yes, this would be a concern, but it seems that it will only be suggesting tags for people you are FB friends with.

More info on the Facebook Blog.

How to opt out of the new feature
If you don't want this new feature to automatically tag you in your friends' photos, you can opt out by going to:
Account, Privacy Settings, Customize Settings, and finally to Things others share.
There will be a new section that you can adjust (when this new feature goes through):
Disable > Suggest photos of me to friends.
You can still use the new feature to tag your photos, but others won't be able to use it to automatically tag you (they will have to manually tag you in their photos).

New Facebook Messages feature rolling out and causing confusion

Facebook is currently rolling out a new message feature that combines chat, messages, txt messages, and email. They are also offering a Facebook email address as part of all this.
I haven't got this feature yet, so I can't comment on it from personal experience.

Here are some links that may help:

Facebook blog: See the Messages That Matter
This is Facebook's explanation of how the new feature is supposed to work.

Facebook's help page about this topic

Both these above links from Facebook will point you toward the Tour. But it tells you practically nothing.

Reviews and news about the new feature:
Facebook's new messaging feature raises privacy questions

Facebook's new features, but borking up the site in the process

Enable HTTPS for Facebook

How to Enable and Set Facebook Secure HTTPS Login | Web Talk
This post (above) takes you through the steps to always log into Facebook with a more secure connection.
Basically, go to Accounts, account security, change, and check off the Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible checkbox.

Restore Default Enter Key Behaviour in Facebook Comments

Restore Default Enter Key Behavior In Facebook Comments | Better Facebook
Want to be able to use Enter instead of Shift+Enter to add a new line in your comment in Facebook. Currently, with the new behaviour in FB, Pressing Enter while typing a comment posts the comment.
The the add-ons available at this site (above), you can restore the Comment button and the normal behaviour of the Enter key.

Greater security via https coming - in a while - for Facebook

The Facebook Setting You Should Change as Quickly as Possible
Excerpts:
Facebook has at long last offered an option to use the encrypted "HTTPS" protocol,
a feature it will begin rolling out today but won't finish for a "few
weeks." You should check now if it's available, and sign up as soon as
it is enabled for your account. The performance overhead is minor—zippy
Gmail, for example, uses HTTPS for everything—and it's an important step
to keep your Facebook account safe from being hijacked on an open or
poorly secured wireless network.
...
You can sign up for Facebook HTTPS by going to Account Settings and then selecting "Account Security," third from the bottom. Then click under "Secure Browsing" — if it's there. Facebook says everyone should have this by the end of the day, but in the meantime you might be missing the relevant option toggle.

Facebook - New profile information

(2n) Help Center (2)
The link is to the Facebook FAQ on the new profile.

Some highlights:

If you choose to apply the new profile, you cannot revert back.

None of the privacy settings are changed. But, there are some new things to be aware of regarding privacy (tagged photos at the top of your profile, and any special friend lists you add to Relationships that will appear on the left of your profile to anyone who can see your "Friends List" - both of these items are listed below in the highlights).

Tabs that went across the top are now items on the left side.

New: Additional fields of interest, graphic display for top interests, more ways to list how you spend your time

To post on your wall, see near the top: Share: Post, Photo, Link, Video to choose which type of thing to share.

To edit your profile, click the Edit Profile button in the top right corner.

To remove any pictures that appear at the top from appearing at the top, roll over the photo and click the X in the top right corner. This does not delete the photo, it just removes it from appearing at the top of your profile.

If you want specific friends lists (that everyone can see just like your regular Friends list) to appear on the left of your profile, choose Edit profile, Relationships, and next to Featured Friends, choose to add either an existing friends list or create a new one.

MORE INFO
TechCrunch: Full details on Facebook's overhauled profile pages

Inside Facebook: Facebook profile redesign will coax more data from users: an in-depth review

Craving Tech: Facebook introduces your new Profile page. Like/Dislike?
http://www.cravingtech.com/facebook-introduces-your-new-profile-page-likedislike.html