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EasyList is in trouble and so are many ad blockers

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Re: EasyList is in trouble and so are many ad blockers

#281

Post by zedadex »

neilv wrote: post #131

Assuming it's not a kind of DoS attack, and since it sounds like they can detect the abusing clients (maybe by User-Agent)... some very desperate technical options involve serving an alternate small blocklist that does one of: 1. Try having it block subsequent requests for EasyList itself, just in case the frequent update requests are made with the prior blocklist in effect. (I accidentally did this before, in one of…

> Try having it block subsequent requests for EasyList itself

Now you're thinking with portals

Re: EasyList is in trouble and so are many ad blockers

#282

Post by ThunderSizzle »

kaushikc wrote: post #180
NaturalPhallacy wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case anyone reading hasn't heard of it: SponsorBlock for YouTube - Skip Sponsorships - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sponsorblock-for-y...

Sponsorblock has saved me hundreds of hours from watching youtube ads and other time wasting bullshit. The devs deserve to be paid for making this awesome application.

Were you sponsored to say that?

Re: EasyList is in trouble and so are many ad blockers

#284

Post by zedadex »

bluehatbrit wrote: post #84
fdfaz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the free plan allows this. Seems an easy solution.

I'll have a huge impact on anything making legitimate use of the list. Adblockers on sensible browsers will stop working etc. It may be easy, and it may even be the only option, but it's a bad one that will need some thought from the maintainers I expect.

The only thought it would require would be thought they should have been putting into their fetching strategy in the first place.

Re: EasyList is in trouble and so are many ad blockers

#286

Post by manigandham »

thayne wrote: post #278
manigandham wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's not JSON or HTML. And it's not meant for browsers. It's clearly a dataset as a text file and not meant as "web(page) content". What's nonsense about that when it's completely accurate?

How is it any different from a json file used by a web app (or mobile app, or desktop app)? And there is no reason a web app couldn't read data from a txt file instead of a json file.

It's not for displaying a webpage but to power a separate application. Just because you can serve any kind of file over HTTP doesn't mean it's for serving a website. There's a reason Cloudflare doesn't allow large video files either - even though that probably counts even more as "web content".

This is a very straightforward interpretation of the terms and it's strange to see such pushback based on a pedantic technicality when it's clear what the file is being used for.

In fact, if this was the opposite situation and some automated rule was involved in isolating this file, I expect the same people would then want human intervention to clear up the difference based on the context.

Re: EasyList is in trouble and so are many ad blockers

#287

Post by m-p-3 »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #217
anigbrowl wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't understand their argument that a text file 'isn't a web content'; seems like a bullshit excuse.

This doesn’t sound like bullshit to me. Serving a static text file that is primarily used by applications is not in line with their terms of service. Cloudflare provides a significant service to the free and open web by subsidizing the hosting costs of static content for websites. They give that away for free under what appears to be reasonable terms.

So if the text was embedded in a static webpage that the client had to parse locally, that'd be okay?

Re: EasyList is in trouble and so are many ad blockers

#289

Post by celestialcheese »

kaushikc wrote: post #180
NaturalPhallacy wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case anyone reading hasn't heard of it: SponsorBlock for YouTube - Skip Sponsorships - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sponsorblock-for-y...

Sponsorblock has saved me hundreds of hours from watching youtube ads and other time wasting bullshit. The devs deserve to be paid for making this awesome application.

Or, you know, pay for Youtube Premium and get no ads? Added bonus of supporting the creators who make those videos you watch.

Re: EasyList is in trouble and so are many ad blockers

#290

Post by celestialcheese »

r1ch wrote: post #227
yellowapple wrote: post #223

Cloudflare's rationale for a ToS violation is absolutely bonkers. Who cares what the file extension is? By virtue of being accessible on the web via a URL it is by definition web content.

Cloudflare's TOS only permit caching for HTML content and related assets. It's probably a useful catch-all they can pull out any time someone uses too much bandwidth.

Ok, so then why not make a structured HTML page that's served and parsed as the list.. that would be perfectly fine? Cloudflare's stance on this makes no sense
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