Topic: Website viewing chalanges

[Dr Obbins]

This forum is the only place I know of that has website programmers that might be able to help me.

When visiting sites these days, more and more sites still have pop ups showing. I just start reading and a new window opens requesting that I sign up for their (spam) emails or take a survey on how I liked the website. In FF block pop ups is checked, yet these are still getting through.

Next, I visit both Fox and CNN news (cough) sites to read both sides of the propaganda. When opening a link to a news story, they have videos at the top. It is set so it wont start playing, but when scrolling down the page, the video divorces its self from the top and covers up the text I am trying to read.

Is there a way to stop these? Different browser? Plugins? Or just another modern inconvenience to deal with?

[Jáchym]

Hi,
the problem is that these are not really pop-ups. Popups are triggered by the window.open command and basically load a new page in a new window.

What you are talking about is 99% a jQuery dialog DIV - I use it myself too (though not for spam ). It is basically a normal part of the page, which just autohides when you load it, it has absolute positioning, so just think about it as if it was there all the time, just "below" the actual page and you can bring it forward.

In the cases you mention above they just autoshow it. So it is just part of the page as such, not a separate thing and all it does is shows on top of the rest and dims the surrounding area, but this cannot be blocked by a popup blocker because it is not a popup

[saratogaWX]

I use the NoScript plugin with FireFox -- it is somewhat a pain to manually enable all new sites that fetch JavaScript to run on the site you are viewing, but once done (and the adware sites left unchecked), you can blissfully browse your favorite site without worries about popups or sometimes malware that tries to run from an (unknown to NoScript) website.

Been using it for years...

[Dr Obbins]

In the cases you mention above they just autoshow it. So it is just part of the page as such, not a separate thing and all it does is shows on top of the rest and dims the surrounding area, but this cannot be blocked by a popup blocker because it is not a popup

I was thinking it would be something like that.

I use the NoScript plugin with FireFox -- it is somewhat a pain to manually enable all new sites that fetch JavaScript to run on the site you are viewing, but once done (and the adware sites left unchecked), you can blissfully browse your favorite site without worries about popups or sometimes malware that tries to run from an (unknown to NoScript) website.

Been using it for years...

I'll give NoScript a shot. Thanks.

[Jáchym]

I use the NoScript plugin with FireFox -- it is somewhat a pain to manually enable all new sites that fetch JavaScript to run on the site you are viewing, but once done (and the adware sites left unchecked), you can blissfully browse your favorite site without worries about popups or sometimes malware that tries to run from an (unknown to NoScript) website.

Been using it for years...

Not sure this will work with these "popups" - they are just divs that change opacity and if you disable JS they are going to be on the top all the time and the entire site will probably be unusable

[Dr Obbins]

Yea.. NoScript is very aggressive. I don't know if it is the solution.

[vreihen]

I have also been using various script blocker plugins over the years.  They are a PITA to set up, but totally stop annoying things like that and also drive-by malware by not allowing Javascript to run from any source until you allow that domain in the blocker.  There are also ad-blocker plugins that will prevent the bad things, but not stop the in-page popups that aren't ads.  As we say in the computer network security business, your best defense is in layers.....

[Jáchym]

I use jQuery quite heavily in Meteotemplate and I know this cannot really be overcome unless you disable JS completely. There is no way the script could tell if that DIV is undesirable or desirable. It behaves just like any other div on that page, it is just "playing around" with opacity and absolute positioning.

The problem is that if you disable JS, 99% of the internet will be unusable these days. I dont know anyone who would use internet without JS - even pages like Gmail, any sort of maps, graphs, interactive elements.... everything uses JS these days (usually using jQuery). Unless you have just a pure HTML site with a few images, you will have a major problem.

[saratogaWX]

NoScript takes a bit to get used to manually enabling all the 'other' sites having scripts needed by the current site you are visiting.
The default is 'don't run a script from a site that is not approved', and that 'default deny' is a sound security stance to prevent 3rd party sites from sneaking in scripts for you to run (some of which may be ads or malware).

