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Bad Web Design 101 (Abusive Javascript)
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| DigiNut |
I need to rant for a minute.
I think that almost all of us can remember when we were first assaulted by the popup, one of the most insidious and evil web inventions known to man. For a time, they were everywhere - you couldn't surf for 5 minutes without another flashing eyesore disturbing your search for information or porn. Mankind has finally been winning the war on popups in recent years, to the point where 9 out of 10 are blocked and very few legitimate sites still use them without user consent.
And now, in what seems almost like a knee-jerk reaction to the oncoming demise of that nuisance, legions of amateur web designers across the globe have adopted another hare-brained technique of generally driving their visitors up the wall: the blocked right-click.
Do a search for "right-click block" on google - you'll find literally thousands of misguided users asking how to prevent their users from right-clicking on their page, and thousands more self-righteous web "gurus" explaining how to do it.
Apparently, they want to block right-clicks in the interests of "protecting their copyright", or some equally fatuous and puerile horse . The great irony is that the vast majority of these people don't have anything on their site worth protecting. Even if they did, the hack is so utterly sophomoric, so unbelievably devoid of good judgment and good taste, that I occasionally feel tempted to steal their crap just for spite.
Let's look at the facts, shall we?
First and foremost, it simply doesn't work. Even the most idiotic, empty-headed, computer-illiterate dimwit can hit the "print screen" button to copy an image, drag it onto their desktop, click both buttons at once, or go to "Save Page" or "Save Media" from the file menu, or choose "View Source" (in order to rip off a script). Mac users won't be affected at all since their mice only have one button. And more computer-savvy users can disable JavaScript, check their image cache, use wget or telnet to download any or all of a site, or use a script-blocking tool to override the annoying script.
But more importantly, it's incredibly annoying and offensive. Who are YOU to dictate what I am allowed to do in MY OWN WEB BROWSER? Aside from the obvious fact that these web designers are treating all their users as criminals, people use the right mouse button for other things! There is an entire context menu that's brought up by the right button; maybe I want to go back, or reload the page, or bookmark it, or even send the link to one of my friends! Disable my right mouse button and you make it very inconvenient to do those things.
Many of us also use (and are VERY accustomed to using) Mouse Gestures. I use one, for example, to close a tab in Firefox; but when these pathetic right-click blockers are active, I can't do that, instead I just get an annoying alert saying "Copyright (c) 2005 by Some Airheaded Sack of Crap".
Folks, I'm telling you this for your own good: if you want your web site to be successful, don't antagonize your users! For a while I put up with this garbage; then I stopped visiting those sites in disgust; eventually I created a script-blocker to get rid of the "protection". By using these scripts, you are shooting yourselves in the foot and giving visitors a very good incentive never to visit again.
If you want to protect your work, then do it properly:
- Watermark them
- Add a sample stamp to them
- Use Flash to view the images (not the whole site! And this will not stop good old "print screen")
Get it? Got it? Good! |
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| VERTiG0 |
| CLICK HERE TO WIN A PAIR OF HUMAN EYES!!!!!!!!!! |
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| infinity HiGH |
| I agree...it is f'ing annoying. |
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| Cosmic Fur |
Are you kidding me?
I love that right-click blocking crap, but only because Firefox bypasses it. I even adopted a special laugh that I use when a site has restricted me from right clicking and saving an image, and me right clicking and saving that image. |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cosmic Fur
Are you kidding me?
I love that right-click blocking crap, but only because Firefox bypasses it. I even adopted a special laugh that I use when a site has restricted me from right clicking and saving an image, and me right clicking and saving that image. |
Unfortunately, the Firefox filter only blocks the sites that use the "document.oncontext" script. The sites which use "document.onmousedown" get through. |
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| Cosmic Fur |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
Unfortunately, the Firefox filter only blocks the sites that use the "document.oncontext" script. The sites which use "document.onmousedown" get through. |
example? |
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| Euphorica |
| You ranting about something? no |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by Euphorica
You ranting about something? no |
You responding with an ignorant and irrelevant one-liner? No !
Cosmic Fur: One example off the top of my head was that "Chavs" site that someone posted. I think I clicked on the image gallery (or whatever they called it) and started seeing that stupid message. I use firefox and have the context-menu override enabled but that doesn't stop it.
TOHost (another image hosting gallery) also does this I believe. |
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| Cosmic Fur |
| Ahh, I've met those, and even though the message pops up, it still doesn't really block me from doing what i wanted. So I still laugh. |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cosmic Fur
Ahh, I've met those, and even though the message pops up, it still doesn't really block me from doing what i wanted. So I still laugh. |
Yes, it doesn't block the context menu in Firefox, but it does mess up mouse gestures, and as you pointed out, the message still pops up. So you can laugh that their protection scheme isn't working, but it's still annoying as hell. |
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