Rec: Ghostery Content Blocker

[promethia_tenk]

Ghostery is like a next-level adblocker. It's an extension for your browser that can block not just visible ads, but all of the trackers and plug-ins that litter modern websites. Why would you want to do this?

1) Privacy: Pretty much every website on the internet is spying on you, often in sophisticated networks that follow you around the web. Ghostry helps shield you from these tracker networks.

2) Security: Some website plugins carry malware that can do you active harm.

3) Speed: A major portion of the data load of a lot of websites is in trackers and plugins. It's amazing how fast some of these sites load when you cut that crap out.

4) Clutter: Ghostery removes a lot of the extra cruft from websites that can distract from the content. Not just ads, but things like those social media sharing buttons, media players, and buggy, slow-loading comment sections. Now, some of these things are useful, but Ghostery lets you turn them on and off at will. Maybe you want the Facebook share buttons but not the Twitter or Linked in ones--you can do that. Maybe most of the time you just want to read a site's articles but sometimes you want to comment--you can load them only when you want to.

5) And it blocks ads too.




I actually run Ghostery and AdBlock Plus at the same time. Sometimes AdBlock picks up something that Ghostery misses.

Ghostery does take a little more active tending than something like AdBlock Plus. As I mention above, some of these plugins are things you actually want. Ghostery breaks the various trackers and plugins into categories like advertising, analytics, media players, etc., to help you figure out which. During the setup process you're also able to search for particular items if you already know you want them enabled (I rely a lot on Google services, for example, and much of the value they provide depends on them knowing that I'm doing, so I enabled their trackers out of the box).

If you're on a particular web page and something seems broken, you can click on Ghostery's drop-down menu to see what content it's blocking and selectively re-enable what you need. It looks like this:



The thing I end up needing to re-enable most often are video players. For certain page elements like comment sections, Ghostery will also leave a little ghost icon to mark what it blocked and you can click on the icon to re-enable the plugin.

Amusingly/of note, if you still use LiveJournal, you will need to enable the LiveJournal 'site analytics' plugin, as major portions of the system pages like comments, flist filtering, and many settings now seem to be tied to it. I'm not entirely sure what I think about this.

Before you install, it's also worth reading about Ghostery's business model so you can make an informed decision about whether and how you use it. Personally, it tend to put more trust in companies that are up-front about how they make their money like this.

Comments

[elisi]

I was going to say something about Ghostery (which looks very nifty) and got distracted by your banner. You've been busy!!

[promethia_tenk]

Well, I've been lying around home for the past three days, which doesn't happen a lot . . .

[elisi]

Well, it's very pretty. How do you add a banner? (If this is easily explained. I'm sure there are tutorials, I just haven't bothered to go look for any...)

[promethia_tenk]

Thank you! Yes, I'm liking it.

There should be an 'images' tab on your page to customize your journal style. Different styles can support images in different places. Like, mine I could put a header truly up top, above the navigation strip and behind my name, but what I've done is chosen to have my modules at top and bottom (instead of a side column) and put in an image as the background for the module.

If your style doesn't support a header, you can probably add one with CSS, but that obviously involves some research.

[elisi]

There should be an 'images' tab on your page to customize your journal style.
Iiinterdasting. Ta!

but what I've done is chosen to have my modules at top and bottom (instead of a side column) and put in an image as the background for the module.
I think we currently have the same style, so I shall have a play.

[promethia_tenk]

I think we currently have the same style, so I shall have a play.
I don't think so. My style is 'crisped,' if you're interested.

Useful tip: DW will save any modifications you make to a particular base style, even if you move to a different base style. Which was how I was able to show you the librarian's dream with the rounded corners without screwing up my journal. When I was done, I just went back, applied crisped again, and everything was back to normal. I don't think LiveJournal does that?

[elisi]

There should be an 'images' tab on your page to customize your journal style. Different styles can support images in different places.
Here, yes? http://www.dreamwidth.org/customize/options?group=images

But how do I add the actual image? I tried putting in the URL but nothing showed up?

/clueless

ETA: I should probably go look at some FAQs or tutorials.

