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?

Edit: I am blown away by the support from you all. Thank you! I am so excited to start polishing this baby up!

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    161·
    1 year ago

    I like the idea in principle, but I think it’s important to know what the most powerful people on the planet are doing for our own sakes. Admittedly, a lot of it is marketing bullshit, but it’s kind of important to see that so you can see through it and find the true motivations as well. Like their “effective altruism” bullshit.

    • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      23·
      1 year ago

      I’m actually ancap and all that, participating in barking contests over economics against those illiterate in it, sometimes, but:

      It does have the use you describe, like watching\reading\listening to propaganda to “read between the lines”.

      Only the fact is that this is expected, and such news are like a DDOS attack, you won’t preserve your sanity to make any use of them.

      The idea is good, and also maybe not using mainstream social media too.

      • aCosmicWave@lemm.eeOPEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I couldn’t agree more. Describing the billionaire stream of consciousness that we’re being inundated with as “a DDOS attack” is brilliant. That is exactly how I see it.

        I want to take back some control over when I choose to read about these people.

    • Atemu@lemmy.mlEnglish
      216·
      1 year ago

      what the most powerful people on the planet are doing for our own sakes

      Ahahahahah hahhahahahaha hahah haha hah hahh…

      Good one!