Usually when I see people talking about browser extensions I think “oh neat, but I don’t want to fuss around with a complex set of configurations that becomes unportable over time”. Or I think “that’s cute, but I’m not paying a few dollars for a tweak I will probably forget about”.

John Gruber linked to Stop The Madness recently and again I thought it was interesting but not worth the mental hassle of integrating a new tool into my browsing habits. But I’m sitting on the bus right now, listening to music while catching up on some news. And as I scroll through the website my music fades away and some auto-play video has taken over. And my gosh do I do not want to be watching some tangentially related video on your site right now. Cue me leaving the webpage.

I remembered this wouldn’t be an issue if I had some kind of way to stop the madness. And the initial hook for the app — replace Arial with Helvetica! — is certainly a typography issue that I feel strongly about. I am now a Safari extension convert, and I’m quite impressed with the various features that Stop The Madness provides. Particularly happy that it uses iCloud sync to keep options configured across browsers on Mac, iPad, and iPhone (as long as you are happy using Safari everywhere, which I am).

Now I just need to remember to install it everywhere for all time…