304380 - browser.block.target_new_window causes ad to replace actual content in browser, making it impossible to read page

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect)

Description

[Dan Tobias]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b) Gecko/20050217
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b) Gecko/20050217

I have browser.block.target_new_window set to "true", because I strongly dislike
sites opening new windows on me when I follow links.  I also have the
preferences set to stop pop-ups.  However, in a few sites, such as the one I
linked here, the page in the main browser window gets replaced with an ad
(apparently intended to be a popup or popunder).  In some sites, using the back
button returns me to the page I really wanted to see, but in other cases even
that doesn't work, as I keep getting sent forward into yet another ad.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Set browser.block.target_new_window to true
2. Go to certain sites that use scripting-based ads, like various pages of imdb.com
3. See an ad replace the main window, and sometimes keep repeating when you use
the back button unless you turn off JavaScript.

Actual Results:  
I kept getting (different) ads over and over.

Expected Results:  
Blocked the ad popup and left me on the page I actually wanted.

Comment 1

[Dan Tobias]

When I tried it again now, it didn't do the same thing... it probably depends on
just what ad comes up at any given time, which makes it a hard bug to track down.

Comment 2

[OstGote!]

Please upgrade to latest Seamonkey 1.0a builds (formerly known as Mozilla 1.8b4
trunk builds) and test again. Your version is too old.
http://ftp.eu.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/nightly/latest-trunk/

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

That's the expected behavior of that preference, actually.  And why there's no UI for it, last I checked.

If the request is for some other preference that would do something else, then that should be clearly stated so (in a new bug, I would say).