The urge for an ad blocker

[gabrgv]

TL;DR

@Moonchild or @Basilisk-Dev, please, at least provide an ad blocker that can be found unmistakably and installed through the add-ons page. If it can't be called uBlock Origin for whatever reason, call it something else.

That's it, but read through if you have time.

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Guys, let's get real, Pale Moon and Basilisk need their own ad blocker. When some criticize them on sites like Reddit (ugh!), one thing these people often mention, and it's unfortunately true, is the lack of an ad blocker. "That's not true", you will say, "we have uBlock and eMatrix!". Let us see.

Suppose I'm an average PC user (not even a normie) that just left Fagfox because of some shitty new thing they implemented. Since I have a brain, after I installed Basilisk or Pale Moon, I went after an ad blocker. So, I go to the browser's add-ons page (would a normie go this far?) and start searching for ad blockers.

• If I search for ad blocker, I get CanvasBlocker Legacy: "Nah, don't even know what a canvas is"; and ηMatrix, with a description that reads: "Point & click to forbid/allow any class of requests made by your browser. Use it to block scripts, iframes, ads, facebook, etc.". I may go for it and, alas... --we know eMatrix is not for everyone.
• If I search for adblocker, nothing is shown.
• Only if I search for ad block or adblock will uBlock appear.

But, man, it's called uBlock Origin (Legacy) [External]! What would you think if Pale Moon was called Firefox (Legacy)? See what I mean? But, then, I click on the link and it takes me to a totally weird crappy, and a bit laggy, site where there is no "download extension", no "install add-on", no nothing. It'd take something to understand that I'm supposed to click on uBlock0_1.16.6.1.firefox-legacy.xpi (what is an xpi?).

I know it's not the browser's developers job to do this, but, these days, the availability of an ad blocker is a must and not having it is "bad for business" for sure. I'm not asking to bundle the browser with an ad blocker, but one should be available to the new user as readily as possible.

Particularly, I've never seen an ad with uBlock + Basilisk. It's great, it doesn't require no tinkering, it's "set it and forget it", as the say. But, if someone is willing to fork and improve uBlock Origin (Legacy) [External] or, better yet, write an uBlock-compatible ad blocker from scratch himself, it'd be most welcome. Everybody here says that XUL extensions are more powerful than WebExtensions, then how come our ad blocker, the extension that matters the most, is worse than Firefox's? Let's show them..., right? Only, please, don't vibecode.

[Night Wing]

When I was started out with Pale Moon, I did it this way to find an adblocker.

Pale Moon Home Page > Addons > Extensions > Privacy & Security

Once on the Privacy & Security page, I read what each extension is and does. Near the bottom of the page, this is where uBlock Origin is and in the description for it, it states it is an adblocker.

Then I clicked on the UBO heading and it brought me to the page below for the download showing the newest verison.

https://github.com/UCyborg/uBlock-for-f ... y/releases

I never took what other people said about Pale Moon on Mozillazine or Reddit. I liked to find out things on my own. In other words; I like to take things for a "test drive" to see if I need it, like it or want it.

[Mæstro]

When asked about this before (it would be a while to find the post), Moonchild clarified that blocking adverts is the job of an extension, not the core browser. Different people have different requirements in a blocker. Some would be content with the equivalent of always-on Easylist and Easyprivacy, like what Epiphany does. Others require the fine controls which ηMatrix offers. Some people might not even need an advert blocker at all, for their DNS filtering through other software already achieves the same purpose for them. Leaving the browser free from any of these by default keeps the browser neutral, so anyone can use the blocker which suits his needs best. Because some advert blockers can conflict, favouring one over the others could create headaches for everybody else.

[moonbat]

If I search for adblocker, nothing is shown.

Fixed, the extension didn't have it as a search tag.

Off-topic:
Also @Ucyborg, 'gorhill fucking sucks', really?
That field is for adding search keywords so that people don't run into the exact problem gabrgv faced, not petty rivalry.

I know it's not the browser's developers job to do this, but, these days, the availability of an ad blocker is a must

You sound as though none exists for Pale Moon. This search issue aside, how hard is it really for you to install an extension? Among the other reasons Maestro cited, there are situations where a browser is solely used on an internal network for locally hosted services (an intranet or a VM without internet access to use) and the extra overhead of a content blocker is both useless and a resource burden.

Software that uses plugins or extensions do so because every user has a different set of features they want or prioritize and catering to all of them is what leads to bloatware as seen on other browsers here. Ask n different people what features they want and you'll get n different combinations. The only way to cater to them is to allow new features to be implemented in an extensible manner for those who want them, and currently no non UXP browser offers this level of flexibility.

[Moonchild]

Immediately assuming things like these are intentional and not a mistake or point of improvement sets a pretty bad precedent for a normal, healthy conversation on a forum.

A little less entitlement also goes a long way. Add-on devs are the ones in control of their listings on the add-ons site. If they do it wrong, then don't directly blame me or other core product devs for it. We're not here to maintain every bit of the add-ons ecosystem. That is literally outside of our wheelhouse, so don't blame us for not checking hundreds of add-on metas constantly for something that "might make it more difficult to find it".
If it's a problem, then next time just ask, normally, if this can be improved "I had trouble finding an ad blocker on the add-ons site while it should be easy to find; can someone look into this?" is a big difference from the OP made here.

Problem was solved (thank you, Moonbat!) and I don't see a point in letting this negativity proliferate, so I'm locking this thread.