A User Script for Ignoring babblers

Thanks.

Is there an ignore function available anywhere for users of IE7/Win Vista that will work on this board?  I'd like to ignore myself.

Fidel, great work on the script. Now if only Winblows 7 would allow it.

Correction: In the top, very first post, the location of the script should be this: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/104309

How to run Greasemonkey scripts on Chrome, Opera, IE, Safari

I'm not computer-savvy enough to try other browsers, although I did go to Firefox on my old computer,and didn't like it at all. I've had absolutely no trouble with either Windows Vista or IE7, other than he fact that I've sent money to a horrible corporation.

If it's a matter of keeping your old bookmarks, I believe you can import those into either Opera or chrome. Not sure about FF though. I added IEPro addon to IE8, and it's a resource hog. Talk about slowing things down. Right now I have three different browsers installed and working with the same userscript installed in three different Windows folders. It works with three different browsers on my PC running on top of Vista. I admit it wasnt intuitive for me or very easy to get it to run with Opera or Chrome. I can find my way around most Unix file systems, and I must say that Windows Vista must be somewhat confusing for the average Windows user. I've got to stop and think about what in heck I'm trying to do when something doesnt run right. Nobody is interested in snooping around my stuff on my PC running Vista Home, so why all the added file security clap trap? It's ridiculous.

Installation Instructions for Google Chrome & Opera browser users

Javascript source code can be copied & pasted to a Notepad file from this source:

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/104309  ...and click on the "Source Code" tab to the right of "About" to view the javascript.

Just remember that if you use Notepad or whichever text editor,  you must save the file with type "All Files" extension and not of type text. Your new script filename has to have three parts to it separated by two dots: anyname.user.js  This is important for both chrome and Opera browsers to recognize the file and read the script within the file.

Google's Chrome browser [14]

Right-click on the chrome browser shortcut icon on your Windows desktop, and choose "Properties". Append this to the very right-hand end of the text in the entry field labelled "Target", and leaving one space between the last double quote and this new specifier:

--enable-user-scripts

It should look like this:

The steps for installing the script with the Chrome browser from here on are much the same as for Opera, except that the new folder location for the script will be of a different file path where Chrome will automatically look for any user scripts to read and execute or apply to either specific web pages or all web pages in general. The header of myfilter.user.js tells chrome which pages to apply the script to, which will be any and all babble thread pages only. You can name the file whatever you want, but it must end with this filename extension: anyfilename.user.js. And the following is the full Windows file path to the folder where your script file must be saved to:

C:\Users\YourFolderHere\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\User Scripts

Note: With respect to typing in the above folder and file path, the second folder name in the path from left to right will be your own user name as it appears in Windows Explorer. You may have to place your mouse cursor over the folder list path window at top of Windows Explorer, and right-click on the file path window. Choose edit address,  which wll then allow you to edit the folder path. Move through your folders to the target folder by editing that path of folders separated by a backslashe, or character that looks like "\" on your keyboard,  between each folder name and paying attention to letter case. As you type in the path example referred to above this paragraph in bolded lettering, Windows folder/file name auto completion helps you navigate through each folder in the list with a drop down window pointing the way. If the folder "User Scripts" doesnt exist in Default, then create it. Place a copy of your script file in the final folder destination User Scripts. And there must be a space between User and Scripts when naming that last folder if it doesnt exist already.

If chrome doesn't read the script(ie you see nothing new added to the authors panels at left in any particular babble thread) then the solution may be to go to the folder where myfilter.user.js is located and change file permissions to "Everyone", or just open google chrome with administrator level privileges. In that case, right-click on your chrome shortcut(on the desktop), click on Properties, click on shortcut tab, click Advanced button,  choose "Run as Administrator"

When viewing the file folder where your script is located, Windows Explorer should tell you its file type is "JS", like this:

If it's a type "Text" file, then it just needs the extension changing from .txt to anyfile.user.js

And that's it, you're done installing the script. Just make sure that javascript and cookies are enabled in Google Chrome.

