Mashable recently published an article called “How to Block Farmville on Facebook.” As they point out in their guide, Farmville is immensely popular, even more so than Twitter, and for those that don’t play the game, it can be extremely annoying to have your news feed overflowing with lost cows, yellow ribbons and crop mastery.
I have no shame in admitting that I play Farmville, and actually have a pretty kick-ass farm! I can also say that unless you are a fellow Farmville player, you don’t see any of my Farmville-related stories because of my use of Facebook’s super-handy list feature.
Here’s how you too can play Farmville, Café World, Mafia Wars or any other game that posts notifications to your wall while keeping your non-gaming friends from hating you.
Step 1: Create a Custom List
When you login to Facebook, click on the “Friends” tab on the left column. You’ll then see a list of your friends with the option to “Create a List” on the upper-right area.
Step 2: Add Friends To Your List
Next, simply create a name for your list and click on the friends you want to add to it. It’s best to create a list for each Facebook game you play, so in this instance I am creating a list called “Farmville Friends.” I then add every person that I interact with on Farmville to this list. When you are done, click on the “Create List” button on the lower-right corner of the box.
Step 3: Customize Your Post
The next time Facebook asks you to publish something from within a game to your wall, click on the lock icon on the lower-right corner of the pop-up window, then click on customize.
You will then see a window that looks like this:
Click on the drop-down menu that says “Only Friends” and choose “Specific People.” You will then be asked to “enter a name or list”. Simply type in the name of the list you just created. In this instance, I would type “Farmville Friends.” Then, click on “Save Settings” below and you’ll then be taken back to the original pop-up menu. This time, if you hover over the lock, you’ll see your custom settings.
Now, when you hit “Publish,” only those friends in your created list will see your post in their feed and on your wall!
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great job with these easy to read and understand instructions… there will be many grateful Facebook friends thanks to this
thanks a lot! great advice which seems so obvious but i never thought of that. i always used to request my friends to block the alerts and worry about those that couldn’t do it but hate my gaming alerts. now i know how to game without bugging my peers..ty.
When I select “specific people” and try to add the farmville list, there isn’t enough room at the bottom of the window to “save setting.” Frustrating. Am I dumb?
Some browsers do that. Try hitting “the “tab” key on your keyboard until you can see the save settings box. I have to do that on Safari usually.
Thanks!
farmville is the best game ever and this is the best blog post!
Keep up the good work, always nice to read something about a subject that someone knows about, Great stuff!
Does anyone play farmville? I mean to tell you the truth with you I’m very surprised that farmville has lasted this long anyway. I admit that I did play it for a bit when it first came out but since then I just can’t fathom even having a go. Although I certainly know those people who are Incredibly addicted to it…
A lot of people play. It’s by far Zynga’s most popular game (and the one they’re putting the most time and money behind). They’re doing a good job of scaling the game to the users by adding new functionality and keeping it fresh, although I do think if they keep dragging their feet on a mobile/iPad version of the game, someone else is going to come along and steal all their thunder.
Lois Lamothe
I’ve come closer to how to play my games but still don’t understand. Kepp getting the message not a scure site & can’t find the lock icon anywhere.Don’t know what to do not computer savy. Can you please help don’t even know what my website is. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Can’t play any of my games. Your friend, Linda
There is not an option to select a created Farmville Friends list when posting. Any ideas?
When the “Post to your Wall” box shows up, you have to click the little lock on the bottom row, then choose “customize” then in the drop down box that says “Make this Visible to” choose “Specific People…”. Then you just type in “Farmville Friends” and only those people in that list will see the post.
Thanks Tim. That’s what I finally figured out and it works.
I’ve created a custom FarmVille group and added all my FV friends to it. However, not all my FV friends’ post show in the feed. Do you know what is causing this?
Are you sure your fiends are publishing their FarmVille data?
Tim,
My sister plays FV, too. I noticed that none of her posts were showing under my FV group but they show up in the full newsfeed. I may remove everybody from the group then add them back and see if that works.
Yes, my friends are posting FV stuff. When I look at the regular newsfeed, I see all the FV posts. When I go to my FV group, I ony see posts from 3 or 4 people from the group. I have checked each friend to make sure they are in my FV group. I may just remove everybody from the group then add them back. Hopefully that will work.