TOPIC: UBLOCK ORIGIN
Switching from uBlock Origin to AdGuard and Stylus
15th January 2026
A while back, uBlock Origin broke this website when I visited it. There was a long AI conversation that left me with the impression that the mix of macOS, Firefox and WordPress presented an edge case that could not be resolved. Thus, I went looking for alternatives because I may not be able to convince else to look into it, especially when the issue could be so niche.
One thing the uBlock Origin makes very easy is the custom blocking of web page elements, so that was one thing that I needed to replace. A partial solution comes in the form of the Stylus extension. Though the CSS rules may need to be defined manually after interrogating a web page structure, the same effects came be achieved. In truth, it is not as slick as using a GUI element selector, but I have learned to get past that.
For automatic ad blocking, I have turned to AdGuard AdBlocker. Thus far, it is doing what I need it to do. One thing to note is that does nothing to stop your registering in website visitor analytics, not that it bothers me at all. That was something that uBlock Origin does out of the box, while my new ad blocker sticks more narrowly to its chosen task, and that suffices for now.
In summary, I have altered my tooling for controlling what websites show me. It is all too easy for otherwise solid tools to register false positives and cause other obstructions. That is why I find myself swapping between them every so often; after all, website code can be far too variable.
Maybe it highlights how challenging it is to make ad blocking and other similar software when your test cases cannot be as extensive as they need to be. Add in something of an arms race between advertisers and ad blockers for the ante to be upped even more. It does not help when we want the things free of charge too.
Blocking unwanted interface elements in ChatGPT with uBlock Origin
27th November 2025
This time last year, I was a regular user of Perplexity. Unfortunately, it began to live to its name when news items began to appear on its previously clean home page. When ChatGPT and Anthropic Claude gained the ability to search the web one after another, there was little need to use Perplexity any longer. Before that happened, I began to use uBlock Origin to block the offending panels that I found so intrusive.
However, I still retain an enduring intolerance of intrusions into clean interfaces on public GenAI tools. Thus, when ChatGPT started to offer inspiration for using it in a dropdown panel below the text box, I began to look for ways to block it. It is not as if I need ideas from others anyway; quite enough come up for me from my daily computing.
While disabling memory may help, I sought another way to turn the dropdown panel, only to find that there was none. That left uBlock Origin as my means of control. Unfortunately, OpenAI do not make it easy to block the offending insertion; Perplexity was very simple: right-click on the item and navigate to uBlock Origin > Block element... on the context menu that appears. Making the selection on the ChatGPT interface was unavailable because of how they structure things.
Ironically, I started to pursue the matter using the ChatGPT tool itself. All of this was on Firefox, so I could explore the code by right-clicking on the page and selecting Inspect from the context menu that appeared. Just viewing the source code was not an option either; obfuscation on the OpenAI end saw to that: they appear to use JavaScript to convert indecipherable symbols into code that a browser can render. There was some toing and froing before I got as far as a workable solution.
This needed me to get into the uBlock Origin Dashboard through selecting its icon on the toolbar (while I have it pinned there, you may need to click on the Extensions button in the same place as an additional step before all the steps that I describe here) and then clicking on the gears icon in the bottom right of the panel that appears. Once into the uBlock Origin interface, go to the My Filters tab and add the following code in there:
chatgpt.com##ul.divide-token-border-light.flex-col.divide-y > li.w-full
The first part (before the ## separator) is the URL, which may be chatgpt.openai.com for you. The rest selects the ideas panel while leaving the prompt text and hyperlink in place. That sufficed for me; a generic item is not as intrusive as anything built from your history or any other source of information. Naturally, the interface may change again, which might mean that I need to revisit the filter, but this works for now. We all learn as we go.
Enhancing focus and wellbeing by eliminating digital distractions while browsing the web
23rd March 2025
Such is the state of the world at the moment that I ration my news intake for the sake of my mental wellbeing. That also includes the content that websites present to me. Last November, I was none too please to see Perplexity showing me something unwanted on its home page. However, there appeared to be no way to turn this off, in contrast to the default page shown in a new browser tab. Then, I decided to tolerate the intrusion, only for the practice to develop over time.
Then, I happened on uBlock Origin after finding that it will block unwanted parts of web pages. While it was a bit hit-and-miss to get things going on the Perplexity website, it did the job after some trial and error. Things can change, which means the blocking may need refinement. Even so, I can handle that. When YouTube became another place where I needed to block distractions like previews of other videos during a webinar.
Now, uBlock Origin has become the only ad blocker that and I still use with Firefox. Others like Ghostery broke websites, especially that of the UK Met Office with its cookie blocking; the Ryanair one was another casualty, and became one that fell foul of Pi-hole too. Thus, they were left after me for a single shot approach. Though some websites may complain, anything that cuts out distractions has to help productivity and emotional wellbeing.