I'm attempting to block a single advertisement for the Suicide Girls from BoingBoing.

October 11, 2004 4:56 PM

I'm attempting to block a single advertisement for the Suicide Girls from BoingBoing.
[MI]

I am using OS X 10.3, and the latest preview release of Firefox.

Following the directions http://texturizer.net/firefox/adblock.html here, I'm trying to create a userContent.css file within

~/library/application support/firefox/profiles/blahblah.default/chrome/

that will supposedly block all kinds of advertising based on keywords within urls, etc.

Yet it does not seem to work on *any* site. I've changed the permissions to those of other files in that folder, played around for about two hours, and it ain't working. Has anyone with a similar configuration gotten userContent.css to work? I am going nuts. The url for the SG ad is:

http://boingboing.net/cgi-bin/clicker.cgi?http://suicidegirls.com/?boingboing

And I've also tried inserting wildcards withing userContent.css to block that as well, but no dice. I'd rather not block all images from Boing if possible.

[lightbulb]
I suppose I could use an RSS feed.

posted by mecran01 to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

I've had much, much better luck using the Adblock extension. You can just right-click on any image and block the URL using wildcards, or just that URL.
posted by LukeyBoy at 5:05 PM on October 11, 2004

You can also use boingboing lite, which doesn't have sidebar ads.

Just in case there are any Safari users browsing this thread, the Pith Helmet extension is awesome for this kinda thing...
posted by rajbot at 5:12 PM on October 11, 2004

mecran01: Use boingboing lite!
posted by vacapinta at 5:13 PM on October 11, 2004

Response by poster: I prostate myself before the unequalled wisdom of the ask.mefi
posted by mecran01 at 5:18 PM on October 11, 2004

Response by poster: All suggestions have worked wonders! I am trying out Pith helmet right now. No longer will I be taunted by the nubile delinquent bosoms of the Girls of Suicide. They were depressing me.
posted by mecran01 at 6:00 PM on October 11, 2004

(SuicideGirls are teh h0tz0rz. That ad might actually be the best part of my work day. To each his own, though, I suppose.)
posted by uncleozzy at 7:03 PM on October 11, 2004

Response by poster: I read an article about the SG, and they just remind me of the homeless urban goth girls in a city I lived in, which sorta bums me out. I'm sure there are any number of well adjusted, happy, SG girls who love to show off their bodies, it's just that I'm guessing that there's more backstory, etc. Anyway. So I choose the morally dubious option of closing my eyes, as it were.

http://floppymoose.com has instructions for using userContent.css with safari, and this line worked, blocking the image by size:

img[width="125"][height="125"],

Not the best solution, but it was easier than figuring out Pith Helmet.
posted by mecran01 at 7:11 PM on October 11, 2004

It takes 5 seconds with Adblock + Firefox. Right click. Click "Block". Reload page. Or you can add a * like */pornads/* to block everything in a directory, etc.
posted by Voivod at 8:48 PM on October 11, 2004

I used to know one of the Suicide Girls. She was nice enough, but I think "homeless urban goth girl" is a pretty apt description. I think she did really enjoy showing off her body, once she'd finished powdering her nose.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 10:19 AM on October 12, 2004

For Firefox, there's an extension called URIid that lets you apply stylesheet rules only on specific sites. If you have that extension installed, this rule works well to nix the ads on BoingBoing:

body#boingboing-net img[width="125"][height="125"] {display: none !important;}
posted by kindall at 11:12 AM on October 12, 2004

Response by poster: Adblock was the easiest to implement, and userContent.css in Safari didn't execute like it does in other browsers, which was weird. The advantage of userContent.css, I guess, is that you could filter or change all kinds of fun stuff. If you had a big project you were procrastinating and screwed around with it for hours.
posted by mecran01 at 11:56 AM on October 12, 2004