A
Andy
Is there a way to block the Wikipedia nag screen ?
B
Bruce Hagen
Andy said:
About donating? I clicked the X at the top right and haven't seen it again.
R
R.Wieser
Andy,
Most likely. For FF the plugin GreaseMonkey (and some scripting) comes to
mind.
But you could do worse than to post an URL so we can see which nagscreen you
mean.
For the record: I just yesterday visited wikipedia and have not seen any
kind of nagscreen.
Regards,
Rudy Wieser
-- Origional message:
Most likely. For FF the plugin GreaseMonkey (and some scripting) comes to
mind.
But you could do worse than to post an URL so we can see which nagscreen you
mean.
For the record: I just yesterday visited wikipedia and have not seen any
kind of nagscreen.
Regards,
Rudy Wieser
-- Origional message:
P
(PeteCresswell)
Per Andy:
Send money...
Just kidding... But if there was ever a worthy recipient of a few bucks
from every user, Wikipedia is it.
Send money...
Just kidding... But if there was ever a worthy recipient of a few bucks
from every user, Wikipedia is it.
M
Mayayana
| Is there a way to block the Wikipedia nag screen ?
For nearly all nag screens and popups you can disable
script. If you don't want to do that, in Firefox and Pale
Moon you can use NoScript, which allows you to disable
script by default but easily enable it selectively when
it's actually needed.
You might find all that to be too much trouble, but there's
no easy way. Either you accept that most webpages look
like an exploding pile of Miracle Mile* neon signs, or you get
technical and block at least enough junk so that pages are
readable.
(* I'm not sure how well known the term Miracle Mile is.
I found in my travels across western US that it's a common
name for a town's strip-mall street, where rinky dink stores,
bars and car dealerships are located. Thus, at night the
street will be a mass of garish flashing signs and pulsing,
lighted arrows. I guess Miracle Mile probably comes from a
more innocent time, like the 50s, when a line of neon signs
was something to get excited about.)
In Firefox and Pale Moon you can also do nearly anything
display-related with the userContent.css file, in the chrome
folder, which is in your profile folder. I've never seen a popup
at Wikipedia. I took a quick look at the code and didn't see
it. But most such overlay windows are hidden DIV elements.
Script is then used to make them visible. You should be able
to make any such element invisible through userContent.css,
using either the ID or class of the element:
/* block by ID */
#sharebar_fixed {display: none;}
/* block by class name */
..footer_bar {display: none;}
I've never tried hiding something that gets shown through
script, though. This method is primarily for normal page elements,
so you'd have to test it for scripts that change the display
property.
I think the easiest way to clean up pages is to use 2 browsers
and a HOSTS file. The HOSTS file will stop most 3rd-party ads.
In one browser, enable script and session cookies. Only use
that browser for interactive sites where it's needed. In the
other browser, disable cookies and script. Also disable frames.
Set browser.frames.enabled to false in FF or PM. (If you
have Flash installed you might also want to have FlashBlock,
giving you the choice of whether to run videos and animated
donkey cartoons on webpages.)
You'll get simple, clean pages. The thing with the frames is
a bit sticky. Many sites, like Google/Doublclick, Facebook, etc
have ads or buttons on other webpages that are in IFRAMES.
An IFRAME is a second browser window embedded in the main
window. Putting a Facebook button or Google ad in an IFRAME
allows them to set a first-party cookie because technically
you "chose" to visit their website. While the button doesn't look
any different, it's actually a separate webpage enbedded in the
page you're looking at.
Once you get a HOSTS file you'll be blocking the vast majority
of spyware third party ads, but you'll see lots of little 404 error
pages in the page you're viewing, where the ads would normally
be. Suddenly you can see that the link you went to actually
loaded a dozen other webpages without your permission. It's
not a problem to have all those 404 pages, but it's unsightly.
So if you block the ads it's also nice to block the frames.
Once you've set up 2 browsers you can use one to log into
webmail, shop at online stores, go to Netflix, etc. For everything
else you can use the clean and safe browser. I think you'll be
surprised at how many sites actually don't need script. Until
Google started pushing the "push" Web that spies and interacts,
both script and IFRAMES were being phased out for safety. (A
lot of malware exploits "cross site scripting" enabled by IFRAMES.)
For the vast majority of sites script simply isn't necessary. A good
webmaster will usually design their page to work without it.
(Even the spying is designed with NOSCRIPT options most of
the time, so that a webpage can track you with web bugs when
script is disabled.
This might all be more than you want to know, but I figure
it's worth posting once in a while for the sake of anyone who
wants more control over the growing online spying, security risks
and cacophony, but doesn't know where to start.
For nearly all nag screens and popups you can disable
script. If you don't want to do that, in Firefox and Pale
Moon you can use NoScript, which allows you to disable
script by default but easily enable it selectively when
it's actually needed.
You might find all that to be too much trouble, but there's
no easy way. Either you accept that most webpages look
like an exploding pile of Miracle Mile* neon signs, or you get
technical and block at least enough junk so that pages are
readable.
(* I'm not sure how well known the term Miracle Mile is.
I found in my travels across western US that it's a common
name for a town's strip-mall street, where rinky dink stores,
bars and car dealerships are located. Thus, at night the
street will be a mass of garish flashing signs and pulsing,
lighted arrows. I guess Miracle Mile probably comes from a
more innocent time, like the 50s, when a line of neon signs
was something to get excited about.)
