Tweaktown on Adblock Plus

[Madmick]

I'm having difficulty with Tweaktown. After ~10 seconds of loading, it's popping up a window asking me to whitelist Adblock Plus. Here's the text:

Hello dear guest,

If you use AdBlock or another tool to disable advertising, please consider whitelisting *.tweaktown.com/* .

We depend on advertising to continue producing high quality tech content.

We do not run popups or annoying ads, we hate them as well.

Even if you do not click ads, we are still paid a small amount for each banner display.

The server bills do not pay themselves, either.

Thank you for your consideration!

The TweakTown Team

It's never done this before, and I've always used ABP. I Googled, and all the relevant results were from 2008. I figured, screw it, I don't care about ads on this one site, so I tried whitelisting them; perhaps I don't understand the process correctly. First, I went into the easy list, searched for "Tweaktown", found the filter, and disabled it. Next, I added a custom filter:

@@*.tweaktown.com/*

Nevertheless, I'm still seeing the pop-up. Tried restarting the browser just in case. Still there. I hope I'm doing something wrong. I like Tweaktown, but if they force me to choose between browsing their site and disabling ABP, then my bookmark manager will be one website lighter. That's like asking me to choose between your website and all of Google's services. Get with reality.

I if disallow Tweaktown will Noscript, then it goes away, but I no longer see any images or other unintrusive javascript that is integral to the site's design.

What's my fix?

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Websites, especially techie ones, use javascript to detect the disabling of adverts with addons such as AdBlock Plus.

Generally what happens is the teams who manage the filter lists you're subscribed to will update the filter list so that Adblock Plus deliberately blocks the Javascript which is doing the detection.

It's a game of cat and mouse, in my experience I find any site which implements ad blocking detection is defeated in the filter lists within a few days without needing to do anything, you can expedite this by bringing the issue up with whoever manages the filter lists you're subscribed to, AdBlock Plus has a forum for this and there's other ways of getting in touch with filter list managers if you google them.

*edit*

On a personal note, I find this situation amusing, people use adblock software specifically because sites do annoying crap like like use intrusive popups. So tweaktowns's solution is to bother adblock users with intrusive popups.

Not sure they've thought that through

 

[PrincessFrosty]

*EDIT1*

Ah, the javascript is inline and not loaded from an external file, it means ABP won't be able to block it.

*EDIT2*

OK, I've researched this, you'll need an extension for your browser which is capable of modifying or disabling inline javascript tags, a friend uses greasemonkey for firefox, I'm using chrome and just found a similar one called TamperMonkey

They're capable of using pre-written scripts by other people and a source of these is - http://userscripts.org/

If you search on that site for tweaktown you'll find 2 scripts that others have written to subvert the ABP detection on tweaktown, although they were written in 2008, I have no idea if they still work (I'm guessing not), but no reason why you can't write your own if not.

 

[pcslookout]

Works fine with Ad Muncher here.

 

[balloonshark]

Wow, that is annoying isn't it? You can right click the ABP icon and then click disable on tweaktown.com. That seems to be working for me and it's better than disabling ads globally.

I wonder if manufacturers pay to have a forum on TT? My MB maker has a forum on TT. If you own a product with a forum on TT contact them and let them know how displeased you are with the annoyance. Also let them know that you might consider a manufacturer with a more user friendly forum host.

 

[John Connor]

I'm using Ablock edge for Firefox and I can navigate the site Tweaktown without issue. I do get the pop up but I just selected ok.

 

[Murloc]

I just clicked OK and it worked but I don't know how often it comes up.

 

[pcslookout]

Why not just use Ad Muncher sense you can get it for free legally ?

 

[John Connor]

Ad Muncher is free?

 

[pcslookout]

Ad Muncher is free?

Use Trial Pay.

 

[taq8ojh]

I just sent them pretty pissed off feedback. I thought, allright, I won't go emo over one banner, what's the big deal?, and disabled ABP on the site (I never saw it with ads). But then I refreshed the forums, and WTF!!... are you kidding me? Banner on top of the forums, ads between the damn posts, and one half page tall abomination of an ad under the forums. Screw that! If they have to do this to keep the forums going (the popup is ridiculous whining how they must make money), maybe they should flat out cancel the whole thing and move on.
I will rather keep clicking on the popup than letting them make a single penny on this ridiculous sh..

 

[TGWTech]

Install Reek's Anti-AdBlock Killer (Greasemonkey script) and the problem will be solved, it will kill the AdBlock detection code on TweakTown and many other sites.

Tested and works.

Regards.

-TGW

EDIT: It currently works only for the main website, not for the forums as they use a sub-domain and a slightly modified detection code, reporting it now, hopefully an update will be released soon.

 

[pcslookout]

I just use Ad Muncher.

 

[TGWTech]

Reek's Anti-AdBlock Killer is now updated (linked above), ABP detection on 'forums.tweaktown.com' is circumvented, no more popups there.

 

[TGWTech]

I just use Ad Muncher.

Ad Muncher is not free.

Also, I don't think you can't hide page elements with it, and it can't hide ads in SSL pages, right?

 

[pcslookout]

Ad Muncher is not free.

Also, I don't think you can't hide page elements with it, no?

You sure can!