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uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

addons.mozilla.org

131–140 of 416 posts

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#131
post #7

I prefer Ad Nauseum ( https://adnauseam.io/ ) because I don't want to just block the ads I want to ruin the profile ad companies have on me by having all the ads clicked as well.

UBlock Origin is not just an adblocker though, in their own words it is a "wide-spectrum content blocker" capable of blocking things like malware, cookie consent popups, social media buttons, and outsider intrusion into LAN.

If adnauseam did those things I would use it (I don't want to run both at the same time).

edit: i'm wrong, it is a ublock origin fork, apologies

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#132

How do ya'll feel about the idea that adblock can be morally equivalent to theft[1]? I see this argument pop up from time to time in relation to people who use alternative clients to services such as YouTube. But if you're using uBlock Origin, you are probably browsing many, many sites that rely at least partially on ad revenue, so it's a similar case. [1] https://twitter.com/LeaVerou/status/518154828166725632

If the site owner views it that way, they can detect my adblocker and put up a paywall. And if they're afraid that a paywall will cause people to bounce, then deep down they know what I already know: their content isn't worth paying for.

This is probably the best take. If someone says that ads are part of the deal, fair enough. I can go somewhere else, or I can honor the deal. Otherwise, seems unethical to me.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#133

What kills me is even paid subscription sites like WSJ, Bloomberg, Seeking Alpha, show you ads even when you're a paying member. Why is it a war on our attention?

Isn't it that those people that can easily afford the payment and thus buy it are those that are most attractive for any advertiser (for that very reason). At least that's what I heard, before Youtube Red became a thing which kind of disproves it.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#134

I instantly install this extension whenever I work on a new machine as I could not imagine browsing the web without it. For that reason I just went looking for a donate button to help fund the project and it turns out they don't even accept donations https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Why-don't-you-accept-...

I prefer DNS filtering over extensions as they generally want all permissions to essentially impersonate you at the browser level. Am I wrong?

> impersonate you at the browser level

This is a new framing for me...I don't think of ublock as impersonating me, but rather representing me, like an agent in a transaction. While it's true that agents that represent you need to be trusted, there is also a huge upside: ublock origin can do things that DNS blocking cannot. Given ublock's (gorhill's) track record, I think this is an excellent deal.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#136
post #80
post #52

What do people use to block garbage domains from their Google results? Google results, especially for developer stuff, is so awful -- cluttered with junk sites ripping off content from blogs and Stack Overflow, etc. I've been trying to figure out some rules for uBlock Origin, but haven't gotten there, yet. Edit: Multiple fantastic options in the replies, below. Thanks, people!

I've started using https://programmablesearchengine.google.com/about/ which is a programmable, custom search engine that Google provides. I only include sites that I want to. For news, I have a separate search engine; for programming, I include Gitlab, Github, and others. It's quite nice, and you can share your search engines with others via a public URL. Another example is creating a "social media" only search engin…

> I have over 50 social media websites

What are the others besides the usual 2-3?

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#137
post #52

What do people use to block garbage domains from their Google results? Google results, especially for developer stuff, is so awful -- cluttered with junk sites ripping off content from blogs and Stack Overflow, etc. I've been trying to figure out some rules for uBlock Origin, but haven't gotten there, yet. Edit: Multiple fantastic options in the replies, below. Thanks, people!

uBlacklist

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#140
post #70

How do ya'll feel about the idea that adblock can be morally equivalent to theft[1]? I see this argument pop up from time to time in relation to people who use alternative clients to services such as YouTube. But if you're using uBlock Origin, you are probably browsing many, many sites that rely at least partially on ad revenue, so it's a similar case. [1] https://twitter.com/LeaVerou/status/518154828166725632

it is no more theft than smelling the cooking of a restaurant.

I don't think it's theft but I also don't think it's really equivalent to that either. After all 1,000,000 people can smell what the restaurant is cooking for another customer and it doesn't cost the restaurant any more than if 0 people did because the restaurant is letting the scent go out either way. On the other hand if 1,000,000 people watch a 100 MB video and block ads it certainly costs the content provider a lot more than if nobody did.
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