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My uBlock Origin filters to remove distractions

469 points by mig4ng 3y ago

Repository with my filter lists that block some distractions from sites I want to keep using. I am pretty ruthless removing distractions from my life (e.g. no Instagram, Facebook, TikTok), but some tools I'd like to keep using some parts of it. E.g. Twitter/X, I dislike the feed but I like reading some threads that are shared here or on blog posts. Same for YouTube, I enjoy some videos but I do not want recommendations when I finish the video I was watching. Feel free to suggest more, open issues, pull requests or send me an email :)

pimlottc 3y ago
Needs blocks for Stack Exchange hot questions
- hutzlibu 3y ago
  Oh yes, they are annoyingly interesting, which is fine when I am browsing for fun, but usually I go to StackExchange for a very specific problem and then suddenly, uups, where am I?
- mig4ng 3y ago
  That's true, feel free to open PR, or I might eventually add them too.
- db48x 3y ago
  Here are the rules I’ve been using for Stack Exchange; you can see that I have been doing this for a while. Some of these may no longer even be necessary… ! 5/8/2018, 9:16:29 AM https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/13080/reloading-directory-local-variables emacs.stackexchange.com###overlay-header ! 3/31/2020 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com###divQuestionFollowFeaturePopover ! 2021-04-14 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com##.js-teams-promo ! 2021-08-14 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com###hot-network-questions ! emacs.stackexchange.com###sidebar ! 2021-10-01 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com##.js-create-team-cta ! 2022-09-18 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com##.s-sidebarwidget:not(.js-review-actions) emacs.stackexchange.com##.js-feed-link ! 2022-12-18 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com##.icon-winterbash ! 2023-07-28 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com##.js-announcement-banner
- mhasbini 3y ago
  There's https://github.com/httpjamesm/AnonymousOverflow https://github.com/httpjamesm/AnonymousOverflow. I made https://doublefault.mhasbini.com/ https://doublefault.mhasbini.com/ before I knew about it. On the plus side it keep default aesthetics.
perihelions 3y ago
A while back I worked out how to erase the pay-to-win monetization spoor from Reddit and Twitter, reddit.com##.awarding-icon reddit.com##.awardings-bar reddit.com##.give-gold-button twitter.com##:xpath(//div[contains(@style, "hex-hw-shapeclip-clipconfig")]):style(clip-path: circle(50%) !important)
- mig4ng 3y ago
  What does the last one do?
  - perihelions 3y ago
    I don't know if they still do it, but at the time Twitter charged money to display user avatars in a larger size, and styled as a hexagon. I think they were NFT tie-ins or something? They were difficult to ignore, so I wrote a snippet to turn hexagons back into circles. [edit]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30012904 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30012904 ("Twitter Rolls Out NFT Profile Pictures")
    - mig4ng 3y ago
      Never seen it, if I do and it bothers me I will keep in mind and add this too. Thanks!
    - brezelgoring 3y ago
      I had an extension (that I found here) that transformed all NFT avatars into Jared from Subway. It really takes the edge off of whatever they say. Even the most serious arguments just turn into kids' spats with that picture, it made the site more pleasant to be in.
- lapetitejort 3y ago
  Reddit has ended awards (for now). The filter is still applicable for older posts though.
philip1209 3y ago
I use similar filters in my uBlock origin. I like this approach because it avoids installing more browser extensions, each of which risks security or privacy issues.
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Please share them to see if I can improve mine :)
shortrounddev2 3y ago
Would be cool to see some examples
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Like screenshots?
  - ronjouch 3y ago
    Not OP, but here's a screenshot illustrating what I personally typically do on sites I use a lot: hide things, make things low opacity until hovered, add a dark mode if missing. https://imgur.com/a/tCFkVzK https://imgur.com/a/tCFkVzK EDIT should have installed uBlock on the left/default browser for a fair comparison. Oh well, you get the idea :)
- db48x 3y ago
  Before: <http://db48x.net/temp/Screenshot from 2023-09-20 09-14-36.png http://db48x.net/temp/Screenshot from 2023-09-20 09-14-36.pn...> After: <http://db48x.net/temp/Screenshot from 2023-09-20 09-14-26.png http://db48x.net/temp/Screenshot from 2023-09-20 09-14-26.pn...>
runjake 3y ago
If you use uBlock Origin, did you try to submit these filters to the uBlock Annoyances[1] or EasyList Annoyances lists before starting up this project? That would help far more people that starting up yet another Annoyances list. 1. https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets
- notsylver 3y ago
  These aren't just annoyances, they are core features of the sites.
  - runjake 3y ago
    So? Any corporation would argue that about the annoyances on their properties.
    - reyqn 3y ago
      I thought people used those list because it cleaned up the websites without breaking them. This is largely breaking the websites, only letting through a very opinionated subset of functionalities. Even if it's nice for people who want just this, I don't think this has its place on the annoyances lists you mentioned.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - thrdbndndn 3y ago
      No they wouldn't? Annoyances are mainly for things like cookie popup or copy-protection etc. I doubt companies would argue these are their "core features".
    - ruined 3y ago
      the main timeline is a core feature of twitter for most people.
  - pbhjpbhj 3y ago
    Might be scope for upstream projects to add a new group like "uBlock Focus" where blocks are to focus main content? Before IT took away all plugins (!) I used uBlock this way, hiding sidebars and leads that weren't conducive to work (eg interesting stuff).
squarefoot 3y ago
Interesting. I wonder how hard would be to create a filter to programmatically eliminate certain sellers from Ebay query results, say those known for selling counterfeit hardware, those with feedback ratings below a given threshold, etc.
- crtasm 3y ago
  Unfortunately the search results page doesn't appear to include the seller id or username for the items. However if you had a list of usernames to exclude eBay lets you do that in the advanced search.
verdverm 3y ago
I've been using uBlock to remove or revert the "improved designs" as much as possible. Really like the click to remove (and build a filter) to aid in this effort.
generalenvelope 3y ago
+1 for UnHook. Amazing how the experience of youtube changes when all you can see is a search bar and the current video
- mig4ng 3y ago
  I have been using it for years now, it is perfect. Main reason I will still keep it because it works. Removing an extension from my list would be great but it is amazing as is.
polyterative 3y ago
newsfeed eradicator extension is a more configurable way to achieve similar features
- mig4ng 3y ago
  I have used it in the past, it does not give me the same flexibility. It might have changed over the years. I have used it long ago. Thanks for sharing.
beltsazar 3y ago
I'm using uBlock similarly! I've accumulated hundreds of custom filters for the past eight years. My newest entries on uBlock's "My Filters" tab are for hiding spoilers on IMDb: ! 2023-09-05 Hide episode's description and image (+ watchlist for not breaking the layout) [new experimental IMDb layout] imdb.com##article.episode-item-wrapper .ipc-slate imdb.com##article.episode-item-wrapper .ipc-html-content imdb.com##article.episode-item-wrapper .ipc-watchlist-ribbon ! 2023-09-05 Hide top rated episode's description both on a TV page and an episode page imdb.com##[data-testid="episodes-top-rated-card"] ul + div
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Do you have the others open sourced? Mind sharing them?
- RexM 3y ago
  Might want to also hide the number of episodes an actor is in the show for. That’s bitten me a few times.
rschiavone 3y ago
There is also https://letsblock.it/filters https://letsblock.it/filters, a collaborative repository of uBlock content filters, to which I encourage you to contribute your own ones.
- mig4ng 3y ago
  I found that and I actually link it in the repository. I will investigate it later.
hedora 3y ago
