Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Discussion of features in Mozilla Firefox
User avatar
Mojo88
Posts: 45
Joined: August 17th, 2013, 6:20 pm
Location: The corrupt fiefdom called 'Rhode Island'

Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by Mojo88 »

I love my Firefox. It has soooo many nifty features and add-ons.

I'm hoping you folks can suggest a way to stop nagging floating videos that are appearing on more and more web sites. In other words, if the page has a video, I have FF set so that it will not auto-play them. But then if I scroll down the page, that video window will become it's own little nag and relocate down to lower right corner (usually) and just sit there until closed. These things are a real PITA. I am using AdBlock Plus already, along with Flashblock and NoScript.

Before anyone starts chastising me for being lazy, I have indeed Googled this issue (a few times) and could not find answer.

Can someone here help? Many thanks, Dave F. in Rhode Island
Last edited by Mojo88 on September 1st, 2016, 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
dfoulkes
Posts: 22525
Joined: June 28th, 2008, 10:31 pm
Location: Mesquite, Nevada

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by dfoulkes »

You might want to post a link to one of those sites...

I can't remember the last time I saw that happen on any site that I visit... maybe I just don't get into those sites.
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
User avatar
Mojo88
Posts: 45
Joined: August 17th, 2013, 6:20 pm
Location: The corrupt fiefdom called 'Rhode Island'

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by Mojo88 »

dfoulkes wrote:You might want to post a link to one of those sites.......
Here's one: http://www.providencejournal.com/opinio ... refighting
You'll see it happen when you scroll down past the big video, then shortly after the big vid is off screen, the new floating window appears.

Many thanks for the tip! :D
Last edited by Mojo88 on September 2nd, 2016, 5:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
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WaltS48
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Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by WaltS48 »

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morat
Posts: 6394
Joined: February 3rd, 2009, 6:29 pm

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by morat »

You can use site-specific user scripts to close floating videos.

Code: Select all

// www.providencejournal.com
document.addEventListener("DOMNodeInserted", function nodeInserted(event) {
  document.removeEventListener("DOMNodeInserted", nodeInserted, false);
  setTimeout(function () {
    var element = document.querySelector(".js-tout-tagalong-close");
    if (element) {
      element.click();
    }
  }, 3000);
}, false);

Code: Select all

// abcnews.go.com
var element = document.querySelector("#close");
if (element) {
  element.click();
}
User avatar
Mojo88
Posts: 45
Joined: August 17th, 2013, 6:20 pm
Location: The corrupt fiefdom called 'Rhode Island'

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by Mojo88 »

morat wrote:You can use site-specific user scripts to close floating videos.

Code: Select all

// www.providencejournal.com
document.addEventListener("DOMNodeInserted", function nodeInserted(event) {
  document.removeEventListener("DOMNodeInserted", nodeInserted, false);
  setTimeout(function () {
    var element = document.querySelector(".js-tout-tagalong-close");
    if (element) {
      element.click();
    }
  }, 3000);
}, false);

Code: Select all

// abcnews.go.com
var element = document.querySelector("#close");
if (element) {
  element.click();
}

Thank you. :)

How/where do I plug in these scripts?
morat
Posts: 6394
Joined: February 3rd, 2009, 6:29 pm

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by morat »

Mojo88 wrote:How/where do I plug in these scripts?
Greasemonkey
http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/748
http://wiki.greasespot.net/

Instructions:

* install extension
* create providence.user.js file with notepad

Code: Select all

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Providence Journal
// @namespace    http://www.providencejournal.com/
// @include      http://www.providencejournal.com/*
// @grant        none
// @noframes
// ==/UserScript==

document.addEventListener("DOMNodeInserted", function nodeInserted(event) {
  document.removeEventListener("DOMNodeInserted", nodeInserted, false);
  setTimeout(function () {
    var element = document.querySelector(".js-tout-tagalong-close");
    if (element) {
      element.click();
    }
  }, 3000);
}, false);
* open providence.user.js file with browser
* install user script
* test page

Greasemonkey 3.9
Firefox 48.0
Windows 7 SP1 32-bit
User avatar
dfoulkes
Posts: 22525
Joined: June 28th, 2008, 10:31 pm
Location: Mesquite, Nevada

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by dfoulkes »

FYI ... I tested both links ... each in my test profile that only has uBlock installed... and at both sites that crappy breakout stuff happened...