---

OPERA browser [4] users

Step One: Create a new folder and file

To have the script work with Opera, installing the script is easy. Create a folder or subdirectory on your hard drive named scriptsFor most people, the main drive on their computers is mapped to the letter "C", so you would create a folder of this pathname: C:\scripts

Then put a copy of myfilter.user.js in that folder. The Windows folder location of your user script will then be: C:\scripts\myfilter.user.js

It's important that the script file name is in the form of myscript.user.js When you look at the file list for your new folder using Windows Explorer, Windows should recognize it as a JS type of file, meaning it's a javascript file. All you'll see though is something like, myscript.user in the file list. But to the right of that it should say it's a type JS file. You may have to rename the file once or twice to either myscript.user or even myscript.user.js in order for Windows(and Opera browser) to recognize it as a javascript file. Either way you want your script to be recognized by Windows Explorer as a JS(javascript) file and not a text file. JS files have ".js" extensions and text files saved in Notepad have .txt file extension. Be careful with Notepad as there are two options to save a file, and the file can have either an extension of type text or as "All Files". You want "All Files" Saving it as type text will append a ".txt" to whatever your filename is, and it won't be recognized by your browser as a javascript file. The script is installed at this point. And so when viewing the location of the file in Win-Explorer, it should look something like this with your folder's file "details" selected:

Windows will probably see it as just myfilter.user and not display the .js portion of the filename. In list view or detailed view of your new folder, Windows Explorer should list myfilter.user as a type JS file though. And if not, rename the file and append a .js to the right end of it. Close explorer window, re-open it and check to see that Windows Explorer recognizes it as a type JS file in the FILE TYPE column. That's the easy part.

Step Two: Enable javascript in browser

In Opera's Tools menu, choose quick preferences.

1. Make sure that block all popups is not selected. I have block unwanted popups selected.

2. Also in "Quick Preferences", I have enabled: java, plugins, javascript, and cookies

3. Open Tools, "Preferences", click the "Advanced" tab. Select "Content" from the four panes on the left. Click "Javascript options" button. I have all the options enabled in that pane except for open console on error. Web pages sometimes produce lots of error and warning messages for various reasons, but the page still works. Error and warning messages can be annoying. At the bottom there is an entry field. Type in this path: C:\scripts

It should look like this:

Again you must be logged in to rabble in order for the script to work and to view the changes

Does anyone have this working yet? If anyone has questions, please feel free to ask away. You can post your question here or even PM me. I'll do my best to help you get it running for any one of the three internet browsers mentioned above.

It works perfectly for me!  Now I never have to see Unionist's posts again!

(Just kidding.  I won't be blocking anyone - I just tested it out on Unionist because I remembered a few threads he had posted in and wanted to go from thread to thread to test it out.  I love Unionist.  Really. :) )

Thanks for this, Fidel!  I hope it's helpful to those who feel the need to use it.

P.S. Firefox really is an excellent browser.  The first time I tried it, a few years ago, I hated it too.  But now it's really great, and I never use IE anymore for anything. And the good thing is, you can add scripts like this SO easily in Firefox, whereas IE is a pain in the ass to add anything to.  It's so worth switching, not just for the politics of it (which is reason enough) but because it's a superior product.

Nice work Fidel!

There are babblers still using Micro$oft Internet Explorer?   Gee...haven't been around as much lately...guess I have some work to do

Has anyone seen Michelle around lately?

Heh.

I use Google Chrome.......fast and easy to use

http://www.google.com/chrome

Seriously, though.  I want to thank Fidel for creating this tool.  I think it's really neat that he saw an issue and actually took time out of his life to create a really neat little app that could help people resolve it and enjoy the site more.

In a way, even though I've been jokingly wishing for just this for years, I have mixed feelings about the use of it now that it's here.  But I do think that it could be an extremely useful "cooling off" tool when people just feel they can't get along with another babbler, no matter how hard they try to overcome their annoyance or whatever other emotion gets triggered by the other person.

