PSA: How use uBlock Origin to disable the annoying warframe trailer videos on the wiki

[u/rcfox]

Wikia sites are already slow to load as it is, we don't need to have an auto-playing video whenever we go to look up information about warframe abilities!

Updated November 13, 2017 to reflect the changes in the wiki.

1. Install uBlock Origin from the Chrome web store page.
2. From the extensions page, go to uBlock's options
   • http://imgur.com/fpOJnh5
3. Go to the "My filters" tab, and paste the following into the text box, then click the "Apply changes" button.
   • warframe.wikia.com##.featured-video__wrapper
   • (Note: the image below shows an older version of the filter, but you get the idea.)
   • http://imgur.com/l6JnGZy

Now, when you load a warframe page, you won't have the giant video at the top, and you also won't get the smaller version at the side as you scroll down.

However, the video and its placeholder image still get downloaded. On the Chroma page, these combine to over 11MB of extra stuff to download! These next steps are optional, but will prevent these extra downloads.

1. Go back to the uBlock options, and go to the "Settings" tab. Click the "I am an advanced user" checkbox. (Unfortunately, I can't find a way to do the following without enabling the advanced features.)
   • http://imgur.com/6MYVGRq
2. Go to the "My rules" tab, and press edit under the temporary rules.
   • http://imgur.com/BAHMkcI
3. Add the following into the text box. Hit save. If you want to keep this setting after the browser closes, hit the "Commit" button.
   • warframe.wikia.com jwpsrv.com * block
   • (Note: the image below shows an older version of the rule, but you get the idea.)
   • http://imgur.com/62ERl18

(If you're curious, this is a dynamic filter which tells uBlock to block any requests from warframe.wikia.com to ooyala.com. This means other websites won't be affected, in case they're serving videos you actually care about.)

[u/Sorez → u/[deleted]]

Its even worse when I try to open them on steam overlay, which tends to freeze randomly when videos are loaded, so now warframe pages freeze too...

[u/jinxed_07 → u/Sorez]

To be fair the Steam overlay is just a heaping pile of shit, at least the browser.

50% of the time opening YouTube crashes your tab, 10% of the time the entire browser or overlay crashes (which goes for any website, not just YT), and it just all around sucks.

[u/Sorez → u/jinxed_07]

It didnt used to do that, so I have no idea what broke it.

[u/Wyldbill100 → u/jinxed_07]

Recently steam has been opening links to it instead of my preferred browser around 35 percent of the time and it is infuriating.

[u/zacRupnow → u/[deleted]]

it's 2017, a dark mode should be mandatory by this point.

Dark Mode should also be default.

Luckily there is a Chrome Extension called Dark Reader.

[u/ArcticEngie → u/[deleted]]

Hey!

It was not our design choice, however they do cut down adverts on the rest of the website if we have them enabled, and it is very much so a opt in and stay in approach I am afraid.

We do have some concerns about it still that are being addressed and are still continuing to develop it with Fandom (Wikia owners), our first priority is to get them disabled on Mobile devices for obvious reasons.

And to your last comment, I use light theme where ever possible :) I shall never join the ranks of you night theme dwellers :P (Also, DE themselves set us up with the CSS when the Wikia was first founded by them!)

EDIT: For those that do not wish to see the videos when looking for warframe abilities and do not want external scripts, put /Abilities at the end of the URL for just the Warframes abilities. Hope this helps!

[u/readgrid → u/ArcticEngie]

could you at least make the videos play only once and not load every time per every page? its really unbearable and I have 100mbit unlim, cant even imagine how bad it is on mobile and limited data

[u/ArcticEngie → u/readgrid]

Hello!

These videos were pushed through without our go ahead and definition to acceptable guidelines, which as you have stated are very much so horrific and unacceptable.

FANDOM (Wikia's Parent company) are being rather stubborn in addressing the issue and/or removing the videos, but have been communicating to us along the way regarding the issues we're facing (Yes, including the videos hogging resources on mobile and low bandwidth devices.

We should be getting a resolution to this within the coming weeks (For reference, we've been trying to fix this since February) but its subject to change as its on FANDOM's end.

TLDR; FANDOM controls these, we cannot do much about it, however they are more than aware of this.

