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Comment by amazingamazing | Hacker News Reader

Assuming you insist on using facebook you can proxy it, using a simple script that removes all ads prior to serving. The problem of course is that this is not cheap. Easier to just not use facebook.

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I'm keen to see this simple script, and to understand why it's simple given that ublock origin finds it hard.

Ublock origin doesnt use javascript. The script just involves a tree traversal of the dom and removal of any node that says ad.

The issue is facebook obfuscates selectors so you cant easily do it the way ublock prefers.

Sorry, still don't understand. The dom is not complete until JavaScript has run, no? So the ublock extension can do dom traversal on the rendered page, but the proxy can only operate at the request level. I assume your not running a headless browser on your squid box, lol. I'm aware that a proxy can tweak html and js, but the js will be challenging to analyse statically. If you're only blocking requests to ad domains, then presumably most people would just block them in DNS. So i still don't understand what the proxy gains you.

No, not a traditional one. You would render the entire page in your server, remove the ads, copy the modified html and your client would get ad free copy. You are not blocking anything in the traditional sense. Ask claude to do it, it works.

Thanks, now i understand you. I didn't think of that because it's insane, but maybe i am just old.

Insane is the new normal these days.

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