War on Pop-ups

[Ryan²]

Let's face facts: Parts of the Internet are fucked up beyond repair, and the poor spider who has to untangle the web is in for a real shocker. Just browsing the Internet tonight, I cannot believe how many pop-ups have popped up.

Yes, they all drive us crazy. Yes, I know that some companies are trying to make a living. And yes, I realise that some are just making dumbasses of themselves. Oh, how they infuriate me and millions of others out there. They should be made illegal, especially on MP3 sites. MP3's 4 Free.net got shut down sometime last year - shame because I used them regularly to get my MP3's. But if anything they were the biggest piss-takers. What happened every time you were on their site for more than aboyt 15 minutes? It only fills your fucking Favorites folder full up to the brim with about 12 folders and Internet URL pages. This caught me twice and I was not pleased. I sent an e-mail to them with a screenshot of my Favorites menu "dropped down" - and they did fuck all, well why doesn't that surprise me?

Anyhew, back to the matter in hand, and as I say, pop-ups are just out of control on the Internet. OK, so is pornography and MP3's and a whole lot of other stuff, but come on, get real...flamin' pop-ups are the worst! The Internet IMO needs to get some sort of organisation going where:-


Companies are either prosecuted or fined for annoying pop-ups.
Companies could be shut down for good if pop-ups continue after warnings (I'm sure you get my drift on this one - enough said :D)
A complaints department is readily available to listen to complaints about sites on the net, and for that department to investigate and action, quickly and efficiently.


The worst pop-up offenders are the ones that have the goddamn cheek to take up your whole screen, and not allow you to close by pressing Alt+F4, or even bring up other Internet Explorer active windows you may have running, or even bring up your Start Menu.

Something needs to be done and fast. This may be a useful resource for virtually everything in this world, and I appreciate the fact it's around etc etc etc, but if ever the saying God Bless The Internet is true, then I'm sorry but I just do not agree with it, yet alone believe in it.

[jseal]

Ryan²

Yes, it is an irritation. One way you can regain control of the situation is to buy a pop-up blocker. The one I use blocks all pop-ups, with the exception of Pixies and another site I use, as both sites invoke pop-ups I want to receive.

In the instance of Pixies, I have my configuration set to “open PM in another window”, which translates into a pop-up.

http://www.webroot.com/wb/products/popupwasher/

Yes, it costs money, but it is sufficiently modest that I felt the return of control was worth it.

Hope this helps.

[Lilith]

I would rather see pop-ups regulated than spam. I can refuse to open spam but pop-ups...well, that is why they are called pop-ups.

[WildIrish]

<---has an irregulated pop-up

[Ryan²]

LOL, very good Mr WI. ;)

Originally posted by jseal
Ryan²

Yes, it is an irritation. One way you can regain control of the situation is to buy a pop-up blocker. The one I use blocks all pop-ups, with the exception of Pixies and another site I use, as both sites invoke pop-ups I want to receive.

In the instance of Pixies, I have my configuration set to “open PM in another window”, which translates into a pop-up.

http://www.webroot.com/wb/products/popupwasher/

Yes, it costs money, but it is sufficiently modest that I felt the return of control was worth it.

Hope this helps.

My PM is set to open in another window too. And also, why should we have to pay for pop-up blockers? As if we don't get taken to the cleaners enough in this world. I'm putting up with it.

[WildIrish]

Just like every other aspect of our lives...we pay not to be annoyed. We pay for premium channels so we can watch movies without commercials. We pay for Caller ID and Call Blocking so we can screen unwanted callers. And we pay for big dogs so we don't get harassed by people selling magazines!

[Belial]

Trying to legally regulate the Internet is about as productive as trying to nail jelly to a tree, because no-one has or will have the breadth of authority required. It won't happen, so forget it. The best you can hope for is a law against pop-up spam, or the law against email spam being extended to that in any given country.

