I figured some people here might want to unsubscribe and get this!

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?

  • mateomaui@reddthat.comEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    “Are you tired of hearing about your local neighborhood billionaire launching useless things, or people, into outer space?”

    What’s the difference again?

    edit: should clarify that this comment is mostly about the typical people being launched into space or crushed underwater these days

        • GrossGhost@kbin.social
          2·
          1 year ago

          What I read is that his dad coerced him into going as a Father’s Day “gift”.

          TLDR: 100% of people with that level of wealth are sickos.

            • Dr. Dabbles@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              1 year ago

              There’s a few stories and interviews of people that talked their dad out of going by asking extremely basic questions. How don’t these people have any self preservation skills?

              • mateomaui@reddthat.comEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                I remember one of my college professors explaining to me that to get a PHD many people have to abandon some common sense knowledge to make room for everything they’re focusing on, which is why some of his colleagues couldn’t balance a checkbook.

                I feel like that’s related somehow.

  • kadu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    I’d absolutely love a Chromium version of this extension. I already use quite a few ones in a similar vein, but that’s the first that I’ve seen for straight up blocking billionaires.

    This is increasingly important, as they also own many media platforms and websites.

  • A2PKXG@feddit.deEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I must say, his mastadon competitor made it relatively easy to filter away all content containing his name!

  • GrossGhost@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    Any plans to get this working on android as well? Either way I just got to try it out and I love it so far. So sick of hearing about these leeches everywhere.