(deep sigh)

I desperately need help to pay my rent & bills this month!!

Wednesday, June 17th: Happy Pride, everyone. I’m Gem, a bi, mentally ill, and disabled woman in desperate need of help, as I'm struggling to pay some bills, which are due before I receive my welfare!!

I'm sorry that I have to e-beg again. However, as most of you know from my previous posts, I have been struggling to make ends meet while on welfare. And due to my outstanding bills and ever-increasing debt, it has been difficult for me to make ends meet. With the rising cost of living, I have been relying on my credit cards to pay bills and simply get by on a day-to-day basis.

This has cost me a great deal, and repaying them is more than I can afford. I’ve put off making this post and tried to manage these bills on my own, but I’m really struggling because I'm overdrawn, and I can't cover them with the limited welfare I receive on the 30th.

My birthday is also this Friday, on June 19th, and I’d be very grateful for any help with my bills and getting some groceries.

Again, I know this is a lot to ask, but if anyone could spare any amount to help me, even if it’s just £1/$1/€1, it would mean a lot, and sharing helps just as much. 

Thank you ❤️

£0/£150!!

https://github.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist

Install this blocklist using the instructions on the GitHub page. For Firefox, you will need to install uBlockOrigin for this. Google Chrome no longer allows the uBlockOrigin extension, so I'm assuming you're at least primarily a Firefox user - or about to be (see browser alternatives below).

For Google Chrome or mobile browsers, this will work with uBlacklist. See the GitHub page for full details on compatibility.

Remove AI Widgets:

If you go to your uBlockOrigin Filter lists page, you can select to filter out AI Widgets - this should completely remove the 'AI Mode' widget/button from your Google search page, in addition to the work done by the Huge AI Blocklist.

Using the uBlockOrigin Huge AI Blocklist filter has made my Google searches look like they used to, and gives me genuine search results.

Look at this. It's beautiful. It's informative. It's not a heap of burning trash bloated with fake information made up by a hallucinating chat bot.

We can go even further: return to the old school search results.

Now, the above results are great and should be free of generative AI junk, but some people would rather not see any of the summary widgets or 'people also ask' box at all. Fear not! You can remove all that by using the 'Web' mode in the Google search bar. Click the 'More' drop down menu and select 'Web'.

Huzzah! Incredible. It's like a functional search engine again.

You can make this the default Google search mode in Google Chrome using Method 1 from this page (https://allthings.how/how-to-turn-off-ai-mode-in-google-chrome/). Unfortunately, I don't know if there's a way to do this in Firefox too. This is why for the most part I still use DuckDuckGo (see below) as my default search engine, and only use Google to supplement my searches on the rare occasion I'm just missing something.

Remember, if you clear your cookies, your search engine preferences will reset, including any settings you enabled/disabled to avoid AI. This applies to DuckDuckGo as well; check your settings every time you clear your browser!

Extra filters (optional):

I've also added four filters (their order doesn't matter) to the My Filters page. Full disclosure: I'm not sure they still work, or may only work on Chrome, but I'm keeping them anyway, just in case.

From https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1i7kg83/comment/m8lllwr/: see which solution in the list works for you, it seems to be different for everybody.

google.*##div[jscontroller]:not(:has(div[jscontroller].YzCcne)):has(.YzCcne)

From https://allthings.how/how-to-turn-off-ai-mode-in-google-chrome/:

www.google.com##.Beswgc

www.google.com##.olrp5b

www.google.com##.hdzaWe

Make sure you hit the apply changes button when you add filters.

Browser alternatives: escaping Google Chrome.

If you haven't jumped ship from Chrome yet, I'd recommend doing so. Sometimes Chrome outperforms Firefox for niche purposes or because a website doesn't bother to fully support non-Chrome browsers, but the days of Chrome being the superior browser are long gone — by about 10 years. If you're trying to escape Chromium browsers, beware that a lot of the popular Chrome alternatives are just Chrome in a different hat.

Firefox has been the most popular non-Chromium browser for years, and for good reason. However, the company running Mozilla Firefox has annoyed their users, me included, by refusing to take an anti- generative-ai stance, and even included AI features in the Mozilla Firefox browser. Most Firefox users specifically use it because they hate Google's enshittification and want a privacy-focused, clean browser that doesn't hog their RAM and CPU for no reason. So, you can imagine that Mozilla's attitude has pissed us all off recently. You can turn off the AI features in Firefox with the built-in settings, but the company has recently steered straight into the burning garbage heap by saying they want to make the browser based on AI.

Waterfox and LibreWolf:

There are really good alternatives based on Firefox (open-source) which are not affiliated with Mozilla (the company), if you don't like how it operates. Waterfox and LibreWolf are even more trimmed down and privacy-focused than Mozilla's Firefox, and don't use AI. Anti-ai statements: Waterfox and LibreWolf.

