FarmVille Neighbor Etiquette

It's just a fact of FarmVille life that some neighbors are better than others. Here is a small sampling of the ways you can be a better neighbor. Just remember that no one is perfect and you can still be a great neighbor even if you do some of the things others wish you wouldn't or don't do some of the things your neighbors wish you would.

Try to:
Buy crafting goods: The higher the level, the better the payout for your neighbor and you can help them towards that next mastery star. In exchange for paying more, you will be able to trade the good in for more fuel than a low level crafting good.

Send gifts: FarmVille has three options when sending gifts from the gift-giving tab; Suggested, FarmVille Friends, and Facebook Friends. The Suggested list is neighbors who have recently played, so the gift is more likely to be recieved and you're more likely to have the gift returned to you. This has been a welcome addition to the gift-giving tab and it's the option I personally prefer. Just remember that you can only send 40 gifts every 4 hours and your less active neighbors would like to find something waiting for them every now and then, too!

Visit their farm: You perform 5 actions on each neighbor's farm every 23 hours (the length of a FarmVille day). You can fertilize 5 plots, harvest 5 animals, harvest 5 trees, or perform a combination of those things. Additionally, you can feed the chickens in their chicken coop (and maybe find a mystery egg for yourself and another to share with your friends!), send pig slop if they have a pig sty, harvest 5 seeds from their greenhouse, and sometimes harvest a special token from a holiday event such as valentines from their Cupid's Castle or gold from their Leprechaun's Cottage. When you're done, you can click on the Mystery Gift icon in the top left of your screen and FarmVille will give you a pop-up that allows you to post an item they need directly to their Facebook wall. This might be a nail, wooden board, brick, watering can, or special delivery box. This gift does not count against the 40 gifts you're permitted to send every 4 hours, so it's an especially good way to give to less active players or even active players who you just weren't able to fit on your gift-giving list.

Share what you find: FarmVille can get a little crazy with the sharing pop-ups, and if you're in a hurry, no one will blame you for clicking "cancel" or hitting the red "x" in the corner. Try to farm when you have the time that will allow you to share things. Building an orchard? Every 5 parts you add of 30 will let you post to your wall with a link for your friends to get a building material for their own farm. When you add the last board, brick, or nail, you can share those, too. If you're over level 25, you probably already have your beehive built and producing coins for you every day. But you might have a neighbor who still needs a Queen Bee, so go ahead and share it when you find it hiding in the flowers you're harvesting.

Regifting: Admit it; you've gotten some useless stuff from your neighbors before. You could sell it from your gift box, but that doesn't really help anyone. You might be able to get a few coins from it, but it's usually so few that it isn't worth the effort. Some gift items in FarmVille are re-giftable. You'll see a purple bar above the "Use" and "Sell" buttons that reads "Re-Gift"; click it and use the arrows to choose how many to share if you have more than one. Most (if not all) re-giftable items sell for no more than 16 coins but often they are items that are either very expensive to purchase (puppy kibble, dog treats, vehicle parts, nursery blankets, baby bottles, harness, and horseshoe), or are only available as gifts. It's a great help to your friends if you share what you don't need that they're hoping to find.

Quest help: With the introduction of English Countryside (EC), quests are more common than ever in FarmVille. If you have a lot of active players for friends, their request for help might get buried on your news feed. Just because you didn't see it right away doesn't mean that they don't still need a pint glass or a mouse trap. Occasionally scroll down your feed and click the button to send what they're looking for. You'll get one too, even if you don't need it, but it does not count against your daily 125 click limit. If you don't need it, just sell it from your giftbox.
You can also help your friends on ECquests from the map on your EC farm. You can help anyone who has not progressed as far as you by clicking their name in the chart that pops up when you click the number for that quest portion on the map.

Say thank you: Don't you like to know who got that Disco Tree you just grew or who's clamoring for baby bottles to grow lambs? Don't you hate clicking the link on your news feed to claim something only to find it's gone? Clicking the "like" button tells people that someone has already gotten something or helped with a barn raising. Leaving a comment to simply say "Thank you" every now and then, especially for the most coveted items, is a wonderful way to give back to your neighbor who's just shared something spectacular with you.



Try not to:
Fertilize all: Fertilize all is a fantastic little helper! I personally use one for every harvest, but I wait until just before I harvest to apply it. If you apply it immediately after planting, your visiting neighbors might not have anything to do, especially if you're a very active player who harvests their trees and animals right away. If they run into that, they won't bother to visit. Because there are two ribbon categories that depend on visiting neighbors, you could be hurting their ability to earn them. There is a ribbon for visiting and another for fertilizing crops. If you wait to apply your fertilize all, they can get credit for both the visit and fertilizing your crops. If they can't perform any actions on your farm at all, they won't get any credit for either ribbon category.

Take everything: Whether you use a snag bar or not, you can really hog the goods on your feed. FarmVille is implementing ever-restrictive controls to mitigate snag bars and feed-watchers, and it's hurt the game. But it's still possible to claim your more than your share of things. If your friend is growing their seedlings and you grab every watering can and every grown tree, they might block you from future posts. If you have mutual friends who see that you're getting everything and leaving nothing for others, they might block you, too. Don't think you can't claim things from your friends' posts because you can! That's why they're there. Just be aware of their other friends and give them a chance to get things, too.

Jump to conclusions: A lot has been said in various forums and on websites about players using snag bars. Zynga, the company that owns and maintains FarmVille, was initially silent about these tools, then later said they had no problem with them. Since then, they've declared them illegal and players who were outraged at their invention are on the hunt to get users banned. It is possible to go a snag bar's Facebook application page and see which of your neighbors uses an application by that company, but be aware this does not mean they are using an illegal tool. For instance, you can look me up and see that I have given permission to "Gamers Unite", the creators of the most popular snag bar. But I don't have a snag bar installed on my browser; I use the forums on the Gamers Unite website and I love their feature that allows me to earn what are called GU Credits. My favorite shopping site (Think Geek) is one of many that allows Gamers Unite members to earn GU points when shopping and those points can then be traded in for FV Cash. If you have strong feelings against players using a snag bar and you see their name as a user for a company that makes one, you can ask them why they've given that company permission. Most snag bar users will not conceal the fact that they use one, and by that method you won't defriend a player that isn't doing anything wrong.



If you're one of my FarmVille neighbors, no doubt you'll notice that there are things listed here I don't do. I almost never buy craft samples, and I usually only visit the lowest level neighboring farms, which probably isn't yours. I have my reasons for that, as does everyone who doesn't do something others wish they would or does things others wish they wouldn't. I personally try to make up for it in my own ways (horse and tree breeding), and I know most of my neighbors do, too, whether it's gifting or leaving thank you comments or something else.

Most of my Facebook friends are people I have never met and that I friended through the FarmVille forum in the "Add me" thread. Many of them are mostly friended to people they don't know, either. I have been happily surprised to see that such a complicated network of people who do not know each other can be so kind, accepting, and generous with each other. It's made the game an enjoyable pastime for me and I've developed some real friendships through it.