I don't think people will be using this tool extensively (at least I hope not, in that I hope there isn't widespread NEED for it), but I think it can be a really useful little gadget.  And I'm really impressed with how well it works.

Thanks very much, Fidel, for your contribution and your dedication to the site.

Okay great. I just wanted to make sure that someone is able to run this other than me. I don't think most people will need to use it either. I actually have no one on my lowbies list right now. I began wondering why I was monkeying around with this script when I realized I can't stay miffed at anyone longer than a couple of days anway. Must be middle age creep, or something. And then I realized that it's not only for my benefit. If anyone was to become really digusted with, say, my posts and my off the wall comments from time to time, they can just turn me off. They can say to themselves, I've had enough of Fidel's atrocious spelling and awful grammar today, I just can't take it anymore. And then click me off. And I don't have to feel bad about, because I won't know.

This is for babblers using the IE8 browser and have downloaded and installed IEPro addon [25] for Internet Explorer.

Oops! I will try to post a link to install a user script that works with IE later today. An unforseen error just occurred, and I'll have to look at it later.

Just curious how this works.  Say I'm choosing to ignore babbler x.  So his posts disappear.  What about babbler y who quotes babbler x?  Does that part of babbler y's post disappear?

No, it's not that sophisticated, but I believe it could be done though with some effort. Not by me though. There is a second hyperlink labelled on/off for each author's pane(except moderators) to toggle the comments display of any babbler manually. That way you can click off individual posts at random in addition to those posters in your "hidebabbler" list, which is the name of the cookie created and stored in the same folder as your other rabble cookies.

This is for babblers using the IE8 browser [29] (or IE9 here [30]) and have downloaded and installed IE7Pro [25] add-on for Internet Explorer. I think both IEPro and the user script will work with IE7 but not sure. You must have user scripts enabled in IEPro before installing and using the script.

Visit this page: http://iescripts.org/view-scripts-1114p1.htm [31] and click on the install Script button upper-right side of the page. Javascript and cookies must be enabled, popups for rabble/babble enabled, etc.

Now it does. No more babbler x in babbler y's post but only where the author's name is included in the quote. Unfortunately, so are any other innocent bystander quotes obliterated when it's a nested block quote. It's ugly, but it works to some extent. Third link top post.

ETA: Updated script for FireFox, Chrome, and Opera browser users here at the same web address: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/104309

...and here for Internet Explorer users: http://iescripts.org/view-scripts-1114p1.htm [31]

I just put this same note at the above address describing a bug fix/compromise for IEPro and an issue with it not loading in IE8 for some reason. Sometimes you''l notice that your userscript stops working all of a sudden. You can close and re-open IE8 when it does happen. Or if you don't mind disabling tabbed browsing in IE8, then IEPro will load with every instance of IE8 browser as well as your user script.

Latest Note: If your script for IE8 running with IE7Pro add-on stops working from time to time, it's because IE7Pro isn't loading as IE8's tabbed browser windowing increases past one. What you can do is change or add a Windows registry key value to Windows Registry described at this tinyurl address redirect to an IE support site: http://preview.tinyurl.com/cojczw [33] and click on 'proceed to this site' Follow Shahinur's instructions for changing or adding the registry key named 'TabProcGrowth' using Windows Registry Editor. And make it a DWord value of 0(numeral zero). The tradeoff for having IEPro load every time without fail, as well as your userscript working on every babble page without a hitch, is that IE tabbed browser instances will run in the same thread process. We can be sure this bug will be fixed in future releases of IEPro. If you're not familiar with Windows registry editor, make a backup of the registry before doing anything, and-or even better, have an experienced PC user assist you.

Okay, this is for that one babbler who's been installing the script over and over and dinging up the install count. I added a few new lines of script for errer cheking porpoises. It's supposed to handle crazy usernames with parentheses and those long ones that are truncated in the author's pane but not in the page where quoted. Anyway, it doesn't work sometimes for me with IE8, and I don't know why but it has something to do with how IE8 handles cookies. If it does break, it seems to be that the cookie and tab process become discombobulated for some reason. Try deleting the hidebabbler cookie in your IE8 Windows/Microsoft/AppData/The script changes seem to work a-ok with FF, Chrome and Opera though. Go figure.

