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Posted by StrLght 12/7/2025

How I block all online ads(troubled.engineer)
355 points | 287 commentspage 6
treetalker 12/8/2025|
1Blocker on iOS and macOS has been good. It also blocks in-app trackers.
Havoc 12/8/2025||
TIL. Need to figure out how to redirect insta over a vpn then
kriskrunch 12/8/2025||
Anyone use SmartTube? Or is it something I should remove?
Jordan-117 12/8/2025||
Just make sure you're using the new version (old one was compromised):

https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTube

aembleton 12/8/2025||
I use it. Works great.
crossroadsguy 12/8/2025||
> but I've heard good things about NextDNS

I have used them both paid and free and they are not good. I will pick just one point - support. It's pathetic. Maybe because it's non existent. I stopped paying for it, started using free, then removed it altogether.

uBlock Origin really is that good as others are saying. I haven't really needed anything else. Ads in other apps? Well, that's a hit or miss but then a lot of my finance/investment related apps anyway don't work if I use any ad blocking on local network or device label, sadly. Tweaking around it is how I needed support with NextDNS and then realised I've been paying for something with essentially no support.

temp0826 12/8/2025||
What support did you need? Sounds like it's only a matter of checking what's blocked in the logs and adding some exceptions to the allow list?

I'm pretty aggressive with the block lists I have selected and expect to fiddle with it lots, but I have a second (much more "reasonable") profile that family uses and it works great (still catches a huge amount of stuff that browser adblockers miss) despite never needing any fiddling. It's been great for me.

dpc_01234 12/8/2025||
I'm a happy NextDNS user. I'm not sure what kind of support you need that wouldn't be solved by asking AI and/or some community online. They have wonderful integrations, instructions, documentation and features. Blocking ads is not even primary reason I use them - the parental control and safety features are the main reason for me.
pmontra 12/8/2025||
Desktop and mobile: Firefox and uBlock Origin.

Mobile: Blockada to prevent apps from reaching their ad servers. NewPipe.

Desktop: Freetube.

uBO has the bonus to have an element picker that I use to remove the empty areas where ads would show. I do it for sites that I use often. I also remove some useless menus and headers. I particularly hate sticky ones.

apples_oranges 12/8/2025||
realistically though, most YouTube content is an ad for something ;)
pluc 12/8/2025||
It's a shame the web has become so predatory to neophytes.
inquirerGeneral 12/8/2025||
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khana 12/8/2025||
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alance 12/8/2025|
[flagged]
StrLght 12/8/2025|
Author here

Could you please share what exactly is wrong? I haven't used AI to write this post, that's just my style. I am still figuring it out, so I'd love to hear any feedback

alance 12/8/2025||
Yeah not helping you design your next "be more human" prompt.
StrLght 12/8/2025||
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.

kcoddington 12/8/2025||
Agreed. I think I'm getting more fatigue from the AI slop callouts than the actual AI slop.
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 12/8/2025||
It's at a point where I just flag it. FWIW, the callouts are against the guidelines:

> Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting.

Just pretend "this is AI slop" is also in the list. Don't complain about that; complain about the information being wrong or something else insightful. Discuss the conclusions that were included in the article. Assume (also per the guidelines) that the author reviewed the article before posting; they are signing off on its validity and therefore any callouts, AI-related or otherwise, should be calling that validity into question rather than simply saying that a particular tool was used for getting the words on the page.

alance 12/8/2025||
Except my 1-sentence comment was not an AI callout that said: "Hey this is AI slop". I validate the content of the article but express personal disappointment in the AI writing style.

I admit it is perhaps unkind of me to not provide the laundry list of AI-tells in their article, but I see their response to me as being a direct lie ("I haven't used AI to write this post, that's just my style") so what explanation do I owe them?

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 12/9/2025||
> Except my 1-sentence comment was not an AI callout that said: "Hey this is AI slop".

Not literally, but this was the thesis of your comment, regardless of your four words of validation.

> I admit it is perhaps unkind of me to not provide the laundry list of AI-tells in their article

Please don't do this. It doesn't matter.

> what explanation do I owe them?

What explanation do they owe you?

alance 12/9/2025||
Uhh? I didn't ask anyone for an explanation.