"Block The Rich" is like an ad-blocker, but for obscenely wealthy people with overinflated egos.

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 🚀 . 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 🙄).

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!

Stach,

Instant type addons.mozilla.org into searchbar

Blastoid5000,

Holy shit, I was here when this post had like 4 comments. Congrats on the traction!

Edit: I now realize this is not the same post. Congrats regardless.

aCosmicWave,

Thank you 😊

GuyDudeman,

I haven’t gone through all the comments yet, and I’m sure someone has already asked, but - Any hope of getting this as a chrome extension so I can use it in Brave?

klyde,
@klyde@lemmy.world avatar

Really too bad that old extension died that let you use Firefox extensions on Chromium browsers. That thing was awesome. But yes a Chromium version would be great. This + Brave would be an amazing duo.

A2PKXG,
@A2PKXG@feddit.de avatar

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)

ChiselerNeil,
@ChiselerNeil@lemmy.world avatar

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?

FringeTheory999,

Well, while I acknowledge that it’s important to know what the rich are doing to undermine society, I like that the app would give me control over what I’m seeing, and when I see it. I think if it gives the option to unhide stuff so that I can digest it when I am best able to, than it is a good thing. Like a NSFW filter. It could just have a “show billionaire related content” button on it. Besides, if their mucking about is impacting something that’s important to you, it’ll probably be referenced in content you’re actively seeking.

aCosmicWave,

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!

HRDS_654,

But what if I want to make fun of their L takes.

pexavc,

If this could be changed to add a UI element to identify self-proclaimed pundits I feel it would be better. I think just blocking people is not fair. But, being more aware of whom may help improve critical thinking.

Zatso,
@Zatso@lemmy.world avatar

I think it is a great idea. If this was an optional implementation to an adblock extension, I would totally use it. Just like I used to block nsfw content in my last phone with a custom ROM.

Someonelol,

Please don’t do this! Rich people love living in obscurity, it keeps attention and anger from their stupid decisions away from them and on to some scapegoat. This is like the opposite of the Streisand Effect and will only serve their interests. I know it’s annoying to keep seeing the same billionaires in the headlines but the alternative is to be passive about their awful projects and the harm they’re doing to the world. You’ll only be doing them a favor with this addon.

marmo7ade,

The issue is context and nuance. You can’t set binary rules around what content you want to see, unless you do want to be willfully ignorant of the world around you. Which is what it seems OP wants to do.

Do I want to know when Elon Musk names his 23rd child a random string of characters? No.

Do I want to know when Elon Musk buys a company and runs it into the ground? Yes.

klyde,
@klyde@lemmy.world avatar

So disable it when you want to. Y’all are making this way too complicated for no reason.

klyde,
@klyde@lemmy.world avatar

Nah that’s alright. It’s not like we can do anything about them anyway. I’m just going to ignore them.

Hazdaz,

KNOW THY ENEMY

I think this project is a terrible idea (no offense OP, since I can see this comes from a level of frustration). Simply burying your head in the sand does not make these people go away. It doesn’t stop their abuses of power. It doesn’t make them any less of a bunch of douchebags. We the public need to know what they do.

fing3r,

I can see a (theoretically) positive outcome in media realizing that these articles don’t get the clicks they used to (if, i dunno, 30% of users use this extension).

KonQuesting,
@KonQuesting@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

“The clicks” don’t matter when these individuals own the media outlets and the social media platforms.

Hazdaz,

Finding this information is tough, but I searched to see what the most popular extension installed in Chrome is. One of the top extensions is Google Calendar. Even with it’s popularity, it only holds a 20% stake in calendar apps, and even then that doesn’t tell you how many people have actually installed the extension for Chrome. Basically what I am getting to is that the number of people who install extensions is really small. Like way, way smaller than us tech-savvy people might imagine, so OP’s extension isn’t going to affect click-throughs in the slightest bit - it would be a rounding error for some of these sites.

jtk,
@jtk@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

If you already know you’re not going to/can’t directly do anything about what they do anyway, every shred of attention they grab from you is a win for them and a loss for you. That’s personal, and anything that can be done about it, should be done. You’re going to hear enough about them to know to avoid their products and vote against them anyway.

beeng,

You know market share, marketing tactics use “mind share”, this would work great against that.

