This'll be my first boring journal entry for a while, cause I can't afford (or be bothered) to reactivate me subs, but hey - it's all good! I just haven't been using dA enough over the past few months to warrant paying for it. That said, things could all change now I've finally got Leopard installed back on my PC with a brand spankin new 24" widescreen HD monitor

Anyways, the point of this one (as ya might've noticed in the title) is the Facebook update sent out earlier today... Though for that matter, it seems they're still in the process of updating it, 'cause I was working out some code for someone to hide the new "news / live stream" toggle button at the top, and the code changed twice while I was writing them a message!

But yeah, the latest update, in my opinion, can only be good. What's changed? Well, as far as I can see, all they've done is remove the dreaded highlights (and about time too!) and finally get a "really live" news feed. Still, it only took about 4 major-ish updates

The reason's why they've taken the decision to remove the highlights are unknown. There have been countless groups with millions of members saying to get rid of them since the very hour they were first introduced, but Facebook seemed to ignore them all.

Some of you may already know, or you might not, but I wrote some code to hide them pretty much as soon as I was landed with them... You can see the original code on userstyles.org. To this day, over 20,000 people have installed that one style on their PC to hide the highlights and left filters. A further 5,000+ people have visited my website, Customize Facebook, to hide even more stuff from their Facebook homepage!


So far two people have mentioned that they don't care when someone adds someone else as a friend, and one of those two also asked if there was a way to get rid of the link at the top that changes between "News feed" or "Live feed". Since then, I've had a brief look through Facebook's dodgy code to hide those two, and noticed something in the process that should open a lot of new options for my website.

Assuming what I've noticed sticks, and Facebook don't bugger about with their code even more, thus screwing up everything I've ever done... Again... I should now be able to hide pretty much any type of "story" (by which I mean entry on the news feed) there is. It seems each different type has a different number assigned to it, kinda like a type ID, so with a bit of luck I'll be able to use that to my advantage

So to finish off what's turned out to be yet another pretty long journal entry, the latest Facebook update has inspired me to completely revamp the Customize Facebook website from ground up, adding loads of new options and a few extra website features too. I'm thinking of having comments and stuff on it kinda like you'd get on a blog, possibly a mailing list people can sign up to to be notified of the latest fixes I've made and stuff... Ya never know, I might even find the effort to write a proper "how to get it working" guide with pictures, for those people that don't like reading

If any Facebook users on here think they have an idea of what prompted them to remove highlights, or you have any ideas for the website I'm doing, please do comment - I'd love to hear from ya