General false-positive reports [locked]

Post by **rick752** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 10:40 pm

False-positives will happen from time-to-time.

Leave a link and description of something that you think is being blocked that shouldn't be.

... or you can start a new topic about it.

Post by **IceDogg** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 5:42 am

I voted No I'd rather make whitelist myself (which I have yet to need), but I wouldn't object to the maybe for major problem sites (like Yahoo) since it wouldn't bother me as I don't use them. They give me a problem I find my content elsewhere. So, it wouldn't bother me IF they are site specific ones. Maybe have them as a separate list like the elements are too.

Just offering my opinion as requested. I trust you , and know that you wouldn't use it as a way to make up for crappy filters. Like some have done.

Post by **Stupid Head** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:32 pm

Code: Select all

@@|http://*ideas.live.com

The * is necessary for the www. subdomain.

Post by **rick752** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:12 am

Stupid Head wrote:
Code: Select all
@@|http://*ideas.live.com
The * is necessary for the www. subdomain.

Yeah, that one and Fox news video are the 2 problems that I haven't had time to sort out. These are annoying things that will only hurt THEM in the long run.

live.com uses directory structures like:

http://ads.msn.com/ads/pronws/ideas/en/ ... search.jpg

... which triggers some generic-type filters. Hopefully they will change the structure when it is actually released (beta right now) or a lot of people will be complaining to them about not being able to see some of the graphics.

Post by **Stupid Head** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 12:09 am

Code: Select all

@@|http://*.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204894392

This one is too specific for this filterset, so I'm just bringing it up as an example of a false positive. The * accounts for the names of different colleges which get their own subdomain (i.e. harvard.facebook.com). The page is for a facebook group sponsored by Apple which is giving away 25 free songs every week on iTunes.

Post by **Guest** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 5:05 pm

http://www.rkssoftware.com/mightyfax/download.html - links to right of main content

http://www.rkssoftware.com/mightyfax/versionhist.html - most of the page!

Post by **rick752** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 5:54 pm

Anonymous wrote:http://www.rkssoftware.com/mightyfax/download.html - links to right of main content

http://www.rkssoftware.com/mightyfax/versionhist.html - most of the page!

Got it. I will adjust an element block.

Give me 3 hours from the time of this post and it will be fixed (the element filter)

... and thanx

EDIT: Fixed!

Post by **Guest** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:55 am

rick752 wrote: Got it. I will adjust an element block.

Give me 3 hours from the time of this post and it will be fixed (the element filter)

... and thanx

EDIT: Fixed!

Ah no, the thanx is all for you ... you're doing a superb job with this filter list.

Post by **Stupid Head** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 6:51 pm

http://jobsearch.usajobs.opm.gov/jobsearch.asp

EasyElement blocks the listings on that page.

Post by **rick752** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:12 pm

Stupid Head wrote:http://jobsearch.usajobs.opm.gov/jobsearch.asp

EasyElement blocks the listings on that page.

I re-specified which (ironically) was the very first string in the EasyElement filter.

Changed a 'generic' filter from:
#*(id*=adbanner) to #div(id*=adbanner)

... it was a <table> element falsie.

Post by **Stupid Head** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:20 am

http://www.vh1.com/

Big gap at the bottom of the page caused by a blocked swf.

Code: Select all

@@vh1.com/home2/swf/promoArea.swf

http://games.vh1.com/

A whole mess there.

Post by **rick752** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:09 pm

Stupid Head wrote:http://www.vh1.com/

Big gap at the bottom of the page caused by a blocked swf.
Code: Select all
@@vh1.com/home2/swf/promoArea.swf
http://games.vh1.com/

A whole mess there.

Adjusted/fixed in EasyList. No whitelist necessary.
Also added some EasyElement generics for them,
Pages look great!

Post by **Stupid Head** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:54 pm

http://marketing.openoffice.org/

Post by **rick752** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:31 pm

Stupid Head wrote:openoffice.org/

Ouch..... not a good false-positive there. I took a shot at that one from another site I found.

I have removed *http://marketing.* from the list. It's not a major problem as I only added it because of one single site I found. If I run into that site again, I'll do something else.

Post by **siegfre** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:37 pm

Dumb question to follow => How do I know I'm getting a false positive if I'm visiting a new website & don't know what to expect?

Dumb answer ( I suppose) => Turn off ABP

Post by **Peng** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:18 am

siegfre wrote:Dumb question to follow => How do I know I'm getting a false positive if I'm visiting a new website & don't know what to expect?

Dumb answer ( I suppose) => Turn off ABP

Unfortunately, pretty much. But don't bother going to that much trouble. Just check if there's a false positive if a page seems to be missing something that should be there. You're not browsing the web to test the EasyList, you're browsing the web because you want to.

