on Mon, Sep 10, 2001 at 05:11:27PM -0400, Jason Boxman (jasonb@edseek.com) wrote:
> On Monday 10 September 2001 03:39 pm, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> > on Mon, Sep 10, 2001 at 04:03:19AM -0400, Jason Boxman (jasonb@edseek.com)
> wrote:
> > > On Monday 10 September 2001 02:53 am, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> > > > on Mon, Sep 10, 2001 at 02:44:05AM -0400, Jason Boxman
> > > > (jasonb@edseek.com)
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > > > You're aware that JB does regexp blocking? A few well-placed
> > > > expressions, largely variations on /ad/, /Ad/, and /advert/, you can
> > > > do a lot of damage. I've a list of 50 patterns which keeps banners
> > > > to a minimum. Deselecting Java/Javascript, and de-animating GIFs,
> > > > helps a lot too.
> > >
> > > Yeah, but regexp was never really my thing. I'd spend five minutes
> > > playing with a rule and reloading the page until the ad died. Some
> > > places I go require JavaScript to be on. Never found much use for
> > > Java though.
> >
> > A sample ruleset. I see fairly few banners.
>
> That's a nice list, but I'm sure ads still get through.
Some, but relatively few. My own policy is:
- I don't like animated ads: handled with animation settings in Galeon.
- I don't like Java/Javascript ads: disable both.
- I don't like ad demographics aggregatorss: handled with both DNS
and junkbuster.
There are a number of other sites which have generally annoying ads, I
filter these as well.
I'm left with a small number of ads largely from smaller organizations.
Some of which may actually be interesting.
My PoV isn't that all advertising is evil (though the vast majority is),
but that *evil* advertising is evil. Push me hard enough, and I'll push
back.
> With WebWasher's dimension filtering, I never see ads, *ever*. That's
> pretty tough to beat. When a new ad size is commissioned, I just add
> it to the list and move on.
>
> Plus, the cookie handling is nice for sites I don't visit often, but
> need to login to. With Junkbuster I'd have to bust out my cookie
> file, disable the proxy, let the site cookie me, then add an entry and
> set it up as a read only cookie. What a pain.
Agreed. I've been getting pushed harder to find something that will
strip out crap HTML. Specifically:
- Embedded Flash. Standalone Flash presentations may, in the very odd
instance, be good. I've noticed The New York Times has started
featuring Flash banner ads.
- Any <font size=##> tagsets.
- Ads and banners, particularly the panel ads becoming more
prevalent. These distort page layouts to an extreme -- Salon and
Wired are among the worse offenders.
- Pixel-specified table and frameset widths. These should generally
be specified as % of page, or simply allowed to fill available area.
...and odd things elsewhere.
What other webwasher type proxies are there out there? I have a strong
preference for free software.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? There is no K5 cabal
http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ http://www.kuro5hin.org
Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA! http://www.freesklyarov.org
Geek for Hire http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html
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