It's a pain when you visit a site for the first time, then go through the list of 'other' sites it needs one-by-one until it renders the site correctly.  When you go to the shopping section of the site the first time, a new list of 'other' sites may need to be approved one-by-one to get your order processed.  You won't have to do that again for the site (unless the site changes).

Thats what I meant by 'a bit of a pain' since it's manual action for what to enable each time you visit a new site.. once done, you can feel safer that a rogue site won't be successful in injecting scripts into your browser from visiting that primary site.

[danner]

If you're using adblock plus with FF you should know they stopped supporting it and they allow some advertising to get through. I've since moved to uBlock and it works much better.

[Jáchym]

It will be a never ending battle between adblockers and website owners. More and more often you see a page where using adblock or any other ad blocking extension disables various features on the site - in the worst scenario you cannot see the page at all, on other pages you might not be able to watch videos (eg news sites), there is one good Czech website where I had to disable AdBlock in order to be able to post in discussions etc etc... AdBlockers find a way of blocking an ad, developers find a way of blocking AdBlock from blocking ads, so AdBlock developers block the block which blocks the Adblock from blocking ads.... you know what I mean

[WeatherHost]

 AdBlock Plus with the optional Element Hiding Helper kills most everything once you get used to it., but it takes some trial and error.

I noticed today when I was assaulted by a video on a news site that there is now a video blocker I hadn't seen before.


No web developer with a shred of decency would employ tricks to annoy visitors.

[Dr Obbins]

I wouldn't mind ads if they behaved themselves. But flashing, jumping, scrolling, etc. make websites unusable. Never figured out why the web host wants to aggravate their visitor. Yes! Alternating blue/yellow lettering really convinced me to buy their product! If not for ad-blockers, much of the web is unusable.

This latest round aren't even ads. There floating parts of the website that have to be closed before you can read the material. The news sites like to force their videos on you. Well I am at work and can't play/listen to a video in an open office environment. I actually want to read and the video player jumps out of it's place and won't go away. I have tried the video blocker, but there are times I do want to see the videos. What is the point of the video jumping out of place and following you around while you try to read?

 Or I want to go to a website to buy something and the "how can we help you " box keeps popping up. Or followed a link to read a story and a huge window pops up wanting me to "like" the page or sign up for emails. The only reason I am on Facebook is that's where my 4 wheeling group hangs out. That page is so full of links, it is hard to find a place to put the courser with out information opening up. Then the stuff moves around when a new post appears and before you know it you accidentally sent a friend request to a stranger.

Sorry for getting on a rant. Let's see, I don't watch TV anymore, the web is getting unusable, maybe have to try video games again.

[LFWX]

I wouldn't mind ads if they behaved themselves. But flashing, jumping, scrolling, etc. make websites unusable. Never figured out why the web host wants to aggravate their visitor. Yes! Alternating blue/yellow lettering really convinced me to buy their product! If not for ad-blockers, much of the web is unusable.

This latest round aren't even ads. There floating parts of the website that have to be closed before you can read the material. The news sites like to force their videos on you. Well I am at work and can't play/listen to a video in an open office environment. I actually want to read and the video player jumps out of it's place and won't go away. I have tried the video blocker, but there are times I do want to see the videos. What is the point of the video jumping out of place and following you around while you try to read?

 Or I want to go to a website to buy something and the "how can we help you " box keeps popping up. Or followed a link to read a story and a huge window pops up wanting me to "like" the page or sign up for emails. The only reason I am on Facebook is that's where my 4 wheeling group hangs out. That page is so full of links, it is hard to find a place to put the courser with out information opening up. Then the stuff moves around when a new post appears and before you know it you accidentally sent a friend request to a stranger.

Sorry for getting on a rant. Let's see, I don't watch TV anymore, the web is getting unusable, maybe have to try video games again.

...and if your using an old (Windows Vista equipped) computer, everything comes to a crawl!

When you finally start reading the article...something will happen above and/or below the article and the text you're reading scrolls out of view...scrolling to find the text again brings the computer to a crawl again. 

It's just ridiculous!