This one gets rid of the Login With Google popups that have infested most corners of the internet: accounts.google.com/gsi/iframe It doesn't break the login with google button, so you can still login with your google account, if you must.
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Will try it and might add it too, I find those annoying. Thanks!
  - input_sh 3y ago
    FYI you can turn those off in Google's account settings: https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/219332922/how-to-stop-obnoxious-google-sign-in-prompts?hl=en https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/219332922/how-to-... Which of course implies that you have to be logged into Google for it to work, doesn't apply to incognito windows, etc.
    - mig4ng 3y ago
      Just did this, thanks. But having it in ublock is good too :) I have added the rule to the repository
waxali9815 3y ago
I use something similar to this, the only differences are because my use case is privacy protection and avoiding algorithmic feeds. I use the Redirector extension for Firefox so that it redirects e.g. Youtube, Twitter, and StackOverflow links to the corresponding alternative frontends Piped, Nitter, and AnonymousOverflow. You can find maintained lists [1] [2] of such projects and their instances. Mostly they are FOSS and privacy-respecting, and they have distraction-free frontends because it's a helpful coincidence of being ethical software. [1] https://github.com/digitalblossom/alternative-frontends https://github.com/digitalblossom/alternative-frontends [2] https://farside.link https://farside.link
- mig4ng 3y ago
  This is amazing. I had similar ideas in my bucket list of creating distraction free alternatives and redirecting somehow. Happy to know someone had the same idea and there are versions of it online. Thanks for letting me know of this, I really appreciate it!
Andrew018 3y ago
[dead]
GuB-42 3y ago
You definitely should add news.ycombinator.com, all of it :)
- mig4ng 3y ago
  I do have it, just the homepage, /news, and /newest. Haven't added to the repository yet but will probably soon.
- hollerith 3y ago
  I block only the "firehose" pages so I can continue to run search-engine queries over HN (using hn.algolia.com): ||news.ycombinator.com/| ||news.ycombinator.com/news^$document ||news.ycombinator.com/newcomments^$document ||news.ycombinator.com/newest^$document ||news.ycombinator.com/classic^$document ||news.ycombinator.com/front^$document ||news.ycombinator.com/bestcomments^$document
- pbhjpbhj 3y ago
  Maybe you'd like noprocrast mode? Limits use time. It's in your user config, click your username.
db48x 3y ago
I do a lot of the same things to remove sidebars, navigation, suggestions, search, etc from various sites. There are a couple of web comics where I nuke everything but the image and the next/previous navigation links (Order of the Stick, Schlock Mercenary, etc).
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Feel free to share them in the repository via PR, issue, or here :) Thanks.
hedora 3y ago
Tangentially related: Has anyone tried the Orion Browser by Kagi for iOS? https://browser.kagi.com/ https://browser.kagi.com/ They claim to support Firefox and Chrome extensions (specifically, uBlock Origin). It's in beta. I'm surprised Apple hasn't blocked it yet, but I'd consider paying for a developer account just to install it on my phone (assuming it works).
- djcannabiz 3y ago
  Ive been using it on my laptop and phone. The phone version doesnt feel like it has enough polish yet. You can install it from the app store BTW, no need for a developer account. Ive been having problems with the app crashing, being unresponsive. However, the Mac version works 100% for me. I have ublock origin, bitwarden, bypass paywalls clean and sponsorblock installed. I havent noticed any issues and im very satisfied. I also really love the programable buttons feature, which let you define a button in the toolbar that runs some JS when you click on it (like a bookmarklet).
- freediver 3y ago
  uBlock Origin works on Orion for Mac (running forked WebKit), but does not work on Orion for iOS (because of Apple's limitations on iOS).
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Just tried it and it seems pretty cool. I hope they go open source as stated in the FAQ. Also would love to see a similar browser with vertical tabs for Linux/Windows.
ta367457377 3y ago
Between Firefox for Android and uBlock, i dub this guy a literal saint. Truly good stuff. Havent seen a yutube or otherwise ad in a while.
perihelions 3y ago
Tangentially: after you've blocked a very large number of ads and sidebars, one useful enhancement is to expand whatever text elements remain, to regain use of all that now-empty whitespace. Something like so: :xpath(//main/div):style(min-width: 80% !important) (I've been looking at going a step further for some sites, by annotating a "column-count:" [0] rule and making the screen look like a newspaper. (Narrow columns for readability—multiple columns for "scan-ability"). Unfortunately, there's a lot more fiddling and tuning to this than I expected: it doesn't automagically work in the way you'd hope. Modern website DOM layouts are basically Superfund sites). [0] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/column-count https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/column-coun... [late edit]: Here's a minimal example of "column-count:" injected by uBlock (on a website where it sort-of works)—this is what I'm trying to coerce other websites into looking like: https://i.ibb.co/k3bRwhP/example-1.webp https://i.ibb.co/k3bRwhP/example-1.webp theguardian.com###maincontent:style(margin-left: -28vw !important; min-width: 90vw !important; column-count: 4 !important) theguardian.com##div:style(border: none !important)
- flir 3y ago
  Are you at the point where you should be pouring this content into RSS, and styling it as columns in a reader? (I really like the column idea, and I'm working back towards RSS, with a bunch of smart filters, being my primary way of interacting with anything I visit regularly. I never should have given it up).
  - ehPReth 3y ago
    The only reliable way I've found (so far) to shuttle Facebook Pages into something easily to consume (RSS) is unfortunately a paid service... even paid IFTT doesn't support a page posts -> fire webhook/email/etc sadly. Unfortunate, since some local government stuff or otherwise noteworthy stuff is... only available on Facebook. Sometimes it's available on 'X'/Twitter but often not as detailed, or it links to Facebook for more details.
    - flir 3y ago
citruscomputing 3y ago
Love this! I've been working on one for pull quotes: https://codeberg.org/oneirophage/filter-list-pull-quotes https://codeberg.org/oneirophage/filter-list-pull-quotes
AlwaysRock 3y ago
This is cool. I did something similar at one point. Unfortunately these websites change their basic layout so often that it felt like these fixes would work for 1 month max then I'd have to configure again. I ended up moving to news feed eradicator. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicator/fjcldmjmjhkklehbacihaiopjklihlgg https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat... I let myself use reddit for 5 minutes every morning. It auto blocks the feed when those 5 minutes are up. Every other site I just leave blocked.
- ronjouch 3y ago
  > "Unfortunately these websites change their basic layout so often that it felt like these fixes would work for 1 month max then I'd have to configure again." You're exaggerating. My userContent.css is 60kB, and although breakages do happen indeed, it's occasional and nowhere near "redo everything every month". What I will reckon is a pain, are machine-mangled CSS classes (e.g. by packers for React / other frameworks). They are kinda stable, until they're not, and at any rate, their inscrutability makes maintenance more difficult (because .user-profile-picture is human-transparent, while .cD5aZf is not :-/ ).
  - aendruk 3y ago
    Judging by some of the other examples here I’m guessing this is a case of writing fragile rules that e.g. count n and m items into a tree and test unnecessarily for incidental classes. If all you do is accumulate the often senseless outputs of the element picker I’d expect the gains to be short-lived.
    - ronjouch 3y ago
      Indeed, 100%. I learned to never do such things, and would rather not have a rule than have a brittle one. This explains that my experience differs from OP's.
      - db48x 3y ago
        There are better ways to do it. For example, you can match elements containing specific text, such as the text that introduced the annoyance. On NewEgg you might match the text “Download our app” and use it to remove that whole box.
meerita 3y ago
I would suggest the author to explain, briefly, how to use the filters in uOrigins in the README.
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion, added it :)
dcminter 3y ago
Mostly I'm using one of the default uBlock origin ones, but custom rules that have made (desktop) Facebook much pleasanter for me: www.facebook.com##div:nth-of-type(8):has-text(Suggested for you) www.facebook.com##div:nth-of-type(8):has-text(Reels and short videos)
- mig4ng 3y ago
  I don't really use facebook these days, but thanks for sharing. I might add them if I ever step into a facebook post that I want to see and they annoy me :)
ronjouch 3y ago
Thanks! I do this all the time too :) . Makes for a more pleasant / less cluttered experience on sites I use a lot. I'll add that another thing that is pretty easy to do is to add a Dark Mode to websites that don't have one. All you need is a userContent.css/uBlock rule like @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) { body { background-color: #111 !important; color: #eee !important; } /* etc, more stuff here depending on site */ } , and ta-da! Dark mode respecting your OS dark/light setting based on pref or time of day :)
- notpushkin 3y ago
  Dark Reader extension does basically this (I think they either change colors or add the invert filter depending on what looks better?), but also has builtin CSS override rules for many sites. Love it.
  - ronjouch 3y ago
    Sure. I prefer to minimize depending on more extensions (for futureproof-ness, performance, security). These days, { uBlock Origin, Vimium } is all I need :)
    - notpushkin 3y ago
      That's a nice approach! I try to maintain a practical balance here, my extension list is basically: GreaseMonkey, Stylus, uBlock Origin, Consent-o-Matic, Dark Reader and maybe a couple more. In theory, one can use uBlock0 for everything (with CSS and I think also JS injection), but userstyles and userscripts are way easier to use sometimes. And you can reimplement Dark Reader with userstyles, but you'll have to keep track of various site-specific tweaks to make it look good. (Should be possible though! Might be a cool idea for a pet project.) But I understand the concerns with having too many extensions from too many different authors, yeah.
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing. I don't use Dark mode but someone might be interested in this!
fifteen1506 3y ago
Please someone do shareable Twitter users ABP-based user KILL LIST, like in Usenet had!
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Could you elaborate?
  - 8organicbits 3y ago
    See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_file https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_file
    - mig4ng 3y ago
      Doesn't block do this already?
      - fifteen1506 3y ago
        Not shareable. Common block lists would be awesome!
mnorris 3y ago
Thanks for sharing! I've been doing this for the last year with YouTube. YouTube is just a search bar now which prevents mindless browsing and distractions. If I find myself using a site mindlessly I add it to my /etc/hosts file to block them.
cantSpellSober 3y ago
I've written so many of these. Any reason you chose uBlock over something like userstyles? I'd like to open source/release my styles but I'm not sure which is the best choice. uBlock is great for blocking things from loading (like images) but for visual updates I prefer CSS.
- bloopernova 3y ago
  Not OP, but I use ublock origin for a small number of visual tweaks. I use ublock origin because I don't want to use an extra extension.
- mig4ng 3y ago
  I am just using it to remove elements, not visual tweaks, at least for now. Also, I try not to have many configurations/extensions extra that I have to install in a new machine. As I did not find a good way to manage these configs as code.
bloopernova 3y ago
Here's my filters in ublock origin for Hacker News: news.ycombinator.com##.comment:style(max-width: 70ch !important; overflow: hidden !important;) news.ycombinator.com##.c00:style(color: #3f3f3f !important;) news.ycombinator.com##.comhead:style(background: #e6e6df; font-weight: italic; color: #686868 !important;) news.ycombinator.com##.hnuser:style(background: #e6e6df; font-style: italic; color: #575757 !important;) news.ycombinator.com##html:style(filter:invert(100%) hue-rotate(180deg); background: white) Restricts width of comments so that they're about 10 or so words wide, for optimal reading. Also changes some of the colours. Experiment with the above, and if you have any improvements please let me know!
- thrdbndndn 3y ago
  I don't know you can add styles with uBlock filters. I probably still prefer to just use Stylus for better readability/debuggability, but it's good to know. Edit: BTW I think `font-weight: italic;` is a typo.
  - bloopernova 3y ago
    whoops! Thank you for spotting that. :)
i13e 3y ago
You should submit these rules to https://letsblock.it https://letsblock.it ! AFAIK their distractions rules really only cover YouTube
- mig4ng 3y ago
  I have checked them, I have to try them. Also I referenced them in the repository. Thanks :)
noname120 3y ago
Arc has native support for cosmetic improvements. Those are called Boosts and you can interactively create your owns in just a few clicks, and also add custom CSS/JS if needed. I use this extensively to declutter/dedistract most websites I visit: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Medium, Gmail, YouTube, and so on. It's a real life-changer! See the Boosts shared by other users here: https://arc.net/boosts https://arc.net/boosts
- imbnwa 3y ago
  Arc is the best browser UI thus far. Everything else is still stuck in the late 2000s essentially
  - badsectoracula 3y ago
    Some would claim that is a feature. Though personally i'm trying hard(ish) to make Firefox' UI closer to early 2000s :-P (thanks to userChrome.css).
  - tiltowait 3y ago
    Arc's pretty great, but I wish it had nested vertical tabs a la Orion.
    - imbnwa 3y ago
      That feature wasn't big to my browsing style, Arc's way of nesting browser views suits me more, but Orion's Saved Window feature seemed clumsy to me and I'd filed my issue on Orion Tracker.
    - mig4ng 3y ago
      I didn't know Orion existed. Just tried and it is exactly what I want. Excited to see where it goes. Hope Arc and Orion eventually decide to go open source.
      - latexr 3y ago
        > Hope Arc and Orion eventually decide to go open source. From Orion’s FAQ: > Is Orion open-source? > We’re working on it! We’ve begun with some of our components and intend to open more in the future. > Forking WebKit, porting hundreds of APIs and writing a browser app from scratch has been challenging for our small team. Properly maintaining an open-source project takes time and resources we’re short on at the moment, so if you want to contribute at this time, please consider becoming active on orionfeedback.org. https://browser.kagi.com/faq.html#oss https://browser.kagi.com/faq.html#oss
aendruk 3y ago
Personally I have to hide Stack Exchange’s trending questions on my work machine. Those things are catnip to me. askubuntu.com###hot-network-questions serverfault.com###hot-network-questions stackexchange.com###hot-network-questions stackoverflow.com###hot-network-questions superuser.com###hot-network-questions Also many sites disregard prefers-reduced-motion, so I’m often hiding visual distractions like endless carousels and cute decorative animations.
- dylan604 3y ago
  for the longest time, i never paid attention to that column, as my brain has pretty much been trained that anything in that column is useless fluff. until one day when i actually read some of those questions and was surprised by the questions being asked. i totally get the catnip. luckily, i have an off switch and can avoid becoming addicted.
- mxmlnkn 3y ago
  Same here! Although my rules look a bit different because I simply use the element picker: stackoverflow.com##.c-pointer.js-quack-btn stackoverflow.com##.js-step01.js-step.step.ws-nowrap stackoverflow.com##.js-step02.js-step.step.has-width.ta-center stackoverflow.com##.quack-popover--arrow stackoverflow.com###overlay-header stackoverflow.com###feed-link stackoverflow.com##.mb16.s-anchors__default.s-anchors.s-sidebarwidget__yellow.s-sidebarwidget stackoverflow.com##.grid--cell.js-reactions stackoverflow.com##.mb16.s-anchors__grayscale.s-anchors.s-sidebarwidget__yellow.s-sidebarwidget Unfortunately, I also didn't comment what these are all for. But I think one of them is the banner, which might contain calls for voting and such. Another is the "Featured on Meta" box and the sidebar on the left which I never use. And the most recent thing, which isn't included above is the obnoxious popup for the "New Search AI Experience". And this does not even include the goddamn cookie banners, for which ublock has a separate rule set fortunately. Unfortunately, it's the rule set that leads to the most problems because some sites don't work correctly or don't load at all when the cookie banner has not been interacted with. I hate the modern internet without ublock.
