Like reading OregonLive, but hate the comments? Well, now there’s a Chrome extension for that! Trey Witteried has devised a handy extension to block comments on the O’s online site, and here’s why:
Comments on OregonLive are a drag. I don’t neeed to see the opinions of miserable and often bigoted people on every page load, so block them from showing up on the page at all.
The goal here is to make The Oregonian‘s website read more like a digital newspaper, and less like some kind of bottom of the barrel social network.
But wait… are the comments really that bad? Let’s check out a few from the last few hours.
On police arresting an armed robbery suspect:
On a man suing a Christian school for not hiring him because he’s Jewish:
Get your O comment blocker here!
UPDATE: Blogtown reader Steve Witten kindly supplied this pro tip on comment blocking:
If you are not a Chrome user, you can still block comments on OregonLive.com using the popular “AdBlock” ad blocker (https://getadblock.com). Browsing the “Support” section at that site will give users an idea of which browsers/versions are supported by AdBlock. I happen to use Safari on MacOS X 10.11.
Anyway, if you install the following as a Custom Filter:
www.oregonlive.com##DIV[class=”fyre-widget “]
The entire comments section on every page that has one will be blocked (it’s treated like an unwanted advertisement).
Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for the consequences anybody’s use of this but my own.
Is there one for blocking comments and articles here?
@thestopper
How is this any different than if the Oregonian shut down comments from their end because they don’t like what they see? Is that censorship?
It isn’t just politics. Try wading through all the victim blaming in the Oregon Live comments when someone dies.
Totalitariland:
Yeah, its called “reader apathy.”
I for one, am SOOO grateful to see this option. I like to read the news, but the Oregon Live comments just make me feel terrible about humanity. Thank you, technology!
I go even further, blocking all the comment counters so I don’t even have to imagine how horrible the back and forth is.
I removed the comment counter from the article itself, but the comment counters in the article listings are up next I think.