#browser scripts

It's just the teensiest little thing, but it brings me such peace of mind. Background: I joined the website "RateYourMusic" the other day, and I was immediately INTENSELY annoyed by an aspect of the UX: there's this little video player ad-thingy that follows you around the page, bulging and rippling slightly at you (I HATE subtle motion seen out of the corner of my eye on websites, it makes it almost impossible for me to use the site due to how distracting it is) and even jumping down the page to follow you when you scroll.

I couldn't stand it. I had to get rid of it. I'd coded basic scripts to adjust the behavior of other people's websites before (e.g. a script to get rid of those annoying video overlays that pop up towards the end of some YouTube videos), but previously I'd always had to open the console each time, manually paste in the code, and then close it. For every video I wanted to watch. Very annoying.

But then!!! Today, I knew I had to get rid of this infuriating video chasing me around RYM, so I did some searching and discovered TamperMonkey, a Firefox extension that I already know is going to become my new favorite. Basically it allows you to automatically run your own scripts on any page you wish. So I dashed off the script...

I use a bunch of scripts to manage my AO3 experience. 

The one that gives me the ability to mark fics as liked & disliked (or to apply those designations to authors) is Fanfiction Navigator. It also works, with a couple of limited functions, on Fanfiction.net. 

What I mostly use it for is auto-hid fics I know I won’t want to read (because I’ve read it before or because I already know that an author’s work doesn’t ring my bells). It also helps when I’m searching for a fic to rec or when someone asks about it. If I know I’ve read it, I can tell the script to show all my likes and dislikes. If I’m looking for something new to read, I can tell it I want it to hide the likes and dislikes. I tend to use the “mark” feature for stuff I’ve read but that I can’t specifically classify in one category or the other. 

Of course, this script is specific to your browser. While I do use chrome and sign in across all devices, my Fanfiction Navigator from home and my Fanfiction Navigatorfrom elsewhere have completely different recollections of my fic experiences. Tampermonkey does have an option to save your scripts to the cloud, but I haven’t experimented with backing it up and loading it onto other browsers. And I’m not especially skilled with scripts anyway. But perhaps you can get your experiences to carry over. I’ve recently replaced my computers (and therefore the local installations of my browsers) and haven’t really put much time & effort back into marking fics. I’m using the fresh slate as an opportunity to track my re-reading.

I also use a script called Kudosed and Seen History which marks fics you’ve given kudos to or marked as seen. The kudos feature transfers across browsers (because the script is looking for data that exists on AO3). The “seen” feature does not (because the script is looking for information you’ve given directly to it). Anyway, you can see on the left there’s a bar for fics I’ve given kudos to and on the right there’s a bar for a fic I’ve specifically marked as “seen”.

The script adds a little button at the top of each fic: