this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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About 8 months ago I got pretty tired of seeing billionaire spam online. I could not bear to read about yet another rich guy who launched themselves (or their $200,000 car) into outer space πŸš€ . I did not care about their expert opinion on the latest meme coin back then. I do not care about their expert opinion on the dangers of AI today.

So... I developed a tiny, free, and open source Firefox browser add-on called "Block the Rich". It is completely local and private. No data is tracked. No data is phoned home.

The concept is pretty simple: whenever I load a web page, the extension quickly analyzes the content and intelligently blurs out any references to the Forbes Top 10 Billionaires. Some former and wannabe billionaires are blurred out of courtesy as well (I'm looking at you Trump and Kanye πŸ™„).

This project is a very early prototype that I built in the span of a few days. I have so many awesome ideas for enhancements but the truth is that the wind got completely knocked out of my sails when I put myself out there on Reddit many moons ago. There was absolutely zero public interest. To this day my wife and I are the only ones using the original prototype.

People of Lemmy, do you think there is a place on the internet for such a project, or is it time that I let it go?

Edit: I am blown away by the support from you all. Thank you! I am so excited to start polishing this baby up!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's in a bit of a strange position.

It blurs the Images, but doesn't block the article or text?

Maybe for some people it can mean something, tho for me it's a bit of a not interesting feature. Like what is the purpose of bluring the image if I still get spammed with the article?

And this may be the real issue where you didn't get traction. The feature pretty useless for the majority of people.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

i like this idea because when i go to read the news i do not care about what rich people are doing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I can understand where you're coming from in terms of PR circle-jerking, which I am beyond over, but it keeps getting pushed at me for some reason by content ~~aggravators~~ aggregators. But sometimes we need to know when the ultra-privileged are actively undermining things the rest of us depend on, or might depend on if they were ever allowed to exist. Those issues need as many eyeballs as possible. So how would you separate the one from the other?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

My solution is to block them from my consciousness by default. Then when I feel like catching up I'll temporarily disable the plugin (I just added this feature). This way I can have the best of both worlds!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

You brilliant, brilliant person.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yes, dammit. In fact this is the final nudge I needed to reinstall Firefox after many years. Yours will be one of the first plugins in the install queue. Thank you, good sir.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

If you could find a way to funnel the blocked content’s address to pi-hole it would just never load which is better imo

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Lots of people say that we shouldn't be ignoring troublesome topics. I disagree.

Exposure and anger won't fix anything. It'll only degrade our quality of Life. It's just like reading about plane crashes won't get us anywhere ( unless it's part of your job)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Lolz, it is crazy what one needs to do to prevail sanity these days

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I love this! I also wouldn't mind to never hear from many of these buttholes again. Though I don't mind hearing from Gates, so maybe would be nice to choose which ones.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I need the opposite haha... Gimme content for @eattherich

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Love it. Keep going.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I love the concept!

For me, the button of the extension doesn't work to toggle it on or off, so I can't find a way to view the blurred text without disabling the extension completely. So that would be a bit frustrating - sometimes I might want to read it, as in this post. If it's upgraded with an easy on/off toggle I'll probably start using it. :)

Blurred text also makes me somewhat curious by nature - a feature request would be to keep blurring images, but instead of blurring the text just changing the name of the person into "some asshole" or something like that. So that you get the substance of the headline without having to deal with the people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Very cool add on. I don’t really browse on a standard browser usually, but this is something I would add to my browser if I did. I feel the same as you, tired of billionaires thinking their hoarded wealth makes their opinions more valid or worth hearing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I think you should be able to block people and companies. I’m tired of hearing about Tesla, people hyping Tesla, people doubting Tesla, bragging, complaining, questioning. I’m just done hearing about it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

This is AMAZING! Thank you. Running it now :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Instant type addons.mozilla.org into searchbar

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Sad that Google is implementing Manifest V3.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This is a great idea, I love it. Keep going!

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