Mark a contact's FB comment private invisibly?

April 1, 2016 6:10 PM

I don't celebrate my birthday. and don't publish it on FB. I don't wish others happy birthday on FB, in order not to draw attention to this. I have a very large number of FB contacts.

I have acquired some late-life relatives who have access to my birthdate who, meaning no harm, wish me a happy birthday on FB. This year, fucking Zuckerberg saw fit to promote the post activity and a bunch of FB contacts wished me a happy birthday.

Next year, I would prefer to mark each rogue FB HB post invisible, such that the poster is unaware that the post has been hidden. I have no desire to explain or share why I want to do this. I don't want anyone to wish me a happy birthday, IRL or on FB, and I have the good graces to realize I shouldn't ever explain this to anyone who hasn't signed up for the ride.

Is it possible to mark an individual post to my page as hidden, but to do so invisibly?

posted by anonymous to Human Relations (9 answers total)

Go to your profile -> Activity Log -> Timeline Review (at the top). It will show you everything someone else has done that could appear on your timeline (e.g. tagged you) and you can add it to your timeline or not. You can also use the little triangle on the top right of each post to untag yourself.
posted by zachlipton at 6:13 PM on April 1, 2016 [5 favorites]

You can turn off ability to post to your wall for those days. It leaves them the option on commenting on a past picture or something, but that's less visible. Otherwise I think you have to go one by one and click 'hide from feed.' Maybe there's another solution, but I'm not aware of one.
posted by namesarehard at 6:14 PM on April 1, 2016 [11 favorites]

I have mine set to require my (per-post) approval before anything appears on my wall or any tag actually functions as a link.

This is why my mom hasn't successfully shown my friends any unflattering pictures of me in several years.
posted by SMPA at 6:46 PM on April 1, 2016 [15 favorites]

You can actually set it so people can still post to your wall, but only you and the OP can see it. I think the current deal is that if you change it back later, the birthday wishes may be visible at large, but they'll be old news and shouldn't be promoted in the time it takes you to hide them individually. (This is exactly how I use this function, so no shame.)
posted by teremala at 7:34 PM on April 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

The problem you will face is that it's not the posts that kick off the other posts, so much as Facebook promoting your birthday if you're "popular."
posted by corb at 7:41 PM on April 1, 2016

Can you suspend your FB account for 48 hours around your birthday? If your relatives ask, shrug and say it must have been some sort of glitch that stopped them from finding your profile.
posted by saucysault at 8:40 PM on April 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

Go to "privacy," and "who can see what you post on your timeline." Set it to just you and/or a list of just relatives around your birthday. After your birthday, delete their posts and set it back.

Hiding the posts from your timeline won't hide them from feeds normally.
posted by metasarah at 5:04 AM on April 2, 2016

I do what saucysault suggests. Works great.
posted by DelusionsofGrandeur at 6:46 AM on April 2, 2016

I normally prevent anyone from posting on my timeline. I have to remember to change this on my birthday, because I like the birthday posts. You could just do what I usually do, and leave it like that all the time. You haven't specified whether you want people to be able to post other things to your timeline, so I don't know if you want that.
posted by John Cohen at 12:10 PM on April 2, 2016