Comments on: Killing intrusive ads with Firefox extensions http://www.contentious.com/2006/06/07/killing-intrusive-ads-with-firefox-extensions/ Amy Gahran's news and musings on how we communicate in the online age. Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:30:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: Amy Gahran http://www.contentious.com/2006/06/07/killing-intrusive-ads-with-firefox-extensions/#comment-305311 Amy Gahran Thu, 08 Jun 2006 18:16:31 +0000 #comment-305311 Thanks, Jonathan So far, Adblock seems to be doing a very good job of killing ads for me, including animated GIF ones, while leaving Flash and animated GIF content/navigation alone. But yeah -- killing all animated GIFs is another valid approach, if that suits you. - Amy Gahran Thanks, Jonathan

So far, Adblock seems to be doing a very good job of killing ads for me, including animated GIF ones, while leaving Flash and animated GIF content/navigation alone. But yeah — killing all animated GIFs is another valid approach, if that suits you.

- Amy Gahran

]]> By: Jonathan Cohen http://www.contentious.com/2006/06/07/killing-intrusive-ads-with-firefox-extensions/#comment-304542 Jonathan Cohen Thu, 08 Jun 2006 16:44:24 +0000 #comment-304542 I think there is something of an implicit moral contract between a site and its reader - if you visit a site often, you should do your best to support it by allowing non-obtrusive ads to be displayed. I agree that the top offenders are Flash ads (especially the ones that 'break out' of their box and float around the page, obscuring elements you want to see) and IntelliTXT ads - but one just as annoying that you didn't mention is animated GIF ads. It's easy enough to disable animated GIFs in Firefox entirely: 1. In a blank tab's address bar, type about:config to display the configuration settings. 2. In the Filter field, type image. to search for the image configuration options. 3. Double-click the image.animation_mode entry. 4. In the Enter String Value dialog box, change 'normal' to 'none'. 5. Click OK. Note: This disables all animated GIFs, not just ads. I find that it's worth it. I think there is something of an implicit moral contract between a site and its reader - if you visit a site often, you should do your best to support it by allowing non-obtrusive ads to be displayed.

I agree that the top offenders are Flash ads (especially the ones that ‘break out’ of their box and float around the page, obscuring elements you want to see) and IntelliTXT ads - but one just as annoying that you didn’t mention is animated GIF ads.

It’s easy enough to disable animated GIFs in Firefox entirely:

1. In a blank tab’s address bar, type about:config to display the configuration settings.
2. In the Filter field, type image. to search for the image configuration options.
3. Double-click the image.animation_mode entry.
4. In the Enter String Value dialog box, change ‘normal’ to ‘none’.
5. Click OK.

Note: This disables all animated GIFs, not just ads. I find that it’s worth it.

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