Zetaphor,

Having to constantly see what dumb bullshit Elon is saying or doing isn’t going to change anything in this world except the quality of my mental health. Some of us are just tired

Hazdaz,

They are counting on you to be tired. That’s on purpose.

Zetaphor, (edited )

I’m old enough to know that the only way things are going to change is when we start shedding blood. That’s just the reality of how fundamental societal changes happen. Things are either going to get better or worse, it’s just a matter of whose blood is running, theirs or ours. The fact is I’m old and tired and have lost my will to fight.

No amount of getting angry on the internet is going to change capitalism. No amount of voting is going to change capitalism. Changing the system while participating in the system is a fools errand and exactly what they want you to spend your time doing so you become old and tired like me. If you want to get rid of the rich and the hellscape they’ve created, you eat them. Asking me to get angry and not enjoy what little life I have left in me isn’t going to make a damn bit of difference.

“Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.” ― George Carlin

psud,

Call to arms

…

Excuses as to why I myself am not taking up arms

Zetaphor,

It was not a call to arms, it was an explanation of why I think the demand to get riled up on an internet forum is futile 🤷‍♂️

psud,

I feel my comment was on your first paragraph, about talk getting is nowhere and how blood must be spilled

aCosmicWave, (edited )

I actually agree with you in theory! But in practice, the super rich seem to crave so much of our attention. We are all being inundated with their daily stream of consciousness and that’s what I’d love to help put a stop to.

For example, I truly believe that a certain manchild destroyed nearly 2 decades of brand recognition (twitter) just so he could take over the headlines yet again. I do not use his platform anymore, nor do I really care what he chooses to call it tomorrow.

People like that are not worth our brain cycles.

storm,

The headlines you so often see are driven by money and profits. When you see a headline you have no interest in, keep scrolling. It isn’t much different than lemmy. Poor, repetitive content will eventually sink to the bottom.

klyde,
@klyde@lemmy.world avatar

Know they enemy for what? So we can continue doing nothing about it? This thread is full of lames.

chk232,

Do celebrities please. I don’t want to see a post about how stupid the Kardashians are every 5 mins.

bandario,
@bandario@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

It’s pretty easy to block the sources of such news. I certainly don’t see any of it. I operate on the assumption that the kardashians all died from full blown AIDS. I might not be right today or tomorrow, but soon.

jtk,
@jtk@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I made a plugin extremely similar to this about 7 years ago, it scans both text and links, Kardashian was the first text filter I applied :) It sometimes got overly aggressive and would blank out entire pages, so I don’t use that feature much anymore. I don’t hear much about them anymore anyway. However the link stuff works great. I don’t see links to twitter, facebook, instagram, etc on any page any more. If anyone is interested:

Source

Add-on

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I like the idea in principle, but I think it’s important to know what the most powerful people on the planet are doing for our own sakes. Admittedly, a lot of it is marketing bullshit, but it’s kind of important to see that so you can see through it and find the true motivations as well. Like their “effective altruism” bullshit.

Atemu,
@Atemu@lemmy.ml avatar

what the most powerful people on the planet are doing for our own sakes

Ahahahahah hahhahahahaha hahah haha hah hahh…

Good one!

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.ml avatar

No, I mean that for our own sakes, we need to know what the most powerful people on the planet are doing.

They’re not doing anything for us.

z500,
@z500@startrek.website avatar

Can we please not bring this type of reply over from Reddit?

modus,

This

vacuumflower,

I’m actually ancap and all that, participating in barking contests over economics against those illiterate in it, sometimes, but:

It does have the use you describe, like watching\reading\listening to propaganda to “read between the lines”.

Only the fact is that this is expected, and such news are like a DDOS attack, you won’t preserve your sanity to make any use of them.

The idea is good, and also maybe not using mainstream social media too.

aCosmicWave,

I couldn’t agree more. Describing the billionaire stream of consciousness that we’re being inundated with as “a DDOS attack” is brilliant. That is exactly how I see it.

