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A question of Javascript?

Mark.J

Administrator
Staff member
ISPreview Team
Quick question, does anybody ever go around with JavaScript in their web browser completely disabled? I'm guessing it's not off right now as otherwise you might have trouble using many of this websites systems, or indeed a significant part of the wider Internet where JS/AJAX is popular. Note: I am not talking about Java applets, which require you to download the separate runtime library (IMO always best avoided).

I just ask because in order to protect some aspects of the site from spam robots we need to add a few extra JS tricks but to be effective we can't have a noscript fall-back. So the issue becomes, how many might be affected (e.g. being unable to comment on a news item if you've disabled JavaScript etc.)?
 
You not running any web visitor stats?

Most will show you the percentage who have JavaScript enabled in their browsers. To give you my stats from 3 very busy web sites I run, the stats show 97.8%, 98.5% and 99.1% have JavaScript enabled.
 
to be honest its hit or miss with stats or at least in my experience. tho to be honest lve never seen stats below 60% of users with java enabled.
 
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to be honest its hit or miss with stats or at least in my experience. tho to be honest lve never seen stats below 60% of users with java enabled.

As with all stats you need to accept a certain degree of inaccurate figures, but figures will normally be quite close in most modern measured systems.

However, as Mark mentioned, he is referring to JavaScript, not Java. I would agree that Java itself tends to be much lower (again as Mark points out, rightly in my view too).

JavaScript tends to enabled by default in all new browsers as it's seen as part of the new generation of building tools (CSS3, Ajax, HTML5). In all honesty Mark, I can't see this being a problem for you, but at some point that line in the sand has to be crossed and development gets moved forward.

PS: There is a reason my nickname is (well was) TheWebmaster (wow flashbacks to 1992-1993 just com back to me).
 
PS: There is a reason my nickname is (well was) TheWebmaster (wow flashbacks to 1992-1993 just com back to me).



Cast-of-Amazing-Spider-Man-2-Will-Be-in-Singapore-for-Earth-Hour-2014-429942-2.jpg
 
Well I have active scripting turned off by default on most websites, I enable only what is required to make the site work, or (if I dont trust the website), I go elsewhere. (I use NoScript).

My only real issues in recent years have been mostly .UK government websites that wont work properly unless you are running Internet Explorer.
 
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I use Firefox with NoScript and AdBlock.
Avoids lots of anoying adverts and pop ups.
I can selectively enable scripts where I want to.
 
I have several friends who use NoScript and I cringe when I watch them trying to use the internet. literally every new website they visit they have to play about clicking noscript and allowing domains until the website works.
I tried it for about 10 minutes at home and became so frustrated and removed it. The security, in this case, isn't worth the inconvenience imo.

I've yet to find a "normal" that has javascript off unless they have made a mistake and are asking me to fix their broken internet.

Tom - www.mouselike.org
 
I would like to know what sites they are visiting drsox, there are only 2 main classes of website I have found that wont work properly without JS are payment/banking sites and some (cough)porn(cough) sites.

HSBC really annoy me, because their CC/DC authorisation system uses cross-scripting, which always sets off NoScript AND Firefox warnings. The stupid thing is, if you get the challenge wrong, they invariably let the purchase go through anyway, but if you cannot get the script to load, they block it!!!!
 
No JavaScript, no website. Straightforward enough ;) JavaScript and CSS are so key these days that you can't expect the full or indeed any experience without them. A bit like people with Apple phones have always had to accept they can't use websites which use Flash.

Whether or not you can be bothered to program a "workaround" or a fall-back if such a thing is possible is up to you, personally I have never bothered to even try. I do know that one of my sites won't render properly in Internet Explorer 7, but that's just tough luck to the very few people still using Internet Explorer 7.

Java is something else - I don't have Java installed, nor would I install it as I've had two machines compromised by it in the past.
 
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Most of ISPr's systems have a noscript style fall-back but obviously if I make a change that will prevent a system, such as news comments, from functioning if you don't enable JS then that's another matter. The idea is to help reduce spam with a few tricks and thus we can't have a fall-back without also giving the bots an alternative solution.

Like others I'm generally of the view that if you don't enable JS then you're missing out on all sorts of features and functionality, some of which can be essential. But I guess anybody who disables it will also be savvy enough to know how to set "trusted" sites as exceptions.

Thanks for the feedback all.
 
I usually allow everything hosted on a "trusted" site, but block stuff that is fed in from 3rd party servers. Not only is it not safe sometimes, but it can have a drastic effect on how long it takes for the website to load (at least it did on the old slow connection I had until last week).
 
I usually allow everything hosted on a "trusted" site, but block stuff that is fed in from 3rd party servers. Not only is it not safe sometimes, but it can have a drastic effect on how long it takes for the website to load (at least it did on the old slow connection I had until last week).

Good idea, although a lot of bigger websites use load balancing and load in content/scripts from sub-domains or other servers they use. I've done it in the past too, usually during times of heavy load, and thus blocking 3rd party servers could cause problems if your browser can't load the data from a cache on your PC.
 
No Script is easy...

I have several friends who use NoScript and I cringe when I watch them trying to use the internet. literally every new website they visit they have to play about clicking noscript and allowing domains until the website works.
I tried it for about 10 minutes at home and became so frustrated and removed it. The security, in this case, isn't worth the inconvenience imo.

I've yet to find a "normal" that has javascript off unless they have made a mistake and are asking me to fix their broken internet.

Tom - www.mouselike.org

I have set up No Script for all the sites I use regularly, and very rarely it needed to updated / changed....
Regards,
Martin
 
Well as per my opinion and knowledge and to be very sincere its hit or skip with statistics or at least in my encounter. l've never seen statistics below 60% of customers with Java's extension enabled.
 
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I deployed our little JS trick onto the news comments yesterday. Admittedly mobile users need to make sure they view the page in 'Desktop' mode (with JS enabled) to comment but so far I've seen lots of human comments and 0 spam attempts :). I also banned two big spam bots from this forum after they kept hammering it.

No doubt the spammers will adapt but it saves me a lot of work when I'm not having to fight it all of the time.
 
I had a javascript trick on one of my websites where the server wouldn't accept a comment submission unless the javascript onclick (or tab into the box) was run for the comment box which set a session variable allowing comment submission. Instantly removed all the spam.. only about 8 years later (right now) has one spammer learned how to get around it.

Tom - www.mouselike.org
 
I tried a similar method to that before but ran into problems with how the website caches our content, but in the end the solution I came up with seems to work.. for now. Downside is that mobile users aren't always aware that some systems won't work without loading the page in 'Desktop' mode and so I have to add a note about that.. must see if there's a way I can force desktop mode for remote users but I don't like changing how people interact by force.
 
have you tried xcache? still working pretty well for places l help run.
 
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