In Firefox and Pale Moon you can also do nearly anything
display-related with the userContent.css file, in the chrome
folder, which is in your profile folder. I've never seen a popup
at Wikipedia. I took a quick look at the code and didn't see
it. But most such overlay windows are hidden DIV elements.
Script is then used to make them visible. You should be able
to make any such element invisible through userContent.css,
using either the ID or class of the element:
/* block by ID */
#sharebar_fixed {display: none;}
/* block by class name */
..footer_bar {display: none;}
I've never tried hiding something that gets shown through
script, though. This method is primarily for normal page elements,
so you'd have to test it for scripts that change the display
property.
I think the easiest way to clean up pages is to use 2 browsers
and a HOSTS file. The HOSTS file will stop most 3rd-party ads.
In one browser, enable script and session cookies. Only use
that browser for interactive sites where it's needed. In the
other browser, disable cookies and script. Also disable frames.
Set browser.frames.enabled to false in FF or PM. (If you
have Flash installed you might also want to have FlashBlock,
giving you the choice of whether to run videos and animated
donkey cartoons on webpages.)
You'll get simple, clean pages. The thing with the frames is
a bit sticky. Many sites, like Google/Doublclick, Facebook, etc
have ads or buttons on other webpages that are in IFRAMES.
An IFRAME is a second browser window embedded in the main
window. Putting a Facebook button or Google ad in an IFRAME
allows them to set a first-party cookie because technically
you "chose" to visit their website. While the button doesn't look
any different, it's actually a separate webpage enbedded in the
page you're looking at.
Once you get a HOSTS file you'll be blocking the vast majority
of spyware third party ads, but you'll see lots of little 404 error
pages in the page you're viewing, where the ads would normally
be. Suddenly you can see that the link you went to actually
loaded a dozen other webpages without your permission. It's
not a problem to have all those 404 pages, but it's unsightly.
So if you block the ads it's also nice to block the frames.
Once you've set up 2 browsers you can use one to log into
webmail, shop at online stores, go to Netflix, etc. For everything
else you can use the clean and safe browser. I think you'll be
surprised at how many sites actually don't need script. Until
Google started pushing the "push" Web that spies and interacts,
both script and IFRAMES were being phased out for safety. (A
lot of malware exploits "cross site scripting" enabled by IFRAMES.)
For the vast majority of sites script simply isn't necessary. A good
webmaster will usually design their page to work without it.
(Even the spying is designed with NOSCRIPT options most of
the time, so that a webpage can track you with web bugs when
script is disabled.
This might all be more than you want to know, but I figure
it's worth posting once in a while for the sake of anyone who
wants more control over the growing online spying, security risks
and cacophony, but doesn't know where to start.
M
Mayayana
| I agree and I did send them a few bucks, the nag screen went away for
| a day.
| Maybe if I wasn't wiping my cookies it would have stayed gone.
Even if they knew from cookies that you were a
contributor, I wouldn't expect that to stop the nag
screen. Fundraising is a science these days, and it
seems to be common logic that people who have
donated already are the best marks. I find that many
of them are typical of one that called me at one time:
I'd given them $50 per year for two years. They
then called me in the second year and said, "You've
been donating $50 every 6 months. We wondered if
you might like to increase that." They were trying to
trick me into doubling my donation as a starting point
to the conversation. I stopped donating altogether.
| a day.
| Maybe if I wasn't wiping my cookies it would have stayed gone.
Even if they knew from cookies that you were a
contributor, I wouldn't expect that to stop the nag
screen. Fundraising is a science these days, and it
seems to be common logic that people who have
donated already are the best marks. I find that many
of them are typical of one that called me at one time:
I'd given them $50 per year for two years. They
then called me in the second year and said, "You've
been donating $50 every 6 months. We wondered if
you might like to increase that." They were trying to
trick me into doubling my donation as a starting point
to the conversation. I stopped donating altogether.
A
Andy
Thanks Bruce.
That was simple.
Andy
A
Andy
R
R.Wieser
Andy,
I do not see the nagscreen you mentioned, but that can be because I've got
(among others) JS disabled.
The photobucket link shows me "an unexpected error".
Regards,
Rudy Wieser
-- Origional message:
I do not see the nagscreen you mentioned, but that can be because I've got
(among others) JS disabled.
The photobucket link shows me "an unexpected error".
Regards,
Rudy Wieser
-- Origional message:
M
Mayayana
| The photobucket link shows me "an unexpected error".
|
I see a mainly blank page with the message:
"drew77580's Library is Private."
I'm continually surprised that so many people just don't
seem to be able to grok that webpages don't look the
same for different people. Things like color and layout
never were identical from one system to another. These
days, people have private Facebook pages, webpage spying
is used to show personally targetted ads and Google
is spying on them to personalize their search results. Yet
they still asume everyone sees exactly what they see, as
though it were a TV set.
|
I see a mainly blank page with the message:
"drew77580's Library is Private."
I'm continually surprised that so many people just don't
seem to be able to grok that webpages don't look the
same for different people. Things like color and layout
never were identical from one system to another. These
days, people have private Facebook pages, webpage spying
is used to show personally targetted ads and Google
is spying on them to personalize their search results. Yet
they still asume everyone sees exactly what they see, as
though it were a TV set.
P
(PeteCresswell)
Per (PeteCresswell):
OTOH, if not enough people send money eventually nobody will have to
worry about a nag screen...
OTOH, if not enough people send money eventually nobody will have to
worry about a nag screen...
A
Andy
Not a problem.
Confident someone else will fill in the void.
Andy