In IE8, the approximate path to your cookies looks something like this:

C:\Users\JohnQ babbler\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies  

Vista Windows folder and file Explorer won't show me the folders deeper than ...\AppData\... and so I have to type it in to the Explorer window as a text path. Or you can go through IE8 "Options" from the drop down menue, choose General tab, delete button to delete all cookies, OR choose the button beside it, Settings and then "View Files" to see your hidebabbler cookie. And just delete that cookie if necessary.

Hey, I'll be able to use this in 11 days!  :D 

Oh...I'm just kidding.

Seriously though - thanks for your work, Fidel.

Thanks Michelle. I still don't have anyone on my lowbies list. And it's too bad, because I could really ignore someone if I wanted to.

I think Greasemonkey and even IEPro have a lot of nice features that the more internet savvy babblers can appreciate. I'm not that particular as to want to use a lot of those bells and whistles though, and I hope those add-ons are maintained in future for people to be able to shape and customize web content to their personalized satisfaction.

I'll leave the info up there for installing the script for Google's Chrome. If babblers who use Chrome want to try Chrome version 249.64 (beta), then they will be able to install the script [37]  using the easy click and install button method at that site a-ok without going through all the hassle I described not very well above in post #8.

Fidel, what about using our Internal Spam Filters? 

Fidel, thanks for the newest update. You can be assured that your script works with FF and Windblows 7!!

I'm not technically savvy enough to fiddle with this, although it sounds like a very cool little tool, Fidel!

I use a low-tech version: There are one or two babblers whose posts I simply ignore.  Generally it works quite nicely!!

Google Chrome 4 now natively supports Greasemonkey user scripts [42]

Me, too, and that's what I meant by using my Internal Spam Filter (TM). 

Not naming names, of course, but if I don't respond to a particular thread participant in a thread that clearly engages me (say on psychiatry or civil liberties or some such), it doesn't mean I didn't read their, er, "contribution."

As my dear father often says "I don't have time to read every piece of crap that's put in front of me."  And he's a professional!  A Ph.D. for Goodness' Sake.  Just sayin'.

And it goes without saying, the "low tech version" suggested by Mr. Sven is infinitely more democratic than silencing opponents through complicated technological gimmicks. Just sayin'.

Chrome for Mac beta now has extensions, bookmark sync  Google's Chrome browser for Mac operating system enabling users to make use of browser extensions and java scripts - 40,000 free scripts at userscripts.org

Google Chrome's a piece of cake to install and to compare it to IE is like ... [insert clever analogy here].

Cake is hard, or at least it is for me. Easy as pie? I just follow the directions on the package of Tenderflake lard for the pie crust. Flatten it out in a pie dish and freezing will sometimes produce a puffy pie crust. Apple and blueberry are my faves. Top with French vanilla ice cream, or even Carnation evaporated milk? It's all good.

Nothing easy about pi, Fidel. She's irrational.

Hey all.  Just bumping this thread to highlight how useful this user script can be.  Seriously, I'm not being sarcastic.  Lowers the blood pressure, and if you find that one or two people's posts are consistently making you nuts (I'm sure we all have them, and I'm sure I'm on at least a couple of other people's lists), you can "be your own mod" and make them disappear.  It's pretty cool.

:D I love this.

What if we can't get enough of some users?

Hey Fidel can you write a script that will make random G. Muffin posts appear in whatever thread we are reading?

I'd appologize to all those I've been agrivating...but you wouldn't be able to see it anyway.  Oh well, More apologies for me I guess.

Yes, random posts are doable. Maybe a site bot, or something. But I don't think we could capture the spirit of G.Pie as easily. There's only one G.Pie, and I don't have the specs.

I hope you don't think I meant anything like generating random posts.  I mean can you just insert posts written by G.muffin into the threads I am reading...with link to the proper context would be good.  There is just not enough pie in the threads I've been following.