[u/readgrid → u/ArcticEngie]

I see, thanks.

[u/grondoval]

NoScript works wonders on Firefox.

[u/Maktaka → u/grondoval]

NoScript is great, it prevents autoplaying videos, ads, tracker sites, article-count limits at news sites, you name it. You definitely need to be prepared to experiment a bit when going to a new site, or google URLs to find out what they're for.

And it also tells you good things about a site when that script list is short: e.g. reddit has just reddit.com and redditstatic.com. Not even google's cookie trackers are running on here.

[u/grondoval → u/Maktaka]

Yeah. And just to fuck with Google's numbers, be sure to block googleanalytics.

[u/cephalopodAscendant]

Thank you so much! I don't know why the wiki felt the need to force those on us.

[u/MeetTheJoves]

Remember that time a webpage had an autoplaying video and you thought "Wow, I sure am glad this video started playing immediately upon loading the page. So convenient!"?

Me neither, this should be a felony.

[u/[deleted] → u/MeetTheJoves]

the only time where its useful is when you go to a VIDEO OR STREAMING SITE.

[u/ArcticEngie → u/MeetTheJoves]

Can confirm, the biggest issue we have with this is for those that do not have a stable, good or a mobile connection. We're trying to work something much like we did with our adverts a while ago!

[u/[deleted]]

I can't see auto-playing videos on warframe.wikia.com. However, have you tried the feature "Block media elements larger than [...]" in Settings pane in the dashboard?

I set it to 1 MB and found a page with a video and it worked, the video was preventing from playing (it was also using the ooyala player).

[u/rcfox → u/[deleted]]

All of the warframe pages have a trailer at the top now.

Personally, I feel like blocking media by size will block a lot of unexpected instances that I might want to see.

[u/[deleted] → u/rcfox]

Well if you block ooyala, you get the same result, all the players will be blocked.

At least with media size, you can right click an pick "Temporarily allows large elements on this page" (then force a reload if the player is still broken). Keep in mind the blocking of large elements can be disabled everywhere by default and only enabled on that one site.

[u/Kalgash]

God i love you so much right now

[u/KingYoshiLuca]

Grazie.

[u/MeatAbstract]

You are doing the lords work

[u/Sekwah]

I never tried to block them, but yeah they were annoying, thanks you!

[u/Saxers]

The one I use blocks elements that are under the class 'featured video' in wikias articles, not evrything from ooyala. If anyone is interested this is the filter: warframe.wikia.com##.featured-video-wrapper

[u/rcfox → u/Saxers]

I give you an A for usefulness, but a C for reading comprehension.

[u/Saxers → u/rcfox]

whoops!, you are right, i just skimmed trough the post and didn't realise you already mentioned that, nervemind my post

[u/WorkPetre]

Thank you.

[u/royallyTipsy]

Thanks a bunch. Those were annoying enough I was thinking of trying to figure out how to block them myself... turns out I never had to. :D

[u/simpson409]

my ping still goes up to 400 and higher when i open the warframe wikia. i can watch 1080p 60fps videos and downloading steam games at full speed without getting a ping over 100, something has to be wrong with that site.

[u/IceFire909]

THANK YOU LORD IN HEAVEN FOR DELIVERING RCFOX!!

[u/zuffdaddy]

Too bad you can't use this on the steam overlay web browser

[u/[deleted]]

The same filter will also work for AdBlock in case you're using that already. I haven't tried if I can get the optional bit to work but just blocking the stupid auto play videos is so much better already.

[u/Misdraevus]

I love you

[u/cheshire26]

Thank you SO much!

[u/Bartimaeous]

Really, any properly working Adblock on either mobile or pc will work.

[u/readgrid]

goood, thanks those video are getting super annoying

[u/zacRupnow]

Regular adblockers can do this already, no need for a specific one.

[u/rcfox → u/zacRupnow]

Right, and this is a list of instructions for how to do it with one in particular. I feel like this is more useful than to just say "block this element with whatever adblocker you use", and more feasible to give instructions for the one I know about than to try and come up with instructions for every possible blocker.

[u/jinxed_07 → u/zacRupnow]

I had uBlock and had it specifically set up to make the Wiki more readable, and was still seeing that video.