4 ms·

Sounds like he wishes to stop the abuse of lightboxes. Lightboxes are great for showing zoomed images or image galleries. They're not welcome for spammy widget

Sounds like he wishes to stop the abuse of lightboxes. Lightboxes are great for showing zoomed images or image galleries. They're not welcome for spammy widgets, signup offers or ads. But then, what format do you prefer for spammy widgets or ads? None obviously, so lightboxes are not the problem.

jacobolus 16y ago
Personally I think they suck for showing zoomed images and image galleries, because they break my expectations about what should happen when I click a link. Even worse, their javascript is often written in a way which clobbers "⌘-click to open in new tab".
deno 16y ago
Is there any advantage of using a lightbox vs a proper pop-up to present zoomed image or gallery? I, for one, much prefer the latter. You can continue with reading the article, you can use all the window management you already know and you don't have to suffer the horrible effects that author of the lightbox library though you can't live without. Not to mention that on netbooks, because lightboxes are always contained within the size of your browser viewport, the "zoomed" content is often smaller than miniature on the site.
- code_duck 16y ago
  A lot of people don't like popup windows, due to the their abuse years back. That also led to browsers and security software blocking them a lot of the time.
  - deno 16y ago
    They're blocked automatically when untrusted application tries to open them not in direct response to user interaction. If you open one from <a> tag, I don't think any browser will try to block that.
    - code_duck 16y ago
      Schlonky security software and 'popup blocker' add-ons might, though.
      - deno 16y ago
        But then you're worrying about users that deliberately decided to block all pop-us. It's exactly the same as with nojs users—if they can block, they can unblock it. Especially if they expect a pop-up to appear, because they've just clicked on a miniature.
        code_duck 16y ago
        Well, not really... I get support requests/error reports from users all the time who are running stuff like this, and couldn't click their way out of a paper bag. They have no idea that they are running software which interferes with websites working the way the author intended. Thankfully, it seems that makers of security and antivirus software are changing their products to not restrict JavaScript and browser functions.
T-hawk 16y ago
Lightboxes are a very effective tool for FORCIBLY FOCUSING YOUR ATTENTION RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. What do most commercial websites want to forcibly focus your attention on right here right now? Yeah. Adverts. It's an arms race. Advertisers will always use the most in-your-face tool available. First it was banner ads, before Javascript and pop-ups became common. Banner blockers appeared. Then it was pop-ups, until the broader community and browser vendors decided that the S/N ratio for pop-ups was so low that we were better off killing them entirely. Then it was Flash, with the added benefit of literal noise... and now Flash-blocking is an essential component of any browser. The current advertising tool of choice is lightboxes and other floating divs: harder to automatically distinguish from actual desired content within HTML, but we're starting to see browser addons and tools that can do that blocking job too. Currently gaining in popularity is requiring that an advertisement appear and be experienced in its entirety before any access to content at all. Hulu led the way on this. Well, unless you count television and radio which discovered that format about sixty or ninety years ago. The market response was the VCR then DVR once the technology was feasible. Next move: a "web DVR" that will experience the ads for you and "record" the web site until it can be played back without the interruption?

jacobolus 16y ago

Personally I think they suck for showing zoomed images and image galleries, because they break my expectations about what should happen when I click a link. Even worse, their javascript is often written in a way which clobbers "⌘-click to open in new tab".

deno 16y ago

Is there any advantage of using a lightbox vs a proper pop-up to present zoomed image or gallery? I, for one, much prefer the latter. You can continue with reading the article, you can use all the window management you already know and you don't have to suffer the horrible effects that author of the lightbox library though you can't live without. Not to mention that on netbooks, because lightboxes are always contained within the size of your browser viewport, the "zoomed" content is often smaller than miniature on the site.

code_duck 16y ago
A lot of people don't like popup windows, due to the their abuse years back. That also led to browsers and security software blocking them a lot of the time.
- deno 16y ago
  They're blocked automatically when untrusted application tries to open them not in direct response to user interaction. If you open one from <a> tag, I don't think any browser will try to block that.
  - code_duck 16y ago
    Schlonky security software and 'popup blocker' add-ons might, though.
    - deno 16y ago
      But then you're worrying about users that deliberately decided to block all pop-us. It's exactly the same as with nojs users—if they can block, they can unblock it. Especially if they expect a pop-up to appear, because they've just clicked on a miniature.
      - code_duck 16y ago
        Well, not really... I get support requests/error reports from users all the time who are running stuff like this, and couldn't click their way out of a paper bag. They have no idea that they are running software which interferes with websites working the way the author intended. Thankfully, it seems that makers of security and antivirus software are changing their products to not restrict JavaScript and browser functions.

T-hawk 16y ago

Lightboxes are a very effective tool for FORCIBLY FOCUSING YOUR ATTENTION RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. What do most commercial websites want to forcibly focus your attention on right here right now? Yeah. Adverts. It's an arms race. Advertisers will always use the most in-your-face tool available. First it was banner ads, before Javascript and pop-ups became common. Banner blockers appeared. Then it was pop-ups, until the broader community and browser vendors decided that the S/N ratio for pop-ups was so low that we were better off killing them entirely. Then it was Flash, with the added benefit of literal noise... and now Flash-blocking is an essential component of any browser. The current advertising tool of choice is lightboxes and other floating divs: harder to automatically distinguish from actual desired content within HTML, but we're starting to see browser addons and tools that can do that blocking job too. Currently gaining in popularity is requiring that an advertisement appear and be experienced in its entirety before any access to content at all. Hulu led the way on this. Well, unless you count television and radio which discovered that format about sixty or ninety years ago. The market response was the VCR then DVR once the technology was feasible. Next move: a "web DVR" that will experience the ads for you and "record" the web site until it can be played back without the interruption?