New pretties

[promethia_tenk]

embiggen profile userpic:

.module-userprofile .userpic img {height: 100px; width: 100px;}


put the titles of the modules in lowercase:

.module-header {text-transform: lowercase;}


fancier curves and outlines:

Delete the original line for rounding the corners, and replace with:

#header, .comment-wrapper, .module, .entry-wrapper {border: 1px solid #000000;}

#header, .comment-wrapper, .module, .entry-wrapper, .module-wrapper {border-radius:5px!important;}

.entry-title, .module-header, module-wrapper {border-top-left-radius: 5px;
border-top-right-radius: 5px;}

.comment-title {border-top-right-radius: 5px;}

.entry, .comment {border-top-right-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px;}

.module-content {padding: 2px}

Re: New pretties

[elisi]

omg

You are a genius.

(Am v. pleased that I worked out which bit to tick so the Entries/Calendar/Flist/Network/Tags/Memories/Profile were all added to the bar at the top and not on the side!)

ETA: Hit post too soon. Meant to say that I live for small victories. ;)

Also the main title is still capitalised, although that doesn't bother me as much as the 'Entries' below the titles & subtitle. (Which I don't think it's possible to get rid of. Well, I tried, and then it got rid of the link below as well. I shall have to live with it.)

The only other thing (and that's presumably inherent to the style so don't worry about it) is that the icons are inside the posts, rather than on the left margin.

I guess I should also have a proper look at this, and figure out if it's achievable. In my search, also came across Dreamwidth Site Skin Detector which would probably be a good idea also.

Re: New pretties

[promethia_tenk]

(Am v. pleased that I worked out which bit to tick so the Entries/Calendar/Flist/Network/Tags/Memories/Profile were all added to the bar at the top and not on the side!)
I didn't know you could do that in this style! I need that! *runs off*

To remove the border just from around the navigation links, add:

.module-navlinks {border: none!important}

Re: New pretties

[elisi]

I didn't know you could do that in this style! I need that! *runs off*
It's in one of those bits where you choose what to do with all the modules and I *think* it's Module 2? You can change the placing.

To remove the border just from around the navigation links, add:
I'm not sure I mind that. (Hmmm.) But I shall play around with the font size, because it's MASSIVE. ETA: The journal title & subtitle I mean. And it doesn't seem to be an option... Boo.

Re: New pretties

[promethia_tenk]

Also the main title is still capitalised, although that doesn't bother me as much as the 'Entries' below the titles & subtitle. (Which I don't think it's possible to get rid of. Well, I tried, and then it got rid of the link below as well. I shall have to live with it.)

#header h1#title, h2#subtitle {text-transform: lowercase;}

#header h2#pagetitle {display: none}

Re: New pretties

[elisi]

THANK you.

Would also recommend

[promethia_tenk]

customize your theme --> presentation --> additional options --> size of left and right margins = something small (I did 4 px)

customize your theme --> fonts --> page --> size of base font = something smaller

Re: Would also recommend

[elisi]

Ta. <3 I was faffing about trying to get all the colours to match etc etc, and then decided to change the font... Which meant that now the writing was BIG. At which point I decided that I'd had enough.

Will get to all your brilliant recommendations when I get home. :)

Re: Would also recommend

[promethia_tenk]

Glad you're liking the look of things! I am deeply, deeply pleased with the little black borders, personally. I wrote that! I didn't just pull it from somewhere, I looked up how it worked and strung everything together myself! =D

Also am starting to get attached to this style. May keep it around for myself, at least for awhile.

Ta. <3 I was faffing about trying to get all the colours to match etc etc, and then decided to change the font... Which meant that now the writing was BIG. At which point I decided that I'd had enough.
Have been there. Sometimes you just have to walk away for awhile.

Actually, re: fonts. First you might want to go into your browser's settings and look for a setting for default font size (mine was, like, 16). Adjust that down and all of dreamwidth will look less big, not just your journal. The tricky bit is you will also make gmail smaller, so you have to cross-check both sites and find a good compromise. Then go into your journal settings and adjust that font size, if necessary.

Re: Would also recommend

[elisi]

something small (I did 4 px)
Huh. Mine is already set to 2...

And Darcy will (probably) be needing my computer in a little while for a Skype call, so if I disappear that'll be why.

Re: Would also recommend

[promethia_tenk]

Huh. Mine is already set to 2...
You're probably in em (which proportion your whole page based on ratios so it can scale up and down for smaller displays.) Change the 'em' dropdown to 'px' Or go for fractions of em, like 0.5 em.

