Adblock Plus and (a little) more
Moving Adblock Plus focus from filters to subscriptions · 2006-10-28 09:00 by Wladimir Palant
Brian Yi (you probably know him as “Stupid Head” in the forums) wrote down some nice ideas about the reasons for popularity of Adblock (Plus) and how the development should continue. He points out that most people can’t create their own filters or simply don’t want to spend their time on this. That’s why subscriptions are so important for wide-spread adoption, they allow people to install Adblock Plus once and let it run all by itself.
That matches what I have been thinking. When I started working on Adblock Plus my final goal was to make it possible to run the extension in background so that only advanced users would ever access the filter list, and I think we have made quite some progress on this way. According to Brian the time has come to draw consequences in the user interface, put some stress on subscriptions while moving the filter list further away — and maybe he is right.
So the new user interface would separate basic configuration (options and subscriptions) and advanced configuration (full filter list). The former should be easily accessible (the way the Preferences dialog is right now) while the latter would require the user to press a button named “Advanced” or something equally scary. Yet it should still allow advanced users to work with the filters efficiently the way they do now. Does that sound unrealistic? I don’t know, somehow I have the feeling that this can be done. When I can come up with something that looks like a solution I will request opinions in the forum, as usually.
Comment [5]
Commenting is closed for this article.
Matt Nordhoff (Peng) · 2006-10-28 12:06 · #
Not that I’m recommending this, but some things (the epitome of UI design, SessionSaver, comes to mind) have an ‘Advanced’ button that displays the advanced stuff in that window and remembers if it’s in advanced mode or not.
You’d have to display subscriptions in non-advanced mode (similar to the welcome dialog?), but they should be displayed in advanced mode, too.
How about this? Have subscriptions displayed in the non-advanced window like in the welcome dialog, but if you click the ‘Advanced’ button, switch it to the current design (with subscriptions on top?).
Meh.
Erm... · 2006-10-28 12:36 · #
Please remember that basic configuration is something that is done once, and rarely, if ever, needed to look at later, while filters are (for those of us who use them) tweaked relatively often.
I certainly don’t mind separation of basic configuration and filter list, but please don’t make access to the latter more cumbersome.
chewey · 2006-10-31 14:50 · #
I second Erm’s opinion.
Separating the preferences window into basic and advanced sounds like a good idea – and of course, filter editing and displaying should definitely move to the advanced interface.
But it is not only useful for filter list authors and comparable geeks: Adding (or editing) some individual filter rules not managed by the subscription is a recommendation I give to users demanding advice about some obscure sites quite a lot.
However, adding more steps to reach the filter list editor would be pretty annoying for those using it regularly – and dropping basic users into the advanced interface just because they used it once may be just as bad.
So maybe there should be a Pref to toggle, something like “remember preferences state”?
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
I actually hope that in 0.8 you won’t have to see the filter list or edit any filters just to block a simple banner. I just don’t know whether my idea will work…
Sean · 2006-11-01 23:36 · #
Cool. I’ve installed Adblock Plus+Filterset.g updater on every computer I fix, then I hide the toolbar and statusbar icons (because the people I fix computer for wouldn’t know how to use them anyways!) I’ve thought for a long time that it would be sweet to be able to install just one extension – a “quiet mode” Adblock with built in filter sets (like you’ve done in recent versions with subscriptions) and no toolbar or statusbar icons. Just install and you’re good to go. I realize that advanced users want to edit filters themselves, which is cool, but if there was an option (or version) so that “not advanced” users could enjoy blocked ads with no configuration on their part, that would be sweet.
Eventually, as filter lists/subscriptions improve, maybe no one will actually need to edit filters themselves. (I take that back. People should be able to edit them as they like.) Maybe there should be a way to suggest improvements to subscriptions directly from Adblock Plus!
This is all coming from a person who wishes he actually knew how to program. You guys are absolutely awesome. Keep up the good work!
MS · 2006-11-09 03:52 · #
Really need to know how to unsubscribe from filters offered for AdblockPlus.
Can’t pull up any pop-up function on various sites (not even to create an e-mail in hotmail). Not sure whether or not can open incoming mail. Need a simple — not a programmer here — way to “dial back” intensity of blocking. (I’ve used an earlier version of the product on a prior machine & really liked the clean pages it provided.)
Have tried disabling & enabling various combinations in ABP menu & Mozilla options. (By the way, dropdown menus on these products work well at this time.) Have signed up for multiple add-ons through Firefox, but looks like about 1/2 of these are also blocked.
Please advise via this blog.
Reply from Wladimir Palant:
My advise would be to ask your question in the forum, this could become a lengthy conversation which shouldn’t be led in the blog.
You might want to take a look at this tip: http://adblockplus.org/en/tips?tip=effective_filter