How to Stop Certain Friends from Writing on Your Facebook Wall
By xnotion
[Update]: The steps below are becoming outdated as Facebook continually changes its interface. Please refer to this video, which I found on YouTube, to be the most correct / up-to-date guide.
Many people wonder if it is possible to have a friend on Facebook but prevent him or her from writing on their wall. This is entirely possible, thanks to Facebook's fine-tuned privacy controls. You can have someone who is your friend on Facebook but does not have permission to post anything on your wall. You're probably wondering what the purpose of this is. Well, there are many reasons to stop a friend from writing on your wall. First, it could be because that person is annoying and is posting rude or inappropriate things on your wall. Or, it could be because that person got a virus and is spreading spam by posting on everyone's wall. (This happened to one of my friends recently: she used some application that posted spam links on all her friends, including my, wall) This can be done permanently, or temporarily, depending on the case, and is easily done and removed. So let's begin.
First, check out some other Facebook how-to guides:
- How to friend your parents without sacrificing privacy
- How to hide your status updates from certain friends
- How to stop certain friends from commenting on your posts
- How to appear offline to some friends but not others
- How to hide your friends on Facebook
The Privacy Controls
Deep down in Facebook's new privacy controls is a setting that controls who can post content on your wall. In case you need a refresher, that means they can go to your profile, and there is that little box at the top that they can comment in which will then show up for everyone to see. This control is rather hard to find, and fairly obscurely labeled, so many people have trouble finding it. I will explain how to find and activate it in one moment.
The One Drawback
Before I do, however, you should know one thing: by blocking someone from writing on your wall, you also prevent them from seeing wall posts other friends have left on your wall. For whatever reason, Facebook lumped these settings together under one control. So if you block them from writing, you also block them from seeing other people's posts. They will still be able to see your own posts and status updates though.
How to Do It
In Facebook, click on "Account," then "Privacy Settings." Then, near the bottom, select "Customize settings" as shown in the image below:
On the next page, look for an entry called "Things others share." Next to it, there is a title "Can see wall posts by friends." Now this is the confusing part: you'd never expect this setting to prevent them from writing on your wall, only that it would stop them from seeing the posts made by others. But the fact is, it controls both. Don't ask me why! Nonetheless, you will need to select the drop down menu next to it as shown here:
(Note, your menu may say "Friends Only" or "Everyone" depending on your current settings. Mine says "Posts by Friends" because of some list I made, but you can ignore that.) Click "edit" next to "Custom" near the bottom. Then, a new window will appear.
Next to "These People," you can leave it as only friends (Again, my picture is different because of a personal setting. Yours should say Friends Only.) But under "Hide this from," you can put the name of the person who you don't want to be able to make posts. Then, next time he or she visits your profile, there won't be a box for them to type in.
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In the bottom photo, note the lack of the post box.
That's all there is to it. Be sure to check out the other guides for Facebook:
- Friend your parents on Facebook without sacrificing privacy
- Using Facebook without risking your job
- How to really secure Facebook
- How to make a Facebook group
- How to unblock Facebook
- How to tag photos on Facebook
- How to use Facebook without actually visiting Facebook
- How to stop certain friends from commenting on your Facebook posts
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Comments
Are you sure you changed the right setting? This should stop them from actually POSTING to your wall.
brilliant, thanks so much. I've been scouring the internet to find out how to do this. Facebook help certainly doesn't tell you. It's the kind of thing you might or might not work out by accident. I find facebook really annoying like that, it's very difficult to control what you want to and how you want to, particularly as the controlling who can post is lumped in with who can see posts by friends. Always wonder what fb's agenda is in doing such things as I don't believe it's simply a detail they've overlooked.
Cheers again
Thank you very much. At first I thought u were just confused talking about the commenting on posts part, but luckily I read down until I got to the paragraph u mentioned that the one selection stops them not only from seeing other peoples posts on my wall but also from posting on my wall themselves.
thanks so much! this was so helpful
Wow you're an excellent technical writer, better than Facebook's entire tech team! Thanks for the clear, easy to understand article!
Thanks for all the wonderful comments everyone!
Thanks!! This was super helpful and you are an amazing technical writer!
Just to let everyone know you should also make an exception to "Posts by Me" under "Things I Share." It's the first setting on the custom privacy settings page. Otherwise other people will be able to comment on your posts. The only drawback is that's a little more obvious because then the blocked person can't see your wall at all.
