Ads are annoying. In this thread, I'll walk through how to block ads on any browser using an extension called uBlock Origin, which is, in my opinion, the best ad-blocker out there. It does not only block ads based on filters, but you can also manually block them as well. In this tutorial, I'd demonstrate the beginner to intermediate level of uBlock Origin usage.

Setting things up

You could install the extension from your browser's official store, which should be linked in uBlock Origin official website.

The first thing you should do is to enable "Suspend network activity until all filter lists are loaded", which can be found in the settings as shown in the image below.


This will ensure that all the filters are loaded before the site get load. It will prevent some site, like YouTube, to sneak ads pass the filter.

Filter lists

The filter lists (the thing that filters ads and unwanted sites) that are enabled by default are good enough for 99% of sites that you'd visit. However, there're also quality-of-life improvement filters available as well. DandelionSprout's adfilt repository have some "interesting" filters ranging from anti-shipfus (ship waifus such as KanColle girls) to RickRoll Identifier. You could import filters at the end of the "Filter lists" tab.



The icons at the end of the filters are as follow

1. Eye -> view the source code
2. Home -> the homepage of that filter
3. Trash bin -> remove the filter
4. i -> information
5. Clock -> check for updates

You could add filters manually in the "My filters" tab. For example:

Basic UI

If you want to disable blocking for a specific site, click the Big Blue button and reload the site. The extension's icon on you browser's top bar should turn grey afterwards.

There're three buttons that I'd like demonstrate their use. First is the </> button, which disables JavaScript. The other two are the thunder⚡, and the picker (which is on the right of the thunder). Those are called "Element zapper" and "Element picker" respectively.

Bypassing Paywalls

About half of sites that use paywall that I've encountered so far uses JavaScript to block YOU from reading the full article. You can click the "</>" to block JavaScript.



You could also use this trick to bypass some sites that won't let you copy their texts and images as well.

Block stuffs manually

Let's say, you visited BBC


And you don't want the BBC Logo to appear, you could use the "Element zapper" to "zap" that logo away.


This isn't permanent tho. It'll reset after you reload the page. If you want it to be permanent, you must use the "Element Picker" tool, and click "Create"


However, if you don't want uBlock to delete the BBC logo everytime you visited BBC anymore, you could remove that in the "My filters" tab in the settings.

And that's about it! Have a nice day

already have it <(￣︶￣)>

TLDR: just install the extension, nothing else required

For privacy reasons, you may also want to block scripts and all the web junk. In the picture above, I've blocked all third-party stuff from running, both scripts and frames (embeds). The first column is the global rule, and the latter is local—local means it'd affect the site in question only. The less bright red implies it is an inherited rule; to illustrate, if I block all third parties, by extension, I'm also blocking scripts, frames, and every third-party network that is trying to connect my browser. Further, githubassets.com and private-user-images.githubusercontent.com are grayed out. This means they are set to noop, which, in simple terms, means they ignore the block rule (no operation). 

While this is good from a privacy standpoint, one downside is that it may lead to frequent site breakage and require manual intervention. You can, of course, save the settings, so the next time you visit it, you'll not have to configure it again using the padlock icon. Or resort to less aggressive settings. The full documentations can be found here.

I get what the intention is here, but I mean it, everyone that cares that much abouy privacy/safety has already done it, and for everyone else, explaining it in more than two lines will make the process seem complex and overwhelming and they will actually be less likely to do it

I mean, you have to start somewhere, but I suppose you are right. Apologies for hijacking the post.

Patatitta wrote:

I get what the intention is here, but I mean it, everyone that cares that much abouy privacy/safety has already done it, and for everyone else, explaining it in more than two lines will make the process seem complex and overwhelming and they will actually be less likely to do it

Okay, and? Let the dudes speak about what interests them.

Winnyace wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

I get what the intention is here, but I mean it, everyone that cares that much abouy privacy/safety has already done it, and for everyone else, explaining it in more than two lines will make the process seem complex and overwhelming and they will actually be less likely to do it

Okay, and? Let the dudes speak about what interests them.

I mean, they're free to do so, i'm just pointing out that it probably won't have any sort of effect, that won't change even if I don't point it out

It's not even about ads are annoying anymore. It's aso your protective layer from malvertising

Jumping from easy to medium mode is not as tedious workflow as you'd think so for those wondering, give it a try!

Nanofranne wrote:

It's not even about ads are annoying anymore. It's aso your protective layer from malvertising

this

you know the situation is bad when even the fucking FBI has to step in and warn people about the dangers of browsing the internet without adblockers

Finally a thread I can get behind.

I've been using this plugin for a pretty long time now, far superior than other adblockers, and it's super customizable to my liking. Thanks for bringing this to light, not sure how many of us are using adblockers but if you aren't I highly recommend it.

I've had to tweak it quite often on youtube, but it seems like they have stopped shoving ads in my face for now, though the site is notoriously getting slower by the month.

Thanks again, Jangsoodlor, your past couple of threads have been very informative and critical to online safety.

Utsushime wrote:

For privacy reasons, you may also want to block scripts and all the web junk. In the picture above, I've blocked all third-party stuff from running, both scripts and frames (embeds). The first column is the global rule, and the latter is local—local means it'd affect the site in question only. The less bright red implies it is an inherited rule; to illustrate, if I block all third parties, by extension, I'm also blocking scripts, frames, and every third-party network that is trying to connect my browser. Further, githubassets.com and private-user-images.githubusercontent.com are grayed out. This means they are set to noop, which, in simple terms, means they ignore the block rule (no operation). 

While this is good from a privacy standpoint, one downside is that it may lead to frequent site breakage and require manual intervention. You can, of course, save the settings, so the next time you visit it, you'll not have to configure it again using the padlock icon. Or resort to less aggressive settings. The full documentations can be found here.

TBH 99% of ppl only want ads away. Not advanced privacy protection that could potentially break websites, unless you're Edward Snowden. But yeah this only shows how powerful uBlock is.

I already have Ghostery