cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/1891205

About 8 months ago I got pretty tired of seeing billionaire spam online. I could not bear to read about yet another rich guy who launched themselves (or their $200,000 car) into outer space 🚀 . I did not care about their expert opinion on the latest meme coin back then. I do not care about their expert opinion on the dangers of AI today.

So… I developed a tiny, free, and open source Firefox browser add-on called “Block the Rich”. It is completely local and private. No data is tracked. No data is phoned home.

The concept is pretty simple: whenever I load a web page, the extension quickly analyzes the content and intelligently blurs out any references to the Forbes Top 10 Billionaires. Some former and wannabe billionaires are blurred out of courtesy as well (I’m looking at you Trump and Kanye 🙄).

This project is a very early prototype that I built in the span of a few days. I have so many awesome ideas for enhancements but the truth is that the wind got completely knocked out of my sails when I put myself out there on Reddit many moons ago. There was absolutely zero public interest. To this day my wife and I are the only ones using the original prototype.

People of Lemmy, do you think there is a place on the internet for such a project, or is it time that I let it go?

  • AMuscelid@lemm.eeEnglish
    51·
    2 years ago

    The concept is hilarious and really presses the spite dopamine button in my brain.

  • CatBusBand@beehaw.orgEnglish
    25·
    2 years ago

    Don’t let the flame die, OP!! This is a really good idea for an add-on. I like what the other commenters said to add custom blocking and a per site restriction.

  • kalahlora@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    20·
    2 years ago

    I really like it but if I could make one small suggestion, a small x in the corner to un-blur, sometimes I want to enjoy the dunking they are getting

  • snowe@programming.devEnglish
    14·
    2 years ago

    I’m definitely going to use this. I do not understand how people care about famous people at all. Can you extend the extension to apply to literally anything like it. I don’t care about celebrities, their babies, what they ate for lunch, etc.

  • loops@beehaw.orgEnglish
    10·
    2 years ago

    Thanks lol. I was getting tired of seeing Exceptionally Musky’s toupee.

  • Storksforlegs@beehaw.orgEnglish
    8·
    2 years ago

    Yes. Excellent!

    There used to be an extension that replaced trump images with cats. Can we also replace pictures of the rich (and famous) with images of baby animals? I don’t need to keep seeing their dumb faces everywhere.

  • Mechaguana@programming.devEnglish
    6·
    2 years ago

    It’s interesting, to say the least, but I feel like it’s missing a feature, or the concept is niche…

    What kind of user do you expect would download this? I am going to try it tomorrow to see if it changes anything

  • anlumo@feddit.deEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    It should also block out all of the Us congress then, since those are also fairly rich people.