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He mentions CNN earlier in the thread, so I went ahead and deconstructed the site a bit. chartbeat and optimizely domains try to serve scripts. One is "landingprod.js" and the other "chartbeat_mab.js" which appears to gather visitor attention information for real-time bidding.
There's probably a ton of knock-on scripts that only get loaded in if these initial scripts are allowed to run. But I'm not about to go defiling my browser by allowing the execution of js meant for the cattle for the sake of hunting down the source of a popover for some guy on the internet lol
Using uMatrix, I allowed only for the base HTML document, static images and their one stylesheet to load. The site is perfectly functional for reading news with only these three things... and no popovers or ads in sight (Well, that's if you don't consider the articles themselves to be ads... but that conversation is for another time).
The cells in green are the allowed assets. Red/pink cells are all being blocked. I know I sound like a broken record, but please dip your toes into uMatrix. It's so damn effective and intuitive.
I just installed uMatrix, and I'm going to give it a shot, but I'm not optimistic
One of the reviews I just read. "It's very good but it also creates web problems that block pages. It's not user friendly." Lack of user friendliness is usually a roadblock for me. Why do pop-up blockers have to be so damn complicated? I don't want to see a hundred options. I just don't want to see the pop-ups.
Right now I have YouTube pop-ups locked down pretty well. I never even see the "Ad Blockers are not allowed on YouTube" pop-up. If I do see it, it's for less than 1 second and then goes away automatically. But some other stupid pop-ups still get through, which I then have to click to close. One irritating one that I keep getting is "Experiencing interruption?" If I click on it, YouTube just basically tells me that my internet connection sucks. Which is not even true. My connection is extremely fast and has tripled in the last six months. It's way faster then what I need to watch the videos. The problem is my old hardware, which I'm working on that problem. But in addition to the irritation of ultra high definition videos dropping frames I have to deal with the irritation of the stupid YouTube false pop-up regarding the problem. If I try to block it with any of my current extensions it just blocks the video, instead of the pop-up.
Come on developers, this isn't rocket science. You can do better. Just come up with a good simple to use pop-up blocker that kills pop-ups.
Are you getting this on the main page of WYFF4.com?
If yes, I didn't get any such pop-ups and I am only using uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger externsions with Brave.
If something else, please provide the details.
I was looking at this story to get the local news details after seeing story on C-Ds "Current Events" forum
I'm just....flabbergasted that any site would want to **** off its paying subscribers. My main city newspaper does the same thing. I want to fuc*ing punch them every time.
If people have pop-up blockers then I guess we don't want that ****. Is that too much to grasp?!
I also just now got it on their main "home" web page also.
I'll see if Privacy Badger may work as I did use it some years ago.
BTW, this type popup does not happen every time, but just often enough to be annoying.
I tried it again using the link you gave and still noting after a few minutes keeping it open.
uMatrix is a bit too restrictive. It has its purpose but for everyday browsing, I think it will hinder too much of the functionality on some sites to be useful.
I use uBlock Origin at a minimum and never experienced any issues on any site.
Privacy Badger is for embedded/inline ads within streams.
In plain English, it blocks the ads even in the show that you stream.
For Example: the Freevee channel on Amazon Prime has long and frequent ads that cannot be skipped but, with Privacy Badger, I see none.
That is why I have a feeling it may help with your issue.
Last edited by TurcoLoco; 01-15-2024 at 09:35 PM..
I tried it again using the link you gave and still noting after a few minutes keeping it open.
uMatrix is a bit too restrictive. It has its purpose but for everyday browsing, I think it will hinder too much of the functionality on some sites to be useful.
I use uBlock Origin at a minimum and never experienced any issues on any site.
That was the experience of my brief try of uMatrix. Right off the bat, I couldn't get YouTube to load. After unchecking enough boxes I finally got the videos to load, but they still wouldn't play. At that point I had enough and uninstalled it.
In my case, using Safari on a Mac, Neither Privacy Badger or uMatrix are available for Mac OS X.
FWIW, the frequency of these full-screen popups seems to have decreased, and I'm starting to see small ads of the "sign up for our newsletter" type appearing in-line with the body of a news article.
Maybe there have been enough other complaints, that these sites have changed their method. For now I'm just going to live with it.
That was the experience of my brief try of uMatrix. Right off the bat, I couldn't get YouTube to load. After unchecking enough boxes I finally got the videos to load, but they still wouldn't play. At that point I had enough and uninstalled it.
There has to an easier way to block popups.
