[HN Gopher] Show HN: Tiny Chrome extension to disable images to ...
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Show HN: Tiny Chrome extension to disable images to reduce
distractions
Author : MarkinK
Score : 50 points
Date : 2024-06-01 17:08 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Disabling image loading used to be a standard setting on browsers
| in the dial-up internet days. I don't recall when that
| disappeared.
| gear54rus wrote:
| In between the bandwidth getting better and the content getting
| shittier :) Which is what, 2008-2016?
| bertman wrote:
| OP's extension simply uses the `chrome.contentSettings.images`
| API, which you've always been able to set manually in the
| standard browser settings. It never disappeared
| (chrome://settings/content/images).
| MarkinK wrote:
| But for LinkedIn and other sites, I still have to turn it on
| sometimes. But only for a few minutes. So I have the auto
| disable feature.
| thefifthsetpin wrote:
| I think you're looking for chrome://settings/content/images
| MarkinK wrote:
| This is exactly what this extension does
| kmfrk wrote:
| Loved the dedicated button for it in good ol' Opera.
| behnamoh wrote:
| why give PR to something that can be easily done via browser
| settings?
| MarkinK wrote:
| I just made it for myself and share it here. For me it is
| better to control by button and aute deactivate feature than
| with manual control.
| Falimonda wrote:
| Nice work! People will always find something to complain
| about.
|
| If you find it useful, a handful of other people probably
| will as well.
| MarkinK wrote:
| Thank you!
| lukew3 wrote:
| It's an easily accessible toggle. It would be a pain to be on a
| website where you need to see an image and have to go find the
| setting toggle it, view you content , then find and toggle it
| again.
| hoten wrote:
| What does PR here mean?
|
| Edit, public relations I guess..
| ranger_danger wrote:
| because the way the extension does it is more convenient for
| some people
| pen2l wrote:
| I've gotta share something -- so, I think I have a bit of an
| addiction with YouTube and I'd been thinking about how to shake
| it off. I didn't get round to it for whatever reason (blocks in
| modem settings maybe), but one day a month or so ago, if I went
| to YouTube, I saw this screen: https://i.imgur.com/OIL0jSE.png
|
| Not extremely sure why this happens (I reckon it has to do with
| my use of adguard), but anyway I noticed I would just... move on,
| there were not icons to entice me that I could immediately click.
| And then sure enough, I found myself less hungry for it in the
| coming weeks.
|
| This all happened by accident but boy o' boy, it works. I'm
| wasting less time on YouTube.
|
| I similarly stopped going to reddit (the comments don't load on
| mobile, things become unclickable... I imagine this is a change
| recently made live to force users to login to increase
| engagement... ironic that it works out backwards to what their
| intent was).
|
| Reflecting more on this on a weary weekend morning, about how
| many are unable to shake off these addictions, I am increasingly
| convinced of the poisonous effects of these distractions and
| cannot help but think that dire action is needed to curb these
| addictions with gov't mandated regulations.
|
| I think price increase of tobacco products (with tax costs
| embedded in the price) were a great deterrent (better than the
| warning signs on the tobacco), so I suspect deterrents need be
| incredibly strong. Finding that balance and perspective, of
| weighing personal freedoms and recognizing the realities of
| addictions is going to be very hard, but I hope for the good of
| us we go somewhere with this and recognize the dangers for what
| they are.
| zeta0134 wrote:
| For YouTube, I pay for premium because I already block ads, and
| it feels proper to support creators that way. Then I use my
| content blocker to remove the sidebar and the end screen
| overlay, both of which are stuffed with distracting elements.
| I've bookmarked my subscriptions page, and if creators I like
| haven't uploaded anything I'm interested in watching, I just
| close the tab.
|
| This took some effort, but it works wonders. And really,
| there's only a handful of YouTube channels I actually want to
| follow anyway. A lot of the rest of it seems to be low effort
| humor. Nothing wrong with that, it's just mostly not my cup of
| tea.
| gmiller123456 wrote:
| Patreon is probably better, IMHO. From what I understand,
| Youtube Red pays out your subscription money proportionally
| based on how long you watch their videos. To me, that just
| seems to encourage them to waste your time, rather than focus
| information density. With Patreon you decide who gets how
| much.
| jon_richards wrote:
| I put a rule in my adblocker to block the reddit homepage but
| not individual threads (because that's often where google takes
| me).
|
| _Massively_ helpful, but also concerning how months later I
| still automatically try to go to the homepage every once in a
| while and run into my adblocker.
| nehal3m wrote:
| Would you mind describing how you set up that filter?
|
| edit: Using AdGuard for Safari, the following works for me
| under custom filtering rules:
|
| ||reddit.com^$document
|
| ||old.reddit.com^$document
|
| @@||reddit.com/r/*/comments/*
|
| @@||old.reddit.com/r/*/comments/*
|
| @@||reddit.com/r/*/comments/*$document
|
| @@||old.reddit.com/r/*/comments/*$document
| cornstalks wrote:
| > _Not extremely sure why this happens_
|
| It's when you have no watch history.
