Firefox's built-in "Block Audio and Video" in Settings -> Autoplay seems to do a good enough job for most sites (with exceptions whenever it breaks something).
I know of a very popular newswebsite in my region which somehow works around this: When overscrolling the video window on their site, ALWAYS the video starts to play - I have the option disabled in FF settings, nontheless its not working in this case :-X
Does that help with "auto"play & PIP thats triggered by scrolling? I have not managed to completely deactivate PIP videos in Firefox settings/about:config.
The first thing I do when I get access to any computer is install uBlock. A friend comes for tech support, first install then anything else.
Disabling JavaScript by default makes this a non-issue on most sites. Just checked TechCrunch and it’s great without it. Likely like the designer intended.<p>On iOS, Brave browser makes toggling JS particularly easy.<p>90% of my mobile web browsing is without JavaScript. It’s much faster, cleaner, safer. And for the occasional website that needs JS, I can toggle it.<p>Similar to many here in the thread, I then tend to not visit sites anymore that require JS/are too bloated.
In uBlock Origin, I allow everything except 3rd party frames, then I use uMatrix to whitelist acceptable domains and requests. These are the only privacy add-ons I use and they are amazing.
The solution for shitty web design is not to come up with clever workarounds.<p>The solution is to stop visiting these sites entirely, as traffic emboldens them further.<p>It's like deliberately going into The Worst Toilet In Scotland so you can read the news scribbled on the walls.
If you just want to read the text body of an article, there's plenty third party scripts you can block on Techcrunch through the advanced settings in uBlock Origin:<p>cloudflare.com<p>connatix.com<p>d34azmi6bxg5fz.cloudfront.net<p>videos-cloudfront-usp.jwpsrv.com<p>facebook.net<p>google.com<p>googletagmanager.com<p>gstatic.com<p>jwpcdn.com<p>jwplatform.com<p>jwplayer-dualstack.map.fastly.net<p>assets-jpcust.jwpsrv.com<p>jwplayer.com<p>jwpltx.com<p>jwpsrv.com<p>parsely.com<p>sail-horizon.com<p>servenobid.com<p>wp.com
I've just stopped visiting websites that make it impossible to read their articles. It has gotten completely ridiculous.
I know I didn't wake up in 2011 because uBlock Origin exists. Yet someone is talking about TechCrunch, so the most likely conclusion is that uBlock Origin existed long before I thought it did, like 2011.