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By Sherri L. Smith
Laptop
Facebook changes features like Kim Kardashian changes husbands. Just when users get comfortable with the latest iteration of “New Facebook,” Zuckerberg and company go and change something else, drawing the ire of its millions of users. Here are six Facebook annoyances that are currently grinding our gears and ways to deal with each.
Problem #1: News Ticker shoves TMI updates in your face
Sarcastically called the “stalker feed” by some users, the News Ticker has replaced the News Feed. Right above their list of friends available to chat, users are assaulted by an ongoing barrage of inane news including everything their friends liked and what they commented on.
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Solution: Users looking to ditch the News Ticker can install Facebook News Ticker Remover (Google Chrome) or the Facebook Ticker Removal(Firefox) add-on which will automatically remove the offending feature.
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Problem #2: Facebook Timeline shares your worst moments with the world
There used to be a time where you could just delete that embarrassing photo from Facebook, and if you were prone to drunk posting, you could rest easy in the knowledge that soon it would disappear from your timeline never to be seen again. With the new iteration of Timeline, every bad picture and misspelled status update will be on display forever.
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Solution: While you might not be able to erase all those regrettable photos and statuses of yore, you can control who gets to see them. Simply pull down the menu next to the Home button on your Facebook page and click Privacy Settings then Timeline Viewer Settings. From there, scroll down to Limit the Audience for Past Posts column and hit the Manage Past Post Visibility tab. Click OK and your timeline goes from public to friends only.
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Problem #3: Your Facebook subscribers keep spamming you
People looking to make part of their private Facebook pages public can open themselves up to subscribers, people who can sign up to read your updates without being approved “friends.” Users can then follow those pages and hopefully have an invigorating exchange of ideas. However, many people are complaining of inordinate amounts of spam and inappropriate content filling their news feed.
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Solution: Freedom from that unwanted spam is only a few clicks away. To turn off Facebook Subscribe, click on Subscriptions in the left side menu. From there, click Edit under Subscribers and switch On to Off.
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Problem #4: Gallery photos take too long to load
Remember when you could quickly and easily scroll through all your friends’ Facebook photos without being held up by slow loading times? Facebook took all the convenience and fun of scrolling through photos and replaced it with theater-style pop-up photos. Sure the image is bigger, but some images can take longer to load than others, making photo-cruising an unnecessary exercise in patience.
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Solution: Installing Revert Facebook Photo Viewer on Google Chrome or Facebook Photo Theater Killeron Firefox will display your photos in Facebook Classic style. Firefox users must have the Greasemonkey add-on installed first.
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Problem #5: Facebook apps share too much info about you
By default, apps like Spotify, Ticketmaster and Foursquare share every tiny detail of your life with all of your friends. Instead of just learning about a job promotion or a new relationship, all your contacts can now be privy to what tickets you purchased from Ticketmaster or what song you’re listening to on Spotify. It’s great for advertisers, but an overshare nightmare for everyone else.
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Solution:Don’t want everyone to know you just listened to Kenny G. on Spotify? Just go to Privacy Settings, click Edit Settings next to Apps and Websites, and then hit Edit Settings by the Instant Personalizations Header.
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From there, uncheck the “Enable instant personalization on all partner sites” tab.
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Problem #6: Annoying app invites
Facebook has become a haven for casual gamers who sink hours into tending their farms, building a criminal empire or creating villages for their virtual insect colonies. Unfortunately, many of these misguided souls insist on inviting you to join the “fun,” sending you invite after invite to join the next big “Ville,” deluging your Facebook notifications and annoying you to no end.
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Solution: Go to Privacy Settings and select Manage Blocking next to Blocked People and Apps.
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Then enter the offending person’s name in the Block App Invites field and voila! It’ll be game over for all those unwanted game invites.
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Oh for heavens sake! Just leave Facebook, why would anyone want to spend this much time and effort, you can't win, they will always be a step ahead of you, after all it's about personal data theft and it's their program, why keep feeding them?
Hm, thought I already did this.
