Two Slashes

Introduction
I don’t know what it is these days, but I fail to see why a social network needs to have their own internal communications system a la instant messenger in order to draw and retain users.  When you combine that with all of the contact information I keep on my site, various profiles, and virtually everywhere else, I just don’t see a reason why I should be bothered to keep one more when all of the services I have running through Trillian already reach just about anyone I would want to talk to.

Facebook’s implementation, in particular, annoys me the most.  Explain to me why I need to have what reminds me of Windows 95 running in my Facebook tab, what with the big old gray bar?  And why, when I sign off, do I need a status button docked to the bottom of the screen?  DeviantArt, for example, manages to keep all of their realtime “friend list” information in the navigation bar at the top of the page…so why should I have to deal with all of the clutter?

The Fix
The truth is, you don’t.  But you’re going to need a couple of things before you can start:

• A Mozilla-based browser (Firefox/IceWeasel, SeaMonkey, Flock, Songbird, etc.)
• AdBlock Plus
• A Facebook Account

I presume you already use these, or at least know how to install and configure them for your uses, because I’m not going to spend six printed pages holding hands.  So we’ll assume that you’re running your browser and have installed ABP.

1. First things first:  log into your Facebook account, if you aren’t already.
2. If you’re still signed into chat like the screenshot above is, click the Chat button at the right of the bar and click Sign out.  You should be left with a notification that you’re signed out, the Chat button (with a red light), and the button next to it for notifications, all floating off the bottom of your browser window, just like this. 
3. Here’s where AdBlock Plus comes into play.  You’ll need to add the following filter rule, then click OK:
   facebook.com#div(id*=presence)
4. At this point, the Facebook page you’re on should reload…but without the annoying tab sticking up reminding you how “uncool” you are for not using Facebook Chat.  If it doesn’t, I’d reload the page.  If the stupid tab still shows up, you missed something.
5. Enjoy Facebook, exactly as it was prior to the introduction of the mediocre in-house chat client.

Removal
In case you chicken out and decide that you want to use Facebook Chat again, you can do one of a few different things:

• Disable (or remove, if you don’t think you’re going to hide it again) the rule you entered earlier using the green bubble next to the rule in the ABP settings dialog.
• Disable AdBlock Plus, either for Facebook or globally (but if you’re using ABP, you might as well let it filter other ads).

If you installed ABP just to use this hack, you can also safely uninstall the plugin as an alternative method of re-enabling Facebook Chat.

Conclusion
That’s all there is to it; it’s fairly simple and I hope that someday the social networks will realize that instant messaging doesn’t work for a lot of people if it’s confined to a web browser.  Use the Contact page if you need me (as obviously I’m not reachable through Facebook).

The one thing I should probably mention is that although most Mozilla extensions work with other products, this little piece of work was tested on a Windows build of Firefox 3, Release Candidate 1 with the latest public release of AdBlock Plus.  I won’t guarantee that you’ll be able to use this universally, but granted that the majority of people using Mozilla browsers use Firefox on Windows, there shouldn’t be too much of a hitch.