this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/1891205

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?

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[–] AMuscelid@lemm.ee 68 points 1 year ago

The concept is hilarious and really presses the spite dopamine button in my brain.

[–] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 56 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn, did you read what I wrote about 2 month ago?

https://jeena.net/notes/1352
I wish there was a browser plugin which would remove anything about Elon Musk from any website I'm visiting. Somehow his remarks are getting more and more stupid.

It seems I asked the univerlse for something and it delivered! Thank you so much!

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago
[–] CatBusBand@beehaw.org 34 points 1 year ago

Don't let the flame die, OP!! This is a really good idea for an add-on. I like what the other commenters said to add custom blocking and a per site restriction.

[–] kalahlora@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 year ago

I really like it but if I could make one small suggestion, a small x in the corner to un-blur, sometimes I want to enjoy the dunking they are getting

[–] M_Djallo@feddit.it 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I want this but for reality. And instead of blurring them, it burns them. Also, it goes way beyond the Forbes top 10, to every piece of shit with a useless giant SUV. Is it possible?

[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes it called revolution. But it's takes a lot of organising.

[–] fearout@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think that expanding it to allow for custom blocking patterns will make it more appealing in general. Like being able to add your rich_person_of_choice to the list or the ability to block a company (Meta anyone?) might both be useful features.

Not sure if it fits your plans though or how hard it’s going to be to implement.

[–] aio2@beehaw.org 16 points 1 year ago

It's beautiful

[–] snowe@programming.dev 16 points 1 year ago

I’m definitely going to use this. I do not understand how people care about famous people at all. Can you extend the extension to apply to literally anything like it. I don’t care about celebrities, their babies, what they ate for lunch, etc.

[–] finthechat@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago

Fantastic idea. Does it allow the user to add their own filters?

I'd really like to make my internet free of Mr Beast, that guy is so frickin annoying.

[–] loops@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago

Thanks lol. I was getting tired of seeing Exceptionally Musky's toupee.

[–] snowbell@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] sexy_peach@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Good news, it's a real add-on!

[–] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes. Excellent!

There used to be an extension that replaced trump images with cats. Can we also replace pictures of the rich (and famous) with images of baby animals? I don't need to keep seeing their dumb faces everywhere.

[–] Mechaguana@programming.dev 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's interesting, to say the least, but I feel like it's missing a feature, or the concept is niche...

What kind of user do you expect would download this? I am going to try it tomorrow to see if it changes anything

I've used it and it works well. I did file an issue with the author to suggest allowing a per-site restriction option because some sites, one may want to see such material. That much aside, it is a good plugin. I like it very much.

[–] djquadratic@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

this got me to laugh out loud when I opened Elonged Muskrat's wikpedia page and found it completely blurred out. Thank you!!!

[–] kelvinjps@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

you should replace the billionaire for something funny

[–] 0x520@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 year ago

I love this idea. Will definitely look into installing on my desktop. I'm working on a searxng instance that filters out all the toxic sources that think they own the internet also. Its also very much a work in progress, but yeah, these putzes get too much attention on the internet and anything we can do for our own peace of mind to delete them from pur lives is absolutely worth doing. I put a lot of filters on mastodon to the same end and it has made my social media experience so much more enjoyable.

[–] Buritominer2@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Great extension! Now I don't have to hear about January 6 hearings every damn day.

[–] NaoPb@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago
[–] sin_free_for_00_days@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I like this! Thanks for posting. I don't know anything about compiling an add-on, but it looks like it would be super easy to update the list (add twitter or reddit as things to block any mention of). So I guess my question is, how easy is it to just edit https://github.com/aCosmicWave/blocktherich/blob/main/blocktherich.js to update the add-on?

[–] CaptainAniki@lemmy.flight-crew.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looking at the code, you should just need to add to the constant object at the top of the blocktherich.js file.

Yeah, that's what I said. I just don't know how hard it is to recompile or whatever and use it. I guess that's a learning path I'll have to go down. Probably not hard, I know basic programming.

fork it and make your own plugin package.

[–] Drusas@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I appreciate the idea, but ignoring problems doesn't make them go away.

[–] Lionir@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I appreciate the idea of making billionaires go away and fortunately, not seeing news about doesn't prevent me from working towards their downfall!

[–] Drusas@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It does because you can't keep up with all of the crimes they are committing.

[–] Lionir@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know if I need to hear more about all the lawsuits Elon is getting for breaking many work laws to know that he'll keep doing it without me looking at it.

[–] Drusas@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

It's not aimed at you, then. It's aimed at the people who aren't glued to the news like we are.

[–] anlumo@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

It should also block out all of the Us congress then, since those are also fairly rich people.

[–] BlackJerseyGiant@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago
[–] lentilhoarder@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

This is awesome 😄

[–] tux0r@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

You do know that Mozilla is basically part of "the rich"?

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