For heaven’s sake, leave Facebook already.
Why anyone would want to have his or her privacy invaded on a daily basis I don't know. Or have to struggle with understanding constantly evolving deeply embedded privacy settings that are written to their advantage. Don’t you all understand? Each change is yet again an attempt to expose your personal likes and dislikes to their advertisers, don’t play the game, leave it.
Myspace is where it's at
No, Friendster! Or maybe Second Life.
File under "What Ever Happened To....?"
You're never gonna beat Mark 'billionaire nerd' Suckerberg. He'll always be 2 steps ahead of you. The easiest way is to get out of FB and enjoy real friends.
@ JohnC,
What is a real friend? It has been so long I forgot what they are. L M A O
A real friend is a guy who will sell you 5% of his inflated company so he can cash out, while you watch your 401(k) go bye-bye...
A real friend is a person that tells you you post to much on Facebook. A real friend is a person that calls you out for having 7500 Facebook friends. A real friend tries to talk you into giving up Facebook and joining the real world. A real friend stops the conversation when Facebook is brought up more than three times. A real friend cuts off your internet connection because you Tweet more than you speak. A friend is a person that tells you you are glowing and it's an insult because the glow is the light of your smartphone shining in your face.
A real friend is a flesh and bones human being that has a live conversation with you maybe while leafing through a photo album focusing on you and not the next text message, tweet or email.
On the other hand there is my dog.
A real friend is one of your online gaming buddies who invites you over and makes you Mac N Cheese with Lemon Pepper tuna in it :( Ugh...
Problem: Facebook is an annoying waste of time.
Solution: Stop using Facebook.
Gee, that was easier than setting all those "features" and grooming your profile 5 times a day, right?
People see a greater value than detriment. Others are allowed to use their freewill too. MYOB.
If your pictures load too slowly, you either need a better internet connection, or a new computer
OR, talk all of your friends into Google+. Once you try it, you'll never go back.
Stop being lemmings. We survived before Facebook and if everyone pays real close attention the only person getting anything out of Facebook is Gazillionaire Mark. He is using each and every one of his members as a commodity. Society has sunk to a new low so they can get free publicity. Make themselves feel wanted. Have 3000 pretend friends. Lose any hope of actual human interaction.
I hate to be brutally blunt but if you are on Facebook daily you are a loser. It is a great tool for finding old friends, acquaintances, relatives but there are several other ways you can communicate with them once they are found. Email still works well and you can send one to as many people as your ISP will allow. You can attach pictures or upload them to a private site like Picasa. Videos can be posted privately to YouTube.
There are a lot of private options that don't hoard your personal information and guess what folks, they don't keep changing the format. You don't have to keep going back to settings and shutting everything off again.
Please don't tell me that society has gotten so lazy, so desperate for attention, so egotistical that they NEED Facebook to feel good about themselves. The first easy to use social network was AOL and look where they are today. The sad part is social networks aren't evolving in a good way.
Ask yourself this one very important question, how much would you pay to use Facebook as it is right now? If your answer is zero----why the hell are you letting Facebook use you?
Your label of "you are a loser if you are on facebook everyday" just shows your mentality or lack there of..many people use it daily however it doesn't replace "real" people in there lives. It has been a way for me to keep in contact when friends and family that don't live close anymore. Facebook has been wonderful for that. I don't understand why people "friend" people they don't know in real life! Having a large list of FB friends doesn't mean your popular....more like desperate! All the changes are very annoying, however it seems our society loves to change things these days....to many engineers I guess!!! Enjoy FB but don't let it rule you!
Here's a better solution that fixes these and tons of other issues.
Go get the browser plugin called Social Fixer (previously known as Better Facebook before they got their lawyers involved.
website is: www dot socialfixer dot com
I've been using this for many months if not years and it's awesome!!
nevermind. can't see how to delete a post...
Is it even feasible to delete a Facebook account?
On a related note, how is it possible that someone can become a bazillionaire just by creating something so utterly useless???
These are no doubt the best collection of Facebook Cover Pictures I’ve seen! -