Ad Muncher

[River]

https://www.admuncher.com/

I know it is very old now and is not being developed anymore but does anyone remember it when this was the best?

Still miss it.

I know there is other better ones now but still. It was really an amazing piece of software!

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Back before Chrome and when Firefox was good and all, I mainly just used whatever was the latest IE browser (in the days of XP, after I retired Netscape and Win2000) as it's built-in pop-up-blocker wasn't horrible. I was a little bit of a late-comer to XP as far as a daily-driver-OS, aIthough since I worked with PCs everyday, I still had my hands in it enough to know it and how to navigate most of it from memory. I mainly used Linux from around 2001-2006. I don't remember using ad-blockers until Firefox 5.xx or so around the time Chrome came out for XP. Then I had some browser extensions with ad-blocker from AVG I think it was for a couple years, then found AdBlock ( getadblock.com ) and then later found and fell in love with uBlock Origin ( ublockorigin.com )

[River]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Bad 💀 Motha:

Back before Chrome and when Firefox was good and all, I mainly just used whatever was the latest IE browser (in the days of XP, after I retired Netscape and Win2000) as it's built-in pop-up-blocker wasn't horrible. I don't remember using ad-blockers until Firefox 5.xx or so around the time Chrome came out for XP. Then I had some browser extensions with ad-blocker from AVG I think it was for a couple years, then found AdBlock (getadblock.com) and then later found and fell in love with uBlock Origins

Cool.

It did cost money after all, Ad Muncher, but was the best.

No offense.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Games and Pro-Work software are the only "software" I've paid for in my life for the most part. Everything one needs is free.

Paid Extensions are rubbish. They can easily stop support at anytime and walk away.

Most of the good stuff is open-source and while the creator might walk away at some point, others continue it afterwards. Relying on donations and fund-raisers, not straight-up blocking you from using it until you pay them, which is complete non-sense.

[plat]

Wow, never heard of it before. Used to AdGuard for Desktop and exclusively now: uBlock Origin.

Thanks, adblockers are always interesting things to add to your browser. Can't really be without one (of the mainstream ones, that is) and with Manifest v.3 set to hobble adblocking in chromium browsers, look for AdGuard or uBlock Origin Lite (which is free but still needs some fine tuning and is very actively developed by genius Mr. Hill}

[River]

Diposting pertama kali oleh plat:

Wow, never heard of it before. Used to AdGuard for Desktop and exclusively now: uBlock Origin.

Thanks, adblockers are always interesting things to add to your browser. Can't really be without one (of the mainstream ones, that is) and with Manifest v.3 set to hobble adblocking in chromium browsers, look for AdGuard or uBlock Origin Lite (which is free but still needs some fine tuning and is very actively developed by genius Mr. Hill}

True.

It was kinda niche ad blocker.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Just don't use more then 1 or 2 at most. They can tie up the CPU and RAM too much and cause conflicts due one allowing something while the other is blocking it.

[plat]

Diposting pertama kali oleh gamer:

True.

It was kinda niche ad blocker.

Ah, OK, thanks for the info.

[Lord Flashheart]

I had no knowledge of it until now. I am using noscript & ublock origin in browsers. Also pihole for network protection, with around 2 million dodgy domains blocked. Also Ip based blocking in the router.

[Illusion of Progress]

I've never heard of Ad Muncher.

I started using Firefox before the 1.0 release in the Windows XP days, because Internet Explorer crashed one too many times whenever trying to post to forums. After it had done it a number of times, I started copying any post that wasn't real short into the clipboard before posting in case it had crashed. Guess what? The annoying part was, whenever it crashed, it also cleared the contents of the clipboard for some reason. I figured rather than opening Notepad or whatever to save posts in, I'd just try the browser called Firefox everyone was raving about. I've been using it ever since, so apparently I've been using it for over 18 years now. The tabs and pop-up blocker were nice. Then I discovered extensions.