| HeatrayEnjoyer wrote:
| It's actually from the adblocker. Google is cracking down and
| making YouTube harder to use if you don't have ads or a
| premium subscription.
| cornstalks wrote:
| No, it's when you are signed out and have no watch history
| (I can't remember if it also does it when signed in but
| with no watch/search history). Try an incognito window with
| no ad blocker. Trust me on this one. Read about it here: ht
| tps://support.google.com/youtube/thread/139222780?hl=en&ms.
| ..
| exitb wrote:
| I also have no watch history, but my screen only began to
| look like that when I subscribed to premium.
| NathanaelRea wrote:
| There's probably a few extensions that do this for YouTube. One
| is called Unhook.
| kolja005 wrote:
| I use an app called Jomo to block YouTube, as well as about 10
| other distracting applications. It runs on every device I have
| and makes it very challenging to use the app when I feel the
| urge to. For a long time I convinced myself that I needed to
| keep some access to YouTube because there is obviously some
| meaningful content on the platform. After having it completely
| blocked for a few months I have come to realize that there is
| nothing on the platform that is absolutely essential for me to
| be able to view, and that the downside of getting distracted
| was not at all worth it.
| gr8r wrote:
| I just blocked YouTube using hosts file this week. Haven't
| missed it. But no more random time sinks.
|
| I had offloaded YouTube on my phone since the phone is out of
| storage. Not going back.
| adolph wrote:
| A technique that helped me (after started meditation/setting my
| intentions/etc) is turning off the autocomplete for "top sites"
| and "browsing history." It doesn't block anything but adds just
| enough friction that I can remember my intentions and make a
| non-automatic decision.
| Aglartur wrote:
| I highly recommend extension for mobile browsers "SocialFocus:
| Hide Distractions" to replace YouTube and Instagram apps. It
| lets you block features and UX improvements that keep you on
| the platform, like thumbnails, feed and reels/shorts.
|
| I like to think to combat addictiveness of modern apps, you
| need to actively make it less convenient. It's hard to
| completely quit it, but if it's clunky to use you'll naturally
| use it less.
| smithcoin wrote:
| If you turn off watch history, then that's what the homepage
| has started to look like they don't recommend anything that's
| helped me shake it a bit; Works on Roku iOS and desktop.
| labrador wrote:
| I wrote a bookmarklet for same:
| javascript:(function(){var
| imgs=document.getElementsByTagName("img"); for(var
| i=0;i<imgs.length;i++)imgs[i].style.visibility="hidden"}());
| OptionOfT wrote:
| Overall browsers should be focused more on reducing distractions.
|
| Shopping! Collections! Donate! Improve video! Zoom photo! Enhance
| photo!
| klysm wrote:
| Google disagrees
| yard2010 wrote:
| So does the vampires from the industry of nothing - ads.
|
| So much money with so little value, how come drugs are
| illegal and this ain't
| proee wrote:
| Are there any browsers that are text only with nice formatting?
| Would be great to style the page just based of h1, h2 etc and
| make it beautiful to read from a typography formatting
| perspective.
| klysm wrote:
| I mean there is reader mode but your mileage will vary
| depending on the site markup
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| Firefox extension please
| cassepipe wrote:
| Image Block, also works on Firefox for Android (where it's most
| useful) : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/image-
| block/
| naitgacem wrote:
| you can use ublock origin, it has a setting for that. It's
| pretty much a necessity for me to disable JavaScript and images
| until i manually enable them. The modern internet is a mess
| koito17 wrote:
| Unfortunately, this extension decides to use Chrome-specific
| APIs rather than the standardized (and comprehensive)
| WebExtensions API. The good news is that people have written
| portable extensions with identical (or greater) functionality.
|
| As others stated in the thread, ImageBlock and uBlock both have
| settings to toggle images. There's also ImageBlock X which
| provides a single button to toggle image blocking, like the
| extension in this thread.
| mrkramer wrote:
| You might as well use "Reading Mode" when accessing websites.
| hydroid7 wrote:
| It is also possible with uBlock Origin and it even works on
| Firefox Android.
| ajdude wrote:
| Will this work on manifest v3 chrome?
| byyoung3 wrote:
| blocks linkedin. couldnt be happier
| hnthrowaway0328 wrote:
| Talking about distraction, this is off topic, but I found
| Carmack's method very useful.
|
| He used to go to a random motel, book for a few days, away from
| office, and work on a hard topic (usually graphics) non stop.
|
| I took a poor man's option instead. Go to a chain coffee shop
| where you can buy a cup of coffee and sit in a corner undisturbed
| (human noises do not concern me). Bring a dumb phone just in
| case, turn off WiFi, and you are good to go.
|
| I tried this a few weeks ago and went over one and a half
| chapters of "Crafting Interpreters" in 3 hours. I had to admit it
| was tough to go beyond that, but you might be able to do more
| with a healthier body. It was also from 10AM to 1PM so hunger had
| an impact as well.
| Sahil11111111 wrote:
| You can use unhook extension for youtube, hides a lot of
| distraction!
| evilpie wrote:
| Firefox also has the about:config preference
| permissions.default.image: 2, which will block most images.
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