Any way to block detaching floating videos?

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cjsmall
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:54 pm

Any way to block detaching floating videos?

Post by cjsmall »

Many sites with videos implement a truly annoying feature. As you scroll the page, the video detaches from the content and floats down the page. Here is an example:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/05/ ... worse.html

Attemps to block the entire floating element result in a filter of:

foxnews.com##.contain

Adding this will also block the original video. I'd like to keep the original but stop the floating object from ever appearing. Can this be done?

Thanks.
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mapx
Posts: 21940
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:01 pm

Re: Any way to block detaching floating videos?

Post by mapx »

test this filter

Code: Select all

foxnews.com##.sticky-video.video-ct.featured-video.featured
cjsmall
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:54 pm

Re: Any way to block detaching floating videos?

Post by cjsmall »

That's great! Thanks.

Now, how do I go about figuring these things out so that i don't have to bother you and others? Is there a tutorial somewhere that explains how to construct a proper filter? It doesn't seem as simple as looking at the page source.
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mapx
Posts: 21940
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:01 pm

Re: Any way to block detaching floating videos?

Post by mapx »

Did you try using the "block element" feature ?
cjsmall
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:54 pm

Re: Any way to block detaching floating videos?

Post by cjsmall »

Yes, I've tried this on multiple sites -- including this one -- by selecting/blocking the floating pop-up video. Every time I do this, the pop-up gets blocked, but so does the original in-line video, which is a problem for future visits to the site. I'm not sure how to interpret the filter you provided, but it does the right thing by blocking the pop-up but keeping the in-line video.

It would be great if there was a generalized rule for these types of things that would work across all sites. In my search for ways to accomplish this, I didn't find any universal solution, but I sure did discover a lot of other people complaining about these things. It seems as if many sites want to drive away viewers!
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mapx
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Re: Any way to block detaching floating videos?

Post by mapx »

for example, in your case, I used uBo (ublock origin) and the related feature (element picker).
uBo has a preview function so you can saw what will block the proposed filter (eventually modified by you) before writing it.
cjsmall
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:54 pm

Re: Any way to block detaching floating videos?

Post by cjsmall »

Thanks, I'll look into that.
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