Facebook Threatens Greasemonkey Script Writer
from the but-it's-in-the-browser dept
Another day, another abusive bullying attempt. This time, it's Facebook, which is apparently trying to bully the maker of a Greasemonkey script that cleans up your Facebook live feed by removing annoying app notices (such as all the crap your friends are doing in Farmville and Mafia Wars). It sounds quite useful. Originally, the script was called Facebook Purity, and Facebook complained about the trademark issue (a stretch... but perhaps you could see the company's point). So the guy changed the name to Fluff Busting Purity. No trademark issue at all. But Facebook is still complaining. The thing is, this is a Greasemonkey user script -- meaning that everything happens in the user's browser -- which Facebook has no claim over. If you tell your browser to ignore certain things on a website, that should be your choice. This add-on is there to help people who want it, such that it makes Facebook more useful to them. It's too bad that as Facebook gets bigger, we're hearing more and more stories of this kind of bullying activity.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: browser, facebook, fluff busting purity, greasemonkey
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
Thanks Facebook!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
I started a Facebook account yesterday and already my wall, or whatever it's called, was full. Now it's down to 4 posts (I only have 1 friend).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
- awww, I'll be your friend...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pretty cool... Thanks Facebook!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It must be nice having a life.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I never got a response.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hide which application?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Same here...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Thanks GreaseMonkey! Oh and you too Facebook.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wow
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Thanks for the sound out Facebook ...........
idiots
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This functionality exists within Facebook already
I suppose this script might make it more of a 1-click solution, but really there are 2 things I find weird here. Firstly, if this many people cared about purified feeds why weren't they already blocking apps updates, and secondly, why does Facebook care about the script if it just repeats it's own functionality?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
Perhaps facebook will think that this app confuses people into thinking that facebook itself has less function, according to facebook, makes facebook look bad? I'm not saying their ideas are justified (if anything a lawsuit makes Facebook look worse), just trying to put myself in facebooks shoes.
A more likely answer is that facebook hired a bunch of new lawyers who now need to justify themselves and what better way for a lawyer to justify him/her self than to make legal threats and initiate lawsuits.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
perhaps facebook thinks ... and, according to facebook, this makes facebook look bad.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
This script is exclusive by default and if you want something to show up, you have to specifically "whitelist" it. It also gives you the ability to block status updates with select text phrases in them. For example, I do not play "Zoo World", but have several family members that do. They recently posted a number of updates regarding game play that I couldn't block with the built in tools, but once this script was installed and "Zoo World" added to the blocks, the posts disappeared.
Rather handy in my book.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
This is not privacy.
I use Adblock Plus to remove things i dont want in FB, and block all apps as they appear, I dont just hide it, I BLOCK IT.
But there is no way in FB to block all apps automatically, you have to block every single app manually.
Not everybody knows how to do this.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
So... Somebody writes a script that blocks all app feedback from the news feed, that means fewer people are enticed into Farmville by seeing their friends playing, means Farmville starts losing revenue, means they complain to Facebook, means Facebook reacts with threats.
Personally, I don't see it as bullying. It's Facebook trying to protect their revenue stream, which they have to do if you want Facebook to stay around.
On the flip side, if Greasemonkey wants to avoid the trademark issues they should just rename it so it doesn't have the letters F or B anywhere in the name. Go to News Stream Purity or something like that. They're trying to play games with tap dancing around the Facebook name - they should just avoid it altogether.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
As such, friends becoming fans of the app, or other user action generated items will still leak through. I think more and more of these Mafia Wars type games are doing this to get past the built in Application Hide button.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
What's great about FB Purity is it blocks the annoying quizzes too. It seems like every week a new "what character from the Goonies movie are you?" quiz makes it's rounds and blocking them individually is time consuming and pointless since by next week a new quiz will be going.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This functionality exists within Facebook already
You have to manually OPT OUT of every stupid new piece of fluff your friends are dumb enough to engage in on FB.
FBpurity opts you out and gives you a convienent control panel.
FB is already a big enough waste of time and bandwidth without all the crappy apps, events, updates, adds, suggestions, questions your friends answered about you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Because, if you have more than about 5 friends, they can add annoying apps that pollute your news feed faster than you can block them. It's an arms race you can't win.
And thanks for the heads-up. I'll definitely be installing this one tonight.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Now when you have a repetitive action that occurs all the time that's time wasted. Sure it might not be anything more than a second but the seconds add up. Computers were invented to keep shaving time out of our lives of doing repetitive tasks.
