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?
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.
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
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.
Thanks lol. I was getting tired of seeing Exceptionally Musky’s toupee.
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.
It’s beautiful
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.
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.
I need this to be a thing
Good news, it’s a real add-on!
you should replace the billionaire for something funny
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
this got me to laugh out loud when I opened Elonged Muskrat’s wikpedia page and found it completely blurred out. Thank you!!!
Great extension! Now I don’t have to hear about January 6 hearings every damn day.
I appreciate the idea, but ignoring problems doesn’t make them go away.
I appreciate the idea of making billionaires go away and fortunately, not seeing news about doesn’t prevent me from working towards their downfall!
It does because you can’t keep up with all of the crimes they are committing.
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.
It’s not aimed at you, then. It’s aimed at the people who aren’t glued to the news like we are.
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?
