War on Pop-ups
 

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.

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.

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.

<---has an irregulated pop-up

LOL, very good Mr WI. ;)



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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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????

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.

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.

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.

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.

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