How to block Hot Network Questions in the sidebar of Stack Exchange network?

Question

Operating system is Ubuntu 14. Firefox is 50.1.0

This is what I have tried:

I restarted firefox after that. There was no effect.

What is the way to block those hot questions on the sidebar?

Answer 1

That's one of 50 or 60 enhancements to the SE user interface in the Stack Apps add-on SOX. You can load it from that link. You will also need a userscript manager installed for it to work -- Greasemonkey (for Firefox), Tampermonkey (for Chrome), or NinjaKit (for Safari).

To block Hot Network Questions, select the "Hide the Hot Network Questions module" option in the Appearance section of the features menu. The features menu will be accessible from a button added to the topbar:

BTW, another feature allows you to filter what is shown in the HNQ list by site and other attributes. The full list of features can be found here. Many of the enhancements are indispensible.

I would recommend installing the Development Version rather than the Official Version. The Development Version includes new enhancements but more important, it includes the latest bug fixes (and rarely introduces new bugs). SOX is used on a wide variety of platforms, browsers, and configurations, so that's an easy way to avoid a potential problem someone else discovered and has already been fixed.

Answer 2

I wrote a Chrome extension to hide/filter the Hot Network Questions list last year. As well as hiding it allows you to filter the links with a site or keyword whitelist or blacklist, because I found that though certain sites were usually distracting, others were often useful.

You can install it from the Chrome Web Store or check out the code on GitHub. (Originally shared on MSE).

Answer 3

Using uBlock Origin on Windows 7 with FireFox 50.1.0 I was able to achieve your desired result with this:

FWIW: I prefer uBlock Origin 10-fold over ABP.

ABP is a sell-out but they do allow you to disable their acceptable ads.

uBlock feels faster and it is WAY easier to just temporarily unblock a site and re-block it.

Answer 4

I'm using Chrome on Windows and it worked like a charm.

Maybe try targeting the same elements as mine.

Answer 5

Here's a different approach. Rather than block Hot Network Questions from appearing, I block the ability to get to the destinations of the links.

I found I was wasting a lot of time following up the interesting Hot Network Questions so I installed LeechbBock and set it to only allow *.stackexchange.com for so many minutes each hour. That way I can read the interesting ones but not spend too long doing it.

Leechblock is really handy for gently nudging you not to spend too much time on sites you choose to block.

(Ironically I answered this question because I saw it on Hot Network Questions.)

Answer 6

You can use the Stylus browser addon (or similar) and add the following CSS to all SE sites:

#hot-network-questions {
  display: none;
}

Example from a full version for Stylus here:

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

/* From https://gist.github.com/akerbos/152d7891d2b8b34edf3a */

@-moz-document domain('stackoverflow.com'),
domain('stackexchange.com'),
domain('superuser.com'),
domain('serverfault.com'),
domain('stackapps.com'),
domain('askubuntu.com'),
domain('mathoverflow.com'),
domain('answers.onstartups.com'),
domain('mathoverflow.net') {
  #hot-network-questions {
    display : none;
  }
}

Use "Mozilla Format > Import".

Answer 7

As per the Meta Stack Exchange post, Updating the Hot Network Questions List - now with a bit more network and a little less "hotness"! — you can hide the HNQ list from the sidebar globally by visiting your preferences page and choosing "Hide Hot Network Questions", which appears in the "Sidebar" section.

User preference to remove HNQ sidebar section globally

Your user profile settings tab got a bit more crowded today. You now have the option to turn off the HNQ List widget in the right hand sidebar. If you don't want to see the HNQ list, you don't have to! So, if this is what you've been dreaming of for years, head over to the sidebar section of your preferences and change it! The HNQ list is viewable by default for all users.

There are a few reasons we're starting with this solution:

• It'll work on every site and every device you use.
• It's something we could implement relatively quickly and get a reliable result.

There are a few things it doesn't do:

1. Doesn't let you show or hide the HNQ list on different sites or devices.
2. Isn't an option for non-logged-in users.
3. Doesn't let you customize which sites you see by either a whitelist or blacklist.

While I'd like to solve 1 and 2 by making it possible to collapse the section in the sidebar on the page and saving that state as a cookie, that will take a bit more design work so we're putting it on hold for now. Solving #3 is likely very complicated to implement so we don't have plans for it for the time being.