Lets say it takes a minute to install this script. 60 seconds of life spent.
Lets say this AC uses facebook for at least 5 years, and has a copious amount of friends. So lets say 1 new app a week for 5 years where he has to spend a second going "hide app" that's 260 seconds approximately give or take leap years, leap seconds, leaping frogs slowing the rotation of the planet.
So this AC has saved 200 seconds of life from doing a simple task that was highly repetitive and pointless. And the time keeps racking up for as long as he uses facebook.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
I'm not interested in anything more than chatting with my friends overseas & seeing the photo's they have shared.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: [Firefox Add-on, Greasemonkey script compiler]
http://mattkruse.com/2010/03/26/greasemonkey-json-unicode-problems-solved/
If you want a native Firefox Add-on to clean your stream and do lots of fun stuff, go here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/52369
It's not FB Purity, but it's better.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Greasemonkey to xpi
http://arantius.com/misc/greasemonkey/script-compiler
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Really, facebook, a small subset of your users are going to use this, just back the hell off.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
As for the reason why they are doing it I expect its typical behaviour of companies. They want to control precisely how you experience their content much like the TV and movie industries want to restrict what you can do with your own TV... this kind of script challenges that immensely as it takes control away from them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Facebook's worried about their bottom line
** This post has absolutely no evidence to support this claim **
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I haven't gotten threats yet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I haven\'t gotten threats yet.
I suspect it might also have to do with Facebook's 'games' and 'apps' feeds (which don't seem to be ramped up yet, as they're not catching everything for me) - possibly penalizing apps that don't play by the rules. No complaints from users (due to users hiding everything) == apps not getting caught... Although that would be easier for Facebook in terms of not having to deal with infringing apps
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I haven\'t gotten threats yet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Thanks Facebook!
Likewise, I will pass this on to all the people I know on Facebook too :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hey be nice to facebook
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sure its slightly inconvient to do so, but I think the less I (or average user) have to manage how my browser renders each sites content specifically and just go directly to the problems source to change it (which is possible with the facebook site), seems just more of a simpler solution to me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The script is redundant...
Although it is sad that hardly anyone knows this, but you can mouse over a post for say; Farmville or Mafia Wars and click Hide - then click Hide ALL Mafia Wars or Farmville posts and never see them again from ANY friend.
I do that every time I see a Bejewelled horoscope zoo island type post from anyone and my feed is clean as can be....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: The script is redundant...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: The script is redundant...
by Rick
Why someone felt a need to write a script that Facebook to do what you can do already YOURSELF on Facebook is beyond me.
I do that every time I see a Bejewelled horoscope zoo island type post from anyone and my feed is clean as can be....
-----
Rick,
You wrote the above.. Don't you see the irony in your post??
How much time do you have to spend "cleaning your feed"???
Things like Ad block, and greasemonkey make the new "Web" tolerable.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
First the mindless management drones take over (you know the type, more interested in covering their own ass than anything else, unable to make a decision without a 10 committees backing them and 100’s of meetings to “get everyone on board”)
Due to these people being in charge and increasing costs dramatically this then leads to the accountants taking over (aka people with no knowadge of the company’s actual business, but basically acting as the power behind the throne, dictating how the company is run)
And because the accountant really don’t know how to run the business (and all decent managers left long ago) they then hire lots of lawyers to protect the company and the lawyers to justify their cost to the accountants start attacking everybody and viewing everything at a threat to the company
Then a few years later a new, dynamic, energetic forward thinking start up comes along and wipes them out (unless first company buys them up first) and whole process starts over again
Basically the cycle of life, corporate style
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facebook and Apple
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facebook can be very useful in certain situations, but for the average joe...its MUCH more satisfying to interact with friends in reality.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Awfully trusting...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facebook Doesn't Know Interface Design At All
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/11992
Facebook you have no right to complain. It's a user's own choice!
Maybe when you guys make a better user-interface and REAL privacy options, then you can talk. Otherwise, quit screwing up your already screwed up website.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
hides more than apps
That to me was the biggest issue, as I was already blocking mafiawars and farmville crap.
I even had to block a few friends because they were 'fans' of so many groups and pages.
Problem was, I didn't want to block people, just the fluff.
THAT is what this script does. Clears out all of the junk.