  - mig4ng 3y ago
BitwiseFool 3y ago
Personally, I can't stand how distracting YouTube thumbnails are. I found this list to block them from the sidebar when watching videos. ! Hide all of the recommended videos on the right side of the page, except for the first up-next video. ! If you have a tall monitor you may need to add more entries, this blocks the initial list on most resolutions. www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(2) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(3) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(4) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(5) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(6) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(7) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(8) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(9) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(10) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(11) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(12) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(13) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(14) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(15) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(16) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(17) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(18) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(19) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(20) ! Prevents the list of recommendations from expanding when scrolling down. www.youtube.com##ytd-continuation-item-renderer.ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope www.youtube.com###continuations > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope www.youtube.com##.use-ellipsis.ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope www.youtube.com##ytd-compact-playlist-renderer.ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope Also, if you hate Shorts as much as I do, use this to hide them from appearing in search results. youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer:has(#rich-shelf-header:has-text(Shorts)) youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer:has(.ytd-reel-shelf-renderer:has-text(Shorts))
zf00002 3y ago
If someone has some filter strings to help clean up Etsy search results, that would be appreciated.
lencastre 3y ago
Lucy?
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Ahah, yes I like Disenchantment a lot. Haven't watched the latest season though.
scopeh 3y ago
I've been looking for something like this solution for a while. Never thought of using ublock filters. Cheers
gzer0 3y ago
If you go to Options > Filter Lists > Annoyances and check mark the following items: "AdGuard – Annoyances" "EasyList – Annoyances" "uBlock filters – Annoyances" You will get rid of 99.9% of website annoyances without affecting any main functionality of websites. I've been doing this on every fresh install of Chrome for years. Works wonders.
- robbyking 3y ago
  There really are two different version of the internet, and which one you use depends on how how well your ad blockers are configured. I was using my mom's laptop over the holidays, and it took me a minute to realize why every site I visited looked so _different_. What I quickly realised is almost every site I visited was wallpapered in ads: banners between every paragraph, sidebars full of ads, and background images selling things. A lot of sites were unrecognizable from what I was used to.
  - lopis 3y ago
    The ads covering the whole background of some websites websites are the most outrageous thing I had the pleasure to discover recently after so much time of ad blocking. They are absolutely aggressive to your very soul.
    - matheusmoreira 3y ago
      These people would put ads inside your eyelids if they could. Inside your dreams while you sleep. They have exactly zero limits.
      - danielheath 3y ago
        I've long planned a cyberpunk setting where you can sneak past low-level corporate guards by plastering your clothes in ads for competing companies, because their neural interfaces are configured to only let them see their employers adverts. Every year that plan feels less and less like silly hyperbole.
kup0 3y ago
Using rules to completely block shorts from appearing in any YT feeds (and rules to fix the feeds so they don't look broken afterwards) has been great. YT breaks it from time to time with a UI update, but it's something I'll always use. I hate YT Shorts
- mig4ng 3y ago
  Share yours on the repo via issue/PR or share them here. Thanks!
  - kup0 3y ago
    I didn't create them myself, to be clear, I originally got them from here and have adjusted over time (some comments on this thread / other similar threads discuss the changes necessary due to breakage): https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/143mdqv/code_to_block_youtube_shorts_june_2023/ https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/143mdqv/code_... I'll come back later when at home and post the rules I currently use as I've had to manually block other things (new carousels showing up in recommended, etc)
lancesells 3y ago
I use StopTheMadness on Safari and have a lot of similar custom things. For Linkedin I use to get rid of the feed: .scaffold-finite-scroll__content { display: none }
- mig4ng 3y ago
  I have that one in uBlock origin.
wolpoli 3y ago
I tend to associate the tweaks on the site with Tampermonkey and not uBlock Origin.
captn3m0 3y ago
I have a habit of creating filters to hide away footers in all sites I browse regularly. Modern SEO practices have made footers entirely useless, so I just zap them away for a lighter look.
_joel 3y ago
There's an irony of me getting distracted from what I should be doing by looking at ditraction filters...
- db48x 3y ago
  Just think how undistracted you’ll be after you spend a few hours tweaking your filters!
type0 3y ago
One of the most useful is removing home page clutter on youtube: youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype*='home'] m.youtube.com##ytm-browse > ytm-single-column-browse-results-renderer > div > div[tab-identifier*="FEwhat_to_watch"]
dredmorbius 3y ago
NB: Before/after screenshots are highly useful when pitching or demonstrating something such as this.
SushiHippie 3y ago
For read only I really like these privacy friendly alternatives: Twitter, completely skinned down to just the content and no login nags: Nitter - https://nitter.net https://nitter.net - https://github.com/zedeus/nitter https://github.com/zedeus/nitter Youtube, also very skinned down and you can also collapse recommendations by default etc.: Piped - https://piped.video https://piped.video - https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped Invidious - https://invidious.io https://invidious.io - https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/ https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/ Stackoverflow, also completely skinned down to just the content and nothing more: AnonymousOverflow - https://code.whatever.social https://code.whatever.social - https://github.com/httpjamesm/AnonymousOverflow https://github.com/httpjamesm/AnonymousOverflow For all of these I use LibRedirect to redirect the original pages to the open source/privacy friendly frontends: https://libredirect.github.io/ https://libredirect.github.io/
- joveian 3y ago
  Thanks! I just tried Invidious and like that it works even without javascript, although videos are limited to 720 resolution. Search works and you can even load some of the YouTube comments without javascript.
jackyard86 3y ago
My filter to make all elements square (I don't like today's trend of making everything rounded): ##:style(border-radius: 0px !important)
userbinator 3y ago
I've been using Proxomitron (a MITM proxy) to filter sites and have accumulated plenty of filters over the years, but unfortunately it doesn't seem there's an easy way to convert between the filtering systems; uBlock and similar in-browser extensions work on document structure (DOM), while Proxomitron is basically an application-specific-regex syntax search-and-replace.
HexDecOctBin 3y ago
This there any way to use this list in AdGuard? I tried adding it, but it showing up as having zero rules. (I am on iOS, so no uBlock Origin for me)

