this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
155 points (98.7% liked)

Technology

59322 readers
4370 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A lot of internet publications today have videos in the middle of their articles that have nothing to do with the actual content. Example in this WIRED article here.

I'm wondering if there is an active blocklist for this kind of content? I already have uBlocks "annoyances" all subscribed. These videos slow down the pages and are too numerous to block individually.

top 14 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 53 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Firefox lets you set default site settings, make the default site setting disable autoplay audio and video.

For sites where you know you trust the video, you can do a per site permission in the URL bar saying autoplay is allowed for like YouTube

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 days ago (1 children)

To expand on this, there are two settings you can put in user.js / prefs.js (desktop) or via about:config (mobile), documented on the Mozilla Wiki:

user_pref("media.autoplay.default", 5);
user_pref("media.autoplay.blocking_policy", 2);

Two bonus settings if you want to get rid of the "do you want to enable DRM?" pop-in bar when hitting one of those sites:

user_pref("media.gmp-widevinecdm.enabled", false);
user_pref("media.gmp-widevinecdm.visible", false);

hth

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Very helpful for my machine setup scripts. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I thought Firefox had something built in for that. I use ublock and don't get auto playing videos. Let me check.

Ooo an internal ad for another story on their site is not being blocked.

Here is a way from Firefox https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/block-autoplay/

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I use an add on called noscript. It's a little scorched earth, but I hardly notice it now that it's set up.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

I like NoScript in theory, but I had to stop using it. It broke too many websites to the point of unusability for me. I just stick with uBlock Origin and use the element zapper as needed anymore.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No script breaks so much of the internet. But I guess over time you can make enough rules with it that it mostly works.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Nah, it's still a chore after many years

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

NoScript is redundant with uBlock medium mode.

Roughly similar to using Adblock Plus with many filter lists + NoScript with 1st-party scripts/frames automatically trusted. Unlike NoScript however, you can easily point-and-click to block/allow scripts on a per-site basis.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Not really what I was looking for but thanks for the suggestion.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If it's a site you use often, right-click and "block element" is your friend. Might be able to sus out a universal block as well if you dig around the different elements there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

On every site I've checked it uses a random css tag so can't block more than one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Not sure if you're on desktop or mobile. On mobile I'm using Mull with uBlock origin in medium mode. I don't see any videos in the article you linked and I don't see most of the annoyances many people complain about.

This is a rather strict setup that can break some sites, but over time you can tune it to make most sites work without intervention on future visits.