HN post for that list here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512273
There are many claims the list author makes without any source code at all, though a lot of buzzwords. The reddit r/pihole moderator pulled the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/pihole/comments/kh5dit/the_quantum_... . The thread was more entertaining before the list author deleted every downvoted comment they made.
[0] https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list/-/i...
However, at least for Pi-Hole users, more is usually better, so I added the list to my Pi-Hole.
Holy shit that's such bullshit.
They are basically claiming they invented a artificial general intelligence, with feelings, that happens to feel the same way about ads as us. It's basically sentient instead of publishing research papers, they turned it into an ad blocker.
Even if it's not morally wrong, it makes you look like an idiot who doesn't understand the technology you are selling. In the worst case it might even be used as evidence that your work is a fraud.
There is no benefit; To the lay person, It would sound just as impressive to say "We trained a machine learning model to detect ads and spyware" and that wouldn't immediately set off alarm bells with people familiar with the current state of machine learning.
Second: Talking about fraud, the evidence linked above is pretty strong.
Their alleged AI is somehow detecting test domains that authors of other lists as "ads or spyware". Test domains that aren't linked anywhere on the internet.
In one "smoking gun" example, the test domain doesn't even have a DNS entry. The alleged AI can't even load the domain to scan it.
I suggest: https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/
https://gitlab.com/curben/urlhaus-filter/raw/master/urlhaus-...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/notracking/hosts-blocklist...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anudeepND/blacklist/master...
I added the 4 lists you recommended to my Pi-Hole, which added a net new 73,253 domains to my Pi-Hole. My total is now close to 2M.
EDIT: I'm not sure quite how to deal with being put on ad lists. Sure, people can upload any file to our host so it's plausible that someone, at some point, has uploaded an advert. Someone could also redirect to an advert domain and we'd have no way to really deal with that unless it was reported. Ideas are welcome for solutions.
1. Reach out to the list maintainer to see why your site was added.
2. Create a blocklist comprised of those ad lists. Don’t redirect to sites on the blocklist.
3. (Of dubious practical value) Create a Terms of Service that says users may not use your to link to advertisements.
A place to start might be this large, very popular list that combines a bunch of other lists: https://oisd.nl/
Actual text file is here (large file warning): https://hosts.oisd.nl/
Just prevent your service from shortening links to any of those domains.
This is an excellent merged blocklist, with public whitelist (oisd is fully closed, no insight in what is whitelisted and why, also causing more false positives..)
That seems entirely unenforceable. Aren't ALL websites ultimately advertisements?
No. Some are just information, art, or what-have-you. Here's one I just found now.
If the goal is purely informational, why is the author's name attached?
The site also advertises the CMS it runs on.
That's my point, by a reasonable standard, ANY site that exists is an advertisement for something or other, thus a rule saying "no linking to advertisements" is worse than useless.
Ads are sort of like porn. There are lots of things you certainly know serve no other purpose than to advertise something and you can block them outright. Native advertising is certainly difficult though.
Or perhaps you believe the mere existence of information is a call for attention.
I think there would be exceptions, like test sites, personal experiments etc. that could make it on to the internet without seeking attention, but any content designed for consumption is attention-seeking.
Maybe. Attention can also be granted without it have been called there. There are also websites not designed for consumption.
If every website is advertising, then surely most of human discourse and activity would also be considered advertising. What's even the purpose of the word?
You're not going to convince me that everything is an ad, and I probably won't convince you either. I'm not interested in playing any further semantic word games. I'll read any replies you make if you choose to, but I have nothing more to offer in this thread.
I do believe all content made for consumption (even purely informational content) is attention-seeking.