Some time later (I can't remember when, but it was still in the pre-Windows 7 days), I started using AdBlock Plus with it. I've also been using that ever since. Other than when I watch a video from a website where I have Adblock plus disabled, I have never seen a single ad on Youtube, and it is wonderful. The day it stops working there is the day I stop watching non-embedded Youtube videos.

I don't mind static ads in moderation. Pop-up ads, ones that play sound (either automatically, or on hover), or video ads are things I don't tolerate. If a website mandates these, I don't visit it. Also pages that are more ads than content (looking at you, PC Gamer). Oh, and pages that load in a way that moves content around. If I go to click somewhere and the page layout changes, I stop visiting that website. If I am interested in an ad, I will click on it. If you move the layout within the first couple seconds to place an ad where something else just was to cheat a click on an ad in, I don't tolerate that.

[Bastet]

I purchased it & at the time it was the best adblocker out there. It was a shame they stopped supporting the paid version & it became free - no doubt now it’s no longer working.
AdGuard works well & blocks ads in MS apps.

[Illusion of Progress]

I just looked at the website. It seems it was created 14 years ago and has a website design that dates it to the Windows XP days (I say that a good way; I miss when websites had color and personality in their design, even if the "go to" look was Blue skies and some clouds with grass like the Bliss wallpaper haha). I wonder why I never heard of it though. The only ad blockers I ever heard of were either browser extensions, or feature list padding by anti-virus/anti-malware/similar suites.

To those who have used it, and ideally those who have used it and some alternatives (like Adblock Plus back then) so they are personally familiar with the differences, what would you say about it? I'm asking purely out of curiosity (I don't intend to change from what I'm using but I'd like to hear what made it appealing back then and if you found it nice or not).

Or to those who used it, did you not know of stuff like Adblock Plus and others back then? If you had, do you still think the price for Ad Muncher would have been worth it?

[plat]

I actually used Adblock Plus some years ago, but I recall, having read many of gorhill's posts on a variety of stuff, I switched to uBO very quickly. Briefly went to AdGuard for Desktop (wond a free license) but dropped it because it slowed my browsing for some reason. Didn't have the patience to deal with it further.

I mean, the uBO filter lists update several times a day which speaks to the dedication of the list maintainers. Since uBO is and will remain free for the foreseeable future, it becomes meaningless to compare it to an archaic, paid-for product.

uBO all the way, baby!

[Strawberry {JESUS IS LORD}]

or just allow ads, people need to make money you know denying people income is a scummy tactic imho

i take offense to ad blockers cause my dad was a telemarketer, people like him need to make money for their families, and we find it scummish that people deny others of a paycheck at the end of the day

[plat]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Strawberry {♥♥♥♥♥ IS LORD}:

or just allow ads, people need to make money you know denying people income is a scummy tactic imho

i take offense to ad blockers cause my dad was a telemarketer, people like him need to make money for their families, and we find it scummish that people deny others of a paycheck at the end of the day

You want Amazon, Google and Facebook stalking you with "targeted ads", you can have it. Take it, it's all yours. Enjoy your slowed-down browsing while you;re at it. Most roads lead back to these big tech firms, you didn't know that? Pffft. I don't see any of these tech companies crying in their soup either.

Needless to say: if the pay ain't great, find another job. Duh. And if users can pick and choose whether to use a content blocker or not, that's their business, not yours.

[Illusion of Progress]

Diposting pertama kali oleh plat:

I actually used Adblock Plus some years ago, but I recall, having read many of gorhill's posts on a variety of stuff, I switched to uBO very quickly.

Can you elaborate on this?

I'm using Adblock Plus, because I've had no issues with it. I remember reading about how Adblock Plus was apparently taking payments to allow ads through, although I personally haven't seen many, if any. There's a setting called "Show acceptable ads" which may refer to that (?) and I even have it on and still don't see ads. The time I see ads are only on a few websites where I specifically disable it to support the website.

uBlock Origin seemed to become the "new go-to popular" thing a while back, like Chrome did, but I often stick with what works. So I'm wondering what it is you're referring to here.