If you have not yet, try uBlock Origin and if needed, in addition, Privacy Badger as well.
If you have your own router (or modem/router combo unit), in the DNS settings, I'd advice entering AdGuard's plain DNS server IP addresses which does a very good job.
This approach will block ads on any device connecting to Internet through the same (router) home network.
For Smart TVs, an alternate approach would be to use pi-hole (but still not effective against YT or other streaming ads).
Quote:
Originally Posted by reed303
In my case, using Safari on a Mac, Neither Privacy Badger or uMatrix are available for Mac OS X.
The problem with MacOS is that they still have not relaxed their requirement of 3rd party browsers having to use their own (Blink) engine. This browser blockage might end this year but not certain.
But as of now, whatever 3rd party browser you have installed, is acting much like a wrapper to Safari.
So, naturally, whatever extension is not available to Safari, would not be available to whatever else browser installed.
Last edited by TurcoLoco; 01-16-2024 at 02:37 PM..
If you have your own router (or modem/router combo unit), in the DNS settings, I'd advice entering AdGuard's plain DNS server IP addresses which does a very good job.
If you have not yet, try uBlock Origin and if needed, in addition, Privacy Badger as well.
If you have your own router (or modem/router combo unit), in the DNS settings, I'd advice entering AdGuard's plain DNS server IP addresses which does a very good job.
This approach will block ads on any device connecting to Internet through the same (router) home network.
For Smart TVs, an alternate approach would be to use pi-hole (but still not effective against YT or other streaming ads).
I've been experimenting with uBlock Origin, but it doesn't seem to do everything that AdBlock Plus does. I have been using ABP for a long time. I've a lot of different things on different websites blocked with ABP, and it will be very difficult to switch to uBlock. Right now, it just doesn't look like UBlock will work for me. But I will do some more experimenting with it.
I have also been testing AdNauseam, which seems more promising. I guess this has been around along time. I don't know why I have never heard of it. From what I understand AdNauseam doesn't just block ads, but when it blocks them, it also clicks on them. This is the most amazing concept I've heard of, and the way all blockers should work. If AdNauseam works for me the way it's supposed to, and at this point it seems to, I can use it on YouTube. It will block all the YouTube ads and click on them for me, without me having to do a thing. YouTube won't give me the "Ad Blockers are not allowed on YouTube" popup, or try to slow down my connection. Since YouTube will think I'm watching their stupid ads. And best of all the content creators I watch will get paid for the ads I didn't view. What a brilliant solution. But I'm still testing it to make sure it works as it's supposed to.
I've been experimenting with uBlock Origin, but it doesn't seem to do everything that AdBlock Plus does. I have been using ABP for a long time. I've a lot of different things on different websites blocked with ABP, and it will be very difficult to switch to uBlock. Right now, it just doesn't look like UBlock will work for me. But I will do some more experimenting with it.
I have also been testing AdNauseam, which seems more promising. I guess this has been around along time. I don't know why I have never heard of it. From what I understand AdNauseam doesn't just block ads, but when it blocks them, it also clicks on them. This is the most amazing concept I've heard of, and the way all blockers should work. If AdNauseam works for me the way it's supposed to, and at this point it seems to, I can use it on YouTube. It will block all the YouTube ads and click on them for me, without me having to do a thing. YouTube won't give me the "Ad Blockers are not allowed on YouTube" popup, or try to slow down my connection. Since YouTube will think I'm watching their stupid ads. And best of all the content creators I watch will get paid for the ads I didn't view. What a brilliant solution. But I'm still testing it to make sure it works as it's supposed to.
If nothing else, I loved the name "Adnauseam", couldn't be a better name to describe the current ad/pop-up clicking shenanigans.
I do like their concept as well but let me know how it works out for you. Was Google still blocking this extension when you installed it?
Their approach reminded me of Privacy Possum which was a fork project of Privacy Badger where Badger blocks, Possum falsifies or misdirects the data being collected.
I really do not get any ads with uBlock and when I use Privacy Badger, it even blocks the embedded ads into video streams which no other extension was able to. So, in short, for my current needs and usage, those 2 work wonderfully on Brave. If you are using Google Chrome, you are already at a disadvantage. Also, as time goes on, there are updates and changes to browsers, codes used on web sites and anti-ad blocking checks that become more sophisticate.....an ongoing battle for sure.
What works today may not work well or at all tomorrow. This type of stuff needs periodic assessment, update and/or alternate means.
As I mentioned in my previous post, if applicable, blocking the ads via DNS settings in the router, at a minimum, is a sound approach.
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