469 points by mig4ng 3y ago

pimlottc 3y ago

Needs blocks for Stack Exchange hot questions

hutzlibu 3y ago
Oh yes, they are annoyingly interesting, which is fine when I am browsing for fun, but usually I go to StackExchange for a very specific problem and then suddenly, uups, where am I?
mig4ng 3y ago
That's true, feel free to open PR, or I might eventually add them too.
db48x 3y ago
Here are the rules I’ve been using for Stack Exchange; you can see that I have been doing this for a while. Some of these may no longer even be necessary… ! 5/8/2018, 9:16:29 AM https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/13080/reloading-directory-local-variables emacs.stackexchange.com###overlay-header ! 3/31/2020 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com###divQuestionFollowFeaturePopover ! 2021-04-14 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com##.js-teams-promo ! 2021-08-14 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com###hot-network-questions ! emacs.stackexchange.com###sidebar ! 2021-10-01 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com##.js-create-team-cta ! 2022-09-18 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com##.s-sidebarwidget:not(.js-review-actions) emacs.stackexchange.com##.js-feed-link ! 2022-12-18 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com##.icon-winterbash ! 2023-07-28 https://emacs.stackexchange.com emacs.stackexchange.com##.js-announcement-banner
mhasbini 3y ago
There's https://github.com/httpjamesm/AnonymousOverflow https://github.com/httpjamesm/AnonymousOverflow. I made https://doublefault.mhasbini.com/ https://doublefault.mhasbini.com/ before I knew about it. On the plus side it keep default aesthetics.

perihelions 3y ago

A while back I worked out how to erase the pay-to-win monetization spoor from Reddit and Twitter, reddit.com##.awarding-icon reddit.com##.awardings-bar reddit.com##.give-gold-button twitter.com##:xpath(//div[contains(@style, "hex-hw-shapeclip-clipconfig")]):style(clip-path: circle(50%) !important)

mig4ng 3y ago
What does the last one do?
- perihelions 3y ago
  I don't know if they still do it, but at the time Twitter charged money to display user avatars in a larger size, and styled as a hexagon. I think they were NFT tie-ins or something? They were difficult to ignore, so I wrote a snippet to turn hexagons back into circles. [edit]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30012904 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30012904 ("Twitter Rolls Out NFT Profile Pictures")
  - mig4ng 3y ago
    Never seen it, if I do and it bothers me I will keep in mind and add this too. Thanks!
  - brezelgoring 3y ago
    I had an extension (that I found here) that transformed all NFT avatars into Jared from Subway. It really takes the edge off of whatever they say. Even the most serious arguments just turn into kids' spats with that picture, it made the site more pleasant to be in.
lapetitejort 3y ago
Reddit has ended awards (for now). The filter is still applicable for older posts though.

philip1209 3y ago

I use similar filters in my uBlock origin. I like this approach because it avoids installing more browser extensions, each of which risks security or privacy issues.

mig4ng 3y ago
Please share them to see if I can improve mine :)

shortrounddev2 3y ago

Would be cool to see some examples

mig4ng 3y ago
Like screenshots?
- ronjouch 3y ago
  Not OP, but here's a screenshot illustrating what I personally typically do on sites I use a lot: hide things, make things low opacity until hovered, add a dark mode if missing. https://imgur.com/a/tCFkVzK https://imgur.com/a/tCFkVzK EDIT should have installed uBlock on the left/default browser for a fair comparison. Oh well, you get the idea :)
db48x 3y ago
Before: <http://db48x.net/temp/Screenshot from 2023-09-20 09-14-36.png http://db48x.net/temp/Screenshot from 2023-09-20 09-14-36.pn...> After: <http://db48x.net/temp/Screenshot from 2023-09-20 09-14-26.png http://db48x.net/temp/Screenshot from 2023-09-20 09-14-26.pn...>

runjake 3y ago

If you use uBlock Origin, did you try to submit these filters to the uBlock Annoyances[1] or EasyList Annoyances lists before starting up this project? That would help far more people that starting up yet another Annoyances list. 1. https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets

notsylver 3y ago
These aren't just annoyances, they are core features of the sites.
- runjake 3y ago
  So? Any corporation would argue that about the annoyances on their properties.
  - reyqn 3y ago
    I thought people used those list because it cleaned up the websites without breaking them. This is largely breaking the websites, only letting through a very opinionated subset of functionalities. Even if it's nice for people who want just this, I don't think this has its place on the annoyances lists you mentioned.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - thrdbndndn 3y ago
    No they wouldn't? Annoyances are mainly for things like cookie popup or copy-protection etc. I doubt companies would argue these are their "core features".
  - ruined 3y ago
    the main timeline is a core feature of twitter for most people.
- pbhjpbhj 3y ago
  Might be scope for upstream projects to add a new group like "uBlock Focus" where blocks are to focus main content? Before IT took away all plugins (!) I used uBlock this way, hiding sidebars and leads that weren't conducive to work (eg interesting stuff).

squarefoot 3y ago

Interesting. I wonder how hard would be to create a filter to programmatically eliminate certain sellers from Ebay query results, say those known for selling counterfeit hardware, those with feedback ratings below a given threshold, etc.

crtasm 3y ago
Unfortunately the search results page doesn't appear to include the seller id or username for the items. However if you had a list of usernames to exclude eBay lets you do that in the advanced search.

verdverm 3y ago

I've been using uBlock to remove or revert the "improved designs" as much as possible. Really like the click to remove (and build a filter) to aid in this effort.

generalenvelope 3y ago

+1 for UnHook. Amazing how the experience of youtube changes when all you can see is a search bar and the current video

mig4ng 3y ago
I have been using it for years now, it is perfect. Main reason I will still keep it because it works. Removing an extension from my list would be great but it is amazing as is.

polyterative 3y ago

newsfeed eradicator extension is a more configurable way to achieve similar features

mig4ng 3y ago
I have used it in the past, it does not give me the same flexibility. It might have changed over the years. I have used it long ago. Thanks for sharing.

beltsazar 3y ago

I'm using uBlock similarly! I've accumulated hundreds of custom filters for the past eight years. My newest entries on uBlock's "My Filters" tab are for hiding spoilers on IMDb: ! 2023-09-05 Hide episode's description and image (+ watchlist for not breaking the layout) [new experimental IMDb layout] imdb.com##article.episode-item-wrapper .ipc-slate imdb.com##article.episode-item-wrapper .ipc-html-content imdb.com##article.episode-item-wrapper .ipc-watchlist-ribbon ! 2023-09-05 Hide top rated episode's description both on a TV page and an episode page imdb.com##[data-testid="episodes-top-rated-card"] ul + div

mig4ng 3y ago
Do you have the others open sourced? Mind sharing them?
RexM 3y ago
Might want to also hide the number of episodes an actor is in the show for. That’s bitten me a few times.

rschiavone 3y ago

There is also https://letsblock.it/filters https://letsblock.it/filters, a collaborative repository of uBlock content filters, to which I encourage you to contribute your own ones.

mig4ng 3y ago
I found that and I actually link it in the repository. I will investigate it later.

