InformAction Forums

I go to Slate.com for my daily news fix. Two issues I would like to see NoScript (or FF or anyone) address if possible.

1. Slate periodically refreshes the page (every 5 minutes?) and this is very annoying, especially when I am nearly at the bottom and the refresh takes me to the top again. Can NoScript prevent this?

2. At the top of Slate.com's home page there is bar with the words Briefing, News & Politics, Arts, Life, etc, etc. What drives me almost insane is that when my mouse cursor travels over one of these words a pop up pull down menu instantly appears and of course blocks what I may be trying to view. I need to maneuver the mouse to make the always unwanted pop up menu disappear. It is obvious why this bar was strategically placed at the top of the page. Slate hopes to attract users to reading additional topics. I think we should have a choice to disable this pop-up.

I would like NoScript to disable this mouse roll over pop-up feature but without disabling things I can normally click on (in Slate.com) to open and view.

I realize this may not be a NoScript issue but I thought I would ask. I firmly believe we the users should be in control of how our web pages work so I heartily endorse products like NoScript and AdBlock.

Many thanks.

It sounds more like a job for a Userscript to me, but let's see what Giorgio has to say.

A Surrogate Script will help you.
Just create the following two about:config preferences, and you're done:

noscript.surrogate.slate.source noscript.surrogate.slate.replacement Of course, exactly the same code can work as a UserScript, like Zirro said, but if you don't already have GreaseMonkey you don't need to install it.

Thanks Giorgio for your super fast reply. Added the 2 entries, as you recommended, in FF's about:config and restarted FF but it made no difference. Both issues (page auto refresh, mouse passover activates undesired pop-up windows) are still present.

In my continuing research I uncovered this piece (below) of java script code that supposed to kill Slate's auto refresh feature ->

javascript:window.cleartimeout(window.timeout);void(refreshpage=null);

But I must install the Java code in something called a bookmarklet. From what I can see FF bookmarks do not support the addition of Java code. Still, I researched that I still haven't figured out how to make, no less install a bookmarklet. Folks who write the "how to" aren't very clear and the write up is for older versions of FF.

I really object to how Slate pushes this on us and I had wrote to them 2X asking how I could disable these features - no response.

Help, thanks, regards,

Create a new bookmark, place your code into the 'Location' field.
Click 'Add'. Copy that bookmark onto your Personal Toolbar (if FF has such a thing).

After Slate has loaded, click the bookmark(let).

(That is a manual method. A surrogate would be automatic.)