How does Snopes block things

[kimmer]

When you go to any page at snopes, you can't copy anything - not text or pics. You used to be able to do both of these things, now you can't. You can't even right click and get a menu. Of course, if I want the text, I can go to the upper menu and view source and copy from there ... but I'm totally curious as to how they block visitors from copying everything.

[sandbox]

Kimmer, if you notice you can copy anything on the front page but not on the internal pages which include this script, where the front page is void of such scripting.

CODE

<script language="JavaScript">

if (window!=top){top.location.href=location.href;}

</SCRIPT>







<script TYPE="text/javascript">

<!--

var omitformtags=["input", "textarea", "select"]

omitformtags=omitformtags.join("|")

function disableselect(e){

if (omitformtags.indexOf(e.target.tagName.toLowerCase())==-1)

return false

}

function reEnable(){

return true

}

if (typeof document.onselectstart!="undefined")

document.onselectstart=new Function ("return false")

else{

document.onmousedown=disableselect

document.onmouseup=reEnable

}

-->

</SCRIPT>

[kimmer]

Thanks, SB. I seem to remember that those scripts never used to work.

[Paddy]

Kimmer, you can turn off Javascript in your browser, and the problem goes away. You can also select ALL the text on the page (command A) and copy that, but that gives you a lot of editing to do. Or...view the page source, copying and pasting the section you want and then either turning it into proper HTML (adding the tags) and opening that in a browser and copying the displayed text (which seems rather a lot of work to me) or using Word to edit out whatever HTML tags are in there. Turning off the Javascript is probably the easiest.

Annoying that they've done this, but it may be to stop people from copying the urban legends and sending them 'round again.

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

it may be to stop people from copying the urban legends and sending them 'round again.

Oh, if only people would even search Snopes! The 'legends' don't need any help from 'copy and pasters.' They have a life of their own. And, they reproduce faster than any known PC virus!

As for actually copying the text, I quit that and send a link to the page, hoping against hope that the viewer will actually follow it and, just on the slimmest of chances, bookmark the site. Of course, the final straw is getting the 'forwarder' to actually check anything out at Snopes before hitting the "Forward to all known email addresses and twice to all my friends" button.

[kimmer]

QUOTE(Paddy @ May 18 2009, 10:14 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Kimmer, you can turn off Javascript in your browser, and the problem goes away.

Thanks, Paddy.

QUOTE

Or...view the page source, copying and pasting the section you want and then either turning it into proper HTML (adding the tags) and opening that in a browser and copying the displayed text (which seems rather a lot of work to me) or using Word to edit out whatever HTML tags are in there.

Page Source popped into BBEdit and I can easily tell BBEdit to remove all HTML tags. Or I can open a new HTML page and pop the stuff in and have BBEdit help me clean up any missing HTML. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. (And what was the British sitcom where the son kept saying this???)

QUOTE

Annoying that they've done this, but it may be to stop people from copying the urban legends and sending them 'round again.

LOL! I still remember the day a friend sent me an urban legend and I pointed her to Snopes and 'splained it wasn't true and she shot me back a note and said she didn't care. She thought it was a great story and showed this person in a good light and she was going to keep passing it on.   I set up a filter to auto-trash her emails and quite responding to her. She's probably still sharing untruths and hoping they turn into truths by sheer force.

ABD, it's a lost cause.

I do sometimes like to pull a small amount of text from Snopes, especially when they present facts and backup. So now I know why I can't any longer without doing the work around.

Thanks!

[Xairbusdriver]

Well, if you're going to do all that work, how about sending the text on to me. I may not need all of them, but I hate to se your work go to waste.

[kimmer]

Ah yes, kimmer and ABD go on a crusade to rid the world of urban legends while Judy and Mac watch in total disbelief. HAHAHA

[krissel]

I would guess that Snopes does this in order to force people to link to their site.

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

force people to link to their site.

Probably the least intrusive way of increasing 'hits,' IMHO. Very negligible problem for me. Of course, Left-Coast people are sometimes more 'controlling.' May be the anxiety of living on the edge of that fault line.