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BIF
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Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Fri May 26, 2017 9:36 pm

I use Firefox to browse websites such as the UK Daily Mail. Hey, I often get better, more accurate information on breaking news from DM than I do from major media in the US.

Lately, however, the DM pages have started pushing a popup video window on the right side of my browser window, with the title "Watch the whole video". This usually doesn't appear until I have begun scrolling the web page, and then it hangs my browser for a few seconds while it's delivering the popup. The popup then blocks content on the screen, requiring me to press the "CLOSE X" link in the popup's upper right corner.

This popup is not to be confused with the same video "embedded" inline in the web page. I don't mind the embedded video but I definitely am not pleased with the popup window. And it's not an ad. It's another link to whatever video that article is trying to promote.

This popup feels new to me, like it started appearing about a month ago or so.

How can I stop this from appearing and blocking content in my browser?
 
whm1974
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Fri May 26, 2017 10:01 pm

You could try disabling JavaScript if that is still possible, but that might cause problems with webbrowsing.
 
Redocbew
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Sat May 27, 2017 12:42 am

Yeah, you could try using a script blocker. It may not be embedded as a visual element of the page layout, but it can still be a part of the initial page load, and then just scripted and styled to look like an overlay/popup. If that's the case, then the built in popup blocker won't catch it. If the script blocker blocks something important it could make the page unusable, so I guess you'll just have to give it a shot and see.
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SoM
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Sat May 27, 2017 1:05 am

just tried the site

firefox 53.0.3 adblock disabled

no popups

del your temp files ?

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BIF
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Sat May 27, 2017 12:24 pm

SoM wrote:
del your temp files ?


I'll need specific guidance on this. There are many places that browsers and Windows 10 store temp files, and I'd like top avoid going nuclear unless it's truly necessary.
 
SoM
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Sat May 27, 2017 12:36 pm

BIF wrote:
SoM wrote:
del your temp files ?


I'll need specific guidance on this. There are many places that browsers and Windows 10 store temp files, and I'd like top avoid going nuclear unless it's truly necessary.


tools -> options -> advanced -> network
also under privacy / remove individual cookies, remove everything dailymail

might aswell clear from internet options from control panel aswell

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Fonbu
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Sat May 27, 2017 6:16 pm

I didnt encounter anything. However I run Firefox (32bit) with noscript and Adblock plus (plus other plugins) within Sandboxie, and never trust any website.
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BIF
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Sat Jun 03, 2017 1:08 pm

Most often, the video player pops up as I scroll past the embedded video object about midway down the page.

To be clear, the video does not begin automatically playing...it just sits there waiting for me to hit play; but it is blocking page content, so I instead hit the CLOSE X in the upper right corner of the player window. It's a hassle because I'm typically scrolling either with the mouse wheel or with PAGE DOWN, PAGE DOWN, PAGE DOWN, so in order to clear the waiting video window I have to move my mouse to target the CLOSE X, and sometimes that requires that I move my hand to the mouse; an ergonomic inconvenience.

I'll take a look at SoM's suggestion above.
 
BIF
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Thu Jul 06, 2017 9:39 pm

This problem still happens to me.

Additional Info:

Pages are slow to load.

White/blacklist script blockers will indeed kill the popup video (sometimes also called a "flyover video player"), but script blockers will also disable comments. Like the comments here on TR, sometimes the most irrelevant, poignant, brilliant, clever, or just plain funny content I get are in the article comments!

I've also decided NOT to clear cookies, cache, temp files, or any of the such. Support people have been getting me to do that for YEARS now, and NOT ONCE has it ever fixed a problem. So now I refuse to be serenaded any more by these claims. :roll: :x

Some people seem to have written manual scripts, but all of the posts I can find seem to have just as many people who can't get those to work as there are claims that they're as delicious as a BLT sandwich. I just don't want to mess with adding code (that might work or might not work) to my browser(s), so I won't play that game either.

I'm mostly a Firefox user. I don't use IE or Edge, and Chrome just seems inconvenient, so I'm still open to suggestions on ways to kill these popup/flyover video players WITHOUT breaking comments....
 
whm1974
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Fri Jul 07, 2017 12:56 am

You could trying the installing Privacy Badger extension, that might help if you fine turn it a little bit.
 
