Annoying features

[John Fairbairn]

There are two aspects to this site's software that especially irritate me. One I think I've asked about before and got no reply.

1. Whenever I type something the site likes to think it knows better than me what I want to write and "corrects" it on the fly without telling me. For example, I recently wrote "invadee" and it changed that to "invade" (as it just did now). The sentence then had a verb instead of a noun and so was gibberish. This is very common, and is obviously likely to be a problem when so many Japanese and Chinese words are floating around. Judging by apparent typos in other people's posts it's easy to infer I'm far from the only one affected.

How do I turn this feature off?

2. Far, far, far too often for my liking I enter the forum only to have an advert for taptalk shoved in my face. I understand that the site owner or software author may want to gain a little extra income, and I don't mind that in principle. It's the frequency that narks me. This happens on my iPads and iPhone, and sometimes, it seems, several times a week. I don't want taptalk and always hit cancel, but - perhaps out of spite - I am then logged out of the forum and have to log back in. This involves hunting for glasses, using the fiddly keypads, and groping in memory for one of my 5,000 passwords, and can take the shine off the moment. Could the software not include a "don't ask me again" option?

[longshanks]

There are two aspects to this site's software that especially irritate me. One I think I've asked about before and got no reply.

1. Whenever I type something the site likes to think it knows better than me what I want to write and "corrects" it on the fly without telling me. For example, I recently wrote "invadee" and it changed that to "invade" (as it just did now). The sentence then had a verb instead of a noun and so was gibberish. This is very common, and is obviously likely to be a problem when so many Japanese and Chinese words are floating around. Judging by apparent typos in other people's posts it's easy to infer I'm far from the only one affected.

How do I turn this feature off?

You sure this isn't your browser doing this? Some browsers do this as a 'feature'. I personally hate it. Same is true of auto-correct on 'Smart' Phones.

2. Far, far, far too often for my liking I enter the forum only to have an advert for taptalk shoved in my face. I understand that the site owner or software author may want to gain a little extra income, and I don't mind that in principle. It's the frequency that narks me. This happens on my iPads and iPhone, and sometimes, it seems, several times a week. I don't want taptalk and always hit cancel, but - perhaps out of spite - I am then logged out of the forum and have to log back in. This involves hunting for glasses, using the fiddly keypads, and groping in memory for one of my 5,000 passwords, and can take the shine off the moment. Could the software not include a "don't ask me again" option?

Extra annoying if using Windows Phone as it sends you to the iTunes app store as it can't work out what platform you're using.

I find using NoScript and Ad-block end up making sites more usable that suffer from these annoyances.

[tj86430]

I'd say it 100% certain that the site is not responsible for #1.

The site sends the HTML code of the form to browser, and has no control over it until the "submit"-button is pressed and the browser sends the data entered to the site. Whatever happens between those moments is entirely up to the browser (and the OS / machine on which the browser is running). Theoretically it would be possible to include javascript that would catch every key pressed and make corrections, but this site (and I'd be willing to say that this applies to all other sites as well) has no such feature. The likely culprit is the autocorrect feature of the browser / device OS.

On my current browser (Firefox on OS/X) if I type "invadee", the browser will highlight the word as possibly mistyped, but will do nothing else. Other browsers / systems may do something else, depending on their settings.

[Bantari]

There are two aspects to this site's software that especially irritate me. One I think I've asked about before and got no reply.

1. Whenever I type something the site likes to think it knows better than me what I want to write and "corrects" it on the fly without telling me. For example, I recently wrote "invadee" and it changed that to "invade" (as it just did now). The sentence then had a verb instead of a noun and so was gibberish. This is very common, and is obviously likely to be a problem when so many Japanese and Chinese words are floating around. Judging by apparent typos in other people's posts it's easy to infer I'm far from the only one affected.

How do I turn this feature off?

2. Far, far, far too often for my liking I enter the forum only to have an advert for taptalk shoved in my face. I understand that the site owner or software author may want to gain a little extra income, and I don't mind that in principle. It's the frequency that narks me. This happens on my iPads and iPhone, and sometimes, it seems, several times a week. I don't want taptalk and always hit cancel, but - perhaps out of spite - I am then logged out of the forum and have to log back in. This involves hunting for glasses, using the fiddly keypads, and groping in memory for one of my 5,000 passwords, and can take the shine off the moment. Could the software not include a "don't ask me again" option?

I'd say: blame your browser for #1.
And blame Windows for #2.