But, it's there to see anytime you want by simply clicking on the 'show' link. So, if you needed to check on who became friends with who, a quick click shows the fluff (without the clutter of content).
If his facebook page is taken down, he may still have his site http://www.fbpurity.com
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facebook
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
FINALLY!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Latest post to the Author's FB page
Fluff Busting Purity Well the corporate bullies have struck again, they are threatening to delete this page and shutdown my website too if their ridiculous demands are not met by 7pm GMT this evening. They demand I remove all references to "FB Purity" and also even more bizarrely "F*** B*** Purity" from both myfan page and my website
Seems like a thin case Facebook has, but I've seen more ridiculous cases win. Do they have a leg to stand on?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wha?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why not lite?
People don't want to be limited by what someone ELSE tells them they should want to see. It needs to be understood that user customization is a right, not a privilege!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facebook's trademark policies are very over-reaching
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
not only does it keep your feed fairly clean, you're given istructions on how to alter it, so now i have no suggestions box, stuff like that
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Here's the dopey thing...
Thanks to FB making a fuss, I know there's a tool that makes the site usable again. Reverse SE?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What's Facebook?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"Better Facebook" is another greasemonkey script
My domain is: http://BetterFacebook.net
My Greasemonkey script does a lot of what Facebook Purity does, plus a lot more. If they don't like his, they sure ad hell aren't going to like mine.
If they would spend this time improving their horrible site and minimal features, they might actually get rid of the need for these scripts. As it is, I depend on Better Facebook to make the site usable.
If nothing else, they should be finding the authors of these scripts and hiring them. Maybe then their site wouldn't need to be modified by user scripts to not suck.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wow
RT
www.anonymous-proxy.us.tc
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I am so installing this now!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Get over it man...
This sounds more like a ploy to get people to download the script then anything else. As others have already pointed out you can already block all notifications from any application you want.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Get over it man...
Or, you know, not.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Former FB purity user
What would happen is my news/status feed would suddenly be blank. After a few times, I learned to go to the FB Purity page each time this happened. If an update wasn't available, I would simply disable the script in Greesemonkey (or just disable GM).
Each time it disabled, I got flooded with Farmarea/Mafia Skirmish/Begemmed type notifications. Eventually, I got sick of the FB/FB Purity battles and just started hiding every app that came across my feed.
Now, each time I encounter a new app, I hide in 2 clicks and the problem is eliminated at the source (unless facebook looses all my hide settings by 'accident').
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facebook Products
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This functionality does NOT exist within facebook...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facebook Script...We don't need no stinking Facebook Script
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Is a FaceBunk app available?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
its about time
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: its about time
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yay!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facebook is run by wold famous douche-canoe Mark Zuckerberg, who in the early days of the site sabotaged a competitor and hacked into the email of editors of the Harvard student paper. Now that he was some weight to throw around you get stuff like this, and Beacon. Don't give this guy any more power over your social life. Quit Facebook.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Agree with 'Leave Facebook'
It's just another mySpace with a lot of hype.
It was a good concept once-upon-a-time.
Too bad all good concepts in virtual reality get greedy and bloated.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Agree with 'Leave Facebook'
It's just another mySpace with a lot of hype.
It was a good concept once-upon-a-time.
Too bad all good concepts in virtual reality get greedy and bloated.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I mean, really: Did everyone at Facebook suddenly start swallowing handfuls of douchebag pills?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
FB Don't try to be Bully !
Don't forget that us, the users, are the one who's driving up FB's popularity and become what it is today...and now FB want to control what we want to do for ourselves ?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
what ... the ... fuck?
This is just stupid. So now every website that make money from adds will sue or try to stop people from using noscript, adblock, etc?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
HEY FACEBOOK!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
stupid farmville
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Isn't it obvious?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Greasmonkey vs Facebook
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Facebook script best thing ever
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Thank you Facebook.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
hello i need facebook help
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
NO!! That could never happen!
I mean, it's not as if Facebook does this sort of thing and worse all the time! It's not as if they regularly deliberately break userscripts. It's not as if they wilfully sabotage relationships or unethically adjust Facebook feed contents for their own "studies" jollies. It's not as if they roll back the like counts and delete comments on people they feel are a threat to them. It's not as if they hide things from people's feeds as punishment both for the poster and the person who wants to view it. It's not as if they spy on you all over the internet, and even in your offline life too...
There's no way they'd do this sort of thing!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]