uBlock Origin Legacy wishlist/feature requests

[back2themoon]

Yet another website throwing blank spaces my way. This is occurring at an alarmingly increasing rate these last two weeks. Can you please check if you get them as well? I need to find out whether something is going on with my filterlist selections. Note this is only happening on uBO Legacy. Thanks.

https://englishbasics.net/login-vs-logon-difference/

[Night Wing]

Yet another website throwing blank spaces my way. This is occurring at an alarmingly increasing rate these last two weeks. Can you please check if you get them as well? I need to find out whether something is going on with my filterlist selections. Note this is only happening on uBO Legacy. Thanks.

https://englishbasics.net/login-vs-logon-difference/

I have no problems seeing the pages on the link you posted. Even "surfed" around on that page using the different topic buttons and their respective pages.

But I do not use the Windows 10 operating system like you do. On this hard drive I am typing this post with, it is installed with 64 bit Linux Mint 22.1 (Xia) Xfce. I am also using uBlock Origin 1.16.6.0 and I have never added any more filtering lists than what it comes with.

[Gemmaugr]

Yet another website throwing blank spaces my way. This is occurring at an alarmingly increasing rate these last two weeks. Can you please check if you get them as well? I need to find out whether something is going on with my filterlist selections. Note this is only happening on uBO Legacy. Thanks.

https://englishbasics.net/login-vs-logon-difference/

The site in the link you provided works for me (I use latest uCyborg uBO), without allowing anything in eMatrix. Only one error shows up in the console. On Win 10, I have to add, since the poster before me said you do as well.

[back2themoon]

Thanks. Yes, the website works fine. The problem is with the blank spaces. So, you are not getting these?

space1.png

space2.png

[Moonchild]

The "blank spaces" are ad placeholders.

[Night Wing]

The problem is with the blank spaces. So, you are not getting these?

space1.png
space2.png

No. I do not get any blank spaces.

[back2themoon]

The "blank spaces" are ad placeholders.

Yes, I know. What I am saying is that very recently an increasing amount of websites started showing these "blank spaces" / ad placeholders. Since this is not occurring with uBO for FF with similar filterlists, and it did not occur on uBO Legacy either until recently, I am trying to find out if:

1. I have some conflicting filterlists causing this.
2. This is a uBO Legacy limitation, which cannot "decode"/support certain newer data from the filterlists, which implement newer uBO features.
3. A Pale Moon missing feature which might also cause this? Don't know if it's technically possible, but perhaps newer uBO adblocking functions may rely on such features. I don't know.

So, I tried with AI. It does provide correct, per-site filters for me which get rid of the blanks (using "the power of XUL" - not my words) but after asking some further questions, I got these, among others:

Modern ad networks (like Google AdSense) now deploy placeholder divs with randomized classes that:

Load invisible ad containers first (creating blank spaces)
Later fill them via JavaScript (which uBO Legacy blocks)
Use CSS min-height or aspect-ratio to enforce spacing

CSS Grid/Flexbox adoption: Sites now use modern layouts where empty containers still occupy space
AdTech's class rotation: tdi_37, tdi_43 etc. are dynamically generated to avoid static filters
Lazy-loading ads: Ads load after page render, leaving empty <ins>/<span> placeholders
uBO Legacy's missing :has() cannot target parents of blocked elements to collapse space
Many APIs (e.g., declarativeNetRequest) simply don’t exist in Pale Moon.

For example, server sends HTML with innocent-looking containers:

Code: Select all

<div class="tdi_58" style="min-height:250px"> <!-- Hidden ad space -->
  <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-123"></ins>
</div>

uBO Legacy blocks adsbygoogle but can't remove the parent div (due to random tdi_* classes)
CSS forces the space via min-height (which isn't blocked by traditional filters)

Modern uBO (Firefox/Chrome) uses:

:has() selector: ##div:has(> .adsbygoogle) → Removes entire container
CSS :empty ##div.tdi_58:empty → Cleans up leftovers
JS-based anti-adblock reversal (not possible in XUL)

Pale Moon's limitation: Its engine (Goanna) lacks these modern CSS4 features.

No. I do not get any blank spaces.

Thank you. This makes me hopeful that most of the above AI text is nonsense, and there is some unusual conflict in my filterlists setup which I'll have to look into.

[sidology]

What I am saying is that very recently an increasing amount of websites started showing these "blank spaces" / ad placeholders.

Did you disable "Parse and enforce cosmetic filters" in "Filter lists" tab?

[Gemmaugr]

No. I do not get any blank spaces.

Thank you. This makes me hopeful that most of the above AI text is nonsense, and there is some unusual conflict in my filterlists which I'll have to look into.

Just to confirm it twice, and with the added showing of the screenshots. I do not get these blank spaces either.

[back2themoon]

Did you disable "Parse and enforce cosmetic filters" in "Filter lists" tab?

Nope.

Just to confirm it twice, and with the added showing of the screenshots. I do not get these blank spaces either.

Thanks.

[sidology]

sshot-1.png

[back2themoon]

Sidology, you've already asked that and I answered. We have the same, default settings there. "Parse and enforce cosmetic filters" is ticked/enabled etc. Can't make it any clearer than that.

[Gemmaugr]

Did you disable "Parse and enforce cosmetic filters" in "Filter lists" tab?

Nope.

Just to confirm it twice, and with the added showing of the screenshots. I do not get these blank spaces either.

Thanks.

Not sure it this will help, but here are the filterlists I'm using (which I'm sure is a mess, not to mention having to zoom out to 60% to get them all in one):

[back2themoon]

Thanks, Gemmaugr. I will check them out. It is a bit of a mess though, since you have some duplicates and overlapping filters (EasyList + Optimized, also check EasyList - Other Annoyances and the last "Online Malicious..." both of which indicate they are not being used. Probably due to overlap with other filterlists or even dead links. Look for significant differences between the "Used" and "out of" numbers.

You also have a lot of filters in total. I seem to remember reading somewhere that going over 500.000 may cause uBO to struggle. But perhaps that's only valid for my ancient CPU.

[UCyborg]

In case of uBO filter lists, less is more.

[Goodydino]

Thanks. Yes, the website works fine. The problem is with the blank spaces. So, you are not getting these?

space1.png
space2.png

There is a setting in uBlock Origin "Hide placeholders of blocked elements". Why not use that? It works for me.

[back2themoon]

That's a default setting and I haven't touched it. It is enabled.

[person45]

the latest, non-beta release.

Thank you. 1.16.6.0 is working while I'm signed on to youtube.