AI uBlock Blacklist • Hacker News Board

Re: AI uBlock Blacklist

#81

Post by Thanemate » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 8:29 PM UTC

charonn0 wrote: post #69

filldorns wrote: post #63

Come on guys, 2026 and you still using "blacklist". Why not BlockList?

Because changing blacklist to blocklist, master to main, etc. is a meaningless act of virtue signalling.

I'd argue it's not meaningless because the point wasn't to show inclusion but power. Nobody went for master's degrees, "master" as a rank in video games, or anything else.

Reminds me of [1]twitch.tv trying to remove "blind playthrough" as a tag to encourage inclusive language.

1. https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitch/comments/k7dvgw/twitch_remov...

Re: AI uBlock Blacklist

#82

Post by jadar » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 9:01 PM UTC

I feel like this is a bit of a sinking ship. I suppose if you want to avoid known sources of slop then this works … but beyond that it’s a bit of a lost cause. It’s like sports betting — once it’s there then there’s no saying who is (ab)using it.

Re: AI uBlock Blacklist

#83

Post by ycombinatrix » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

quiet35 wrote: post #38

I like the idea and even considered contributing to the list, but this stopped me: > NAQ (Never Asked Questions) > My website is on your list! > Cry about it. That's quite a suspicious attitude. Clearly the maintainer believes he is infallible. I understand the emotions behind this, but this is not how a public blacklist should be maintained.

If the website is not AI slop, presumably they would remove it from the list.

Re: AI uBlock Blacklist

#84

Post by Drupon » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 9:36 PM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #77

Drupon wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because there's about the same chance of them being innocent as the "Help I was wrongfully banned by VAC :(((" posts in the Counterstrike community.

Reminder that false positives are not only possible but likely. I remember one instance where you could get people banned by sending them a specific string of characters over chat. Anticheat was scanning the entire contents of RAM looking for it. These days anticheat software is likely to snap at anything. Who knows what they think of the development tools Hacker News users are likely to have on their computers? They…

Yeah that's what the people love to say on the Steam forums when they've gotten busted in one of its many ban waves.

Re: AI uBlock Blacklist

#85

Post by gruez » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 9:45 PM UTC

malfist wrote: post #64

Dwedit wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The broad list seems to just be a hater list. It's not trying to cover cases of deception (passing off AI material as if it's something else), as it includes sites which are very open about what kind of content is on there.

Would you say the same about a block list that blocks anything else? I don't care how obvious an ad is, I don't want to see it. Same with social widgets or cookie consent banners, or newsletter sign-ups. But I wouldn't call the person that maintains the news letter popup block list as "newsletter hater"

>Would you say the same about a block list that blocks anything else? I don't care how obvious an ad is, I don't want to see it. Same with social widgets or cookie consent banners, or newsletter sign-ups.

He's not complaining that widgets for his favorite social network site is getting blocked, he's complaining that anything vaguely related to social networks are getting banned. Some of the sites on that list are stuff like chatgpt.com, which might be AI related, but clearly doesn't fit the criteria of "AI generated content, for the purposes of cleaning image search engines".

Re: AI uBlock Blacklist

#86

Post by TacticalCoder » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

meindnoch wrote: post #43

[flagged]

I take it you're talking about the user here with the nick simonw? I find his comments on HN interesting and balanced: don't know why you think he should be filtered out.

Re: AI uBlock Blacklist

#87

Post by TacticalCoder » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 10:16 PM UTC

greyman wrote: post #71

Meta question: do you guys feel the adblockers will maybe not be that important in the future? As for myself, I ended up to use just a few websites, but those are reputable and I don't mind a few ads they provide. The only adblock which is still very much needed is one for Youtube.

I used to run pihole on a Pi and now I directly run unbound, still on a Pi. The difference on a great many sites is night and day: you simply get way fewer ads. And that's just by using a DNS blocklist.

Occasionally I'll get one site that refuses to load because I've got an "adblocker" but most sites do work fine, just with way fewer ads.

Re: AI uBlock Blacklist

#88

Post by Symbiote » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 10:16 PM UTC

Thanemate wrote: post #81

charonn0 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because changing blacklist to blocklist, master to main, etc. is a meaningless act of virtue signalling.

I'd argue it's not meaningless because the point wasn't to show inclusion but power. Nobody went for master's degrees, "master" as a rank in video games, or anything else. Reminds me of [1]twitch.tv trying to remove "blind playthrough" as a tag to encourage inclusive language. 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitch/comments/k7dvgw/twitch_remov...

GitHub changed the default branch name from master to main.

Re: AI uBlock Blacklist

#89

Post by JamesLeonis » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 10:25 PM UTC

well_ackshually wrote: post #78

quiet35 wrote: post #38

I like the idea and even considered contributing to the list, but this stopped me: > NAQ (Never Asked Questions) > My website is on your list! > Cry about it. That's quite a suspicious attitude. Clearly the maintainer believes he is infallible. I understand the emotions behind this, but this is not how a public blacklist should be maintained.

[flagged]

I agree.

I find it a bit ironic that this site regularly talks about banning whole countries and IP ranges on our servers, then acts shocked when users do the same. The fact that somebody went to the effort to create and share this shows how poorly the public sees the web.

The reality we face is "Check your AdBlocker" is the new "Check your spam folder" and we should adjust accordingly.

Re: AI uBlock Blacklist

#90

Post by TacticalCoder » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 10:27 PM UTC

filldorns wrote: post #63

Come on guys, 2026 and you still using "blacklist". Why not BlockList?

I do use "blocklist" on new project and name my main "trunk" and not "master" but I'll both a) defend other's rights to use terms like blocklists and master and b) call out the virtue signalling ones who are trying to push a political agenda by trying to control thoughts (by attempting to control speech).