Post by **rick752** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 2:24 am

Peng wrote:Just check if there's a false positive if a page seems to be missing something that should be there.

@ siegfre

I totally agree with Peng. If you notice something is missing then come back here and report it. If you DON'T notice that anything is missing, then don't worry about it and enjoy your web surfing. I don't get a lot of false-postive reports here (and with no whitelisting either). As you must know, you just started only the second page of 'false-positive' reports here.

There are a couple of false-positives out there, but I have explained them clearly in this forum on different posts (foxnews videos being the one I won't change my filters for

)

Just enjoy the filters ... if you find a problem, bring it here and I will get on it right away. I've got my pride you know

In most instances, I will usually give you an answer or fix the filters within 24hrs for most reports.

Post by **Stupid Head** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 12:40 am

On weather.com, the header background is missing because of */banners/*. Perhaps it should be changed to */banners/$~background.

Post by **rick752** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:05 am

@ Stu:

Hey, now that's a pretty good idea.

Testing it now:

Code: Select all

*/banners/*$~background

Looks good Stu ... not bad

Post by **salvy** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:57 pm

i think i found a new false positive here http://www.consumer.philips.com/consume ... ctBuster=0
easy list blocks almost everything

Post by **rick752** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 11:40 pm

@ salvy

These are things that I consider a "gray area" in adblocking. You are at a site where a company or store is selling products ... therefore there will be 'ads' and 'banners' there .... it is the 'advertising' of one's own products.

There will be cases where stores will use "ad"-type strings in their filenames and directory structures. No matter how careful you try to test a filter string ... there will ALWAYS be a false-positive here and there on a particular string, especially at online stores. As Spock would say, though, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few".

I always advise against doing any 'shopping' with ABP enabled. The chances of false-positives are greater on sites that sell stuff no matter whose filters you use ... and I'm certainly not going to overwhelm my filter with a long list of store whitelistings. I will leave it up to the user to choose to either whitelist a frequently-used store for their own convenience or just disable ABP while shopping online in general.

Having said all of that, it actually seems that the site you pointed me to works perfectly fine with the exception of the flashing banners that promote certain products for sale there. All (non-promotional) images, navigation, and the actual store interface works just fine there ..... there are just no 'promotional' ad links.

Edit: added more info

Post by **salvy** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 3:53 pm

oh, now I get it

Post by **Guest** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 9:58 pm

The images of the download mirrors at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad- ... rsonal.php are being blocked, so you have to disable adblock if you want to download Ad-Aware

Post by **rick752** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:21 am

Anonymous wrote:The images of the download mirrors at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad- ... rsonal.php are being blocked, so you have to disable adblock if you want to download Ad-Aware

That is true, Guest.

The partner sites ARE being blocked, but they are only a promotion for the sites that host their downloads than for actual use. Why would you go to a another site instead of using the host site that you are already on?

You can download Ad Aware at the Lavasoft site the same way you would on any other site ... simply by clicking on the DOWNLOAD button that's already right there.

Post by **IceDogg** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:18 am

Rick, not to disagree, because you are correct. But for more info those are listed as "Lavasoft Mirrors" and do point directly to downloads of Ad aware not just to the general sites. Wasn't sure if you noticed that or not. But I still agree with you that you can click the download link in the page to get the software. I don't think it's worth changing your filters over myself.

Post by **rick752** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:46 pm

OK Dogg ... I changed my mind about it.

Added:

Code: Select all

@@lavasoft.*/partners/*

Thanx.

Post by **IceDogg** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:21 pm

I wasn't meaning for you to do that, but that's ok. I was just letting you know. You know I'm not for whitelist much.

Post by **bigkid** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:09 am

http://easylist.adblockplus.org/easylis ... ick752.txt

Line:
businessweek.com##div[id="storywide"]>div[class="rule"]+div[style]

caused blocking of all images in Fx 2.0.0.1

This line is displayed as a single letter "c" in the Adblock Plus Preference dialog->Filter Rules.

Thanks rick752, and good job!

Post by **rick752** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 4:59 pm

@bigkid
I am not seeing your problem here. Everything is listed correctly. Did you just get a corrupt update? Try updating the subscription again.

This is what I see in the list:

Code: Select all

breitbart.com#td(width=130)(valign=top)(align=center)

businessweek.com#div(AllAds)

businessweek.com##div[id="storywide"]>div[class="rule"]+div[style]

canmag.com#div(demodiv)

canmag.com#table(fun)

Everything is working fine here.

Post by **bigkid** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 1:51 am

thanks rick752.

should be corruption my side. Updating is not fixing it. I removed the subscription, restarted Fx, and re-added it, them it worked.

still, ADP's great!

General false-positive reports [locked]

General false-positive reports [locked]

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