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Subject:RE: web-based Help systems and ad blockers From:"Lisa Wright" <liwright -at- earthlink -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 7 Jun 2002 14:42:17 -0700
Wow, what a great question. Just when I thought I could relax... I can't
provide any feedback on this except to say that I too am creating online
help using some JavaScript to display separate windows for such things
as screen captures, the tech support form, and also to call the print
dialog so they can print topics.
Luckily this is an internal implementation of business software, so I do
have a somewhat controlled audience/platform and easy access to tech
support. But would they even know and report that they were having a
problem? Hmmm.
It is SO frustrating when people abuse good technology and the solution
to the abuse affects those who use the technology for legitimate
purposes. Argh!!!!
I hope there's some good discussion on this subject.
Lisa
-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of Chuck Martin
Subject: web-based Help systems and ad blockers
I'm wondering if anyone has encountered the issue of ad blockers when
creating Help for a web site or a web application, Help that appears in
separate windows rather than the calling page. One of the big annoyances
on today's web are pop-up and pop-under ad windows, and in response to
this, a number of products are available that purport to make these
pop-ups and pop-unders not appear. (I use Norton Internet Security at
home myself, which claims to do this, and it does, sometimes.)
But I'm going to be developing a new Help system for one web site and
(hopefully) some field-level Help for another web application. It is
highly likely that we'll be using JavaScripting to create separate
windows for each type of Help. I've already expressed my concern about
what ad blockers would do to this, but we haven't done testing yet. (Our
web application also occasionally creates separate pop-up windows for
error messages.) I'm wondering if anyone has created any web-based Help
that creates a separate window (or any type and size) to display its
content, and if you've encountered users having problems viewing that
Help because of ad-blocking software that they've installed.
Thanks!
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