Forum feedback forum: When did that long black bar at the page bottom sneak in

It's unfortunate that long-time CNET users have to go to this extreme to get rid of something that should never have been forced on us in the first place, but I sincerely appreciate this tip for how to get rid of it.

It's nonsense like this that makes users resort to script blockers, ultimately choking off additional revenue streams because already popular websites try to "enhance" the user experience with new gadgets instead of sticking to the old KISS adage which is what the majority of people really want.

Now that I've vented, I'm wondering if something like this work to get rid of the even more annoying playlist bar on YouTube?

I snuck this in on Friday, to make you all mad at me Not really.

Actually this is a CNET site wide feature that was launched on Friday. But gathering from your feedback, I guess not many of the avid core forum users go outside of the forums much to use such CNET features like My Lists (product wish, research, and recommendations lists), your Download.com watch list, and also TechTracker.

Given your feedback, we are going to implement an option to allow you to hide the CNET tool bar--there is no ETA yet, but it will be delivered to you before the Thanksgiving holiday.

FWIW this has tool bar has no advertising purposes, this feature was created for our members, so that they can easily access their created wish lists, keep track of their Download.com watch list, etc...

I'm sorry if you find the tool bar not beneficial to your CNET experience, so as I said earlier, we are working on an option to hide the CNET tool bar, so look for that soon. Or you can continue using the ad blocking thingamaggy .

Thanks for the feedback folks!

-Lee "The person who just got an ear full from our CNET members" Koo

It doesn't, on my PC, load with the rest of the page but pops up afterward. Being dark and contrasty, it immediately draws one's eyes down to it just like any other pop-up designed to distract. It takes a few milliseconds to readjust and refocus my eyes. At my age, milliseconds are becoming more and more important.

It is distracting, takes up too much space and provides no relevant service. It is completely spoiling the experience with an, otherwise, excellent site. This is a poor way of rewarding loyal readers.

Good enough for my purposes!! Thanks again for quickly putting down this fire!

Now that you can retract the bar it is much improved.

But what is the purpose of having another way to retrieve Tech Tracker.

You can retrieve it from the login in bar and receive the same information.

When you open either one you get a page that contains the last scan you performed not a current one.

Would be much more useful if it would scan when opened giving you current information.

There is another update scanner that scans and updates when you click on the icon. Much more convenient than having to go thru the three step process with Tech Tracker.

I like the program and looking forward to improvements.

the little left-pointing arrow on the right of the bar to collapse mine.

It doesn't bother me know.

Mark

I have collapsed mine and have forgotten about it.

Mark

I was also getting that horrible black toolbar on cnet.com. I happen to have a free add-on for my Firefox browser called NoScript. I right-clicked the cnet page, and tried marking each option as untrusted until I found one that removed the toolbar.

The one to mark as untrusted is called com.com

The only problem is that now I can't log onto cnet. However, I'm sure the people who run the cnet site will be interested to hear that I would rather stay logged out than to have to look at that horrible toolbar, which seems like spyware or malware to me.

I am an advocate for setting up ad and script blockers, but that rule is far too broad and will have more unintended consequences than just being unable to log out. You are blocking nearly all legitimate Javascript on the site, which will, among other things, prevent you from logging in or out; expanding menus, posts, etc; playing videos; and submitting comments/reviews/posts. In short, you'll breaking a large portion of site functionality while still permitting all third-party ads to display normally. Certainly not recommended.

If you want to remove that toolbar entirely without breaking site functionality, just add the following rule to AdBlockPlus:
###cnetToolbarWrap

Or, if you prefer modifying your user style sheet or using the extension Stylish, add the following:
@-moz-document domain("cnet.com"){#cnetToolbarWrap{display:none !important;}}

Hope this helps,
John

In AdBlock Plus: ##.autocompleter-choicesContainer
In Stylish: @-moz-document domain("cnet.com"){.autocompleter-choicesContainer{display:none !important;}}

Hope this helps,
John


P.S. Just to elaborate on what I said above, com.com serves nearly all of CNET's Javascript, CSS, and images. Blocking it may remove a few things you don't want, but also much of what you do want as well.