So I know I'm not alone in wanting everyone to turn off that "recent updates" feature that appears on your homepage. Until Vox admin gets around to letting everyone decide whether the reader wants to view these updates, rather than whether the publisher wants to share it, it seems we're stuck noticing every time someone changes their template, adds a new neighbor, or picks their nose (okay, that last one is made up, but now you probably understand how intrusive/unnecessary this "feature" seems to me).
Anyway, having recently read Andy's comment about using Greasemonkey to hide spoilers, I thought it would be pretty easy to use Greasemonkey to similarly hide this section of the homepage. Using the platypus plugin to cut/widen sections of the table holding the recent updates section, I've created a very stupid, simple Greasemonkey script that anyone using Firefox+Greasemonkey can install and automatically get rid of this section of their vox home page.
Basically, all the script does is cut the "recent updates" section from the page and stretch the "recent comments" section to cover the gap, as shown below:
TO INSTALL:
The Greasemonkey script you need to install can be found here. If you have the latest Greasemonkey add-on installed for Firefox, it should pop up the install box and ask you whether you want to install. You can view the script if you want to make sure it's safe, yadda, yadda. As long as Greasemonkey is turned on, your homepage should load and [almost] immediately be reformatted to hide the "recent updates" section.
Please note that this variant of the script to perform this modification was created by me using the openly available Platypus addon for Firefox. Platypus is not required to use this script. While it appears to work just fine, I claim no responsibility for any problems you have while installing, modifying, or deleting this script. If you do have problems, it's easy to uninstall via Greasemonkey's configuration page. Instructions on how to install/use Firefox and Greasemonkey can be found on their respective installation links above. This script is subject to the same Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial -Share Alike 3.0 License that governs the rest of the content on my site.
Note: I do understand that some people like to see this info, or want to see parts of this info. I don't have enough Greasemonkey knowledge to be able to let you configure the section to only hide those kinds of updates you don't want to see. If anyone wants to take a shot at this, I'd be more than happy to help however I can, be it beta testing, code reviews, etc. I just don't think I can do it on my own given the time and energy I have to commit to things right now.
Possibly related posts (auto-generated):
July 31st, 2007 on 11:44 AM
I just may give this a shot, thanks! Those damn updates have been making me nuts.
July 31st, 2007 on 11:49 AM
YAY! Ross, you're the man. Now, whether or not it works for me I am gald you shared this. :-)
July 31st, 2007 on 12:00 PM
SCHWEET!thanks Ross. will try it
July 31st, 2007 on 12:14 PM
[esto es genial]
July 31st, 2007 on 12:53 PM
SWEET!
July 31st, 2007 on 1:12 PM
I like it too — and not only b/c I'm prominently displayed in your screen shots.
The one that I have more trouble with is the "recent activity" to review further comments made on comment streams — it takes FOREVER to load, and I'd love to find a quicker way around that one.
July 31st, 2007 on 1:19 PM
teh awesome. it works as Ross said it would and it was as easy to install as Ross said it be.thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou
July 31st, 2007 on 1:35 PM
Surprisingly, earlier today was the first time I had even viewed that page, Steve. However, I can see what you mean, and how it'd be helpful to load faster. One suggestion I'll probably submit in the feedback is to have that page "threaded" so you only see the main title and avatar with a little plus-sign next to it – click the plus sign and that one post's thread expands to show all recent comments on it. Click the little box (which has turned into a minus sign) to shrink it back up.Depending on how they implement that, it would take less time to load…but would also have the plus of being quicker to navigate…I don't have to scroll 3/4 down the veeeery long page to find a post whose most recent comment was yesterday.I KNOW I've seen a Greasemonkey script on another site that does something like this, but I think a vox-specific one would be needed to format correctly. Plus, that doesn't help the pageload, as it would only format after your browser downloaded everything on the page.
July 31st, 2007 on 1:44 PM
ross, i took a couple of minutes out of my lunch break and installed your thingie. for about a split second my recent updates page looked unchanged and i swear my heart stopped. but then the screen blinked and i heard a choir of angels singing. those damn stalker updates are gone, gone, gone. yer a genius, i swear to god. i think i would have burst into tears if it hadn't worked. i still might. what a relief. *wipes away a single tear of joy*ross is officially my new blog crush. sorry, mariser. ;-)
August 1st, 2007 on 8:41 AM
Aww shucks *blushes*. Just glad to be a little bit of a help. Hopefully someone within vox will come up with a more user-friendly solution, this will just be a temporary stopgap measure for those who don't like to see ALL the recent updates.
August 5th, 2007 on 12:28 PM
WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!Halleliua and AMEN!
August 6th, 2007 on 12:26 AM
Good on you Ross, nice one. Works great. It's been a Greasemonkey kinda day for me, as Dave put me onto Greasemonkey scripts for Last.fm which are very cool.
August 6th, 2007 on 8:34 AM
Holy moly, that's a lot of greasemonkey scripts! I better go check some of those out…