Then I tested them in this profile which has uBlock and NoScript ... neither sited had that problem... check that first site to see how many scripts it was blocking... something like... 20 or so... the second site might have had 10+ scripts blocked... I did not temp allow any scripts to see what happened... figured that you must have scripts allowed for that first site... so, maybe disabling one or two at a time will find the offending script.
As you can see she's (The CAT) always alert and on the prowl for Meoware !!
User avatar
Mojo88
Posts: 45
Joined: August 17th, 2013, 6:20 pm
Location: The corrupt fiefdom called 'Rhode Island'

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by Mojo88 »

morat wrote:
Mojo88 wrote:How/where do I plug in these scripts?
Greasemonkey
http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/748
http://wiki.greasespot.net/

Instructions:

* install extension
* create providence.user.js file with notepad

Code: Select all

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Providence Journal
// @namespace    http://www.providencejournal.com/
// @include      http://www.providencejournal.com/*
// @grant        none
// @noframes
// ==/UserScript==

document.addEventListener("DOMNodeInserted", function nodeInserted(event) {
  document.removeEventListener("DOMNodeInserted", nodeInserted, false);
  setTimeout(function () {
    var element = document.querySelector(".js-tout-tagalong-close");
    if (element) {
      element.click();
    }
  }, 3000);
}, false);
* open providence.user.js file with browser
* install user script
* test page

Greasemonkey 3.9
Firefox 48.0
Windows 7 SP1 32-bit

THANK YOU very much for the info. I am gonna install Greasemonkey and try those scripts. 8-)

-
morat
Posts: 6394
Joined: February 3rd, 2009, 6:29 pm

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by morat »

On second thought, I rather not use a DOMNodeInserted event listener since mutation events have been marked as deprecated.

Try these:

Code: Select all

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Providence Journal
// @include      http://www.providencejournal.com/*
// @grant        none
// @noframes
// ==/UserScript==

setTimeout(function handler() {
  var element = document.querySelector(".js-tout-tagalong-close");
  if (element) {
    element.click();
  } else {
    setTimeout(handler, 1000);
  }
}, 1000);

Code: Select all

// ==UserScript==
// @name         ABC News
// @include      http://abcnews.go.com/*
// @grant        none
// @noframes
// ==/UserScript==

setTimeout(function handler() {
  var element = document.querySelector("#close");
  if (element) {
    element.click();
  } else {
    setTimeout(handler, 1000);
  }
}, 1000);
The setTimeout method has negligible overhead so the script won't slow down the site.
Last edited by morat on September 4th, 2016, 8:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Mojo88
Posts: 45
Joined: August 17th, 2013, 6:20 pm
Location: The corrupt fiefdom called 'Rhode Island'

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by Mojo88 »

morat wrote:On second thought, I rather not use a DOMNodeInserted event listener.

Code: Select all

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Providence Journal
// @namespace    http://www.providencejournal.com/
// @include      http://www.providencejournal.com/*
// @grant        none
// @noframes
// ==/UserScript==

setTimeout(function handler() {
  var element = document.querySelector(".js-tout-tagalong-close");
  if (element) {
    element.click();
  } else {
    setTimeout(handler, 1000);
  }
}, 1000);
The setTimeout method has negligible overhead.

Well, what you just said is all Greek to me, so I guess I will not attempt any of it. Thanks anyway.
Bruce L.
Posts: 226
Joined: August 3rd, 2006, 4:36 am

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by Bruce L. »

Mojo88 wrote:Well, what you just said is all Greek to me, so I guess I will not attempt any of it. Thanks anyway.
I'm in the same boat, as I bet the vast majority of FF users are. I've been using FF since 2004.

This auto-playing of videos has really been annoying me for a long time. Periodically I check for some quick way of preventing them, via add-on or whatever, but never find anything simple or useful.

Why is this such a difficult thing to prevent? At 66, I'm hardly interested in a four-year college course in software to figure it out. This is another great example of technology advancing faster than our ability to fix it when something goes wrong.

If there is ONE PERSON out there who WANTS videos to play automatically, post here or "forever hold your peace." I'm betting that 99.9999999% of FF users DO NOT WANT them to play automatically.
Jimac
Posts: 8
Joined: May 11th, 2017, 9:23 am

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by Jimac »

The problem the original poster asked is how to stop "floating videos" on a web page. This is also known as a "sticky video player" (Google that term, no need to add the quotation marks). Using a desktop or laptop computer on the Daily Mail website, for example, if you scroll down the page past the video player, which is usually playing a looped excerpt from the video as a tease, the player shrinks and moves to the right of the page and begins playing without permission. You have to stop what you're doing and click it off. If you scroll back up the article and down past the player again, the same thing happens -- very annoying.

I tried user morat's suggestion above in installing his second revised site specific bit of javascript using the Grease Monkey Add-on for firefox, setting it for http://www.dailymail.co.uk/* but it didn't work. I don't know why he has it written for a click function when this is a scroll triggering issue. I admit I'm not a master code writer, so I'll defer to you more advanced users. I'm trying this on a new Windows 10 Lenevo laptop, latest Firefox and Edge browsers, haven't been offered the Creator's Update yet.

Before posting this I went to Mozilla's Add-ons page and did some searches for sticky video player, pop up, etc. and found nothing addressing this annoying featue of some websites.

I can report that the simple add-on called YesScript toggle on/off javascript blacklist WILL stop the sticky player, but it unfortunately it also stops the video content from downloading and disables the comments section on Daily Mail pages.

What we want is a new add-on or bit of javascript for the Grease Monkey add-on that retains the video player and content, but just stops the floating nature of the player as you scroll up or down the page past the player.

If someone can write a new javascript code here, I'm willing to try it. I found this forum page originally doing a Google search for this problem, so others may be able to enjoy the solution if one can be found.
agentalbert
Posts: 10
Joined: October 28th, 2016, 5:05 pm

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by agentalbert »

Jimac wrote:The problem the original poster asked is how to stop "floating videos" on a web page. This is also known as a "sticky video player" (Google that term, no need to add the quotation marks). Using a desktop or laptop computer on the Daily Mail website, for example, if you scroll down the page past the video player, which is usually playing a looped excerpt from the video as a tease, the player shrinks and moves to the right of the page and begins playing without permission. You have to stop what you're doing and click it off. If you scroll back up the article and down past the player again, the same thing happens -- very annoying.

I tried user morat's suggestion above in installing his second revised site specific bit of javascript using the Grease Monkey Add-on for firefox, setting it for http://www.dailymail.co.uk/* but it didn't work. I don't know why he has it written for a click function when this is a scroll triggering issue. I admit I'm not a master code writer, so I'll defer to you more advanced users. I'm trying this on a new Windows 10 Lenevo laptop, latest Firefox and Edge browsers, haven't been offered the Creator's Update yet.

Before posting this I went to Mozilla's Add-ons page and did some searches for sticky video player, pop up, etc. and found nothing addressing this annoying featue of some websites.

I can report that the simple add-on called YesScript toggle on/off javascript blacklist WILL stop the sticky player, but it unfortunately it also stops the video content from downloading and disables the comments section on Daily Mail pages.

What we want is a new add-on or bit of javascript for the Grease Monkey add-on that retains the video player and content, but just stops the floating nature of the player as you scroll up or down the page past the player.

If someone can write a new javascript code here, I'm willing to try it. I found this forum page originally doing a Google search for this problem, so others may be able to enjoy the solution if one can be found.
I'm glad you posted this, as I have been having the exact same issue for about a month and have also been searching trying to find something that will block these sticky videos, particularly for that site (dailymail.co.uk). I've tried add-block and recently switched to Ublock, but neither does it. I really hope someone finds a way to kill those annoying boxes.
flimbo
Posts: 34
Joined: April 29th, 2011, 4:43 am

Re: Is there a way to stop floating videos?

Post by flimbo »

I too have been searching for an answer to these sticky videos on dailymail.co.uk. Super annoying. Has anyone found a solution yet?
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