Question about element space left behind...

[BB]

Good Evening,

First, I love AdBlock Plus and the easy list filters. I used to purposely not use AdBlock because I respected the website trying to get operating funds. But, after uncontrolled pop ups/unders/malware/javascripts from a dozen different domains on one page, etc... Loaded FireFox, Adblock Plus, No Script, and never looked back.

My minor problem... White space and links left behind on web pages (for example Drudge) after using Rick's three Easy list/elements/abp filter subscriptions... Example of link:

http://harvest.adgardener.com/noscript.aspx?s=1&...

I have tried creating a new profile and loading AdBlock Plus (current version) plus the three filters of Rick's and all works well. (found my problem when I installed a new windows vista computer with FireFox/Adblock Plus, etc.--worked fine in clean/new system).

Went back to my old profile, cleaned out old Adblock (non-plus) and a couple Adblock Plus unused variables in my about:config settings... And even tried uninstall and reinstalling Adbock Plus 0.7.5.1 and the three filters--and the whitespace and links is still left behind.

The problem is not very big--and, from what little I have seen, I don't want to manually copy (did not see an integrated profile manager to make this easier--can't easily print/file/export/import from old profile to my new profile) my website logins, install my other extensions, auto-forms, and such to my new profile unless something is really broken.

Any simple fix(es) that I could do on my old PC (or a good profile manager tool--going to look now for one).

Thank you,
-Bill

[BB]

I am sorry, I forgot to add the other information:

FireFox 2.0.0.6 (through numerous updates from FF 0.9+)
XP Home (fully updated/patched by window update util)

Example websites:

http://www.drudgereport.com/

(top ad above "Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers")

http://www.lucianne.com/

Left vertical banner below "donation" banner. Also, if you scroll down about 3-4 articles ad white space+link still present.

Thank you again,
-Bill

[fanboy]

and more of those annoying popups, just as annoying as the yahoo shortcuts.

.answers.com/main/js/web_answertip

http://www.lucianne.com/

Left vertical banner below "donation" banner. Also, if you scroll down about 3-4 articles ad white space+link still present.

[rick752]

First make sure that the "collapse blocked elements" switch in ABP is on.

The adgardener ad IS blocked and the space IS removed on the top with my 3 subscriptions.

You can remove the 'visit our advertisers' on the top of the page with:

Code: Select all

drudgereport.com##body > tt:first-child + center

The "Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers" down in the left column is a 'hog-pog' of undefined and repetitious elements. That is not worth x-pathing to because it is so far down, and any small change in the page would result in a false-positive. It can be removed with this though:

***Edit***
Forget all that, just try:

Code: Select all

drudgereport.com##noscript + br + font[size="-5"]

... this should hide those two text areas.

[BB]

Thank you very much Fanboy and Rick for the quick replies...

I tried both filters, and neither removed the whitespace or the links under the whitespace (Rick's filter did remove the Support Drudge's advertisers text).

I have the Options> Collapse blocked elements checked.

I compared the about:config settings for "adblockplus" variables between my usual profile and my new test profile (same PC, same FF install, just a new profile with only ADP installed). And both about:config variable settings are the same.

It may be related to the fact that my FireFox Profile is an "old" installation with much junk left behind in my profile from upgrades (FF and extensions). (I am not a software guy--and I have not manually edited any of my FF settings--everything has been through the install/uninstall/upgrade processes over the last few years).

I had, for example, problems with Flash not working correctly after removing FlashBlock--even though I don't needed it anymore (between NoScript and ABP). I had to reinstall FlashBock, and disable it, to make Flash Menus (and the occasional flash object I wanted to see) work.

I think your filters are working just fine--it is (more than likely) something in my profile that is messing with ABP's ability to collapse those white spaces.

I setup a new Windows Vista Laptop with exactly the same set of extensions and ABP worked perfectly (at collapsing whitespace).

Thank you again.
-Bill

PS: I loved the irony of the older posts about Google having a major support issue with ABP breaking Adsense logins (because of an issue with one of your (Rick's) filters). -BB

[BB]

I forgot to add, I did try an Unistall/Install of ADP + the three subscription filters, and still have the same issue.

It might get to the point where several old profile issues (FlashBock, ABP, and anything else that I am just not aware of) are just too much to worry about and I will have to manual move my stuff over to the new profile.

I have gotten used to FF and its handy extensions and ability to remember form fills (like multiple library ID's for the family, password safe, etc.) that I would have to write down and re-enter... Not impossible--just an hour of work to manual copy down and re-enter (I find that many of the little widgets don't support cut/paste/print/export/import--like about:config, password vault, form-fills, etc.).

Oh well.
-Bill

[Alan]

It might get to the point where several old profile issues (FlashBock, ABP, and anything else that I am just not aware of) are just too much to worry about and I will have to manual move my stuff over to the new profile.

