Custom filters don't seem to trigger

straw_collector

Do you have uBlock Origin or any other extensions? I've had issues with these same sections while using uBO with Orion content blocking disabled, and I've also had issues with Orion content blocking working for certain domains, so I was curious on this report. Your filter did work for me in a new profile though, I just did the following:

new profile
navigate to old.reddit.com
confirmed presence of sponsored post
refreshed and confirmed sponsor is still present
added the filter rule you provided here
refreshed, sponsored post is gone
new tab, close other tab
navigate to old.reddit.com
sponsored post is still gone

I'm also using 0.99.126.4.1-beta (WebKit 618.1.2) Sonoma (14)

hibiki

Cheers @straw_collector, setting up a new profile did work for me!

I went to "Settings" / "General" / "Manage profiles" and clicked "New Profile".

I copied nothing from the "Default" profile, so started out with no extensions etc.

I went to https://old.reddit.com and saw the promoted stories, then added a minimum custom rule:

reddit.com##.promotedlink

After that the promoted posts didn't show.

I'll add back in my usual extensions and see if one of them breaks things again.

Notes about my non-working default profile

The extensions I had installed were the following, though I originally had uBlock Origin installed but had uninstalled it a few days ago.

Bitwarden
Nitter Redirect
Old Reddit Redirect
Sponsor Block
Surfingkeys
Unhook for Youtube

My custom filter rules were being persisted to disk - I could add/edit a custom filter, and see the changes in ~/Library/Application\ Support/Orion/Defaults/ContentRules/ContentRuleList-userFilters - it's a binary file, but there is a JSON fragment at the top, which holds the custom rules.

I got the idea to check the userFilters file from a similar bug report at https://orionfeedback.org/d/6586-custom-filter-rules-are-sometimes-not-transposed-into-contentrulelist-entries

straw_collector

I've also been using that filter on my default profile since you provided it here. There is an issue it seems with uBO, #718, where on first load the cosmetic filters don't work so that filter is useful to me right now. My extensions are uBO, RES, and Header Editor. So far I have not seen the embedded ads since adding the custom filter... though as I write this out I realize my default profiles native content blocker is disabled on all websites so now I'm confused on how this is working for me at all. Anyway thought you would like to know about #718 before you do more testing with/without uBO.

hibiki

The sponsored posts are back 🙁

At some point in the last day, sponsored posts have started reappearing when I browse old.reddit.com

I have installed the following Chrome extensions in the new profile. I thought I had checked after each to make sure the reddit filter was still working. But at some point things stopped working.

Bitwarden
Nitter Redirect
Old Reddit Redirect
Sponsor Block
Unhook

Vlad

Can we get a summary of the ask in regards to the title of this post?

hibiki

Sorry @Vlad, there seems to be a heisenbug here. My custom rule to block promoted posts on https://old.reddit.com works for a bit then stops working. This behaviour appears with new profiles, and mixtures of extensions, and even no extensions.

I guess some stuff might be cached. Do I need to restart the browser after making settings changes?

Vlad

hibiki if you create a new clean orion profile, browser is considered reset.

hibiki

This morning, the custom filter for old.reddit.com was working.

Then I clicked the "Privacy" / "Content blocker" / "Update now" button in settings, as the filters were a week or so old.

Then the next time I loaded reddit, the promoted posts were back. I switched profiles then back and the promoted posts still appeared. I quit/restart-ed Orion and the promoted posts still appeared.

I added a new rule to the custom filters in a voodoo attempt to force them to be re-read somehow. The promoted posts still appeared.

Then I restarted Orion again, and the promoted posts were hidden again.

The TL;DR is something like: Updating filter lists stops custom filters working. Adding new rules and restarting Orion seems to get the custom filters working again.

Vlad

hibiki Can you post exact steps to reproduce the issue from a new clean orion profile?

hibiki

Thanks for your patience @Vlad.

The exact steps I used to reproduce this are below. No other actions were taken during this process.

Create a new clean/blank profile.

Load https://old.reddit.com and see promoted posts appearing.

Add a custom filter to hide those posts.

Reload https://old.reddit.com and the promoted posts no longer appear.

Click on the "Update Now" button to re-fetch the filters.

See that the filters have been updated.

Reload https://old.reddit.com and see that the promoted posts are back!

Confirm that the custom filter is still there, and hasn't been blown away by the update.

Please let me know if you'd like more info.

Cheers!

hibiki

I am now using Version 0.99.126.4.1.11-rc (WebKit 619.1.1) and the bug appears fixed.

My custom reddit filter keeps working after I update the content blocker rules ("Update now" button).

Many thanks @Vlad!