Controlling LJ

[avram]

With LiveJournal’s new owners announcing that LJ will no longer allow the creation of new Basic accounts, lots of people are upset over the prospect of having to look at ads. For those of you lagging behind the leading edge of web browser technology, here’s a solution:

Step 1: Firefox if a free open-source web browser available for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux. (If you use Linux, you already know all about it, so just skip right on to some other post.) Download and install it. It’s free. Costs no money. Since it’s open-source, it’s highly customizable with lots of themes and add-ons, which brings us to…

Step 2: AdBlock is a free add-on for Firefox that allows you to block ads from showing up when you browse the web.

Special for Mac users: If you don’t want to leave Safari, you can still block ads! SafariBlock is a Safari add-on based on AdBlock. Or try Ad Subtract, which uses CSS to hide ads.

Another reason to use browser extensions: Y’know how when a LiveJournal post gets a lot of comments, LJ starts hiding some of them, and you need to keep clicking to unfold the hidden comments? Doesn’t that annoy the crap out of you? Here’s what you do:

• For Firefox, get Greasemonkey.
• For Safari, get Greasekit.
• In either case, get LJ Thread Unfolder.

Now those long comment pages will get an “Unfold All” link at the top of the comments. Click that, and it all unfolds. (In my experience, this doesn’t work perfectly — a few comments stay folded — but it works pretty well.)

Comments

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

Yes, but complaining, and creating boycott icons appear to be more interesting than practical solutions.

[tinpan.livejournal.com]

ooh let me try this one too. Yes, us behind-the-tech people need tips like these.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Please don't forget that those using client-side technology to avoid looking at advertising are (most probably) still paying to receive the bits those ads take up through their internet connection; it's just that their local client software is hiding the data when showing the containing page to the user.

This may seem like a niggly point, when so many people have fixed rate broadband pipes. But consider how many folks use mobile devices to interact with the internet (and LJ) where the data rates are much more usurious. I suspect that this usage pattern is only going to increase over time (Apple would certainly love that, as would Research In Motion), and so many folks don't seem to consider this when they gleefully take advantage of so-called "free" services that finance themselves on the back of advertising.

Of course, eventually, I would expect that over-the-air data plans will catch up to broadband plans to some degree, but the sheer physics of the situation will certainly limit the degree and time taken of this catch up.

[avram]

Hm. I don't know i that's actually true. I'd have to install some traffic-monitoring software to check it, though. I mean, Ad Subtract definitely works as you say, because it's CSS-based, but I think AdBlock and SafariBlock might actually cause the browser to not connect to the ad's originating server.

Does Firefox exist for mobile devices? Does Apple allow users to install add-ons to Safari on the iPhone? If not, then mobile users can't follow my advice anyway. Those people might be better off just turning all images off (if such an option exists in their browsers). Even if ads weren't an issue, that'd save them from downloading all those LJ user icons.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I think AdBlock and SafariBlock might actually cause the browser to not connect to the ad's originating server.

::smack::

::headesk::

Of course they do. And me with my fancy-schmancy technowledge should have remembered that. Pay no attention to the buffoon behind the curtain... 8P

Does Firefox exist for mobile devices

I'm not sure. I know that Opera has builds for Symbian and Windows Mobile. FireFox has builds for Linux, so presumably any tablet/mobile that uses Linux as an OS could conceivably load and run FireFox.

I don't believe that Apple (currently) lets you run any third-party software on an iPhone. And even the second generation of software which will allow third parties to develop software for the iPhone will be tightly controlled (as I gather, you will only be able to get such software from Apple, distributed through ITMS).

As a worker for a certain Canadian mobile device company, I'm prejudiced in thinking in terms of our own Browser software. 8)

[sitarskiojub.livejournal.com]

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