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"Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23

bugzilla.mozilla.org

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Re: "Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23

#11

Post by Nav_Panel »

nwh wrote: post #9
CyberDroiD wrote: post #7

Javascript is not required to read articles on the web. It's optional. That's why "Reader" mode is so handy, just show me the article so I can read it. Sometimes I don't like waiting for my browser to struggle with poorly written JS. It sounds like a classic noobie mistake... "Why are users able to turn off Javascript?" "No idea." "Remove the feature!" If anyone says Javascript is not optional, they are trying to sel…

> Javascript is not required to read articles on the web. Unfortunately, it very much is. Nearly every website on the internet is completely useless without JavaScript. I visited a large number of links from the HN front page, and many of them had broken navigation or images. You can't actually vote on HN itself either.

Hacker News sans voting is nowhere near completely useless. I strongly suspect that a majority of people who read HN don't even have accounts (and thus are unable to vote). And even if the posts do contain broken links/images, a fair amount of text is often still available; I think a site's textual content is often its most important feature (unless it's a site specifically geared toward images/interactive content).

The "1% Rule"[0] grew out of this idea -- the hypothesis it poses is that 89% of the users of a given internet forum are strictly lurkers. HN has a more tech-oriented population than many forums, so I bet the differences between groups are less extreme, but I also bet that the overall trend still stands.

[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_(Internet_culture)

Re: "Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23

#12

Post by veemjeem »

Nav_Panel wrote: post #11
nwh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Javascript is not required to read articles on the web. Unfortunately, it very much is. Nearly every website on the internet is completely useless without JavaScript. I visited a large number of links from the HN front page, and many of them had broken navigation or images. You can't actually vote on HN itself either.

Hacker News sans voting is nowhere near completely useless. I strongly suspect that a majority of people who read HN don't even have accounts (and thus are unable to vote). And even if the posts do contain broken links/images, a fair amount of text is often still available; I think a site's textual content is often its most important feature (unless it's a site specifically geared toward images/interactive content).…

Right, but the change isn't targeting you, the hacker news reader. There's dozens of mom & pops out there who have no understanding how browsers work and when they disable javascript, they'll complain that firefox can't render pages as well as IE.

Re: "Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23

#13

Post by mehwoot »

swiftin wrote: post #4

Why is taking away features "in" now?

Because people now realise that adding features is not necessarily a good thing. It adds complexity to both development and using the product. If there isn't a very good reason for it to be there, then it shouldn't be.

Evidently the firefox developers do not think there is a very good reason for disabling javascript to be in the general options, so they removed it.

Re: "Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23

#14

Post by nhamann »

CyberDroiD wrote: post #7

Javascript is not required to read articles on the web. It's optional. That's why "Reader" mode is so handy, just show me the article so I can read it. Sometimes I don't like waiting for my browser to struggle with poorly written JS. It sounds like a classic noobie mistake... "Why are users able to turn off Javascript?" "No idea." "Remove the feature!" If anyone says Javascript is not optional, they are trying to sel…

It depends on the type of article. I write a lot of blog posts about math. The most convenient way to do this is using Mathjax. If browsers had native support for mathematical notation then I would be inclined to agree with you, but this is not currently the case.

Re: "Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23

#15

Post by PavlovsCat »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #10
CyberDroiD wrote: post #7

Javascript is not required to read articles on the web. It's optional. That's why "Reader" mode is so handy, just show me the article so I can read it. Sometimes I don't like waiting for my browser to struggle with poorly written JS. It sounds like a classic noobie mistake... "Why are users able to turn off Javascript?" "No idea." "Remove the feature!" If anyone says Javascript is not optional, they are trying to sel…

> Javascript is not required to read articles on the web. Agreed. However, the web consists of far more than just "articles", and quite a bit of content legitimately uses JavaScript for required functionality. Disabling it needs to have the kinds of huge "this will break things" warnings associated with installing an extension like NoScript; it shouldn't have a checkbox in Firefox's preferences.

I have a crazy idea: a popup with an explanation the first time the user toggles the feature.

Re: "Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23

#17

Post by abtinf »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #15
JoshTriplett wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Javascript is not required to read articles on the web. Agreed. However, the web consists of far more than just "articles", and quite a bit of content legitimately uses JavaScript for required functionality. Disabling it needs to have the kinds of huge "this will break things" warnings associated with installing an extension like NoScript; it shouldn't have a checkbox in Firefox's preferences.

I have a crazy idea: a popup with an explanation the first time the user toggles the feature.

That's a terrible idea. The explanation would have to be very long - practically an essay. And the only people that will understand the explanation (or even care) are folks who are competent enough to quickly google how to disable javascript through about:config.

Increased software complexity and no tangible benefit. Lose-Lose.

Re: "Disable Javascript" option removed in Firefox 23

#19

Post by brudgers »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #10
CyberDroiD wrote: post #7

Javascript is not required to read articles on the web. It's optional. That's why "Reader" mode is so handy, just show me the article so I can read it. Sometimes I don't like waiting for my browser to struggle with poorly written JS. It sounds like a classic noobie mistake... "Why are users able to turn off Javascript?" "No idea." "Remove the feature!" If anyone says Javascript is not optional, they are trying to sel…

> Javascript is not required to read articles on the web. Agreed. However, the web consists of far more than just "articles", and quite a bit of content legitimately uses JavaScript for required functionality. Disabling it needs to have the kinds of huge "this will break things" warnings associated with installing an extension like NoScript; it shouldn't have a checkbox in Firefox's preferences.

I surf a lot of the web with javascript off.

Most of the time, the major content of a page doesn't require it. When it does, it is usually either poor design, or good design where the design is intended to display a bunch of crap I don't want and download a hoard of tracking data.

To put it another way, when I'm surfing, Google Analytics isn't doing anything in my interest.

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