# Stopping Status Updates on Facebook **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922 "2012-04-25T17:05:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922/1 "2012-04-25T17:05:37Z")
Long story short, after heated “debate” on vaccinations, Reiki therapy and other medical quackery I was defriended by someone on Facebook. \ However, despite not being friends, I still get her status update quite frequently. How can I put a stop to this? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922/2 "2012-04-25T17:18:30Z")
That’s weird. You must be “subscribed” to her. Facebook did weird shit with “friendships” when Google+ launched, with their weird shit. Anyway when you see a post from her, mouse over the post and on the top right you’ll see a downward-facing arrow. Click the arrow. You’ll see a few options including “unsubscribe from Nutcase.” Choose that. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922/3 "2012-04-25T17:45:04Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > That’s weird. You must be “subscribed” to her. Facebook did weird shit with “friendships” when Google+ launched, with their weird shit. That appears to have done the trick! Thanks a bunch. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922/4 "2012-04-25T19:22:09Z")
I have a related question. How do you tell if someone has ‘defriended’ you on Facebook. My friend count seems to have gone down by one in the last couple of days and I can’t figure out who defriended me. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922/5 "2012-04-25T19:51:20Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > I have a related question. How do you tell if someone has ‘defriended’ you on Facebook. My friend count seems to have gone down by one in the last couple of days and I can’t figure out who defriended me. You don’t. It’s supposed to be anonymous so as not to cause mega-drama. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922/6 "2012-04-25T20:10:30Z")
Sometimes people just leave Facebook for whatever reason. So it may not be someone specifically defriended you, it may be that one of the people you had friended no longer exists (on Facebook). ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922/7 "2012-04-25T20:42:47Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > I have a related question. How do you tell if someone has ‘defriended’ you on Facebook. My friend count seems to have gone down by one in the last couple of days and I can’t figure out who defriended me. As mentioned, you can’t using Facebook tools. There are add-ons like BetterFacebook that will show you who defriended you. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922/8 "2012-04-25T20:59:35Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > I have a related question. How do you tell if someone has ‘defriended’ you on Facebook. My friend count seems to have gone down by one in the last couple of days and I can’t figure out who defriended me. a few things about this– as stated, no, you can’t really “tell” with any direct method. and also as mentioned, for whatever reason, numbers fluctuate for no apparent reason. i have a plus/minus 5 span on any given day and i’m not sure why. some people don’t just “sign out,” they close their account for a few days then reopen it (it’s the adult version of “i’m running away from home forever!”) about telling who has nixed you, there are a few _kind of sort of_ ways. for one, if you message/pm/chat most of your friends (or those who might be deletion candidates) you can scroll through your message history and see what it says at the top by their name. on some who deleted me (or i deleted) it says “so and so are friends with \_\_\_\_,” indicated the association to them (because they are no longer MY friend). another way is if they deleted themselves or blocked you, their photo will no longer appear next to the conversation string. needless to say this only works if you have a stored conversation w them. but it helps that all pms/chats show up under the message heading, so typically you have a massive archive of all the people you’ve talked with. and finally, if you look at your friends list and scroll to the bottom, there will be greyed out photo and dead accounts of people who deleted themselves. i came across this and found about 15 people who are in the friends dungeon who, i guess, closed their accounts. so there’s all that, for what it’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922/9 "2012-04-25T21:26:11Z")
> [@Dr.Colossus](#): > > and finally, if you look at your friends list and scroll to the bottom, there will be greyed out photo and dead accounts of people who deleted themselves. i came across this and found about 15 people who are in the friends dungeon who, i guess, closed their accounts. Thanks, I did this and found 3 that were deactivated. Two things though, they weren’t all at the bottom and a couple of the grayed out photos were just people that hadn’t uploaded a photo, but it was pretty easy to tell the difference. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-status-updates-on-facebook/619922/10 "2012-04-25T23:15:06Z")
There’s a GM script called Unfriendfinder. It’s a monkey’s paw, though–there are things that happen that you’d rather be oblivious of. If you can’t figure out who it was, let it rest, perhaps. . .