The Egg
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Fri Jul 07, 2017 7:31 am

BIF wrote:
White/blacklist script blockers will indeed kill the popup video (sometimes also called a "flyover video player"), but script blockers will also disable comments.

Sounds like whatever extensions you're using aren't doing a very good job, else they need their settings tweaked. Have you tried disabling Flash entirely?
 
BIF
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Fri Jul 07, 2017 5:14 pm

whm1974 wrote:
You could trying the installing Privacy Badger extension, that might help if you fine turn it a little bit.


The Egg wrote:
Sounds like whatever extensions you're using aren't doing a very good job, else they need their settings tweaked.


Do a couple of well-placed Google searches and you'll see that it's not just limited to the extensions I'm using. This is actually a very widespread problem, and unless somebody has one confirmed to work correctly, I'd posit a guess that there are NO extensions that fix it.

Have you tried disabling Flash entirely?


And of course, disabling flash would kill the comments. So that's not a viable solution.

Thanks anyway.
 
The Egg
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Fri Jul 07, 2017 5:47 pm

BIF wrote:
The Egg wrote:
Sounds like whatever extensions you're using aren't doing a very good job, else they need their settings tweaked.

Do a couple of well-placed Google searches and you'll see that it's not just limited to the extensions I'm using. This is actually a very widespread problem, and unless somebody has one confirmed to work correctly, I'd posit a guess that there are NO extensions that fix it.

Have you tried disabling Flash entirely?


And of course, disabling flash would kill the comments. So that's not a viable solution.
Thanks anyway.

I didn't ask which specific extensions you're running to avoid a grey-area of the forum rules. If you insist on running with Flash enabled, you do so at your own peril (and annoyance). I've had it completely disabled for several years now, and hardly notice anymore. In any case, it sounds like the site in question is somewhat shady, and probably best avoided.
 
BIF
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Wed Jul 19, 2017 10:13 pm

The Egg wrote:
...In any case, it sounds like the site in question is somewhat shady, and probably best avoided.

Awww, come on, I said in my first post it's the UK Daily Mail. And I also said it's not the only major media site that does this. :(
 
just brew it!
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Thu Jul 20, 2017 12:01 am

BIF wrote:
The Egg wrote:
...In any case, it sounds like the site in question is somewhat shady, and probably best avoided.

Awww, come on, I said in my first post it's the UK Daily Mail. And I also said it's not the only major media site that does this. :(

*Ahem*... Daily Mail qualifies as a "somewhat shady" site in my book...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... claim.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... horse.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... ssion.html

:lol:
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
BIF
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Re: Website Popup Video Player is Killing Me!

Thu Aug 17, 2017 2:15 am

You have to be discerning with it.

I'll tell you though, when it comes to finding out the TRUTH about some major news event, it's the Daily Mail that will report it, especially for news that happens in the US. Meanwhile, the NY Times is burying the key facts, MSNBC is making up their own facts to make the good guys look like Satan, CNN is burying the ENTIRE story to focus on a misspelled word in a tweet, and EVERYBODY on this side of the pond is parroting the same talking points.

EXCEPT for the UK Daily Mail. Sure, I have to scroll past way too many Kardashian articles, and I have to see way too many pictures of Taylor Swift's bruised legs, Miley Cyrus's icky mouth poses, and Justin Bieber's bad tats. But at least I get all the facts when I DO find an article about something that's actually important to me.

"Fake news" is a thing. When a reporter, his editor, or his media empire's culture encourages group-think and hive-mind mentality, and then everybody at that organ only writes in such a way as to support that hive mind, then I call it fake news. I don't care if you gave me all true facts; if you sanitized it by leaving out half of the true facts (or even one significant true fact), or if you just worded it in such a way that it shows your uncontrolled reporting biases, then the whole thing must be considered to be "fake". And this is why I hate the media.

But it's also the reason that I continue to fight the good fight to get ALL the facts, pics of rotting toe fungus or skin damaged by botched surgeries or flesh-eating parasites be damned. I deserve all the facts, simply because I'm worth the trouble (even if maybe only in my own mind).

Yeah, it's kind of like that. :lol:

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