Cure for latest flavor of website cruft?

December 26, 2012 1:58 PM

Popups. They're baaaack! Half the websites out there seem to have decided (roughly all at the same time) that full width toolbars or promotional bars that rise up at screen bottom and cover up content, or slide-in promotional boxes that obtrude themselves from screen lower left or lower right or both and cover up content, are absolutely wonderful ideas. Ad-blockers don't seem to think they're ads since what they're flacking for is the same site you're already on (The VERY NEXT New York Times story you'll want to read is...) rather than something in a different domain. Is there any hope of blocking these? Thanks very much!
posted by jfuller to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

NoScript + Adblock Plus + Ghostery should slap down most of the stupid. NoScript alone will probably nix those annoying popups at the NYT and other sites. You can adjust the settings on all three to allow trusted sites to perform as intended. Silence is golden.
posted by Pudhoho at 2:08 PM on December 26, 2012 [3 favorites]

I use Chrome along with Adblock and I rarely get popups.
posted by kdern at 2:10 PM on December 26, 2012

What blocklists is your AdBlock subscribed to? I hardly ever get these, and when I get home tonight I can compare my subscriptions and see if I can recommend any that you don't have.
posted by radwolf76 at 2:21 PM on December 26, 2012

Response by poster: > What blocklists is your AdBlock subscribed to?

Just easylist. Also "Allow some non-intrusive advertising" was checked by default and I left it that way.
posted by jfuller at 2:38 PM on December 26, 2012

Best answer: You can use NoScript to block the NYTimes thing (and probably all of these great phenomena), though you might find it hard to block certain scripts and allow others if they're from the same domain. Another approach is to use AdBlock Plus's "Open Blockable Items" window, sort by the type column, and play around with the different script items to see which ones you don't want. Beyond that, the Element Hiding Helper for AdBlock Plus is a nice addon that makes it easier to just strike whole elements from the page. You might be able to use it to erase whatever things are popped up, though that's probably a less effective approach than the other two.
posted by trig at 3:14 PM on December 26, 2012

Best answer: For bottom of the screen toolbars, I wrote this little bookmarklet that I call 'kbb' for Kill Bottom Bar.

javascript:(function(i,e,a,s){for(i=0,a=document.getElementsByTagName('*');e=a[i];i++){s=getComputedStyle(e,null);if(s.bottom==='0px'&&s.position==='fixed')e.style.display='none';}}})()

The slide-in "next story" things are the worst!
posted by domnit at 3:44 PM on December 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: jfuller: "> What blocklists is your AdBlock subscribed to?

Just easylist. Also "Allow some non-intrusive advertising" was checked by default and I left it that way."

That checkbox is why I run the alternative version, AdBlock Lite, which is a fork of AdBlock Plus that leaves it un-checked by default, but I don't believe that having it checked or unchecked would be affecting your particular situation.

Here's additional subscriptions that I run, in addition to the basic Easyblock list. Now I'll be the first to admit that this is probably more blocklist subscriptions than I probably need, there's bound to be overlap between some of these lists, and I do break pages more than I'd like (usually embedded video), but I can tell you for sure that one or more of these are blocking the kinds of page elements you're having trouble with, because I don't see them. Which one(s), I don't know for certain -- you may have to experiment. If I had to guess, I'd start with Fanboy's Annoyances.

Fanboy's Adblock List
Fanboy's Tracking List
Fanboy's Annoyance List
(Fanboy's Homepage)

Adversity
Adversity Antisocial
(Adversity Homepage)

Peter Lowe's List
(Homepage)

Squirrel Conspiracy Facebook Privacy List
(Homepage)

malwaredomains.com/Easylist
(Homepage)
posted by radwolf76 at 5:56 PM on December 26, 2012 [4 favorites]

I'm just running Adblock Plus subscribed to EasyPrivacy+EasyList, and nytimes.com looks pretty clean to me. Are there specific pages you can link to that display the annoying behaviour you're seeing?
posted by flabdablet at 7:49 AM on December 27, 2012

I'm wondering whether, given that you say this issue seems to have started affecting large numbers of sites at roughly the same time, whether your issue might be malware on your PC rather than a design conspiracy across multiple sites.
posted by flabdablet at 7:51 AM on December 27, 2012

Radwolf76 has it. The answer is to use all of Fanboy's lists, or, if you're already subscribed to his AdBlock list and are still getting those stupid slider ads and toolbars, just add Fanboy's Annoyance List to your subscriptions. Problem solved! You can test it by visiting a site like the Mercury News (which is rife with annoyances) both before and after you install Fanboy's lists.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 9:52 AM on December 27, 2012

Another good options is to push your longer articles to Instapaper, which strips out all the cruft and simplifies and enhances the reading experience.
posted by 4midori at 9:07 AM on December 28, 2012

Response by poster: trig:

> You can use NoScript to block the NYTimes thing (and probably all of these great phenomena), though you might
> find it hard to block certain scripts and allow others if they're from the same domain

But just removing nytimes.com from my trusted list (and slate.com and theatlantic.com and wired.com -- wired, how could you?) does the job. If any of these sites does anything with scripting that I can't live without I can't think of it.


domnit:

> javascript:(function(i,e,a,s){for(i=0,a=document.getElementsByTagName('*');e=a[i];i++){s=getComputedStyle(e,null);
> if(s.bottom==='0px'&&s.position==='fixed')e.style.display='none';}}})()

domnit, that's awesome! Almost as much fun as shooting them with the destructo ray! Thank you!


Radwolf76:

> Here's additional subscriptions that I run, in addition to the basic Easyblock list.

All added. So very much of the "full user experience" they want me to have, gone the way Sumer and Babylon are gone, and good riddance.


Humble thanks to everyone who responded, and happy new grar year to all!
posted by jfuller at 6:58 AM on December 31, 2012