March 9, 2018
I'd like a browser that can be set so nothing moves on my screen unless I click something to make it play.
Can I get that anywhere? I loathe movement near something I'm trying to read, and I keep encountering videos in sidebars and animated illustrations and so forth.
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I don't see much moving stuff with firefox, ublock origin, and flashblock.
Autoplay is the work of the devil. Sometimes there are so many videos, I can't even find the one the sound is coming from.
Second rhhardin's recommendations. I also am liking the Brave browser a lot. It's a relatively new open-source browser like Firefox that I think Brendan Eich started after he was fired from Mozilla. I don't have a problem with autoplay (and tracking protection is built in).
Like Kim said...try Brave. Works very well.
I also hate things that move unless I tell them to:
"ublock origin" -> pick the blinking thing and hide it.
"flashblock + element hider" also works.
A lot of commercial websites have title(bars?) that appear/move/change as your scroll down, or back up. I don't see those any more.
I run Chrome. Adblock doesn't kill everything. but it takes care of a lot.
Ads on the internet seem to have gotten far more aggressive lately. I use adblockers and whitelist sites I want to support, but sometimes those whitelisted sites will run those horrific autoplay resizing ads too, forcing me to ad them back to the blacklist. Content creators need to be careful not to drive people away with those overly aggressive autoplay/resizing ads. I understand they need to make a living, but there's only so much BS I'm willing to put up with before I'll go elsewhere. It's not like I'm not spoiled for choice.
I use Brave Browser on my phone's browser. It cut out a lot of crap.
Autoplay can be turned off in Brave Software Browser. Also blocks ads and replaces them with just three ads chosen by Brave to be site-specific. Revenue from ads will be shared with the publisher (that's you Ann) if they are signed up with Brave. Users (that's me) can make a monthly contribution to selected sites (again, that's you Ann).
Kim said...
Second rhhardin's recommendations. I also am liking the Brave browser a lot.
I tried it but the lack of a sidebar was a deal-breaker. In a forum a dev said it would be in v0.2(?)...which is apparently out, so I'm trying it again.
"Edge" is the native browser of Windows 10. Has a "Reading view" switch to render only the text from some sites. Does not work on Althouse.
(Not fond of Edge because of Win10 goal of making phone and desktop versions similar. Windows preference for hiding soft-switches through a maze of sub-windows, tabs, pull-down lists, buttons, etc. is major annoying. Far better a single plain text config file. Now we suffer LARGE FONT TEXT AND HUGE ICONS SUTIABLE FOR A TINY TOUCH SCREEN THAT FURTHER DILUTE THE INFORMATION DENSITY expected on a 24 inch desktop screen.)
A lot of commercial websites have title(bars?) that appear/move/change as your scroll down, or back up. I don't see those any more.
I hate those banners. Which browser & extension got rid of them?
Another thing lately are the large facebook, etc buttons that overlay the text and don't move.
I use adblock. It automatically blocks a lot of stuff, and you can also add specific elements for it to block, for instance choosing a frame or provider on a specific website to block. It makes good sites with very irritating elements readable again.
FB Purity makes Facebook readable, giving a huge amount of options for customizing what you see and don't see.
I don't mean just ads and videos. I also mean the kinds of illustrations that the NYT tarts up its website with an still photos that flip to other still photos (the forced slide show). All movement. I think some of the stuff is creative and artful, but I just hate to read under those conditions. I'd like to be able to set the default to no movement and be able to choose to switch it on if I wanted to see something.
Brave does a pretty good job but it is a tradeoff. Google quality of life is pretty nice.
Block Scripts in Brave might do that. Running out of NYT free articles.
FWIW, autoplay can be turned of in firefox.
Brave 0.21.18 : no sidebar. THEY LIED!
And it hangs. Then it crashes.
A supposed fix on their website points to free advice by "Some Guy on the internet" to save perhaps 5 lines of writing, and Some Guy's advice doesn't work. "Brave" has a really bad website.
try a chrome extension like Mercury Reader
I have Safari running on a Mac Mini. When I look at its Preferences, one of the options is Websites. When I select that, one of the suboptions is Auto-play. There, I have the option of selecting Never Auto-Play for When Visiting Other Websites. That sounds as if it might do what you want. I don't think you can run Safari on a PC, though; do you have a PC or a Mac?
Trying Brave. Open Source is preferred, when available. Liking it so far.
You could roll back your browser to an earlier version that can’t deal with newer animated pages. Chrome and Firefox have sites with older versions. Of course it means you might not be able to access sone content. NYTs goofy rich pages are one of them.
Not really a bad thing...
I hate it when things move on the page too. I use a tablet so I can make things bigger so I just see the print and not all the stuff on the border if necessary
Firefox and NoScript add-on.
Add-ins. Just like Dad29 said.
For Chrome I use Ghostery and AdBlock Plus. I stop a great deal, and even more if you're willing to kill all trackers such as Facebook Connect.
Thanks, all. Had never heard of Brave.
I use Pale Moon with uBlock Origin and the config modified to disable video auto-play. Everything worked great until a Windblows 10 Update a few months ago that broke video compatibility for some youtube videos. Damn Windblows!
The current beta version of Google Chrome lets you set an overall default, with site-by-set exceptions, to either permit or block all sound. I switched to it just for that purpose, and so far like it. One presumes that this feature will eventually move past beta into a new general release.
This doesn't stop the animations, but it's far more tolerable to me.
Download link: Try out Google Chrome beta.
Of course it imports your preferences if you've been using Google Chrome already, and of course it also works and plays well with other Google apps in the same general fashion that Chrome does.
For all my main browsing, searching, surfing, etc I use Epic Browser. It connects via proxy servers and hides a lot (but not all) of your own tracks on the intertubes. It a chromium, open source browser and renders content fairly well but because repeat visits to things like Facebook, Amazon, Office 365, banking sites, etc appear as a brand new drop in, it can be a pain for those sites due to having to log in and often use 2 factor authentication (like verifying my ID to leave this comment!). So I use it is for all my content browsing like Althouse, Insty, et al. One advantage of the new drop in as the limited access sites don't see me as the same person so links to Wapo are counted as the first visit each time.
I use Chrome (with extensions Ad Block Plus, Ghostery, Disconnect and Behind the Overlay) for Facebook only. When I need full functionality I copy and paste the url's into Edge from Chrome of Epic and just suffer through all the distraction. I have Brave but am not a fan.
The reading pane option in all browsers (Distill in Chrome, Clearly in Epic) eliminates all ads and makes for a much better reading experience. It's almost automatic for me and I'm surprised more folks don't utilize the option. One interesting observation is that the reader view or distill page in edge or chrome can often get you past pay walls.
I used to click on the print icon. Years ago, it would pull up a page of typed black text on plain white background. Not anymore.
Ann Althouse said...
Thanks, all. Had never heard of Brave.
3/9/18, 8:00 PM
The funny thing is that you covered the case of Brendan Eich pretty carefully.
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