I want to take back some control over when I choose to read about these people.

metrolw,

Would be nice to use AI and determine whether the article youre blocking is positive about them or negative and only show the negative ones.

deafboy,
@deafboy@lemmy.world avatar

It’s incredible. They claim freedom is what they want, but they crave “the algorithm”…

aidan,

Intentional echo chamber moment

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.ml avatar

Or we could not let robots decide what is good or bad.

Scew,
@Scew@lemmy.world avatar

It’s not robots though, it’s math. Which, from having gone to public school… generally translates to “magic” <insert hand waving> to most people.

gila,
@gila@lemmy.world avatar

I get it, so I installed the extension and browsed with it today. My feedback is that I feel like blocking individual words like Elon or Bezos would be required to make this meaningful at all. I still saw a bunch of stuff about them that the filter didn’t catch because they are so ubiquitous that you don’t need to say their full name to communicate who you’re talking about.

At the same time, while I almost always don’t care and don’t want to hear about a piece of Elon news, it doesn’t mean I’m not interested in Twitter developments, but I think the filter will block most if not all links/info about Twitter since it’s intrinsically linked to Elon’s persona.

At the end of the day I think it’s a cool idea, but I don’t think you can effectively block these guys via this method without blocking any mention of any platform they’re associated with, which isn’t really what I want.

loudWaterEnjoyer,
@loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Doesnt work

aCosmicWave,

Thank you so much for trying it out! This truly is a very early prototype I quickly threw together. Given how much interest Lemmy has for the extension I will keep actively developing it. Maybe someday I can reach a state where the extension will be actually useful to you.

DharmaCurious,

I absolutely love this! God, I need it. There are several websites I have to use for school that have bullshit articles on the side bar that I would love to block these assholes from. And for the people talking about blocking them being ignoring the problem, you don’t have to keep it turned on all the time. Sometimes it would be nice to be able to scroll through something without having to know what the fuck warren buffet thinks, or how the emerald heir is going to cure cancer with the power of a truck that looks like a PS1 asset.

OP, I love this. Please tell me there’s a way to do to this from Android?

poweruser,

Firefox beta on Android can use extensions that are designed for desktop. Some only work in desktop mode but so far all the ones I’ve tried work. The setup is a little complex if the author hasn’t marked it as compatible with mobile, but it is possible

DharmaCurious,

You wouldn’t be able to link me to a tutorial to do that, would you? I’m not trying most technologically inclined, tbh.

2014MU69, (edited )

Not the person you’re replying to but here’s the tutorial

Btw the setup while completely doable is pretty convoluted. It’s clear that Mozilla really doesn’t want us to do it.

This option only exists to shut up a few loud nerds.

Edit: I actually tried to follow the tutorial and a few issues showed up.

  1. If you’re adding addons to your collection for first time it only shows mobile addons in the search results. To see desktop addons you need to open the page in desktop mode and tell it to show desktop addons.
  2. Mozilla’s addon search results are really bad. Searching “block the rich” only gives you bad results. “Block rich” or “the rich” aren’t any better. Only search term that worked was “rich” and even then the addon was pretty far down in the search results.
poweruser,

Thank you. That is the same tutorial I used.

I too encountered those same stumbling blocks.

I found it was easiest to browse add-ons on my PC and save them to the list there, then subscribe to the list on mobile

2014MU69, (edited )

Wow. Looks like that website is only usable in desktop mode. Thanks, that makes it a bit simpler.

Edit: Wait WTF I can absolutely just browse the website in mobile mode and add addons to my collection. The tutorial was pretty misleading. Searching for addons in my collection is worst way to get new addons.

DharmaCurious,

Thank you! I’ll try and make this my project this weekend. Haha.

DaveNa,

But then you won’t know how they are not paying taxes, or getting money from the government.

MercuryUprising,

Yeah, the anger is the fuel you need to take these fuckers down.

nintendiator,

Isn’t the answer, like, “always”, anyway?

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • [email protected]
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • Socialism
  • KbinCafe
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • oklahoma
  • feritale
  • SuperSentai
  • KamenRider
  • All magazines
    •