CommentBlocker (deprecated)

Description

NOTE: As of now this extension is officially deprecated. It hasn't been updated in 4 years, and probably won't be again (though I may consider rewriting it). It will fall into (even more) disrepair. Because of this, I don't recommend using it (though I won't unpublish it either. It's your choice).

The final update just removes old email addresses, and adds a notification banner to the options page.

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Automatically removes and disguises user generated comments on web pages, or modifies them to be less depressing and/or harmful to your faith in humanity.

COST

Pay what you like (10 donations so far)
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=TXVYJTNXQKPCY

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS SECTION

* To temporarily show or hide comments on the current page, click the CommentBlocker icon (the yellow diamond) to the right of the website address and click the 'block/unblock all comments' button. Further options are also available via the gears icon in the bottom left corner of the popup.

* You can also block/unblock all comments via the keyboard shortcut, which is Ctrl + Shift + X by default.

* To completely disable or uninstall this (or any other) extension, either go to chrome://extensions , or go to Extensions on the Tools menu,
or right click on the icon to the right of the URL (choosing disable from this menu disables the ENTIRE extension ALWAYS).

* To preview the comment under the mouse cursor, the default shortcut is the Comma key (,). Only works in 'Make Invisible' mode with obscured comments, or 'Just goes to show..' modes.

* Extensions are disabled on Chrome Extension Gallery pages (ie: this page), but enabled everywhere else.

* On some websites comments may be blocked too aggressively, but I try to update with exceptions regularly, so check back occasionally.

FEATURES

* Collapse, Make Invisible, or Modify the text of comments.
* Hide behind removable layer.
* Quick preview.
* Supports Whitelisting and Blacklisting, with wildcards.

ADVERT

Check out my other extension, 'Simple Highlighter' (https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hljnlfolmbmibdjaikiaepgepgnldclj?hl=en-GB)

DESCRIPTION

With CommentBlocker you can remove user generated comments automatically from webpages. Comments are chosen based upon a guess of how they have been tagged on the page. Comments can be collapsed (removed as if they were never on the page), made invisible (still can't be seen, but they will take up the same amount of space as they were there. An empty box is left in their place), made invisible but covered with a removeable layer in their place, or replaced with the phrase "It just goes to show you can't be too careful!" (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/15/online-feedback-public-sector). The 'Make Invisible' with 'Hide comment sections behind layers', and 'It just goes to show you can't be too careful!' modes also allows for the layer or modification to be temporarily removed to preview the comment(s). Also supports whitelisting and blacklisting, with wildcards (in Greasemonkey format).

The icon in the omnibar only appears when comment sections have been detected. When it is enabled on the page (ie: blocking comments), it is a yellow icon. When it is disabled on the page (ie: not blocking comments), it has a red X in the corner. To toggle the status, click on it then click the 'Block/Unblock comments' button (or use the keyboard shortcut). When a site is blacklisted, the icon is black. When whitelisted, it is white with the red X in the corner.

To preview the removal of the comment section under the mouse cursor, hold down the shortcut key for this (Comma (',') by default).

RELEASE NOTES

When choosing shortcuts, remember that the key must be the one you would press without any modifiers combined, and that certain keys may be unavailable because other extensions (or Chrome) have registered them first. For example, to use '>' as a shortcut, select one of the modifiers as 'Shift' and the key as '.' (the unshifted version of '>' on a UK keyboard).

NB: The nature of the extension is to modify the pages in ways that weren't intended. Although every effort has been taken for the formatting of pages to not be altered too much, it will occasionally happen, especially when the 'Make Invisible' + 'Hide comment sections behind layers' option is used, and the 'Favour accuracy and safety over scroll speed' option is not checked (for example articles on the New York Times site). This is partially unavoidable. In order of possibility of messing up page formatting (from most likely to occur to least likely to occur), it's as follows:

1. 'Make Invisible' + 'Hide comment sections behind layers' options with 'Favour accuracy and safety over scroll speed' unchecked .
2. "It just goes to show you can't be too careful!" mode.
3. 'Make Invisible' + 'Hide comment sections behind layers' options with 'Favour accuracy and safety over scroll speed' checked .
4. 'Make Invisible' (without 'Hide comment sections behind layers' option) or 'Collapse' modes.

So choose the last option for the least hassle. Also, occasionally it will think something is a comment that isn't, resulting in a strange looking page. Unfortunately this is least detectable for the user with the last option.

KNOWN ISSUES

In 'Make Invisible' + 'Hide comment sections behind layers' mode with 'Favour accuracy and safety over scroll speed' checked, if an underlying comment changes its visibility state, the overlay will (probably) only notice it and update when the page is being scrolled. This is most often noticed on pages with tabbed boxes (eg: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/)

In 'Make Invisible' + 'Hide comment sections behind layers' mode with 'Favour accuracy and safety over scroll speed' checked, the layer of a comment within a scrolled section escapes the boundaries of the scrolled section.

When a page that has embedded code that changes the page often, the page keeps being checked because the extension thinks the page has changed, resulting in higher CPU usage. To mitigate this, choose the delayed option on the Advanced tab. However, you will be able to see the comments in the time between them appearing and being processed.

If in 'Make Invisible' + 'Hide comment sections behind layers' mode with 'Favour accuracy and safety over scroll speed' unchecked, certain types of comment can't be made invisible. This is an HTML limitation. They will be hidden as if the 'layer' option was off.

If you are unable to click to remove a comment layer, it's probably hidden behind another layer.

If the preview option isn't working, perhaps the browser or specific subframe doesn't have focus.

If the preview option shortcut key contains Ctrl, Alt or Shift, then scrolling with the mouse wheel whilst they are pressed will also perform the default action (zooming), and clicking will open the link in a new tab or window. Also, some laptop trackpads freeze the cursor if a key other than Ctrl/Alt/Shift is pressed. This is why 'Comma' is the default choice.

Flickering when using preview option usually means that changing the layout of the page has moved another section underneath the mouse cursor, which then tries to get removed, thus hiding the first section.

The code was written as a first attempt at learning Javascript, so it's messy.

CREDITS

Based upon the Firefox extension 'CommentBlocker' by Xertoz (https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/161674/)
Contains Pattern to Regular Express code from Adblock Plus
Contains OpenJS Keyboard Shortcut (http://www.openjs.com/scripts/events/keyboard_shortcuts/)
Icon adapted from from http://icons.mysitemyway.com/
Gears icon by pirke (http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Relax?content=9148) via iconlet.com

DONATE

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CONTACT

[email protected]