Is there an easy way to install this, for those of us who don't know much about computers?

All you have to do is click on a button. (But note that you can't 'ignore' moderators .)

People seem to manage that well enough without a button.

Did somebody say something?

OK, which button Rosa?  I clicked on that green "Install" button, then was directed to a page of programming language.

Haha, my rabble reaction to Oldgoat was to snort beer into my lap. 

Al-Qa'bong, I've sent you a PM. Maybe together we can figure out how to install it.

After clicking the green install button, a smaller window should appear with three buttons across the buttom and labelled: Install, Show script source, and cancel.

I just tried clicking the green install button on userscripts.org, and I did get the source code page right away. But it happened while I was using the Opera browser, which is a slightly different installation procedure. The install button should work with Google Chrome or Firefox. Which browser are you using?

I use both Firefox and Microsoft Something.

When your FF browser is pointed to this page, you should see a number of tabs from left to right labelled: About, Source Code, Reviews etc. If you're on the 'About' tab, you should see the green install button. And clicking it should produce a smaller installation dialog box/window. But you say you're seeing nothing but javascript source code. That's strange. Do you have greasemonkey installed as a firefox addon?

Download Firefox 3.6.2 [1]

Download Greasemonkey [2] Works with Firefox 1.5 – 3.6.*

And what version of firefox do you have? 

I don't have "greasemonkey."  I suppose I need it, huh?

Geez, "greasemonkey"?

That's a rather classist term.  I prefer "Automotive Service Tech." or "Mechanic."

I'm at home now, with Windows Whatever.  Firefox is at work, although the tech. installed it last fall, so itmust be a recent version.  I'll have to check in later.

IE7Pro 2.4.8 is available for Microsoft IE browsers(Gee I only have 2.4.7). That will enable you to run this script [31] for use with just Microsoft's IE browser and IE7Pro installed as an addon.  I'm not sure if theyve fixed some of the issues or not. I don't recommend IE7Pro 2.4.8 though because I haven't tried it. And it looks like some people posting feedback to that site are reporting software glitches already.

An' for what it's worth, I think the issues theyre experiencing have more to do with Innoshock [64] guys dealing with MS secrecy wrt MS's proprietary source code. It's a nice addon with a lot of bells and whistles, and I think it should be a more efficient addon because of the way third party s/w vendors are able to hook into(use the same) main code segment the browser itself uses. That's slick. I think IE7Pro will be a nice addon with some bug fixes in future. And they do have previous versions for download, too, bottom of the front page on that site.

I don't know about adding on anything.  I'm a little leery about that stuff, since a virus ate the guts out of my hard drive over Christmas.

Well that's no good. Sorry to hear about that. I get all my security stuff from Shaw cable included with the deal. They over-charge me for packaged services, and I don't have to worry about viruses. Much. I've been getting a number of firewall alerts about attempted tcp connections to my machine from somewhere in New York. I've sent the ISP down there all the details of the attempted connects, but nothing from those dead-heads so far. I'm thinkin if whoever it is doesn't cut it out, there's going to be trouble.

Script Users:

It is much more entertaining using the script when you change the word 'lowbies' to 'numpties' in the code.

Numpties?  Geez, then half the people here don't read my stuff.

What was that, al-Qa'bong? For some reason I can't see your posts! 

Hah, j/k. If you are reading my posts and responding to them in three minutes or less then there must be a bug in the script

10 Wikipedia Usability Userscripts

IEPro v.2.5.1 released June 2nd That one babbler who actually uses this script with IEPro, or perhaps they just use IEPro,  may want to try it. And let us know your likes and dislikes, concerns, fears, hopes for the future of the world and whatever. I still have 2.4.8 installed with IE but am using a different browser altogether.

