News Site Paywall Notice Dismisser

WHAT IT DOES

News Site Paywall Notice Dismisser automatically detects and removes paywall subscription notices, popups, and overlay barriers on news and article websites. When you visit a site with a paywall, the extension scans for common paywall elements including overlays, modal dialogs, subscription prompts, scroll blockers, and fade-out barriers. It removes these elements and restores normal page scrolling, allowing you to read the article without interruption. The extension shows a brief notification when paywalls are dismissed and provides a manual dismiss button for sites where automatic detection may need a helping hand. You can also restore the paywall if needed. The extension supports per-site customization and custom CSS selectors for sites with unique paywall implementations.

WHERE IT RUNS

The extension works on every website with news articles or content that uses paywall barriers, including major news sites, magazines, blogs, and any site with subscription prompts or overlay gates. It runs locally in your browser, scanning the page's DOM and removing overlay elements without sending any data to external servers. The extension supports all major browsers and adapts to both desktop and mobile viewports seamlessly.

HOW TO USE

After installation, the extension automatically dismisses paywalls on page load (if auto-dismiss is enabled). A notification briefly appears showing how many paywall elements were dismissed. If you need to dismiss paywalls manually, click the "🔓 Dismiss Paywall" button in the bottom-right corner—clicking it toggles between dismissing and restoring the paywall. To customize the experience, open the extension panel and toggle "Auto-dismiss on page load" to enable or disable automatic dismissal. Toggle "Show notification on dismiss" to show or hide the dismissal notification. Toggle "Show manual dismiss button" to show or hide the floating dismiss button. For sites with custom paywall structures, add custom CSS selectors in the panel. For per-site customization, enable or disable the extension on specific websites using the per-site controls.

THE ACTUAL MECHANISM — DOM SCANNING WITH PAYWALL PATTERN MATCHING AND OVERLAY REMOVAL

The extension uses a comprehensive DOM scanning approach to detect paywall elements. It maintains a list of over 50 common paywall selectors covering overlays (`.paywall-overlay`, `.modal-overlay`), subscription gates (`.subscription-gate`, `.metered-gate`), scroll blockers (`.scroll-lock`, `.no-scroll`), and other patterns. The extension queries the DOM for these selectors and also performs a secondary scan for elements with `position: fixed` or `position: absolute` and `z-index > 100` that cover a significant portion of the viewport. When paywall elements are detected, the extension stores their original display state and then hides them by setting `display: none`, `visibility: hidden`, `opacity: 0`, and `pointer-events: none`. It also removes scroll-blocking classes from the body (`.no-scroll`, `.scroll-lock`, `.modal-open`, `.overflow-hidden`) and resets `overflow`, `position`, and `width` styles on the body and document element to restore scrolling. The extension supports custom selectors stored per domain using GM_setValue, allowing users to add site-specific rules. A MutationObserver watches for DOM changes and re-scans for paywall elements that may be injected dynamically.

THE PANEL

The settings panel is a lightweight, draggable overlay that appears in the center of your screen. You can reposition it by clicking and dragging the title bar; release it near the screen edge and it will snap into place automatically. To collapse the panel into a compact title bar, click the minimize button, expanding it again with the same control. The panel is fully responsive, adapting to different screen resolutions with a minimum width of 300px and a maximum of 480px. Press the Escape key at any time to dismiss the panel without applying changes. All controls—the enable/disable toggle, dismiss/restore buttons, auto-dismiss toggle, notification toggle, manual button toggle, custom selector input, and per-site controls—are accessible within a clean, high-contrast interface that respects your system's color scheme.

PLEASE NOTE

This extension requires the free BotGentz companion extension to be installed and active, which provides the underlying DOM access and storage engine. The extension removes paywall elements by modifying the page DOM—this may affect the layout or functionality of some websites. The extension is not guaranteed to work on all paywall implementations, particularly those that use server-side rendering or complex JavaScript mechanisms. Custom selectors may be needed for sites with unique paywall structures. No personal data, browsing history, or page content is ever collected, stored, or transmitted. All settings are saved using the browser's storage API and remain solely on your device. The extension does not inject ads, trackers, or analytics of any kind.