Bumble has had a great deal of fun this past month with Zynga’s FarmVille. While Bumble continues to maintain that FarmVille is for losers, he does admit to being an addict himself. Bumble only started looking at FarmVille as blog post fodder because the notifications from his friends were driving him nuts. That was many, many strawberry harvests ago.
There is nothing worse than constantly having your Facebook cluttered with YoVille or FarmVille notifications. Nothing worse except being the dork that posted them. With that said, Bumble feels the need to share some tips with FarmVille addicts and their friends to help keep the peace.
Q. I don’t play FarmVille but my idiot friends do. How can I hide their FarmVille updates?
A: You should probably just un-friend them. Chances are if they are an addict they will only steal from you anyway, or try to get you to play too. If you feel the need to hang on to every friend you can get, Facebook makes it simple to hide the notifications on your end.
From your Facebook News Feed find a post from FarmVille (or YoVille, Mafia Wars etc.)
Hover your cursor on the post until you see the ‘Hide’ menu on the right. You will then see a drop down with options to hide your friend, or the application from your News Feed.
This works for any Facebook application posting to your News Feed!
Q: Oops, I think I hid my friend by mistake! How do I undo this?
A: Sheesh. Refresh your News Feed page and scroll down until you see Edit Options on the right footer. Click it.
You can now add back Friends, Applications or Pages that you already have hidden.
Just in case you change your mind...
Q: I am the idiot playing FarmVille, but don’t want my friends to know. How do I stop FarmVille from sending notifications?
A: This is a common syndrome known as “salvaging your dignity by hiding your shame”. It is also easy. First and foremost, if you are prompted by FarmVille to Publish, SAY NO! Hit Skip, never Publish.
If they don't know, then you aren't an addict!
Q: I sometimes get so excited to have an award from FarmVille that I hit Publish. Can I just disable the notices for FarmVille?
A: Yes! By default the applications like FarmVille, Mafia Wars, YoVille and FishVille are allowed to post to your wall.
To change the setting go to Settings >> Application Settings. You may have to hover your cursor there for a second until the drop down list appears.
Wait for the drop down, then click Application Settings.
Pick the application you want to Edit and click ‘Edit Settings’.
Uncheck the ‘Publish recent activity’ box on the Additional Permissions tab. Again this works for any application. This will halt any chance of inadvertent posts.
Yes Bumble Gifts from Cats is a real Facebook App.
Hopefully these tips will allow fellow FarmVille addicts to keep harvesting crops without losing friends. Likewise, if you have idiot FarmVille addict friends at least you know how to shut off the notices.