hedora 3y ago

This one gets rid of the Login With Google popups that have infested most corners of the internet: accounts.google.com/gsi/iframe It doesn't break the login with google button, so you can still login with your google account, if you must.

mig4ng 3y ago
Will try it and might add it too, I find those annoying. Thanks!
- input_sh 3y ago
  FYI you can turn those off in Google's account settings: https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/219332922/how-to-stop-obnoxious-google-sign-in-prompts?hl=en https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/219332922/how-to-... Which of course implies that you have to be logged into Google for it to work, doesn't apply to incognito windows, etc.
  - mig4ng 3y ago
    Just did this, thanks. But having it in ublock is good too :) I have added the rule to the repository

waxali9815 3y ago

I use something similar to this, the only differences are because my use case is privacy protection and avoiding algorithmic feeds. I use the Redirector extension for Firefox so that it redirects e.g. Youtube, Twitter, and StackOverflow links to the corresponding alternative frontends Piped, Nitter, and AnonymousOverflow. You can find maintained lists [1] [2] of such projects and their instances. Mostly they are FOSS and privacy-respecting, and they have distraction-free frontends because it's a helpful coincidence of being ethical software. [1] https://github.com/digitalblossom/alternative-frontends https://github.com/digitalblossom/alternative-frontends [2] https://farside.link https://farside.link

mig4ng 3y ago
This is amazing. I had similar ideas in my bucket list of creating distraction free alternatives and redirecting somehow. Happy to know someone had the same idea and there are versions of it online. Thanks for letting me know of this, I really appreciate it!

Andrew018 3y ago

[dead]

GuB-42 3y ago

You definitely should add news.ycombinator.com, all of it :)

mig4ng 3y ago
I do have it, just the homepage, /news, and /newest. Haven't added to the repository yet but will probably soon.
hollerith 3y ago
I block only the "firehose" pages so I can continue to run search-engine queries over HN (using hn.algolia.com): ||news.ycombinator.com/| ||news.ycombinator.com/news^$document ||news.ycombinator.com/newcomments^$document ||news.ycombinator.com/newest^$document ||news.ycombinator.com/classic^$document ||news.ycombinator.com/front^$document ||news.ycombinator.com/bestcomments^$document
pbhjpbhj 3y ago
Maybe you'd like noprocrast mode? Limits use time. It's in your user config, click your username.

db48x 3y ago

I do a lot of the same things to remove sidebars, navigation, suggestions, search, etc from various sites. There are a couple of web comics where I nuke everything but the image and the next/previous navigation links (Order of the Stick, Schlock Mercenary, etc).

mig4ng 3y ago
Feel free to share them in the repository via PR, issue, or here :) Thanks.

hedora 3y ago

Tangentially related: Has anyone tried the Orion Browser by Kagi for iOS? https://browser.kagi.com/ https://browser.kagi.com/ They claim to support Firefox and Chrome extensions (specifically, uBlock Origin). It's in beta. I'm surprised Apple hasn't blocked it yet, but I'd consider paying for a developer account just to install it on my phone (assuming it works).

djcannabiz 3y ago
Ive been using it on my laptop and phone. The phone version doesnt feel like it has enough polish yet. You can install it from the app store BTW, no need for a developer account. Ive been having problems with the app crashing, being unresponsive. However, the Mac version works 100% for me. I have ublock origin, bitwarden, bypass paywalls clean and sponsorblock installed. I havent noticed any issues and im very satisfied. I also really love the programable buttons feature, which let you define a button in the toolbar that runs some JS when you click on it (like a bookmarklet).
freediver 3y ago
uBlock Origin works on Orion for Mac (running forked WebKit), but does not work on Orion for iOS (because of Apple's limitations on iOS).
mig4ng 3y ago
Just tried it and it seems pretty cool. I hope they go open source as stated in the FAQ. Also would love to see a similar browser with vertical tabs for Linux/Windows.

ta367457377 3y ago

Between Firefox for Android and uBlock, i dub this guy a literal saint. Truly good stuff. Havent seen a yutube or otherwise ad in a while.

perihelions 3y ago

Tangentially: after you've blocked a very large number of ads and sidebars, one useful enhancement is to expand whatever text elements remain, to regain use of all that now-empty whitespace. Something like so: :xpath(//main/div):style(min-width: 80% !important) (I've been looking at going a step further for some sites, by annotating a "column-count:" [0] rule and making the screen look like a newspaper. (Narrow columns for readability—multiple columns for "scan-ability"). Unfortunately, there's a lot more fiddling and tuning to this than I expected: it doesn't automagically work in the way you'd hope. Modern website DOM layouts are basically Superfund sites). [0] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/column-count https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/column-coun... [late edit]: Here's a minimal example of "column-count:" injected by uBlock (on a website where it sort-of works)—this is what I'm trying to coerce other websites into looking like: https://i.ibb.co/k3bRwhP/example-1.webp https://i.ibb.co/k3bRwhP/example-1.webp theguardian.com###maincontent:style(margin-left: -28vw !important; min-width: 90vw !important; column-count: 4 !important) theguardian.com##div:style(border: none !important)

flir 3y ago
Are you at the point where you should be pouring this content into RSS, and styling it as columns in a reader? (I really like the column idea, and I'm working back towards RSS, with a bunch of smart filters, being my primary way of interacting with anything I visit regularly. I never should have given it up).
- ehPReth 3y ago
  The only reliable way I've found (so far) to shuttle Facebook Pages into something easily to consume (RSS) is unfortunately a paid service... even paid IFTT doesn't support a page posts -> fire webhook/email/etc sadly. Unfortunate, since some local government stuff or otherwise noteworthy stuff is... only available on Facebook. Sometimes it's available on 'X'/Twitter but often not as detailed, or it links to Facebook for more details.
  - flir 3y ago

citruscomputing 3y ago

Love this! I've been working on one for pull quotes: https://codeberg.org/oneirophage/filter-list-pull-quotes https://codeberg.org/oneirophage/filter-list-pull-quotes

AlwaysRock 3y ago

This is cool. I did something similar at one point. Unfortunately these websites change their basic layout so often that it felt like these fixes would work for 1 month max then I'd have to configure again. I ended up moving to news feed eradicator. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicator/fjcldmjmjhkklehbacihaiopjklihlgg https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat... I let myself use reddit for 5 minutes every morning. It auto blocks the feed when those 5 minutes are up. Every other site I just leave blocked.

ronjouch 3y ago
> "Unfortunately these websites change their basic layout so often that it felt like these fixes would work for 1 month max then I'd have to configure again." You're exaggerating. My userContent.css is 60kB, and although breakages do happen indeed, it's occasional and nowhere near "redo everything every month". What I will reckon is a pain, are machine-mangled CSS classes (e.g. by packers for React / other frameworks). They are kinda stable, until they're not, and at any rate, their inscrutability makes maintenance more difficult (because .user-profile-picture is human-transparent, while .cD5aZf is not :-/ ).
- aendruk 3y ago
  Judging by some of the other examples here I’m guessing this is a case of writing fragile rules that e.g. count n and m items into a tree and test unnecessarily for incidental classes. If all you do is accumulate the often senseless outputs of the element picker I’d expect the gains to be short-lived.
  - ronjouch 3y ago
    Indeed, 100%. I learned to never do such things, and would rather not have a rule than have a brittle one. This explains that my experience differs from OP's.
    - db48x 3y ago
      There are better ways to do it. For example, you can match elements containing specific text, such as the text that introduced the annoyance. On NewEgg you might match the text “Download our app” and use it to remove that whole box.

