Re: force display of <noscript> content

[Ian Kelling]

Yuchen Pei <hi@ypei.me> writes:

> Hello,
>
> Currently, librejs filters all html and js requests / responses, and
> accepts / edits / rejects accordingly.  It forces the display of
> <noscript> element content only when an inline script / event handler
> etc on an html has been modified.  This can cause problems when librejs
> leaves html unmodified, but blocks some external scripts.  An example is
> certain versions of discourse forums, like [0][1] and sometimes the fsf
> member forum, with librejs the browser may display a blank / broken
> page, but they render fine in browsers not supporting javascript like
> eww and lynx.
>
> [0] https://discourse.haskell.org/
> [1] https://emacs-china.org/
>
> I was thinking about what to do with this.  I can think of a few options
>
> 1. Add a button to allow the user to manually force noscript display
>    until the next (re)load.  This is what I have done in [2].
>
> 2. Add a more persistent user option, which when enabled, make librejs
>    reject all scripts when a noscript tag is present.
>
> 3. Something in between: a per-site / url option to force noscript
>    display.
>
> [2]
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/librejs.git/commit/?h=noscript-toggle&id=b849b8d461479cf6530c77b97b094807840ce0d7
>
> A few relevant questions:
>
> 1. Do developers ever sneak scripts between <noscript> tags?
>
> 2. Does it make sense to reject all scripts, free or nonfree, when
>    opting for noscript display, assuming sites generally use <noscript>
>    to offer a version when *all* scripts are blocked?  Otherwise there
>    may be duplicate content on a web page if some scripts are accepted
>    and <noscript> content is displayed.
>

Great questions. I don't know the right answers. I think some
experimenting should be done. I've noticed noscript not showing
<noscript>, but I don't know if that is what it /always/ does, it would
probably be good to understand exactly what it does as a point of
reference for what someone else determined was reasonable behavior.