Use Adblock to allow most ads on a site

I leave Adblock turned on for all sites by default. I allow ads on some sites. You can do this by adding an exception for a site that is allowed to show ads. This puts a site in the white list.

However, I do not know how to allow most ads on a page, but block a specific ad. I am not even sure Adblock will do this. I believe it is all or none. If a site is in the white list, it appears that all other rules are ignored.

Is there a way to allow most ads on a website, but still block specific ads?

Jeremy Roberts

Posted 2009-11-03T14:38:41.447

Reputation: 131

Didn't Jeff answer this question at http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/28149/advertising-on-stack-overflow-and-adblock/28243#28243 already? So: block all + allow exception + block specific image = answer?

– Arjan – 2009-11-03T14:54:17.263

Per my comments on that question and the question above, as far as I know you are not able to do that on a whitelisted page. – Jeremy Roberts – 2009-11-03T15:01:46.097

1I have this very site whitelisted, and no, you can't block elements on a whitelisted page. – CarlF – 2009-11-03T15:12:16.573

Of course I tried. I tried that before I even posted the original question. My google fu is not weak. Asking a question is the absolute last resort for me. – Jeremy Roberts – 2009-11-03T15:13:50.050

@CarlF Can you add a answer to that effect? – Jeremy Roberts – 2009-11-03T15:14:23.450

Aha, on my Mac's Firefox the option to block specific images seems to be missing as well. Using a Mac by any chance? (So, my right-click menu is different from Jeff's screen capture.) – Arjan – 2009-11-03T15:18:46.093

On XP. What Jeff suggests works all the time on sites that are not whitelisted, but will not work in sites that are whitelisted. – Jeremy Roberts – 2009-11-03T15:18:59.617

But in Jeff's screen capture, Adblock has been disabled for that site as well (or for all sites)... – Arjan – 2009-11-03T15:27:46.043

I am at work... I can't see the image he as provided. With Adblock set to disable on a site, I get no options to block anything. – Jeremy Roberts – 2009-11-03T15:37:31.733

Answers

Actually, on my computer^†, Jeff's instructions only work in a specific order, and in the end indeed have no effect:

Enable Adblock Plus
Browse to some site, right-click the Adblock icon and choose "Disable on [..]"
Right-click some image (for easy testing: preferably the site's logo), and choose the option "Adblock Plus: Block image..." (also note the option "Adblock Plus: Re-enable on this page...")
Refresh the page
The image that was blocked in step 3, will still show
Right-click some other image, and see that the option to block a specific image is gone
Re-enable Adblock for that website
Refresh the page
The blocked image will no longer show
Left-click the Adblock icon, and remove the rule from step 3 from "My Ad Blocking Rules"

I have not yet found a bug report on this. Can anyone confirm seeing the menu item in step 3 (and not in step 6)?

(I guess @CarlF and @jrob already confirmed step 5.)

^† Mac OS X 10.6.1, Firefox 3.5.4, Adblock Plus 1.1.1

Arjan

Posted 2009-11-03T14:38:41.447

Reputation: 29 084

I can't answer your direct question, but I can give you an alternative.

Opera has a built-in content blocking tool that lets you selectively choose content from certain hosts to be disabled. You right-click on a page, select Block Content, then you click on anything on the page to add that content to the block list.

Chris Thompson

Posted 2009-11-03T14:38:41.447

Reputation: 4 765

You can block specific URLs by specifying the full path:

http://sstatic.net/su/img/logo.png

as opposed to:

http://sstatic.net/su/img/*.png

or:

http://sstatic.net/*

to use the logo of Super User as an example.

ChrisF

Posted 2009-11-03T14:38:41.447

Reputation: 39 650

1Adding the exception rule does not seem to make a difference. If it is whitelisted, even the exception rule makes no difference. – Jeremy Roberts – 2009-11-03T15:19:59.600

Odd - I'm sure I've used the exception rule in the past. – ChrisF – 2009-11-03T15:27:37.837