Some sites require pop-ups to properly service the user. This site would be one example. They aren't all evil. However, "post-mortal" pop-ups - ie, those that continue to appear after you've left the site, I despise, those that take up all of the available display, I despise also. But, without exploiting bugs in other software, eg, the operating system, the shell, etc, they can't actually affect the use of your system beyond the browser. If you're using windows, hit ctrl+alt+delete and kill iexplore.

You don't have to pay to kill popups. You can instruct MS Internet Explorer to never run JavaScript, and I believe Mozilla has anti-popup features, which I've not engaged before because it hasn't affected me that much, I guess.

[jseal]

Ryan²,

One way to think about the issue is as a cost of customizing your experience, rather like WildIrish alluded to above. As Belial has pointed out, not all pop-ups are bad, and some (pixies PM pop-up being an example) are beneficial.

Now, I both want to suppress pop-ups as a rule and permit exceptions. This functionality is not provided out of the box.

I’m sure that everyone who reads this post has, at one time or another purchased a product that costs more, but which provides one or more features which make the additional cost acceptable. This would be a similar situation. The add-on I purchased has increased the perceived (to me) value of my browser more than the amount I had to spend to get it.

Belial’s suggestion to disable JavaScript seems a bit heavy handed, but it does cost nothing. Rather than berate the sites that exploit my browser’s limitations, I though that retaining control of my experience was worth $20. Now I can rest assured that only the pop-ups I want are the pop-ups I’ll see. These plug/add ins provide an “opt in” pop-up function which may be added for free sometime in the future, but which I enjoy (for a price) now.

[Belial]

jseal,

If I recall correctly, Mozilla offers that type of "opt-in" popup policy. Next time I'm using it I'll check.

Ryan,

in one sense, you should direct anger towards Microsoft. Software is supposed to be designed such that the user is always in control - "Support internal locus of control" says one of the "golden rules" of interface design - and they clearly have not provided adequate protection against JavaScript externalising that locus of control.

[Lilith]

Originally posted by Belial


You don't have to pay to kill popups. You can instruct MS Internet Explorer to never run JavaScript, and I believe Mozilla has anti-popup features, which I've not engaged before because it hasn't affected me that much, I guess.

Belial,
I have thought about doing this.What all would be affected if I disable java besides not being able to get into chat through the site????

[musketeer]

I used to use Netscape Navigator and you could in the setup options disable frames/popups. It worked for most things try that it may do waht you need.

[Belial]

Lil,

I couldn't say for sure what would happen if you disabled Java, it depends what you do online. For some people it would have minimal impact, others might be unable to do, say, their online banking.

Java is however different from JavaScript. I don't believe all that many sites actually have core functionality written in JavaScript, if they do, then etiquette dictates they give you some sort of message saying that JavaScript must be enabled to use the site.

It'd be an interesting experiment to turn off JavaScript, and you could always turn it back on.

[Catch22]

Have two browers IE and Netscape. Have Netscape set with JAVA off. If you use sites that need JAVA use IE. If your just surfing use the other. No JAVA no pop ups. It also protects you from some spys/viruses that use JAVA.

[BIBI]

I downloaded the googel toolbar and a pop up blocker is included. You can set it to allow pop up at sites you want, like here at pixies.

[Lilith]

BIBI~ I have heard that it is a good pop-up blocker from others as well. Thanks for the confirmation!

[Belial]

Catch22,

Java is not the same as JavaScript, they are two different technologies. If you disable Java, JavaScript will continue to run as before.

[Belial]

NB: This may also work on certain Netscape versions as Netscape and Mozilla were developed from the same code until Netscape died.

From the Mozilla help file:

Controlling Popups

What are Popups?

Pop-up windows, or popups, are windows that appear automatically and without your permission. They vary in size, but usually don't cover the whole screen. Some popups open on top of the current Navigator window, thus popping up,while others appear underneath Navigator (popunders).

Mozilla allows you to control both popups and popunders through the Popup Windows preferences panel. Since popup blocking is turned off by default, you must enable it to prevent popups from appearing in Navigator.

