browser add-on or RSS code to block sign-up pop-overs

April 11, 2014 5:12 PM

When I follow a link to a news story, invariably the site nags me to "sign-up" with a pop-over that must be dismissed before I can read the article. Is there a browser add-on or RSS code I can put into my custom RSS style sheet to block these annoyances?

In addition, I would love a way to shrink the red "navigation bar" at the top of the sfgate.com page, as I never use those links and hate the way it hogs the browser window. Again, happy to add code to my default RSS style sheet to accomplish this, just need to know how to do it.

I am using both Safari and Chrome. The ideal solution would work on both but a solution that works on either one alone would be very helpful.

posted by jcdill to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Do you mean CSS?

Regardless, I use AdBlock Plus.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:19 PM on April 11, 2014

1) I'm pretty sure you mean CSS and not RSS
2) probably any hack to get rid of signup popovers would need to be site specific unless, say, it's a family of sites run by the same company or they're a bunch of sites using some off the shelf solution and they have standardized naming conventions.
3) for sfgate.com, putting the following into your custom css:

.nav-fixed{
position: static;
}

should leave the nav bar at the top of the page instead of it following as you scroll down. if you literally never use the nav bar, then

nav{
display: none;
}

should get rid of it entirely.
posted by juv3nal at 6:27 PM on April 11, 2014

Response by poster: D'oh, yes, I meant CSS not RSS. (I need a good RSS reader to replace Google Reader, but that's a different question, LOL.)
posted by jcdill at 7:10 PM on April 11, 2014

Response by poster: Juv3nal, is there a way to specify that rss snippet to apply to sfgate.com only? thanks!
posted by jcdill at 7:16 PM on April 11, 2014

I dunno, it would depend on the method you're using to apply your custom CSS. Stylish will do that on a per site basis (for chrome, not sure if there's an equivalent for safari), but you'll have to poke around for the specifics of wildcarding syntax (e.g. for subdomains) and which box to fill in to indicate which site.
posted by juv3nal at 7:42 PM on April 11, 2014

Response by poster: juv3nal, I'm using the floppymoose userContent.css editing method, and editing it with a text editor. I don't need to worry about subdomain syntax, just applying it to www.sfgate.com should suffice.

http://www.floppymoose.com/
posted by jcdill at 8:40 PM on April 11, 2014

Feedly for your RSS needs (your other question). Sorry, on phone and can't link.
posted by kathrynm at 9:11 PM on April 11, 2014

huh. TIL I learned attribute selectors for CSS are a thing. But off the top of my head, doesn't help since <nav> doesn't have an href or src attribute. I would probably just hope some more specificity might avoid collision with other sites?
so maybe something like:

body div#outer_bg_container div#inner_bg_container div.container nav.nav-fixed{
position: static;
}


or


body div#outer_bg_container div#inner_bg_container div.container nav{
display: none;
}


(that's untested, but should probs work?)
posted by juv3nal at 12:36 AM on April 12, 2014