At last! Now you can STIFLE dull chums you can't really unfriend on Facebook

Facebook will soon let people edit and block stuff from appearing in their News Feeds after users complained of being bombarded with boring posts. Facebook new News Feed All the news that's unfit to print "We love your feedback about what you want to see in News Feed so we can work to get the experience you want," said …

[Khaptain]

Ironic

Social network site creates tools that enables less social networking....

[Anonymous Coward]

This has been possible for a while? I'm sure I've blocked certain people appearing in news feeds

[JDX]

I thought so too.

It is a sensible thing though because often there are people who you ARE friends with, who decide to post 5 pictures of their baby/cat every day or link FB posts to every app and game they play.

[John Tserkezis]

"I'm sure I've blocked certain people appearing in news feeds"

I've been blocking everybody from facebook: I don't have an account. Works real well.

[Dick Pountain]

Indeed it has. I've been doing it for a couple of years. You used to go to the Friends pulldown and untick "Show in Newsfeed": more recently you do it from top right corner arrow. So why is this news?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not news?

What's different with this to the function that has been available for years?

I had to check the date on this article to make sure it wasn't one from 2009.

[DuncanL]

Re: Not news?

I think this is specifically about adding the function to the FB mobile app; as opposed to the website, where you have indeed been able to do this for ages.

[Richy Freeway]

This has definitely been a feature for quite a while now.

I took the ultimate option a month ago and just shut my account down. Never looked back.

I've got enough tedious drivel in my own life, don't need other peoples too.

[Barry Rueger]

Even Better

I took the ultimate option a month ago and just shut my account down. Never looked back.

I shut down my Facebook account entirely, then created a new one with a bogus name and no identifying information. Carefully invited the ten or twenty people who I really wanted along (of the 150+ that over the years had been added) and things are much more manageable.

Likewise, I'm pretty brutal when it comes to unsubscribing from email lists, Twitter and RSS feeds. If I even think I wouldn't miss it - blam - it's gone. I generally keep thing to about fifteen Twitter feeds that I follow, and a dozens RSS feeds in TinyTinyRSS.

Seriously, in this age you really need to say "No," an awful lot more than you would even five years ago.

@ParisHilton to keep things topical.

[Telboy]

Re: Even Better

Doesn't every body do this on a regular basis? Kill the account and then (old fashioned I know) email the people you want as friends with your new user name.

[Solmyr ibn Wali Barad]

Ultimate option?

There are some options even beyond that.

Not opening an account in the first place. Blocking FB domain at the firewall, or redirecting it to localhost. And finally, walking around and telling people how I don't use FB. Like this:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly-mentioning-he-doesnt-own-a-tel,429/

Gaah. I so tried not to write this comment. Couldn't resist. Sorry.

[Paratrooping Parrot]

They had unfollow for years. Basically use that and you don't see anything they post. Very useful for some people I know.

[Number6]

What I want is all of the friends I have selected, filtered by content I have selected (i.e. no apps/games), ordered by recent activity and without anything that FB thinks I might like, because invariably they're wrong.

[Martin-73]

Facebook Purity may be what you're looking for

(No connection, just a happy user)

[Number6]

I already use that, it's probably what has kept me on FB because I don't think I'd still be there if I had to put up with the unfiltered feed.

[Juan Inamillion]

FB Purity is very definitely Your Friend.

[Anonymous Coward]

Its called aquaintances

Never needed this. Just put them into the aquaintance list and make sure you post only to "Friends except acqauintance" list. You'll never see their posts unless you look in your acquaintances list and they wont see yours to reply.

[Adrian Harvey]

What I want

What I want to be able to do is to - for certain friends - is follow their posts only, and not their likes, shares, games, adverts, etc. I like the "toddler photos" in that they're what's happening in my friends life, but I don't need their web history.

[Neil Barnes]

to be a personalized newspaper for all users...

So we can send them adverts they'll enjoy even more at an improved advert to clutter rate!

[Solmyr ibn Wali Barad]

Re: to be a personalized newspaper for all users...

Improved? Why, yes. Those automated data munchers have become really good - at finding the most offensive and incompatible material for that particular user - and proudly presenting it as a 'recommended' choice.

[werdsmith]

I really want to close my Facebook account. If it wasn't for Facebook I would be blissfully unaware of how utterly stupid a large proportion of the population is. I worry about some people who seem to be trying to convince themselves that they have a great life by posting all their adventures (truly happy people just get on with it and don't need to show everyone). It's mostly a bad experience. But there are some things about it that I would truly miss, and that keeps me from pulling the plug. Damn curates egg it is.

[JDX]

Given the stuff you see is from people you told FB you were friends with, "how utterly stupid a large proportion of the population is" reflects more on your social circle than the population as a whole.

While I agree most of the population are stupid or boring (to me) I only make friends in real life with those who don't fit that description... why not follow the same rules online?

FB is FAR more useful and less annoying when you use it to network with people you'd actually talk to. If you open it up to people whose opinions you aren't interested in, of course it will seem rubbish.

[werdsmith]

No that's just not true, there is much content from people who are not friends if you are a member of any interest group, and much other stuff appears that is set to a public privacy level and most of the rubbish in there is from people I don't know from Adam.