Do you know a way to prevent your friends from seeing comments in your photos from other friends, my privacy is extremely important for me, I don't want my friends to know my other friends and I have everything pretty well setup, one thing I haven't been able to do is preventing FriendX to see that FriendY liked my photo and commented on it, so now FriendX knows I have FriendY in my friends list :-(.
thank you sooo much this was soo helpful, i was so worried and stressed about this. i looked everywhere and didnt find anything about it.
your post was very helpful and detailed and the pictures!!! can't thank you enough.
thank you sooo much !
Hi Paranoid,
there is no way to do that at the moment. Unfortunately, all of the comments and likes are visible to everyone. I don't see that changing in the near future because it could become a headache to manage.
And priyak,
I'm glad that I could help!! If you have anything else you'd like to learn, just leave a comment and I'll try to make a tutorial.
hi this is nice
Would this also stop people who've tagged you in pics to not appear on your wall? I read somewhere that you can't stop people from tagging you in photos/videos but if I can't stop them, at least, I can prevent the photos from being posted on my wall. I hate it when I'm tagged in photos for selling products. I'd like to keep facebook as personal as possible. I made the mistake of friending a seller.
great post, really helpful!
Is there any way to stop certain people from being able to tag you in photos?
Now the question is, how do get Facebook to make this setting do what it actually says. Right above this setting, I have the box checked (enable) for the setting that says, "Friends can post on my Wall." I have the "Can see Wall posts by Friends" set to "Only Me". Like you said in your post xnotion, you would think this make it so friends could still post to my wall, but I would be the only person who could see those posts. But sadly no...it makes it so friends cannot post to my wall at all (even though that little "enable" box is checked right above it). What's the best way to let Facebook know about, and hopefully fix this issue?
THANK YOU!!! I've been trying to do this forever! you are the facebook jesus
tnx dude, it helped me a lot
Thanks this is very helpful. i though it wouldnt work..Thanks you very much...
If you do this, does it prevent them from also commenting on your photos?
Thanks though, great guide!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! :)
ZOMG!! THIS IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR! A REAL ANSWER FOR ONCE!
Nice 1 friend :)
I know why they control both the fact other friends post ca bee seen AND the fact they can post too. it's not a good reason but it is: if they cannot post on yout wall and they see that others friends posted on it, they will understaind they are personaly blocked, resutling in an akward situation
told u, not a good reason
Wondering why you would want to friend someone who might post stupid shit on your wall. My take is just don't friend them.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I've been looking everywhere trying to figure this out and you are the only person that has the right answer! You rock!
I have a friend that I want to hide my posts from/not post on my wall but his name doesn't appear on the list of people I want to hide it from. Why is that? His name doesn't appear on the list and I have him added.
Thanks so much! Much better than the "help" section on facebook's page. This is EXACTLY what I wanted to find out. Thanks again!
When i try to block certain people from commenting (so i allowe "friends only" and block certain friends) it just block everyone from comment. Help?
If someone blocks you from commenting on their wall, even if they're your friend, does it stop you from commenting? Or can you just POST a comment on their status as per normal, only they cant see it?
can they stil comment on my status?
I'm having trouble blocking specific people from commenting on my posts on the NEW facebook.. The privacy settings have changed and the only option i find is to block them from even seeing the posts.. by hiding them. : /
Have they changed it so you can no longer do this? ANNOYING!
Hey thanks so much, now I don't have my idiot friend posting dead horses on my wall any longer.
hey! i want to know if how can i limit my friends to post on my wall. i want some of my friends not to have a chance to post on my wall..
That doesn't work anymore with the new facebook. When preventing some friends to see Posts by friends they can still post on my wall.... Any other genius idea?
Someone who is not a friend on Facebook wrote something about me how do I get it off
Hi. Could you post a new, updated version of this? I think it's changed since Facebook introduced the timeline.
Thanks
I think this is not working anymore, it was a few days ago but now all those people i had my wall blocked from are posting normally. I hope this gets fixed soon, if someones knows anything please let me know.
This doesn't work. I did the same thing and tested it on my friends account- they can still post if they want to
The video is incorrect, I just did this and the person was able to post on my wall.
I did what the video instructed me to do and it did not work.
this definately does NOT work!!!
How come my friend can see everything I comment on and that I 'like' but I can't see anything that they like or comment....... I've searched the privacy settings but have no idea how to do this.......
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Dave 22 months ago
Aggggh! This only stops a 'friend' from commenting on posts, not from posting things themselves, as I've just found out to my cost. shit.