How I cleaned up my facebook profile

It was only after I cleaned up facebook that I realized fb allows us so much freedom to customize what we want to see and what we do not want to see.

It started with the “Extended Profile” option. I struggled with disappearing apps and unneeded stubborn apps on my profile until I found to hide them under the extended profile option. I also found this useful in bringing out the apps I only want to see updated each time I view my profile. One thing I notice when I drag apps around, a dark grey dotted box will appear and the dark grey text inside will say, “This box will be in the extended portion of your profile.” There, I found the key to not mess up the hidden app boxes and the ones I don't want hidden.

All applications I added are listed in the left-hand menu directly under the facebook logo. By taking some time to clear up my apps commitment, I also removed some unused full-of-worms app boxes from my profile. The century-old Graffiti app is removed (non-artists are as lazy to lift a pencil as to shift a mouse to draw). Send Free Ice-cream, Send Free Branded Bags, Send Free Monkeys and the like, are also removed. I really don’t like sitting around, waiting for people who most likely find these “sending free stuff” apps a nuisance, to like that app, and one day decided, miraculously, to add that app and start sending me free stuff, which I don’t want anyway. I was debating about the app Live Messenger, but since fb has its own chat window, I got rid of it. It wasn’t easy because anything that hints of interactivity excites me.

The left-over 15-20 apps which I really use, are meticulously edited in these ways:

Left Menu: Show this in my left-hand menu.

(check)

News Feed: Show me stories about this in my News Feed. (sometimes check)

Sometimes I check this, sometimes I don’t. the ones I don’t are like for SuperPoke! which will flood out my news feed if I do a mass poke.

Mini-Feed: Show my friends stories about this through News Feed and my Mini-Feed.

I usually check this if the above is checked.

Profile Links: Add a link below the profile picture to any profile.

I only check this if this app required my friends to ‘do something’ to me, for e.g. send an egg to me, send a free gift to me; or for publicity sake, take a look at my travel profile, at my ebay items’

Email: Allow this application to contact me via email.

NEVER! Left only for the really important stuff like wall posts, comments on my photos…

I also drag my top active apps to visibility (limited to 6) above the advertisement that’s going to come out and cover the rest of my apps list.

Next I refocus my profile on the things that matter to my daily life, things like ebay, twitter, movie reviews and added new stuff that I know are the hots going around, like Owned! (where you can buy and sell your friends) and iPhone Locator (since I will be getting an iPhone with a connection soon, I decided to check out some iPhone apps). Some of the classics are also my favorites, like My Room, Photos (duh!), SuperPoke!, Eyesores, Bumper Stickers, Hatching Eggs and Growing Gifts.

In order to activate these old favorites (apps), I decided to interact with them and with my friends, like sending out eggs, stickers to friends, in hope that they will send back and refresh my collection. Some apps like Bumper Stickers and Free Gifts allow you to send new items to yourself. So I stick new stickers to my profile and look how pretty it is! My fluff turtle is down to 100pets and is feeling only ‘Mighty’, so I fed it, pet it a little here and there. I also restore old apps which I found useful now, like Top Friends. By having your friends photo and name plastered into a wall on your profile, you no longer have to look up their profile by typing their name in the Search box.

Tada! I’m really proud of my fb!

Do you see how flexible fb has allowed us to be?

Extended profile allows us to keep the apps but not have to view them each time we look at our profiles. Applications left-hand menu allows us to control how much we do not want our apps to bug us. We can totally disable an app from all surface of our profile and still get to keep it, in fb's memory. Apps on the left-hand menu also indicate how active I want to be with it. The higher the order, the more I am actively using the app. In contrast, adding an app link below the profile picture, technically, appeals to the visitor which is why, I put up apps such as "Send me a fish" or "Paint a rainbow with me" (available at SuperPoke!).