Come to think of it, blame Windows for #1 as well. They deserve it.

PS>
And if you don't use Windows, blame your browser for #1 and #2.

[DrStraw]

You have complained about the first one before and it was answered. It is not the site but the browser.

The second one is news to me as I have never encountered it. It is almost certainly not the site, however. I run an ad-blocker and do not get pop up ads on any site. There are several ones out there. I use Ghostery - it is free and works very well.

[John Fairbairn]

OK, thanks, but if it is the browser I can't find anywhere to change the settings. Any suggestions, please, for (a) Explorer and (b) Safari?

[Boidhre]

I think you're using a Mac, this may help: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/ ... -yosemite/

If it's a different version of OSX just search for how to disable autocorrect for that version. I can't remember if it's different places in different versions.

[xed_over]

OK, thanks, but if it is the browser I can't find anywhere to change the settings. Any suggestions, please, for (a) Explorer and (b) Safari?

spelling auto-correct is set at the OS level (not the browser), but you didn't specify which OS/device you're using. If its configurable, look for keyboard/text settings.

tapatalk is a separately installed plugin intended to make browser-based forums easier to navigate/read on small devices such as phones/tablets. I didn't find it all that useful for me. Just uninstall it.

however, if it is an ad (instead of a forgotten installed plugin), then clear your cookies and browser cache/history. Most ads are specifically targeted toward your browsing history and preferences. any keyword search or direct browser hit in the past will continue to target you ("you" being any combination of your username, ip address, OS, browser info). Ad blockers will help, but its a moving target.

I have no ad blockers installed, and I don't see any ads when browsing this site. So its likely going to be browser/OS/device specific for this one.

[macelee]

I have no ad blockers installed, and I don't see any ads when browsing this site. So its likely going to be browser/OS/device specific for this one.

If viewing the source code of this web page, at the very beginning we can see:

Code: Select all

<script type="text/javascript" src="./mobiquo/tapatalkdetect.js"></script>

That looks like the script responsible for / guilty of showing the ad on mobile devices.

[HermanHiddema]

For explorer: http://www.ricksdailytips.com/disable-autocorrect/


As to tapatalk, every time tapatalk asks you to install, and you refuse, it sets a cookie to not bother you again for 90 days. So clearing your cookies, as per xed_over's suggestion, would actually be counterproductive. In fact, given that every time you're asked to install tapatalk, you're also asked to log in again (another thing using cookies), I suspect your cookies are getting cleared too often. Perhaps you have software installed which auto-clears cookies, such as anti-virus software or pc-cleaner software? Or perhaps a family member cleaning up or resetting the device now and then?

[John Fairbairn]

As to tapatalk, every time tapatalk asks you to install, and you refuse, it sets a cookie to not bother you again for 90 days. So clearing your cookies, as per xed_over's suggestion, would actually be counterproductive. In fact, given that every time you're asked to install tapatalk, you're also asked to log in again (another thing using cookies), I suspect your cookies are getting cleared too often. Perhaps you have software installed which auto-clears cookies, such as anti-virus software or pc-cleaner software? Or perhaps a family member cleaning up or resetting the device now and then?

I think this is the answer that fits me, though it's a bit worrying that 90 days seem to pass like 9 days! Perhaps that's because I use different i-devices but at very irregular intervals (and I assume cookies are stored on each device?).

[tj86430]

I assume cookies are stored on each device?.

Cookies are stored on each browser on each device. If you use multiple browsers on one device, each will have their own set of cookies.

[bayu]

Tapatalk gets on my nerves as well, using android. I'd had bet money that the rebothering delay is much shorter than 90 days.

Intuitive approach first (and because I might learn something on the way): Is there an (easy) way to edit cookies manually on android? 90'000 days seem so much more a better idea than 90. Google didn't help me. I also wasn't able to find the cookies on my device let alone editing them. I guess there is no easy way, but I'd rather ask here first before I despair. What would apply for i-things?

[wineandgolover]

Tapatalk hasn't bothered me since I installed 1Blocker on iOS 9 to block annoying scripts. I still allow ads, but most don't show, because they are driven by annoying scripts. I don't hate ads, just bandwidth wasting and sometimes malicious scripts.

The OS still corrects my spelling, for example changing "Tapatalk" to "Taps talk" in this very post. I'm okay with it though. It fixes at least 5x as many things as it messes up.

[oren]

I would also prefer the tapatalk ad get removed from the site if possible.