And Darcy will (probably) be needing my computer in a little while for a Skype call, so if I disappear that'll be why.
Okey doke. I've gotta do my laundry sometime anyway . . .

Re: Would also recommend

[elisi]

It was percentages. Fixed. :)

And he's decided to do it on his phone, so I'm good to stay put.

Although please go do laundry if you need to. I was going to write also...

[promethia_tenk]

Still no luck on pushing the sidebar down (it's kind of driving me nuts). But I've at least found something that looks nicer:

#header #title {
background-image: url(https://s20.postimg.org/r3spht7y5/japanese_cliff_city_banner.png);
background-position: 50% 7px;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
padding-top: 370px;
}


(Change 370px to suit your image, and the 50% also controls something with positioning that I haven't quite figured out.)


And I reeeeeaaaly need to go to sleep, but this has been enlightening. See you tomorrow!

[elisi]

I would have to delete the original one, yes?

Also if I put the original code in for the corners, will they go round again? The internal corners are fine, but the outside of the modules are all pointy again... ETA: My LJ is the opposite! Round corners on the outside, and pointy on the inside. ;)

(Plz tell me when you've had enough.)

[promethia_tenk]

I would have to delete the original one, yes?
Yes. Well, you could leave it, but it would look silly. I've got them both saved in a text document for the time being so I can swap them out if I scrounge up something to fix the module issue with the first header.

Also if I put the original code in for the corners, will they go round again?
Yes, though I was feeling like everything rounded made some elements look weird, which is why I took it out.

The internal corners are fine, but the outside of the modules are all pointy again... ETA: My LJ is the opposite! Round corners on the outside, and pointy on the inside. ;)
I've been trying to figure out how to specify the background/outer rectangles so I can do things with them (like push down the sidebar, or round their corners without rounding everything), and I can't figure out what they're called.

(Plz tell me when you've had enough.)
No, I'm good. This is pretty interesting and, as I said, I'm liking how it's looking. I've mucked around a bit with css before but, not having particular things I was wanting to achieve, wasn't quite motivated to really dig down. I'll let you know if anything's above my pay grade ; ) Like--I'll warn you that I don't think getting the icons outside the text boxes is happening. At least not anytime soon.

[elisi]

Yes. Well, you could leave it, but it would look silly. I've got them both saved in a text document for the time being so I can swap them out if I scrounge up something to fix the module issue with the first header.
Tried it, didn't like it, went back to the first one. :)

Yes, though I was feeling like everything rounded made some elements look weird, which is why I took it out.
Well, I'll see how it works. And I have now studied my LJ style in more detail than I ever have before. If I could move the link bar up above the journal title... But then I don't know if it'd be possible to have a separate bar, all the way across. MUCH COMPLICATED. ETA: Although could the links be centered? Is that easy? Have I already asked this? Do I even want that??? /o\ Ignore me.

I've been trying to figure out how to specify the background/outer rectangles so I can do things with them (like push down the sidebar, or round their corners without rounding everything), and I can't figure out what they're called.
Could also be this style. There are SO MANY MORE different parts. Changing the colours on LJ takes minutes. Here, I had to work out what all the different things were.

I'll let you know if anything's above my pay grade ; ) Like--I'll warn you that I don't think getting the icons outside the text boxes is happening. At least not anytime soon.
Oh I didn't think so. It seems a much more inherent issue than just tweaking stuff. So don't worry.

[promethia_tenk]

Also if I put the original code in for the corners, will they go round again? The internal corners are fine, but the outside of the modules are all pointy again... ETA: My LJ is the opposite! Round corners on the outside, and pointy on the inside. ;)

Last thing, and then I am stepping away from the CSS:

Check out my current rounding and outlining and tell me if you like it.

I think even though your LJ has straight corners inside, there are so many more individual rounded outer containers, that it doesn't quite look right on DW to square off all the inner boxes.

If you want, I can do the outer rounding and the inner rounding as well. That's an option.

[elisi]

Check out my current rounding and outlining and tell me if you like it.
Yes, looks lovely. :)

Like I said, I'd never looked at my LJ style in any great detail before this. Like, I knew the corners were rounded, but I never noticed that the inside corners were square...

So what you have created is pretty much perfect!