EasyList whitelists

[whitelistasker]

So I was playing around with Adblock Plus today and I found out EasyList has an enormous number of whitelisted sites built in, over 120 of them. Some of them make sense for the average user, such as wikimedia. Others don't make sense at all, as far as I can tell, and clearly seem to be ad sites. Why on earth are so many ad sites whitelisted?

[eighty5cacao]

Most whitelist strings that look like ad sites are related to either of the following:
1. URLs that serve legitimate content, usually videos
2. JavaScript scripts that would cause the page to malfunction due to a script error if blocked

I'll let the more experienced users explain this in further detail.

[Ares2]

What eighty5cacao said.

If you take a closer look at those whitelists, you will find out that most of them contain things like "video", "media", "object-subrequest" etc. These are all necessary because many big site serve their videos or part of the videostream through adservers and those wouldn't work without them. Other whitelists are used to allow sites that use things like "http://ad." "/ads/" etc. for their legit content or - like already mentioned - implemented an ad-script in the wrong way so it has to be allowed to make the site work correctely.

Nevertheless, those whitelists should never allow any ads and if you actually find a place where this happens, it was probably not on purpose and will be fixed if you report it.

[spyder]

@@.1800flowers.com/*/banners/$domain=1800flowers.com
@@.crutchfield.com*/banners/
@@nissanusa.com/
@@/static.ak.fbcdn.net/*/ads/*$script
@@|http://gasprices.mapquest.com/
@@http://ads.biggerboat.com/$script
@@newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/*promo
@@/images.play.com/banners/*
@@despair.com/banners/
@@.bnet.com/advertising/images/
@@.belointeractive.com/*/ads/*@*?|$script
@@.battletech-mercenaries.com/banners/
@@/assets.heavy.com/ads/*_int$object-subrequest,other
@@.amarillas.cl*/Adverti
@@.adserver.yahoo.com/*=HEAD&
@@ads.ign.com/*masthead
@@ads.ign.com/fod/*.html
@@/ad.gogopin.com/*
@@meevee.com/ads/adIframe.aspx?
@@/mp3toys_files/*



Well I'd like to report you have just been busted slipping ad sites into the whitelist

[IceDogg]

Did you not read the post directly above yours?

[Wladimir Palant]

Btw, how about cleaning out some of these? E.g. "@@.1800flowers.com/*/banners/$domain=1800flowers.com" - changing "/banners/*.gif$third-party" into "/banners/*.gif$third-party,domain=~1800flowers.com" is sufficient now.

[Taomyn]

I've always had issues with the additional white-lists that come with EasyList, so I regularly check the filters and disable any that have popped up since the last time I checked.

I personally would like to see them removed or perhaps a secondary set produced that doesn't include them. Anyone using ADP and EasyList knows the risk that websites may not display correctly, so "fixes" shouldn't be forced on us all.

As the description for EasyList shows on the main web page:

EasyList (blocks and/or hides ads):
The EasyList is the "main" subscription. It blocks and/or hides image ads, flash ads, script ads, iFrames... and also (by default) it will block many cookies, trackers, & spyware issues associated with those same blocked sites. All regular adblocking filter strings the filters in this subscription 'block' the ads from being downloaded.

So in my opinion the white-listing of any ad-server breaks this description as it's no longer blocking them - it should be changed to include something like "It blocks and/or hides image ads, flash ads, script ads, iFrames...except those we deem ok which of course you may not, but hey, it's our list and you don't have to use it".

[Wladimir Palant]

Anyone using ADP and EasyList knows the risk that websites may not display correctly

You would be surprised. What's worse, many people aren't even aware that the issue is with EasyList - they report a bug in Adblock Plus. And I can't blame them, they install Adblock Plus to have an ad-free experience, not to look at broken sites at a regular basis. Reducing the number of false positives is an important part of Ares' job maintaining EasyList, without that Adblock Plus would be far less useful for most people.

[Ares2]

So in my opinion the white-listing of any ad-server breaks this description as it's no longer blocking them - it should be changed to include something like "It blocks and/or hides image ads, flash ads, script ads, iFrames...except those we deem ok which of course you may not, but hey, it's our list and you don't have to use it".

That's so not true. ALL whitelists are ONLY to fix problems on sites. Most of them only allow a single script to load, which will not show you any ads but fix the problems. There are a few whitelists that allow video ads, but ONLY because you wouldn't be able to watch the video if you blocked the ads. I put much work into making sure that the whitelists only allow what is absolutely needed to fix the problem and nothing else. If one of them really allows something to load that is not necessary to fix a problem (very unlikely), just tell me and I will fix it like nobody's business.

so "fixes" shouldn't be forced on us all.

So you want broken websites/videos instead of allowing an adscript to run? I would really like to know what disadvantages there could be for you?

[Oxwil]

All of the arguments against the white-lists are totally stupid.

[Hubird]

Can any tell me why the

belointeractive

whitelist was added, I've not had much luck tracking it down.

[Michael]

Removed (https://hg.adblockplus.org/easylist/rev/2ed7ac1f7279)

Code: Select all

@@||belointeractive.com^*/ads/*@*?|$script

The filter was added at http://forums.lanik.us/viewtopic.php?t=2024;I have removed it because it no longer appears to be applicable to the domain.

[Hubird]

Thanks, don't know why I could not find that

[MonztA]

I searched for "belointeractive" and found it.

[Michael]

That's exactly how I found the topic in question too...

[Hubird]

I searched for "belointeractive" and found it.

That's what I thought I did

Oh well, sorted now...

[Mesmer7]

Easy List's has white listed the advertisements on hulu.com. This is a problem and needs to be fixed.

[Wladimir Palant]

See https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2456 (there is probably a similar topic in this forum as well)

[Matt]

There is a topic, but it's not available to regular users.

Long story short, Hulu's ads need to run otherwise you get longer, more annoying ads displayed every time you view a video. Given the choices, the shorter, less-intrusive ads are much more suitable.