meerita 3y ago

I would suggest the author to explain, briefly, how to use the filters in uOrigins in the README.

mig4ng 3y ago
Thanks for the suggestion, added it :)

dcminter 3y ago

Mostly I'm using one of the default uBlock origin ones, but custom rules that have made (desktop) Facebook much pleasanter for me: www.facebook.com##div:nth-of-type(8):has-text(Suggested for you) www.facebook.com##div:nth-of-type(8):has-text(Reels and short videos)

mig4ng 3y ago
I don't really use facebook these days, but thanks for sharing. I might add them if I ever step into a facebook post that I want to see and they annoy me :)

ronjouch 3y ago

Thanks! I do this all the time too :) . Makes for a more pleasant / less cluttered experience on sites I use a lot. I'll add that another thing that is pretty easy to do is to add a Dark Mode to websites that don't have one. All you need is a userContent.css/uBlock rule like @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) { body { background-color: #111 !important; color: #eee !important; } /* etc, more stuff here depending on site */ } , and ta-da! Dark mode respecting your OS dark/light setting based on pref or time of day :)

notpushkin 3y ago
Dark Reader extension does basically this (I think they either change colors or add the invert filter depending on what looks better?), but also has builtin CSS override rules for many sites. Love it.
- ronjouch 3y ago
  Sure. I prefer to minimize depending on more extensions (for futureproof-ness, performance, security). These days, { uBlock Origin, Vimium } is all I need :)
  - notpushkin 3y ago
    That's a nice approach! I try to maintain a practical balance here, my extension list is basically: GreaseMonkey, Stylus, uBlock Origin, Consent-o-Matic, Dark Reader and maybe a couple more. In theory, one can use uBlock0 for everything (with CSS and I think also JS injection), but userstyles and userscripts are way easier to use sometimes. And you can reimplement Dark Reader with userstyles, but you'll have to keep track of various site-specific tweaks to make it look good. (Should be possible though! Might be a cool idea for a pet project.) But I understand the concerns with having too many extensions from too many different authors, yeah.
mig4ng 3y ago
Thanks for sharing. I don't use Dark mode but someone might be interested in this!

fifteen1506 3y ago

Please someone do shareable Twitter users ABP-based user KILL LIST, like in Usenet had!

mig4ng 3y ago
Could you elaborate?
- 8organicbits 3y ago
  See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_file https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_file
  - mig4ng 3y ago
    Doesn't block do this already?
    - fifteen1506 3y ago
      Not shareable. Common block lists would be awesome!

mnorris 3y ago

Thanks for sharing! I've been doing this for the last year with YouTube. YouTube is just a search bar now which prevents mindless browsing and distractions. If I find myself using a site mindlessly I add it to my /etc/hosts file to block them.

cantSpellSober 3y ago

I've written so many of these. Any reason you chose uBlock over something like userstyles? I'd like to open source/release my styles but I'm not sure which is the best choice. uBlock is great for blocking things from loading (like images) but for visual updates I prefer CSS.

bloopernova 3y ago
Not OP, but I use ublock origin for a small number of visual tweaks. I use ublock origin because I don't want to use an extra extension.
mig4ng 3y ago
I am just using it to remove elements, not visual tweaks, at least for now. Also, I try not to have many configurations/extensions extra that I have to install in a new machine. As I did not find a good way to manage these configs as code.

bloopernova 3y ago

Here's my filters in ublock origin for Hacker News: news.ycombinator.com##.comment:style(max-width: 70ch !important; overflow: hidden !important;) news.ycombinator.com##.c00:style(color: #3f3f3f !important;) news.ycombinator.com##.comhead:style(background: #e6e6df; font-weight: italic; color: #686868 !important;) news.ycombinator.com##.hnuser:style(background: #e6e6df; font-style: italic; color: #575757 !important;) news.ycombinator.com##html:style(filter:invert(100%) hue-rotate(180deg); background: white) Restricts width of comments so that they're about 10 or so words wide, for optimal reading. Also changes some of the colours. Experiment with the above, and if you have any improvements please let me know!

thrdbndndn 3y ago
I don't know you can add styles with uBlock filters. I probably still prefer to just use Stylus for better readability/debuggability, but it's good to know. Edit: BTW I think `font-weight: italic;` is a typo.
- bloopernova 3y ago
  whoops! Thank you for spotting that. :)

i13e 3y ago

You should submit these rules to https://letsblock.it https://letsblock.it ! AFAIK their distractions rules really only cover YouTube

mig4ng 3y ago
I have checked them, I have to try them. Also I referenced them in the repository. Thanks :)

noname120 3y ago

Arc has native support for cosmetic improvements. Those are called Boosts and you can interactively create your owns in just a few clicks, and also add custom CSS/JS if needed. I use this extensively to declutter/dedistract most websites I visit: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Medium, Gmail, YouTube, and so on. It's a real life-changer! See the Boosts shared by other users here: https://arc.net/boosts https://arc.net/boosts

imbnwa 3y ago
Arc is the best browser UI thus far. Everything else is still stuck in the late 2000s essentially
- badsectoracula 3y ago
  Some would claim that is a feature. Though personally i'm trying hard(ish) to make Firefox' UI closer to early 2000s :-P (thanks to userChrome.css).
- tiltowait 3y ago
  Arc's pretty great, but I wish it had nested vertical tabs a la Orion.
  - imbnwa 3y ago
    That feature wasn't big to my browsing style, Arc's way of nesting browser views suits me more, but Orion's Saved Window feature seemed clumsy to me and I'd filed my issue on Orion Tracker.
  - mig4ng 3y ago
    I didn't know Orion existed. Just tried and it is exactly what I want. Excited to see where it goes. Hope Arc and Orion eventually decide to go open source.
    - latexr 3y ago
      > Hope Arc and Orion eventually decide to go open source. From Orion’s FAQ: > Is Orion open-source? > We’re working on it! We’ve begun with some of our components and intend to open more in the future. > Forking WebKit, porting hundreds of APIs and writing a browser app from scratch has been challenging for our small team. Properly maintaining an open-source project takes time and resources we’re short on at the moment, so if you want to contribute at this time, please consider becoming active on orionfeedback.org. https://browser.kagi.com/faq.html#oss https://browser.kagi.com/faq.html#oss

aendruk 3y ago

Personally I have to hide Stack Exchange’s trending questions on my work machine. Those things are catnip to me. askubuntu.com###hot-network-questions serverfault.com###hot-network-questions stackexchange.com###hot-network-questions stackoverflow.com###hot-network-questions superuser.com###hot-network-questions Also many sites disregard prefers-reduced-motion, so I’m often hiding visual distractions like endless carousels and cute decorative animations.

