Well, since many sites require JavaScript (often in the form of third party external scripts) to function properly and NoScript is bascially a filter for JavaScript, there are times when a site or some part of a site isn't working because of this filtering. It then may involve a bit of trial and error to see which blocked, filtered out script is causing the site not to function. In most situations, just "allowing," which will whitelist the site, or "temporarily allowing," not permanently whitelisting, the site itself is enough. This simply means you are allowing the top level of the site to use JS. Below is what appears when you mouse hover over the NS icon, which you can see in the upper left corner. You can also see an icon to the left of that to cancel/revoke what you may have temporarily allowed.
Here, you can see apple.com (for Discussions) is "allowed" (permanently) but not a script from edgekey.net, which I have never needed to allow or unblock. The site works perfectly without it. But, if something wasn't working, I might have to temporarily allow edgekey (after checking it out by Shift-clicking on it, which will bring up a number of options for searching its reputation and safety.) Before allowing it, I might also google it to find out what its purpose is. It isn't necessary to do this very often. And, once you whitelist a site or a script you're sure of, you don't have to do it again.
After a period of getting used to it and knowing what to do when things aren't working, it mostly gets out of the way.
You can also read the "Quick Start for Beginners" from the NoScript forum. Also, go to the FAQs from a link there.
Tuttle: I have both Ghostery and NoScript, both of which block "web bugs," but Ghostery, apparently, blocks "web bugs" that NS doesn't. I think they may even have different defintions of web bugs. For Ghostery, they are pixel trackers. I think NoScript and Ghostery are really complimentary with some overlapping; I wouldn't want to have just Ghostery, alone. (This is based on a reply to a question I asked some time ago on the Ghostery forum, which I can't locate just now.
http://getsatisfaction.com/ghostery )
EDIT Actually, just found a comment from an email from their developer. But not exactly certain what he meant by Ghostery is primarily an "education" tool
Thirdly, NoScript's purpose is somewhat different from Ghostery: Ghostery is primarily an education tool that allows you to block based on a blacklist. NoScript is an all purpose JavaScript blocker. Differences go under the hood as well: for instance NoScript's "block web bugs" is not the same thing that our image/bug blocking is.
Message was edited by: WZZZ
