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Tt post aug 11 2017

"Is there a way around this? An alternative?"

Yes. Here are a few options.

TL;DR

  • go into your web browser settings and disable JavaScript either globally or specifically for the toledoblade.com domain name.
  • install web browser extensions or add-ons that make it super simple to disable and enable JavaScript for specific websites.
  • install the Privacy Badger extension and leave JavaScript enabled for toledoblade.com.
  • read the site by using the text-based Lynx web browser, which does not support JavaScript.
  • from the command line, execute the cURL command and pipe the output into a script, such as html2text, that converts HTML to plain text.
  • or from the command line, do: lynx --dump [URL] > page.txt


Unfortunately for the Blade, their setup to encourage users to pay for content can be easily bypassed by disabling JavaScript in your web browsers.

You can disable JavaScript for specific domain names.

If you don't want to dive into your web browser settings to disable JavaScript and to create exceptions for specific websites, then use the NoScript add-on for Firefox, or use the Quick JavaScript Switcher extension for Chrome.

On desktop/laptop computers, I rely heavily on Quick JavaScript Switcher when reading the web.

Occasionally when using Safari on the iPhone, I disable JavaScript globally because it's about the only way to read the web at times, especially over slow internet connections, since so many read-only websites are massively bloated.

Disabling JavaScript prevents the display of most ads and prevents the execution of most trackers and other crapware, which leads to web pages loading much faster.

If you use an older computer or a machine with a slower CPU,
then disabling JavaScript can prevent your computer from glowing red.

For disabling JavaScript, I'm talking about websites where I'm a browsing-only user (reader). I'm not talking about web apps that require me to login where I work from an admin console or a dashboard.

Some websites produce nothing when JavaScript is disabled. That's okay. It's still a big-ass web. Other websites exist to read.

For Blade sports stories, you may need to visit bcsn.tv directly.

If you click a Blade sports link with JavaScript disabled for toledoblade.com, then you might see a blank page. That's because some Blade sports links redirect to bcsn.tv.

For example, with JavaScript disabled in the web browser for
"*.toledoblade.com", this link displays a blank page.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Pro/2017/08/11/What-s-the-word-on-cleveland-browns-deshone-Kizer.html

That's because the above link or web page relies on JavaScript to redirect the reader to the real story location, which is found here.

http://www.bcsn.tv/news_article/show/822468

If you want to read the Blade website with JavaScript working, then do this:

Even with JavaScript enabled, I never reach the Blade's article limit because of what's being blocked by Privacy Badger.

The web browser extensions that I'm familiar with work in Firefox, Chrome, and/or Opera.

On my Linux desktop computer, I have at least 10 web browsers installed. One of my favorites is the http://netsurf-browser.org because of its lack of features. If you are a fan of RMS, then you might like GNU IceCat which is based upon Firefox. And the Tor web browser is good.

I know nothing about Microsoft's web browser. I'm unfamiliar with all Microsoft software.

Regarding the alleged ethical issues of users blocking web ads and bypassing lame paywalls ... I don't know.

I like this article.

https://stratechery.com/2017/the-local-news-business-model

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