Which is a good place for both novice and advanced users to learn more about NS, at their own pace.
tlu wrote:After rethinking the issue I came to the conclusion that it doesn't really make sense to include all those settings in the GUI as it would become completely cluttered.
And that novice or average home users, with whom most power-users can't empathize, are already confused and intimidated enough. Search for the hundreds or thousands of posts: "I use NS, but my spouse/parent/child/grandma/significant other doesn't want anything to do with it".
Like
this one. (note the P.S.)
Agree 100%.
tlu wrote:But I agree that 1-6 in the first posting should definitely be added to the documentation and not only be discussed on hackademix.net and in the forum. Probably a good idea would be a structured summary of all those "hidden" settings.
Ideally, I'd like to see each feature and setting have its own FAQ. I long ago discussed with Giorgio the idea of a compiled html help file, and a NS menu entry for it. (Even now, adding a "Help" item to NS Menu that merely links to
NoScript FAQ would encourage more users to read the FAQ). But with releasing NS 3 for Mobile, trying to get the NS 3 Desktop version out...
Perhaps you'd care to draft such a structured summary, and perhaps Giorgio would add it to the features and/or FAQ?
al_9x wrote:So not every hidden option needs to be exposed, but when a new protection is added for a new threat, an option that toggles it, should be surfaced, I think.
As has been said, the power-users who are most likely to want to learn about the new protection, or configure the new setting, are most likely to accept the automatic redirect to the
changelog, or at least, to visit it at their convenience.
al_9x wrote:An advanced user would likely want to know what NS does in general ...
Agree. Ideally, all capabilities would be listed in the
NoScript "Features" Page, even if that were to require expandable titles for the sake of not cluttering the page, or lists of features/settings which link to another page within the site. The idea being to make the features page all-inclusive, but neither cluttered nor intimidating to new users. Along those lines, I'd suggest listing them, not alphabetically, but grouped by user-level: Basic (script and object permissions, etc.), Intermediate (ABE? XSS exceptions?) and Advanced (the kind of stuff listed in the OP, that only real techies are going to look at -- or understand.)
al_9x wrote:... and also be able to tell at a glance which of the full repertoire of protections are currently active. This is useful for troubleshooting, discovery.
Also a nice feature, but to avoid GUI clutter, perhaps a single button or tab in the Advanced page, something like "Show status of advanced configuration settings", which would merely call to
about:config and reprint the pertinent items in a simple text box -- but listed one line each, with a scroller if necessary, rather than the line-wrap format of, say, the HTTPS listings?
Very thoughtful thread here.
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