[AdmiralAsshat]

Longtime uMatrix user here.

The most frustrating thing about UM (which is the same problem I had with NoScript back in the day) is that some scripts call other scripts. So, particularly when I'm trying to play an embedded video served by another site served through a CDN, the process for getting the damn video to play is something like:

Click video -> Open uMatrix -> whitelist some scripts -> reload -> whitelist more scripts being loaded by the first batch of scripts -> reload -> whitelist some XHR references called by new scripts -> reload -> finally whitelist the actual media being served.

[egeozcan]

90% of the time, I just don't do that dance and not watch the video.

[krageon]

If you do it five times with some intelligence, you have rules that you can apply and have most things work most of the time from then on. It's really not a huge hassle and generally the malware-containing networks aren't the ones you are greylisting.

[JetSpiegel]

I copy the URL(CTRL-l CTRL-c), open a new terminal and try youtube-dl $URL

[pdimitar]

Yep, I do that often. It's apparently a very underrated tool because it can pretty much download most of the video content out there on the internet at large. But many people have no idea about it, even technical people.

[wp381640]

I dumped that routine and just started pointing those video URLs at youtube-dl

vlc is a better video viewing experience (and better on battery) than a browser and you can usually start playing a partially downloaded file

[interfixus]

Yes, a bit bothersome at times. But if I take the trouble to finetune worthwhile sites I run into, and make the settings permanent, life does get markedly easier after a while.

I rarely see an ad. I didn't see Troy's responsible sponsor message either. I should have and would have if he had chosen to display the thing without the need for scripting. So I don't feel hugely guilty.

[egeozcan]

I have uMatrix and uBlock. In my case it was uBlock blocking the ad, not uMatrix... or maybe I had whitelisted it before? Not sure.

edit: Okay, it's not blocked by default with uMatrix: https://i.imgur.com/B97lf35.png

[gorhill]

uBO can block with pattern-matching URLs of network requests and additionally cosmetic filtering (hide DOM elements), while uMatrix works strictly with hostname of network requests and types of resources.

[paulryanrogers]

Keeping those whitelists synced or at least copied across devices can be a challenge. IIRC Noscript could save data to a bookmarklet for that purpose.

[a1369209993]

Use youtube-dl instead? It's win-win: you don't have to compromise your browser's security, and you get a permanent copy of the video that you can watch whenever you like and that the CDN can't comply with takedown requests on or otherwise maliciously bitrot.

[0xCMP]

For popular stuff switching to "global" and marking them as enabled helps reduce the song-and-dance for things like YouTube videos or common CDNs (e.g. Bootstrap)