Which site do I allow for a specific page element?

[BusyDaydreaming]

My stuff: Firefox 16.0.1, NoScript 2.5.7

Site in question: http://www.topix.com/forum/city/coffeyv ... C2BLM65SUR

My specific issue is with the "Add to my Tracker" feature right there under the topic title. I click it, absolutely nothing happens. I expect that kind of thing internet-wide though, as I've got NoScript blocking almost everything until I specifically allow it.

So I click my NoScript icon, there are thirteen sites listed (aside from topix itself, auto-allowed). I've run into this on other sites too, some with twice that many. When there are just a few, it's no big deal to guess at which one the feature might need, and temp-allow sites one at a time, until I get the right one, then revoke all temp permissions and go back and allow just that one.

My question is, when there are a TON of sites listed, is there an easier way to figure out which ONE of those I'm going to need to allow to make a specific page feature work? My process stinks when the list is that long!

(Ok, so I actually just got done solving this, and I'm gonna tell you how, because I believe it could be a common issue, and the solution was a bit beyond average user knowledge.)

Out of those thirteen sites, I only needed TWO (including topix) for the site (including other features) to function properly. Here's how I found the second one:

Right-clicked on "Add to my Tracker" to see what my options were
Selected "Inspect Element", that looked like it might get me somewhere...
That brought up this, so I clicked the little arrow:

Copied both inner and outer HTML into Wordpad
Looked for URLs, spotted cachefly.net

Went back to the NoScript list, allowed that one, and VOILA! I can add that topic to my tracker now!

(After copying the HTML, the "X" (on mine) to take the page back to normal was teeny tiny in the bottom right corner.)

Logic dictates that by right-clicking on any site's page element that isn't working, selecting Inspect Element on it, and following the steps I took, one could use this solution anywhere this issue comes up. Quite acceptable to me, as opposed to process-of-elimination for an hour...

Ah, the joys of being an 8-year self-taught internet geek. You learn a lot when most of your troubleshooting consists of "wonder what happens if I click this?" Somehow, for the most part, (often as soon as I start asking for help), answers just happen. I really hope this helps others as well.

[Tom T.]

Something else that might help is in the NoScript Quick Start Guide, in the section "Updated 25 Jan 2012:".
Such sites are very likely to be necessary.

Something that can reduce the total universe of consideration considerably is in
SOME SITES YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO ALLOW

Copy/paste to a doc in a convenient place, if you prefer, and mark them as "Untrusted" as/when they appear in the NoScript menu.
This starts to shrink the menu considerably.

You could bulk-add them by exporting NS configuration (the Export bar at the bottom, not the one under the Whitelist tab), then add them, separated by a single blank space, added to the list after "untrusted". Save, then use the Import button. (It will automatically re-alphabetize them.) I do not recommend this method for those who do not consider themselves to have advanced user skills, but clearly, you do. Nice job of detective work there.

Also, over time, the more you see the same names or relationships, it does become more intuitive -- especially eliminating the useless/nosy ones.


(p.s.: we know these things can be annoying, but please keep language to that which is inoffensive to readers of *all* sensibilities. thank you.)

[Thrawn]

@OP: Good on you for digging into the problem and finding a solution .

Other techniques that can help:

• Check contents of each script using the JSView addon.
• Check Tools-Web Developer-Error Console to see whether there are errors from the missing scripts.
• Middle-click sites on the menu to get an assessment of their trustworthiness.