HOW TO NOT SPAM YOUR FRIENDS

I'm the first to admit that I love an internet quiz. Which Sex and the City character are you? (Miranda) Where should you live? (Ireland) What's your true calling? (Hero) Sure, they may be ridiculous, poorly-written, and an all-around waste of time, but I love 'em.

What I don't love is getting spammed every time one of my friends fills out a quiz on Facebook. What I hate even more is having to spam my own friends just to find out which comic book superhero I most identify with.

So, in the spirit of sharing and saving us all from unnecessary application invites, I give you:

HOW NOT TO SPAM YOUR FRIENDS WHEN FILLING OUT A FACEBOOK QUIZ - THE TUTORIAL

When you first click on a link to fill out one of those quizzes, you get a window asking to "allow access" for the application. That's because each and every one of these quizzes is its own application that needs access to your facebook account, mainly so they can spam your friends. First, you gotta grant them access:



Now, BEFORE YOU FILL OUT THE QUIZ, click on "Settings --> Application Settings" in your menu bar:



Now, find the application/quiz you just added in the list, and click on "Edit Settings":



A settings window will pop up. Now you can choose when "stories" get published by this application. A "story" is the item in your news feed that says "Laura took the yadda yadda yadda quiz and she should be a whatever. Take your own quiz now!" If you want the option to publish your results in your news feed, click on "Prompt me..." If you don't want anything published in your wall, click "Never publish..." (I highly recommend "Never publish.."):



Click "Okay" and then you can go back to the quiz and find out which M&Ms flavor you'd be, or whatever.

Finally, after you answer all the poorly-conceived questions, the application prompts you to choose a bunch of friends to "invite" to take the quiz. This is actually spam. All reputable applications let you skip this step, but it's usually in really small type:



Now you can find out what Greek goddess you are or what your leprechaun name would be without spamming your friends or announcing your results to the whole world -- at least without your permission.