Now that ad-blocking add-ons/plugins/extensions are so prolific, and keeping ad revenues from getting to businesses, websites are now made to detect ad-blocking plugins and will cover up content with a big complaint message.
I recently discovered that I can bypass this complaint message, without disabling ad-blocking, with Firefox’s built in “Reader view” which presents the website in a text only view. It has the added benefit of a dark mode and text-to-speech options and displays no adds on the sides.
You can toggle reader view on and off with <CTRL+ALT+R> or clicking the icon in the address bar.
I hope someone finds this useful!
Now the only issue is that some websites use scripts to put the text on the page and No-Script has to be disabled on these sites.
I also use uBlock Origin and uMatrix (both by Raymond Hill). It’s similar to NoScript, there’s a higher learning curve but it’s way easier & faster IMHO.
Those two keep me adfree for 99% of sites. Good advice on document view, may be the solution for the ones I can’t block.
For me it works for accessing articles on sites behind a paywall (sometimes) or those news sites that say you have 5 free articles left this month; for that I use a cookie remover, can’t remember the exact name.
I was using Tranquility on FF, which is pretty much the same as the inbuilt function.
Not allowing javascript to run in many cases is all it takes, too. (Noscript extension)
There are a handful of sites I frequent that I will permanently whitelist and allow scripts to run.
If it’s a site I hit from a search engine, fat chance I will allow anything to run by default. If I get white screened by not having js running, I move onto the next result.
It takes a bit of effort to perfect, but once you get used to how Noscript behaves, it is very eye opening how invasive most sites are with their 3rd party scripts and tracking.
I also layer with uBlock Origin and uMatrix. Although gorhill stopped development on uMatrix, I still feel it is an excellent companion to Noscript and uBlock… the ‘advanced’ features of uBlock are not as robust as uMatrix.
Don’t forget about the profiles features of all the major browsers. You can have an experimentation profile with its own set of extensions for you to use as a testing ground, if you do not want to interrupt your normal internet browsing until you’ve mastered the behavior of the extra security/privacy policies.
about:profiles in firefox. You can also create a desktop shortcut/launcher file and link it in your favorites to auto-launch a specific profile.
example:
In the exec field: /usr/bin/firefox %u -P testprofile (after you’ve created testprofile in about:profiles)
GUI editors like MenuLibre can automatically create these for you.
Personally I just replace the LibreWolf command for:
librewolf -ProfileManager
Works the same in Firefox, before opening a browser you can pick the profile for the activity you want to do or create a temp one. Firefox containers is a lightweight version of that but i’m always jumping in or out of containers I don’t want when I click remote links and I can’t pick which extensions can see which container so profiles have worked better for me.
Lately for websites that I check daily or several times a week I just read those in a rss reader. Fluent is what I’ve been using. It allows you to select which type of content is loaded; text, text & images, or the webpage. But for sites I don’t read normally, I just go to the next search result or if it’s a shared link ask if there is an archived copy of the page somewhere.
My opinion is, watch the ads. Without watching ads, the ad makers pull their funding and the site disappears. I think a few seconds of my time is a small price to pay for their being a site.
I don’t disagree. However, I will not have my browser, and hence my browsing experience controlled by someone else.
The problem is the sites that take it too far. It’s very annoying when you find yourself on a site trying to read a technical article and there’s some ad on the site flashing in a bright color. It’s issues like this that have driven people to take steps to block ads. That, plus the fact, that some ads do actually contain malware. Many years ago, I clicked on an ad that modified my profile in Chrome and redirected my browser to a specific site from time to time. Never again.
The problem is not with the ads, it’s with the people that insist on interfering with your browsing experience. They DEMAND your attention. The common courtesy of asking or being respective of others has been lost here.
