[HN Gopher] uBlock Origin rules for HN: removing MSM news source...
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uBlock Origin rules for HN: removing MSM news sources reduces
systemic stress
I recently added some uBlock Origin rules for HN that remove news
sources focusing principally on `The` News rather than technical
topics and the net result has been a much more pleasurable
experience on par with HN from a few years ago. I can read the
`news` news in many places, and I do, but I like to come here for
industry and niche technical topics. Many I've spoken to share
this sentiment and I hope this is of benefit to anyone wishing to
focus more on what they are interested in. You can block a source
or keywords with the same rule:
news.ycombinator.com##table:not(.fatitem) tr > td.title:has-
text(/{phrase1}|{phrase2}/):nth-ancestor(1) e.g. a brief sample of
sites that are not principally about technology and recur somewhat
frequently (choose your own):
news.ycombinator.com##table:not(.fatitem) tr > td.title:has-text(/b
usinessinsider.com|dailymail.co.uk|foxnews.com|theverge.com|cnn.com
|reuters.com|zerohedge.com|insider.com|bloomberg.com|euronews.com|t
heguardian.com|wsj.com|ft.com|theconversation.com|thetimes.co.uk|bb
c.co.uk|nytimes.com|newyorker.com|theatlantic.com/):nth-ancestor(1)
or simply a phrase: news.ycombinator.com##table:not(.fatitem) tr >
td.title:has-text(/web3|crypto/):nth-ancestor(1) This rule isn't
perfect as it only removes the title line and keeps the number of
comments, but it is definitely good enough and I am enjoying
reading HN a great deal more. You can add these to your Android
phone too with Firefox and uBO.
Author : h_o_o_t
Score : 54 points
Date : 2023-12-03 20:52 UTC (2 hours ago)
| philiphodgen wrote:
| Thank you.
| jstrong wrote:
| I need this to resist the temptation to read the HN comments on
| politics, ha.
| sshine wrote:
| This makes HN more like lobste.rs, except perhaps for VC news
| which are banned on lobste.rs, and sound like they're not removed
| by this filter.
|
| I prefer to have a dose of "news" news, and I got that through
| HN. But I won't object, it's probably better.
| namrog84 wrote:
| Why does this post not wrap properly on mobile? Anyone else?.
| Seems like others are working fine
| h_o_o_t wrote:
| Sorry about that, it's desktop too and I have no idea why. I
| tried to force line breaks but to no avail.
|
| If anyone knows how to fix I'd be grateful to know.
| nixgeek wrote:
| Post the code into a Gist, and then link the Gist into your
| post.
| h_o_o_t wrote:
| Thanks, taking a look now.
| akomtu wrote:
| td { word-wrap: anywhere } will fix it.
| danShumway wrote:
| Along the same lines, the below filters will do flawed but
| decent-ish job of hiding comments from specific commentators if
| you have to regularly resist the urge to get into arguments with
| people.
| news.ycombinator.com##tr.athing.comtr:has-
| text(/(example_user_one)|(example_user_two)/)
| news.ycombinator.com##tr.athing.comtr:has-
| text(/(example_user_one)|(example_user_two)/) +
| tr.athing.comtr:not(:has(.ind img[width="0"]))
|
| They're imperfect because of how HN generates its HTML, so it
| will occasionally clobber replies that are alongside hidden
| comments as well or won't perfectly remove the entire thread.
| That tends to be somewhat rare I think, but worth being aware of.
|
| I've complained about HN's HTML in the past, but it really is
| quite badly set up for parsing or styling; using a full-on table
| column for indentation is a kind of wild hack that makes it
| difficult to parse replies. But the filter still mostly works,
| because replies in these situations usually end up being back-
| and-forth with the same person. So tackling a comment and its
| immediate reply often ends up correctly hiding the entire thread.
|
| ----
|
| > This rule isn't perfect as it only removes the title line and
| keeps the number of comments
|
| Happily this can be fixed, just use an adjacent sibling
| selector(https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Next-
| siblin...) and duplicate your initial filter:
| news.ycombinator.com##table:not(.fatitem) tr > td.title:has-
| text(/web3|crypto/):nth-ancestor(1)
| news.ycombinator.com##table:not(.fatitem) tr > td.title:has-
| text(/web3|crypto/):nth-ancestor(1) + tr
|
| It's probably overkill, but you can also add a 3rd instance to
| get rid of the spacing gap.
| news.ycombinator.com##table:not(.fatitem) tr > td.title:has-
| text(/web3|crypto/):nth-ancestor(1) + tr + tr.spacer
|
| ----
|
| I'm a fan of these kind of low-change filters for sites, I think
| it's something Ublock Origin can be really helpful for since a
| lot of people already have it installed and trust it.
|
| But especially given HN's DOM makes this harder to do, I would
| also suggest that if you're looking at doing much more extensive
| modifications you're probably going to end up building a
| webextension or piping the site into another application using
| RSS or something.
|
| But uBO filters are a pretty great accessible middle-ground.
| eps wrote:
| Ignore list would make for a good native feature, e.g. just
| auto-collapse comments by people from the list.
|
| Along the same lines, a watch/friend list would be handy too -
| highlight comments from its entries in some subtle way, so to
| make it harder to miss them.
|
| ... though I think _dang_ would easily produce good arguments
| against both of these :)
| h_o_o_t wrote:
| Nice thank you. I had suspected this would get developed a
| little here.
| skilled wrote:
| The problem is that HN will typically be the only place that will
| debunk these news stories and distill them into facts as opposed
| to sensationalism.
|
| I am also surprised you put the Verge in there but not Ars. The
| latter having fallen down the cliff in recent years and not doing
| a lot of original reporting despite their budget.
| h_o_o_t wrote:
| It's a fair point but I think you must weigh that against what
| you principally want to occupy yourself with for that session.
|
| Given that the number of comments are still visible, you can
| still see the hot topics, and then try to read the title from
| the tab. But I've actually found myself not doing that anyway.
|
| Regarding the list, it's non-exhaustive.
| tonymet wrote:
| Why's this comment flagged?
| tonymet wrote:
| If you host it on GitHub pages you can share a link for others to
| add as a unblock filter list
| h_o_o_t wrote:
| Thanks, will do.
| neilv wrote:
| For years, I was interested in journalism, and used to
| read/speed-read many newspapers per day. It was a great education
| in multiple ways. But also it wore on me, because I had more
| awareness than the average person of things going on, and I felt
| like I needed to do something about it, but I couldn't.
|
| I eventually took a break from any news exposure at all, then
| gently added back in a front page skim of a high-quality outlet
| or two, then shifted for awhile to Reddit front page, then faded
| back out to zero. At the moment, I'm unlikely to hear about a
| current news event unless it's alluded to on HN or (this is
| awful) LinkedIn.
|
| News-related stress now is mostly limited to ridiculous
| situations in tech industry (we've become the coked-up sociopaths
| field, a bit like 1980s Wall Street stereotypes used to be), and
| very local news situations that affect me in noticeable ways
| (e.g., housing, noise pollution).
| Animats wrote:
| MSM? Men who have Sex with Men?
| ianlevesque wrote:
| Mainstream Media I assume.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Tell HN:
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(page generated 2023-12-03 23:01 UTC)