ROList - Romanian filter list fiasco
Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 9:02 pm
The ROList filter list for Romanian websites had been the default on Adblock Plus for quite some years and as such was also added as the default in uBlock Origin. Recently ROList's maintainer Zoso, who is also a popular blogger, was accused of being lenient on ads and letting his own blog's ads through on the list. Users saw the conflict of interest and asked uBO maintainer gorhill to remove the list as default and a much more recent Romanian Ad (ROad) Block List was put in place for the Romanian default.
tcptomato the maintainer ROad was in turn accused by Zoso and others of blocking websites based on their reporting bias, i.e., "fake news" websites (which tcp checked from a third-party website) and blocking affiliate links. They claimed the list was blocking more than what it was intended for and playing with users choices and bloggers income. Zoso also said that his website was being targeted in particular for ads and also claimed that it was tcptomato who got his list booted from uBO to get his on there. Supporters of ROad said the list is fine and blocks ads better than ROList.
uBO currently uses the "light" version of ROad which does not block fake news websites though it still does block affiliate links. ROList is still the default on ABP https://adblockplus.org/subscriptions
This raises interesting questions such as whether filter lists should block fake new sites and affiliate links. I believe the answer to both questions should be no unless the filter lists are clearly meant for these purposes; an ad filter should simply block ads.
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/3661
tcptomato the maintainer ROad was in turn accused by Zoso and others of blocking websites based on their reporting bias, i.e., "fake news" websites (which tcp checked from a third-party website) and blocking affiliate links. They claimed the list was blocking more than what it was intended for and playing with users choices and bloggers income. Zoso also said that his website was being targeted in particular for ads and also claimed that it was tcptomato who got his list booted from uBO to get his on there. Supporters of ROad said the list is fine and blocks ads better than ROList.
uBO currently uses the "light" version of ROad which does not block fake news websites though it still does block affiliate links. ROList is still the default on ABP https://adblockplus.org/subscriptions
This raises interesting questions such as whether filter lists should block fake new sites and affiliate links. I believe the answer to both questions should be no unless the filter lists are clearly meant for these purposes; an ad filter should simply block ads.
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/3661
https://www.reddit.com/r/Romania/comments/88y18h/psa_road_block_se_doreste_eliminarea_listei_din/