This may have been done before, and if so, I apologize. But recently, especially on this Board, I’ve been experiencing a lot of these god-damned ads, some of which cover the login window here and make it almost impossible to log in without some frantic clicking and closing of stuff. I’ve checked the Options section of Firefox, and pop-ups are blocked, with no exceptions, but this doesn’t seem to be working. Any ideas?
Strangely enough, the S.D. is the only place I notice this.
I find Adblock Plus works really well with Firefox. You can get it (for free) here: Adblock Plus – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)
That was fast. Thanks a bunch, I’ll try it.
Now, if anyone knows how to block ‘fly-outs,’ I’ll be thrilled. The best (read: most prevalent) example can be found on any Patch site; when you scroll down a page, a tab flies out from the bottom right to alert you to other articles. It will reappear every time you scroll down a page and it’s irritating as hell. No blocker or combination of settings I can find will eliminate these, which seem to be becoming more common as adblocking becomes more common. Any suggestions?
Flyouts are most often created/controlled by JavaScript integral to the web page itself. The only way to stop them would be to install an addon that blocks JavaScript execution. However, if the web page designer is using flyouts, they are also using JavaScript in other areas of the web page essential to its construction and use, most of the time in basic navigation. In for a penny, in for a pound.
There is some work in CSS flyouts. Blocking CSS flyouts would effectively kill the entire web page design and render proper function of the web page as impotent. CSS flyouts still appear to be controlled by the site owner and not ad companies, for now.
At some point you have to ask yourself if flyouts are that much of a problem for you. If so, use a web browser where addons might alleviate the problem (which really means quit using Internet Explorer!). Chrome, and Firefox are more open to user concerns and allow third-party addons. If you just can’t part with IE (or have a strong dislike for other browsers) then you must accept the fact IE is the prostitute of web browsers and it will do anything to make a buck for advertisers at your expense.
I use Firefox, the same as you. I don’t experience the problems you do because I use adblocker. For those flyouts that cannot be controlled, I make mental notes of those sites that use them and weigh up whether my visiting those sites are worth the effort. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It’s like ordinary driving. I cannot control the idiot drivers around me. I have to drive defensively and not contribute to problems by driving like they do. Web surfing should be done the same way.
I’ve mentioned it many times before in these threads: I run my browser with JavaScript disabled all the time, except when I specifically need it (like on bill-paying sites for example). This step alone blocks out a whole universe of on-line crap. I also keep Flash disabled except when I actually want to watch a video.
I don’t run any sort of ad-blocker or malware blocker or spam blocker. Blocking JavaScript alone (and being careful about what links I click on) alone has worked fine for me. (Oh, and using Linux instead of Winders helps too.)
Here on SDMB, for example, blocking JavaScript eliminates ALL advertisements. I’ve never once seen ANY of the shit that is so often discussed in these ATMB threads – no ads, no pop-ups, to self-playing videos or sound – none of that drek.
To be sure, many useful controls are also disabled. When I write a post (like I am now), all the formatting tools at the top of the edit window are dead, and all the smilies in the box at the right side are dead too. To use any of the BBcodes, I must type them in by hand. I can and do live with that.
I know your line of thought, Senegoid, and I can’t say as I disagree with it in principle… but Java, JS and Flash are such integral parts of most web sites these days that turning them off results in a wander through a bombed-out wasteland. I like the esthetic enhancements and added function and can only be thankful that the adblock engineers mostly keep up.
Duckster, we’re on the same page. I’m just always on the lookout for new defensive tech. 
As others have noted, there are add-ons for blocking JavaScript. While I have never seen the need to try them, there is at least one often-mentioned advantage over just blocking JavaScript in your browser’s settings: That the add-ons allow you to selectively block JS from particular web sites. As I mentioned above, I simply re-enable JS when I think I need it.
Another idea that I’ve seen (which I think I saw in an earlier ATMB thread here) involves blocking specific web address by faking their IP number in your hosts file. In Linux, that’s in /etc/hosts – In Winders, it’s buried somewhere in the System drivers directories, but the file format is the same (and can be edited with any plain-old plain-text editor).
It works like this: Suppose you want to block anything and everything from the site [noparse]www.adserver.com[/noparse] – Add a line to your hosts file giving the IP number 127.0.0.1 for the site [noparse]www.adserver.com[/noparse] – Your behind-the-scenes network drivers will use this address instead of actually going out to the net to find it.
Somewhere on-line there exists a huge hosts file, containing a collection of thousands of known sites that would be nice to block. You can download it and append the whole thing to your own hosts file. I’ll post the location of it RSN if I can find again where I got it from.
That’s true, I grant. It depends on what you want in a web experience. I prefer a more plain experience. I want to read stuff like on-line news articles, messages on message boards, and stuff like that. For me, all the “esthetic enhancements” (animated graphics, videos, anything with sound) – to me, that’s mostly just distracting noise. YMMV
Here it is: Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File
This isn’t just the file itself. It is a page describing how it works, what it does, how to use it, etc., including a link to download hosts.zip (scroll down about a page until you see the prominent Donate button, the download link is near there).
You might want to look into NoScript for Firefox.
By default it blocks pretty much everything BUT there is a handy bar that appears across the bottom of the screen where you can tell the browser to enable particular pieces if you want (either temporarily or permanently).
Makes turning stuff on for those sites where you want to see something a breeze and you can permanently enable stuff for the SDMB without worrying about other sites.
Give it a try and see what you think. This plus AdBlock Plus have solved most of my browsing issues. After awhile of “training” it to accept certain sites and not others it is not even all that intrusive.
That said “fly outs” still happen. Either you deny the page and it is near unreadable or you accept it and the fly outs happen.
No, we’re still pretty much on the same page. I hate online video and audio unless I specifically request it, and haven’t found a page yet where flashy-thingy graphics added a damned thing the experience. But allowing a more sophisticated experience with interactive controls and indicators is a nice thing, even in this simple context.
You’d be one of those who complained when I started putting longer documents in
PDF instead of God’s Own Pure HTML, I wager. 
I have been using “AddBlock Plus” and NoScript" for years with Firefox and love it, just recently I have added “Ghostery” an anti Tracker Plug in. This site SDMB has 6 Trackers active : “Double Click”," eXelate", Google Analytics", “Quantcast”, “Rubicon” and “VigLink”, one can manage them as one likes but I have blocked everything with no ill effects…
Chrome’s settings make it easy to whitelist sites for enabling Java, without any add-ons. I usually surf with Java off, only enabling it for sites I want it on, usually ones I trust and visit frequently.
No, if I had my druthers I’d still be using runoff or troff
Is that a bad autocorrect? Did you mean nroff and troff?
runoff was the even older forerunner to that whole line of programs – goes back to the DEC PDP-10 days or maybe even before that. ETA: I think it maybe was also known as roff
What’s Patch? It may be possible to block them for an entire website.