1y ago

What tools and lists are you using to make the Internet more enjoyable and filter out the crap?

Mostly interested in non-standard ones, e.g. https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt. Not necessarily just about ad-blocking but a clean online experience like SponsorBlock. Interested in non-standard uBO lists as well.

I will try to compile a list of what was said here:

Automatic Captcha Solving: Buster. Great mention, use it myself!
Consent-O-Matic. Didn't know about this one, will give it a look!
Additional Annoyances list for uBO
DNS blocking/ Pi hole
...

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Consent-O-Matic for automatically rejecting tracking cookies instead of just hiding the banners https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/consent-o-matic/
LibRedirect for opening big companies' links in privacy-respecting front-ends https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/
Buster for solving reCAPTCHA with a single click https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/buster-captcha-solver/
Web Annoyances uBO list https://github.com/yourduskquibbles/webannoyances
and NextDNS on all my devices.
- I'm very leary about installing any extensions that use the permission "Access your data for all websites". I get that they need to see the website so they can do their thing, but I just don't trust that they are any better having my data than the site I just visited.
- I've switched to Redirector from LibRedirect as I find it's more customisable - for example, I can create rules that automatically go to a 12ft.io redirect version of a page if the site is behind a paywall and a rule to redirect Instagram profiles to picuki.com.
- Thanks for your reply! Is the web annoyances list better than the built-in one in uBO. Should I disable the standard one?
  
  it catches more things. I've got both lists enabled.

A uBO list that filters out all of the word salad generating click farms would be amazing. So many search results in general are ruined, but anything like "how to..." or "when is the next season of..." are always ridiculous.
- With Kagi, you can kind of do this, either through lenses or by completely blocking website from your search results. Obviously not as good as a block list but still, something.
- I read about one. Let me see if I can still find it..
  Edit: I can't.

The Vivaldi ad/trackerblocker with custom filters from ABP and uBO
Extensions (I've put the homepages with the links also to the Mozilla Store):
iFrame YT anti-adblock
JShelter
Unpaywall
Clickbait Remover for YT
Nitter Redirect
Anti-Grabify
Clear URLs
Link Unshorten
Cookie Autodelete
Glorious were the times, when none of this was necessary to defend yourself from all this shit that has accumulated on the network today. Free Internet getting further and further away, sad.

I recently set up a bunch of these in my adguard home filter list. They do not only block ads, but also Fake-Shops, Cryptomining, Gambling and more shady stuff.

I just self hosted everything I needed and dl my fav YouTube channels’ videos to my server
I use internet on my phone to look up something every now and then and I’ll browse lemmy for a bit if I get bored
Other than that I don’t really use the internet outside of essential stuff like banking and emailing
- What's your setup for Youtube videos? Is it automated? I'm curious about that.
  
  Not OP but I use yt-dlp on a cron schedule to run once a day, and just have all the channels I want to follow in a text file that it processes. Been using this for years now (YouTubedl before this) with no issues.
  I've recently gone a step further and have it post a discord message once it's done with the download details for the day.
  https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp
- How do you download to your server?
  
  Starr apps for media or ytdl for YouTube

I’m trying out nextdns.io and it’s working well on mobile.

I have a stack in place built around Tailscale. I mean, this may not be the best route but, hey, it works for me.
So I have Tailscale running across my devices. Within Tailscale, I have enabled Mullvad Exit Nodes for some privacy control. Then I have overridden the default DNS setting with NextDNS.
Within NextDNS I have a standard profile with some ad and telemetry blocking which is typically for the family devices and then I have a disgustingly pimped up profile for my main devices with a hell of a lot blocked, including domains that I do not care for (facebook for example).
The pros are that I can control all connections easier, even when out of my home network. That said, it takes some setting up to ensure I don't bork connections. And, yes, I learnt that the hard way when I blocked all 'meta' tools across my whole network and the kids lost it!
- So all your devices access the internet through Tailscale to home, where you use NextDNS to filter, am I reading that right?
  
  Not quite. They are network linked through Tailscale but typically running through a Mullvad VPN exit node. The NextDNS is baked into Tailscale too.
  This gives me access to my home devices (including self hosted services, etc.) from out and about on the secure Tailscale network and connect to the Internet through a Mullvad VPN connection but that is further supported by the NextDNS which ensure devices are blocked from ads, trackers, telemetry, etc.
  I only chose this route because I want an easy way to manage my whole network of connected devices without having to do a setup on each one individually.
  Don't get me wrong, there may be a better way but this has just worked well for me.

While I'm at it, what is the community opinion on NoScript? The first few weeks were a bit of a pain, but now it is actually quite convenient.

23 comments