How to completely annoy your friends on facebook

This is not another post about the popular privacy issues regarding facebook. It is a rule that anything posted online is public in one way or another and there is no way to ensure or even assume privacy. This is a post about a more insidious facebook issue, that of applications.

I joined facebook through my employer, my company wanted everyone on facebook so I jumped in. I like facebook as a way to contact and interact with friends, family, and co workers. It does have its useful purposes. However the signal to noise ratio on Facebook is distressing. I have to hide multiple applications and game every day or my homepage is filled with.

I found a lost calf on farmville -
Please help me build a what-the-hell-ever on farmville -
I have 100 million billion coins in treasure hunt -
I have signed up to get a free iPad, how about you -
I got a galactic high score in plug my bung hole -
I am attacking the castle, come have fun with me -
so and so sent you an electric walrus polisher send him something back -
here is my horoscope for today -

I know the games are fun. I played mob wars for about a month or so and had a good time. I am sure that I also annoyed my facebook friends with constant updates on my moby activities. Today I got an update "so and so is at Walgreen's, tell all your friends where you are using foursquare" Oh good for you, and why do I care?

Now to facebooks credit you can click on hide and hide the application but once I do that I have found that a suddenly do not hear anything from more than half of my friends. I love facebook for sharing information or pictures or fun videos, but the game and gift applications are way out of control.

The other scourge of facebook is the pre made updates. "Dog breath is a major problem in dogs. If your dog has dog breath or a dog that you know has dog breath please copy and paste this as your status. 90% of you will not copy and paste this message so if you care about your dog's breath please post it for an hour." News flash; if 90% of facebook users will not put your "lets increase awareness of dog breath" message as their status, it is probably for a reason. If you really want to increase awareness or help fight something, a facebook status is not going to help out. A facebook status update is not going to give your dog minty fresh breath, nor will it cure brest cancer, or AIDs in Africa. There are ways to combat these things that have real value.

I try and follow some rules regarding my use of facebook.

1. If I am playing a game and want to post updates, I post those updates to friends who also play the game. My friends who play Farmville will be more interested in my lost calf. You can do that, it takes a bit of work.

2. I try and make my status updates my own. Yea a lot of people may shrug their shoulders and go "I don't care" but at least it is my status update.

3. I try and not use facebook as a political or social platform. I do not like being scolded or preached to. I try and not do it to others.

Facebook should be fun and we all use facebook in different ways and for different purposes. I do not want to annoy people least of all my friends and coworkers. If I do or say something on facebook that ticks you off, let me know.