When blocking a popup, Mozilla can be set up to play a sound, as well as display an icon in the status bar. You can use this icon to add a web site you're viewing to an exceptions list so that the site is allowed to again display popups.

Blocking popups may interfere with some web sites: Some web sites, including some banking sites, use popups for important features. Blocking all popups disables such features. To allow specific web sites to use popups, while blocking all others, you can add specific web sites to the list of allowed sites. For more information, see Privacy & Security Preferences - Popup Windows.

Blocking popups doesn't always work: Although Mozilla blocks most popups, some web sites, even when blocked, may use other methods to show popups.

Allowing popups from certain web sites: After you've enabled popup blocking, you can still allow specific sites to display popups. Browse to the web site, and then from the Tools menu, choose Popup Manager, and then choose Allow Popups From This Site.

The next section describes how to control popups through preferences and through the popup control icon.


Privacy & Security Preferences - Popup Windows

This section describes how to use the Popup Windows preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these steps:

1. Open the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
2. Under the Privacy & Security Preferences category, click Popup Windows. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click Privacy & Security to expand the list.)

* Block unrequested popup windows: Select this to prevent popups from appearing in Navigator.
* Allowed Sites: Click this to view and edit the list of web sites that you want to allow to display popups.
o Allowed web sites: The list of allowed web sites appears when you click "Allowed Sites." You can add or remove web sites that should be allowed to show popups.
o Add: Click this after typing in a web site that you want to add to the list.
o Remove: Click this to remove a selected web site.
o

Remove All: Click this to remove all of the web sites in the current list.

When a popup window has been blocked

*

Play a sound: If you want a sound to play each time Navigator blocks a popup, select this option and type the location of the sound file.
o Select: Click this to choose a sound file instead of typing its location in the field.
o Preview: Click this to listen to the chosen sound.
* Display an icon in the Navigator status bar: Select this to display an icon in the Navigator status bar to indicate that a popup is blocked.

Note: After the popup control icon appears, it remains visible until you visit another web site.

Using the popup control icon to add allowed web sites: You can use the popup control icon to quickly add a web site to the list of allowed web sites. Click the icon to open the list of allowed web sites. The current web site is already filled in. Click Add and then click OK to confirm your addition.

Note: Blocking popups may not always work and may interfere with some web sites. For more information about blocking popups, see Controlling Popups.



6 May 2003

Copyright 1998-2003 The Mozilla Organization.

[MilkToast]

I have found two programs that really work for stopping pop-ups. One is the suggestion that Belial made above. I use Mozilla (1.6) as my primary browser. For the cases where I still need to use IE to browse the web I have installed the google.com toolbar for IE. It has a built in pop-up stopper that works very well and is free!

[Catch22]

Originally posted by Belial
Catch22,

Java is not the same as JavaScript, they are two different technologies. If you disable Java, JavaScript will continue to run as before.

I have both off on Netscape. Also have cookies off on Netscape.

[thedog]

The Google Pop UP blocker is great. It allows you to configure which popups you want and rejects the others, all the time informing you each time a popup is received and giving you the option, if configured that way, to allow it or not.

Geez ... control in the hands of the user. Nice concept.

[TRUSTNO1]

If you dont want to pay for a pop-up blocker you can always use MSN 9 as it comes w/ a free pop-up blocker that you can personally set you preferences on!!

[Aqua]

The thing I hate more than anything are the pop-ups advertising pop-up blockers.

[Lilith]

I installed Google Toolbar and it is doing a great job. I just visited some sites that usually cause me troubles and not one single popup...YAY!!!!!

[BIBI]

Yes...it's great and the price is right too :)

[MilkToast]

Originally posted by Lilith
I installed Google Toolbar and it is doing a great job. I just visited some sites that usually cause me troubles and not one single popup...YAY!!!!!
Glad to hear that it is working for ya... now just make sure you keep it in line (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=whips+and+chains) :D

[Lilith]

:D ~~~~>smack!