I never knew adblockers were a thing until the most recent hubbub with YouTube, so I went down a rabbit hole and the world is a better place.

Imagine what I might learn tomorrow.

I’m very curious as to how you survived on the Internet without an adblocker for the last decade.

My guess is they grew up with it like that. Us old fuckers privy to the Internet of the 90s and 00s, know what it should be.

Scrolling marquees, blinking text, background midi music, hit counters, guest books, and web rings?

Bring back hit counters

And guest books

And don’t forget huge signatures with GIFs and all sorts of crap for your favourite forum.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Well, it was also simple at the time. I guess growing up with the bs made us hate it, then they got gud, and kids don’t care anymore today.

Now you just hit me with nostalgia. Yes, all of it.

Ah, yes! The days of composing websites in Notepad.

True, but we’re not old.

They probably hated the internet, I know I would have

I know right?

I haven’t seen an ad in over a decade, and that includes TV commercials, well maybe TV commercials in sporting events

There are still significant parts of the internet without ads.

Although I’d admit that the gap between the demise of usenet and the birth of the fediverse was tough.

Congratulations on being one of today’s lucky 10,000! Blocking ads is like getting a bad tooth pulled. You never realize how awful it is until you find out what it’s like to be rid of it!

That’s also a good description for mechanical keyboards

I got a mechnical keyboard after listening to you internet nerds and have been sorely disappointed

Really? That’s surprising. Are you just indifferent about the clickiness?

I definitely aren’t as fanatical about them as most people, I don’t mind using non mech keys. But I definitely prefer using a nice mech keyboard when I have the option.

What kind of mechanical keyboard?

Sure, my razor one is kinda crappy, but I’ve used a very nice one at a friend who did the build your own thing.

Keychron is pretty good for entry level. I highly recommend the C2 Pro with brown switches for office work

That’s a matter of taste. I like them slim and quiet.

You know you can get quiter mech keyboards? Also sometimes people put O rings on the stem of the key to dampen the sound. I don’t think there are any slim mech keyboards- though there are nice small 50%, 60%, 65% and 70% keyboards

Edit: here’s what a 50% keyboard looks like, pretty cute right?

There’s one of the Cherry DW 9500 i have now, with their new slim switches and for two times the price. But i was satisfied with this one and it’s not worth the effort for me with dampening.

Ah I see, yeah after commenting that I remembered seeing something a few years ago about a laptop that has slim mech keys, they must use similar switches to that keyboard.

Do I need a mechanical keyboard if my typing speed is around 60 wpm? I don’t type fast, which is why I never saw the appeal of mechanical keyboards

Well a mechanical keyboard could help you type a little faster actually. I think the primary appeal of them is that they feel nice to type on though. Another reason people buy them is because they’re good for playing games competitively such as CS:GO.

Thanks. I was looking at this boring looking keyboard (a look which I personally like, I’m ashamed to say): https://www.amazon.com/Perixx-PERIBOARD-428-Mechanical-Keyboard-Backlighting/dp/B08F3V93KS

I like low profile keyboards, and don’t like the sharp noise from blue switches. This seems OK. What do you think?

That’s a nice keyboard, I personally can’t stand the “gamer aesthetic” so it looks good to me. I used to use a Cherry keyboard which looked like one of those large beige keyboards from the 90s, which I liked not just because Cherry manufacters the switches you see in more expensive mech keyboards so it was nice having a Cherry brand keyboard, but also because it looked quite unique compared to modern keyboards. That keyboard had Cherry blue switches, unfortunately I broke that keyboard (entirely my fault.) My current keyboard looks very similar to that one, with Kailh blue switches.

There’s two main companies that manufacture the keys for mech keyboards, Cherry and Kailh. Cherry is a German company and their switches last longer and are usually considered to be a little better to use but that is quite subjective. Kailh is a Chinese company, like I say they don’t last for quite as long but you’ll definitely still get minimum 3 years out of them, most likely they’ll last 5+ years with daily use. Kailh switches are cheaper and so the keyboards are cheaper (except for Razer, they use Kailh switches but charge the same price as companies that make keyboards with Cherry switches lol.) I haven’t used Cherry/Kailh brown switches (that keyboard has Kailh browns) but I understand they’re good switches for general use, especially in an office context. They’re less clicky but otherwise similar to blues.

You might want look up a comparison of the various switches, but here’s a graphic I could find with some basic info. Linear switches have no “bump” where you can feel the switch being actuated, tactile and clicky switches do but with tactiled you only feel it, there is no corresponding click sound (or much less of one.)

Adblockers can do more than just block ads, they also allow you to customize websites. As a simple example you can remove the annoying headers on youtube channels that take half the screen:

It’s also great for news sites. I have a filter to remove articles on topics I don’t care about. I also have rules to prevent these sites from automatically reloading after certain amount of time, something that I find very annoying.

Whoa! You can do that? How?

Different person here, would love info on removing headers, if you would be so kind!

You should be able to right click the banner and then click “block element”

Huh, I’ve never thought to do that for like a YouTube header. Just those irritating autoplaying videos on web sites that scroll with ya.

I was thinking there was a way to automatically block all banners there hahaha

These are the uBlock rules used to block the headers from youtube channels. The ‘about’ tab is intentionally left unfiltered for the cases I actually want to see that information.

https://pastebin.com/raw/MEUPPs0Z

edit: had to put the code on pastebin since the code markdown doesn’t seem to work here.

That’s awesome, thank you!

Quick edit: I also like to have the about tab. I do ko-fi or patreon for people that make really awesome stuff hahaha

Next up, install DeArrow to fix that guy’s horrid thumbnails

once again, the streisand effect at play. great job fucking your profits by trying to restrict people on the internet.

The streisand effect is beautiful

better late than never

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