dylan604 3y ago
for the longest time, i never paid attention to that column, as my brain has pretty much been trained that anything in that column is useless fluff. until one day when i actually read some of those questions and was surprised by the questions being asked. i totally get the catnip. luckily, i have an off switch and can avoid becoming addicted.
mxmlnkn 3y ago
Same here! Although my rules look a bit different because I simply use the element picker: stackoverflow.com##.c-pointer.js-quack-btn stackoverflow.com##.js-step01.js-step.step.ws-nowrap stackoverflow.com##.js-step02.js-step.step.has-width.ta-center stackoverflow.com##.quack-popover--arrow stackoverflow.com###overlay-header stackoverflow.com###feed-link stackoverflow.com##.mb16.s-anchors__default.s-anchors.s-sidebarwidget__yellow.s-sidebarwidget stackoverflow.com##.grid--cell.js-reactions stackoverflow.com##.mb16.s-anchors__grayscale.s-anchors.s-sidebarwidget__yellow.s-sidebarwidget Unfortunately, I also didn't comment what these are all for. But I think one of them is the banner, which might contain calls for voting and such. Another is the "Featured on Meta" box and the sidebar on the left which I never use. And the most recent thing, which isn't included above is the obnoxious popup for the "New Search AI Experience". And this does not even include the goddamn cookie banners, for which ublock has a separate rule set fortunately. Unfortunately, it's the rule set that leads to the most problems because some sites don't work correctly or don't load at all when the cookie banner has not been interacted with. I hate the modern internet without ublock.
- mig4ng 3y ago

BitwiseFool 3y ago

Personally, I can't stand how distracting YouTube thumbnails are. I found this list to block them from the sidebar when watching videos. ! Hide all of the recommended videos on the right side of the page, except for the first up-next video. ! If you have a tall monitor you may need to add more entries, this blocks the initial list on most resolutions. www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(2) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(3) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(4) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(5) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(6) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(7) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(8) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(9) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(10) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(11) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(12) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(13) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(14) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(15) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(16) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(17) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(18) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(19) www.youtube.com###items > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(20) ! Prevents the list of recommendations from expanding when scrolling down. www.youtube.com##ytd-continuation-item-renderer.ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope www.youtube.com###continuations > .ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope www.youtube.com##.use-ellipsis.ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope www.youtube.com##ytd-compact-playlist-renderer.ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope Also, if you hate Shorts as much as I do, use this to hide them from appearing in search results. youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer:has(#rich-shelf-header:has-text(Shorts)) youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer:has(.ytd-reel-shelf-renderer:has-text(Shorts))

zf00002 3y ago

If someone has some filter strings to help clean up Etsy search results, that would be appreciated.

lencastre 3y ago

Lucy?

mig4ng 3y ago
Ahah, yes I like Disenchantment a lot. Haven't watched the latest season though.

scopeh 3y ago

I've been looking for something like this solution for a while. Never thought of using ublock filters. Cheers

gzer0 3y ago

If you go to Options > Filter Lists > Annoyances and check mark the following items: "AdGuard – Annoyances" "EasyList – Annoyances" "uBlock filters – Annoyances" You will get rid of 99.9% of website annoyances without affecting any main functionality of websites. I've been doing this on every fresh install of Chrome for years. Works wonders.

robbyking 3y ago
There really are two different version of the internet, and which one you use depends on how how well your ad blockers are configured. I was using my mom's laptop over the holidays, and it took me a minute to realize why every site I visited looked so _different_. What I quickly realised is almost every site I visited was wallpapered in ads: banners between every paragraph, sidebars full of ads, and background images selling things. A lot of sites were unrecognizable from what I was used to.
- lopis 3y ago
  The ads covering the whole background of some websites websites are the most outrageous thing I had the pleasure to discover recently after so much time of ad blocking. They are absolutely aggressive to your very soul.
  - matheusmoreira 3y ago
    These people would put ads inside your eyelids if they could. Inside your dreams while you sleep. They have exactly zero limits.
    - danielheath 3y ago
      I've long planned a cyberpunk setting where you can sneak past low-level corporate guards by plastering your clothes in ads for competing companies, because their neural interfaces are configured to only let them see their employers adverts. Every year that plan feels less and less like silly hyperbole.

kup0 3y ago

Using rules to completely block shorts from appearing in any YT feeds (and rules to fix the feeds so they don't look broken afterwards) has been great. YT breaks it from time to time with a UI update, but it's something I'll always use. I hate YT Shorts

mig4ng 3y ago
Share yours on the repo via issue/PR or share them here. Thanks!
- kup0 3y ago
  I didn't create them myself, to be clear, I originally got them from here and have adjusted over time (some comments on this thread / other similar threads discuss the changes necessary due to breakage): https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/143mdqv/code_to_block_youtube_shorts_june_2023/ https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/143mdqv/code_... I'll come back later when at home and post the rules I currently use as I've had to manually block other things (new carousels showing up in recommended, etc)

lancesells 3y ago

I use StopTheMadness on Safari and have a lot of similar custom things. For Linkedin I use to get rid of the feed: .scaffold-finite-scroll__content { display: none }

mig4ng 3y ago
I have that one in uBlock origin.

wolpoli 3y ago

I tend to associate the tweaks on the site with Tampermonkey and not uBlock Origin.

captn3m0 3y ago

I have a habit of creating filters to hide away footers in all sites I browse regularly. Modern SEO practices have made footers entirely useless, so I just zap them away for a lighter look.

_joel 3y ago

There's an irony of me getting distracted from what I should be doing by looking at ditraction filters...

db48x 3y ago
Just think how undistracted you’ll be after you spend a few hours tweaking your filters!

type0 3y ago

One of the most useful is removing home page clutter on youtube: youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype*='home'] m.youtube.com##ytm-browse > ytm-single-column-browse-results-renderer > div > div[tab-identifier*="FEwhat_to_watch"]

dredmorbius 3y ago

NB: Before/after screenshots are highly useful when pitching or demonstrating something such as this.

SushiHippie 3y ago

For read only I really like these privacy friendly alternatives: Twitter, completely skinned down to just the content and no login nags: Nitter - https://nitter.net https://nitter.net - https://github.com/zedeus/nitter https://github.com/zedeus/nitter Youtube, also very skinned down and you can also collapse recommendations by default etc.: Piped - https://piped.video https://piped.video - https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped Invidious - https://invidious.io https://invidious.io - https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/ https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/ Stackoverflow, also completely skinned down to just the content and nothing more: AnonymousOverflow - https://code.whatever.social https://code.whatever.social - https://github.com/httpjamesm/AnonymousOverflow https://github.com/httpjamesm/AnonymousOverflow For all of these I use LibRedirect to redirect the original pages to the open source/privacy friendly frontends: https://libredirect.github.io/ https://libredirect.github.io/

joveian 3y ago
Thanks! I just tried Invidious and like that it works even without javascript, although videos are limited to 720 resolution. Search works and you can even load some of the YouTube comments without javascript.

jackyard86 3y ago

My filter to make all elements square (I don't like today's trend of making everything rounded): ##:style(border-radius: 0px !important)

userbinator 3y ago

I've been using Proxomitron (a MITM proxy) to filter sites and have accumulated plenty of filters over the years, but unfortunately it doesn't seem there's an easy way to convert between the filtering systems; uBlock and similar in-browser extensions work on document structure (DOM), while Proxomitron is basically an application-specific-regex syntax search-and-replace.

HexDecOctBin 3y ago

This there any way to use this list in AdGuard? I tried adding it, but it showing up as having zero rules. (I am on iOS, so no uBlock Origin for me)