Does anyone else dislike Facebook’s “Reconnect” feature? It’s on the home page, under the box that suggests people or pages you might want to connect with. Suggesting a first-time connection with someone is actually somewhat helpful. But suggesting I contact a friend I’ve been out of contact with for a while because some Facebook algorithm thought it’d be nice? That’s nearly useless. And because I can never leave well enough alone I found a way to block the bothersome nag.
What You’ll Need
Yes, this little hack is only good for Firefox users, though I’d bet there are ways of accomplishing what I’m doing in other browsers. And if you’re using Firefox you ought to be using Adblock Plus anyway, since it just may be the very best extension for the browser.
Normally Adblock Plus is used strictly to block advertisements. But it can actually be used to filter out all sorts of page elements.
Step 1 – Add Filter
In Firefox, click the Tools pull down menu and select Add-ons. Find Adblock Plus and click Preferences. You should see a menu similar to the one in the image above. Click on Add filter… to enter in the custom block filter we’re going to use.
Step 2 – Insert Custom Filter
A text box should appear, prompting you to add in your new filter. Here you’re going to want to enter the following text:
facebook.com#*(UISuggestionList_ItemContainer)
Click OK. You’re done! If you have the Facebook homepage open in your browser you may need to refresh the page before you see the changes.
Here’s What You Just Did
“UISuggestionList_ItemContainer” is the class name for the div that holds the reconnect code. If you don’t speak geek, think of it like a section title in a book. Whenever your browser sees that particular class on the domain you specified (in this case, facebook.com) it will block all the content found there.
Be aware of two things. Facebook could change the name of the class whenever they want, which would require you to change your filter to match. Also, Facebook could start including something you might actually want to see within the area of the page we’re blocking.
If you found this helpful, share it with someone else!
You are a stud, Andrew.