Rick, don't know if it's me or not (my mother-in-law was going to defriend me due to the Mafia Wars thing...), but you can block an application without blocking a friend. In my example, if a Mafia Wars announcement pops up, click on the upper right side. You can block the friend, OR block the application. That way you can still see all the (non Mafia) posts by that person, but you aren't totally annoyed by some game you have no interest in. While I'm into Mafia Wars, I could care less about my sisters rabid interest in collecting eggs on Facebook, or her farm creatures. I block them, but still see her other posts. Hope that helps