I should have said something then. But I think it can sometimes be entertaining when you roll up your sleeves and customize web pages to your own choosiness. I probably won't be doing this ever again, but it was kind of fun doing this ignore script. Learning new things is fun sometimes. This is freebie code now owned by all babblers and isn't all that sophisticated. You might want to add features to this script, or even begin anew to do something cool and different to share with others. I'd never written a javascript before this and knew nothing about DOM structure for HTML pages, or the web page information received by our web browsers and displayed on our screens like so much magic. It's cool to wrench around with and change things to suit yourself. There is a tool for Firefox web browsers that really helps to understand the html code and tags buried deep in the middle of web pages. The page inspector for Firefox is a freebie download too, Firebug. It has so many bells and whistles that I never had a chance to look at them all. It allows you to "X-ray" the web page of interest, and even to debug your own javascript which might act on and effect your personalized changes to the way a web page appears after its received by your machine but before its displayed by your browser, if that's what you're wanting to do. But that tool was what helped me as a newbie to HTML coding and scripting to understand what I wanted to point to within the page so as to understand which specific information I needed to access, like div elements and sub-elements nested even deeper within those general tags. The structures tend to encapsulate a broad data structure and moving toward the more specific information of a general category, like everything in author's pane or whatever. Looking at the DOM structure of a web page is like disassembling a Russian doll within a doll within a number of larger to smaller dolls kind of thing. IE8 has its own built-in tools for inspecting the page structure and debugging small javascript programs: IE Tools [73] It's kind of neat to monkey around with in your spare time even if you don't write any code. So, go for it! Absolutely.

Dumb question, because I'm puzzled by this on a practical level.

I dont very often get to the point of wanting to completely ignore particular people. But when I do, I just skip over their posts.

Is there some advantage I'm missing to making their posts totally dissapear?

Or is it that people just read down before looking at who is speaking?

Or.... ?

You're absolutely right, Ken. You aren't missing anything. Some people can simply choose not to read another's posts. And other people just like to have choices. It's all about choices really.

Some women claim that men have the script imbeded in their brains towards what they say. To be honest I think I have it. Sometimes certain people will be speaking, I can see them speaking, but none of what they say registers. Usually people who use too much spin and way more words than is necessary.

What slays me is people who enter a babble help thread to inform someone of how little his or her thoughts and efforts mean to them personally.

You sure the spinning is not related to the dizziness you feel when you get frustrated and angry when people say things that contradict your beliefs?

cueball, speaking of frustrated and angry, how have you been handling it not having called anybody PIG in almost a week?

Actualy, never mind. I can see it in your postings.

See there is another example of your getting dizzy preventing you from actually reading what people are saying to you. In several posts I have told you directly that I never called cops "pigs" until such a time as some people, such as yourself decided that it was your god given right to dictate the way that people may express themselves.

(hope you were able to make it through the whole paragraph before feinting. I tried to be a brief as possible.)

But please, dont let facts, ideas, or anything actually being said by people stop you from posting your "incites".

cruisin_turtle, you are trolling. Knock it off.

Get ready to get dirty.

BookInfoLine Automatically Compares Book Prices as You Shop(a GM user script)

This must be the most useful browser script I've ever come across. Apparently it does automagic price comparisons(using calls to an Ajax script) of books offered by any of Amazon.xx, Abelbooks, Barnesandnoble, Biblio, Ebay, Kindle, Thriftbooks etc. Cool. That person rocks.

I feel dirty already.

Dirty monkey for sure. 

Anyway, someone mentioned having problems with their script not working with Firefox v6.0. And sure enough, it doesn't work for me after upgrading to FF6. So the fix is, according to Tony Lieuallen his self, is to downgrade from greasemonkey v0.9.8 to 0.9.7 until 0.9.9 is out. Must have been an older post of his, because GM 0.9.10 is out as of last Monday.Anyway I downgraded to gm 0.9.7, and the script works ok. Here is the repository site for all 30 versions of greasemonkey: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/versions/

So go a head and ignnore me now. Doh! (_8(|)

PS: Google Chrome is speedier for me than Firefox. I ditched an Opera beta a couple versions ago when it crashed on me, and I really liked Opera. Been using chrome ever since.