I have gotten used to FF and its handy extensions and ability to remember form fills (like multiple library ID's for the family, password safe, etc.) that I would have to write down and re-enter... Not impossible--just an hour of work to manual copy down and re-enter (I find that many of the little widgets don't support cut/paste/print/export/import--like about:config, password vault, form-fills, etc.).

Goodness gracious! You don't have to do it that way. Moving everything to a new profile is much easier than that: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Migrating_set ... ew_profile

[BB]

Thank you very much Alan--that link will save me lots of time and frustrations.

Sincerely,
-Bill

[Alan]

My pleasure, Bill. Glad it's helpful.

[BB]

Alan, Fanboy, and Rick--

Thank you for all of the help again!

With Alan's information, it took me about 10 minutes to copy everything over and reload about 10 extensions into the new profile.

It will take me a bit of time to tweak the various settings back to my preferences. And I will have to re-train a few (like NoScript).

But, all in all, creating the new profile is probably the best fix for the leftover whitespace and link problem, and some other small nagging issues that I have gathered with FF+extensions over the last few years.

Just chalk this one up to a (another) corrupted profile.

Sincerely,
-Bill

[Alan]

It will take me a bit of time to tweak the various settings back to my preferences. And I will have to re-train a few (like NoScript).

I'm glad to hear it went so smoothly. For future reference -- or maybe present if it's not too late already -- some of the extensions like NoScript, Tab Mix Plus, and Adblock Plus provide ways to save some or all of their settings. In particular, NoScript allows you to export your whitelist to a text file from its options dialog. No retraining necessary. If you still can, just bring up your old profile with the profile manager and save your old whitelist. By the way, the whitelist import function does not overwrite any existing whitelist entries; it just merges them in.

[BB]

Alan--you are just making me look soooo bad here...

And it is not too late--I still have the old profile.

Yea--I saw that and promptly ignored that--all of those programs like IE, Outlook, and such that had export and import functions--but never let you export a file that they could read and import to themselves (like copying mail from one system to another).

Thank you for reminding me that not all programs behave the same.

Since we have a discussion here, I have an Adbock/NoScript question on blocking...

Akamai.net appears to be a company that supports data transfers for companies (high speed, low latency bulk transfers). They are used for Etrade and (at least I have seen it in the past) for serving ads by the bucket full...

Normally, I would block Akamai.net -- but it breaks Etrade. Akamai may not serve any malware--but I don't trust them for that--so generally, I would like to block Akamai scripts/images for everything but allow it for specific uses.

NoScript appears to only black list at the domain level (and I cannot even filter on http: vs https:--so that leaves AdBlock Plus?

https://us.etrade.com/e/t/home
https://a248.e.akamai.net/n/248/1777/20 ... /js/nav.js

Filter something like this:

Code: Select all

@@https://*.akamai.net/*etrade*
*.akamai.*

Or is Rick's filter:

Code: Select all

.akamai.*sponsor

good enough and I am just getting too paranoid and Akamai is not a big source of malware attacks.

-Bill

[Alan]

Alan--you are just making me look soooo bad here...

Then you're gonna hate me after this. (See below)

Since we have a discussion here, I have an Adbock/NoScript question on blocking...

Akamai.net appears to be a company that supports data transfers for companies (high speed, low latency bulk transfers). They are used for Etrade and (at least I have seen it in the past) for serving ads by the bucket full...

Normally, I would block Akamai.net -- but it breaks Etrade. Akamai may not serve any malware--but I don't trust them for that--so generally, I would like to block Akamai scripts/images for everything but allow it for specific uses.

I don't use Etrade and I don't recall ever needing to whitelist akamai.net -- even temporarily. Oops, yes I have. See below.

NoScript appears to only black list at the domain level (and I cannot even filter on http: vs https:

This is where you're going to hate me. NoScript does support whitelisting on Full Domains and Full Addresses, including https:. Make sure you have those Appearance options checked. For example, I have
https://a248.e.akamai.net whitelisted for some reason. I don't recall why, but I must have needed to do that to get something to work.

--so that leaves AdBlock Plus?

https://us.etrade.com/e/t/home
https://a248.e.akamai.net/n/248/1777/20 ... /js/nav.js

I'll be darned. Just whitelist https://a248.e.akamai.net like I did and https://us.etrade.com
That might be all you need to do.

Filter something like this:

Code: Select all

@@https://*.akamai.net/*etrade*
*.akamai.*

Or is Rick's filter:

Code: Select all

.akamai.*sponsor

good enough and I am just getting too paranoid and Akamai is not a big source of malware attacks.

Although the issue may be moot by now, I bet Rick's filter is good enough. I'd be surprised if Akamai served malware.