App to Override CSS User Drag or Select on Websites

by Rian

As I am still doing migration projects from Pi (the hardware) to everything hosted on NAS, there were few things I wanted to try. One of which is open-source community-backed DBs. So far, not all of them were as good as I thought, but every projects I had seen so far showed the signs of efforts on the developing communities’ part. Now the pleasantries are out of the way, there is one area these databases suck at — collecting metadata of niche contents automatically.

There is an extension for Firefox to override a website’s most unusual choice to disable user interactivity, such as dragging, selecting, and etc. Absolute Enable Right Click & Copy lets you override these CSS settings from the extension without going into developer mode. It’s freely available.

A bit of tangent I want to throw at all these digital media publishers and marketplaces — let us download metadata. I have a whole ‘book report’-ish DB to keep track of which artists I like, all the way from music to film, books, and even video games. And not a single one of marketplaces, including streaming services, help users to follow up on what they have consumed. I have been vocal on this issue before. As far as I can tell, most people are perfectly happy with wall-gardened experiences. Last time I checked, I couldn’t search based on notes or reviews. I still have a system separate from the official marketplaces, where I have filled with front cover images from Google.

So that’s where I use it — like a serial killer staring at the wall full of news paper clippings. There has to be a better way to digitize the old hobbies. However, so far, I haven’t seen distributors interested in solutions. Frankly, every time I see Netflix joyfully offering like and dislike buttons as the new “fix” since it started offering the web service, I find myself thinking how come no-one is asking for innovations from distributors.