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 ๐Ÿš€ . 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 ๐Ÿ™„).

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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[โ€“] Talaraine@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[โ€“] Grant_M@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

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

[โ€“] Helldiver_M@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

I like the idea behind this extension and would love to use it. However, I would really appreciate the ability to tweak the blocklist. Not that I enjoy seeing or hearing about Trump everyday, but I do want to stay in the loop with the ongoing court cases he's getting rammed with. If I never hear or see Elon, Zuck, etc. again then I'd be happy.

[โ€“] Tibert@compuverse.uk 2 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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[โ€“] A2PKXG@feddit.de 2 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)

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

[โ€“] yoz@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Sad that Google is implementing Manifest V3.

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[โ€“] itsdavetho@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

your list of aliases could be turned into regexp's couldn't they ? To shorten/simplify and then be turned into a config

[โ€“] Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 1 points 11 months ago

Can I get one that applies to millionaire celebrities?

[โ€“] Zatso@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

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.

[โ€“] albert@lemmy.sysctl.io 1 points 1 year ago

This is fantastic. I have but one request: Allow us to block any word / string we want :)

[โ€“] db2@lemmy.one -1 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Is there a Chrom[e/ium] version by chance?

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