From this page: https://programming.dev/post/42546774

In short: LibreWolf is for those who want a “locked-down” fortress out of the box, while Waterfox is for those who want a privacy-conscious browser that still feels like a normal, convenient daily driver. Choose LibreWolf if: You want the highest level of privacy without having to manually edit config files, and you don’t mind occasionally “fixing” a broken website or re-logging into accounts. Choose Waterfox if: You want a privacy-respecting browser that supports Firefox Sync, has an Android counterpart, and handles streaming sites/logins without any extra friction (it supports WideWine out of the box, which lets you stream DRM protected content (netflix, hulu, disney, etc). — [email protected]

I've heard good things about both of these browsers and will investigate them further to decide whether to personally switch from Mozilla Firefox.

DuckDuckGo:

I would also recommend installing the DuckDuckGo extension to your browsers and setting it to be your default search engine.

I've had DuckDuckGo installed on my browsers, Chrome or Firefox, for like 10 years now. It is a good search engine, it's unobtrusive, and blocks trackers, cookies, and does not save any data about you. I've also used it as my default mobile browser for years, along with Firefox mobile, which you can add the AI Blocklist to (see again the GitHub page). I haven't tried the DuckDuckGo desktop browser yet, but I imagine it works just fine like the mobile version. I think DuckDuckGo's browser is also Chromium-based, at least indirectly. I use Firefox with the DuckDuckGo extension so I can have a widely-supported, non-Chromium browser, but include all of DuckDuckGo's anti-tracking features.

Note: DuckDuckGo has included AI in its browser product, however you can opt-out of all AI features with the built-in settings and they will not push it on you like Google does. I hope they remove AI features entirely in the future, but for now I am comfortable with the barriers in place to keep AI out of my face. Firefox also has AI features like Chrome does, which you can turn off with the built-in settings.

There's also noai.duckduckgo search, an alternative version of its normal search engine which removes AI-generated images and turns off AI results/assists by default. Even though DuckDuckGo's inclusion of any AI features annoys me, its policy to make these features 100% optional builds trust with this browser/extension/search engine.

You can always use Google search if you need to, but with uBlockOrigin and the AI Blocklist filter added on, at least you shouldn't have AI-altered search results or the AI overview anymore.

Other browsers exist, probably:

There are certainly more non-Chromium alternatives out there, but Firefox, Waterfox, and LibreWolf are the top three recommended to me. That link to alternatives, plus this ComputerCity page are the best lists I could find in a brief search. If you google "non-Chromium browsers" you'll get a lot of mixed results which require a bit of digging to realise they're not really recommending you what you looked for at all.

I've heard about Ecosia over the years, and while I like the idea of a search engine that plants a tree for each query, I don't think that's actually what happens — at least, that's what they used to be reputed to do, but I believe that's an unsustainable business model which has likely changed. In 2026, Ecosia says it uses 100% of its profits for the planet and runs its search engine off clean energy. That's cool! It's still Chromium-based. And it also uses generative AI for chat bots, so I don't trust its principles on environmentalism. I need to do more reading on this to form a stronger opinion about it.

I hope this post has helped at least some of you have a better experience browsing the web and googling your questions.

Waterfox has a marginally better privacy footprint via my testing in Cover Your Tracks. I have to log into websites more often than Firefox, but not every time like Librewolf. My Firefox account is usable on Waterfox (thus all of my bookmarks and extensions). I usually use Startpage as my search engine with the AI features turned off. Startpage isn't a default option but only takes a moment to add (guide here). Hate Mojeek, Ecosia, Qwant, DuckDuckGo is okay but adds news and previews to search results.

I have Waterfox on my phone, Steam Deck, and PCs. I use Brave on my iPad just for the ad blocking. Waterfox syncs great and I have very minimal user issues. At the moment the Android application can be a little buggy with letting me upload files so I switch to Firefox.

For those wondering, I did end up installing Waterfox and it's literally just Mozilla Firefox, but less bullshit. 10/10 would recommend.

Haven't used it for long, obviously, but I've made a clean transition from Mozilla to Waterfox and it took maybe like, an hour? Because I like to dig through all my settings and fiddle with things to make sure it's all set up right. After the initial setup, it's good to go and I expect I won't need to touch it again soon.

If you're making the switch from Mozilla Firefox, it'll import and sync everything including the mobile browser straight from your Mozilla account, including history, bookmarks, settings, etc. You'll need to check and re-install your extensions and your uBlock Origin Huge AI Blocklist. Follow the prompts and you'll be fine. You could use the default adblocker from Waterfox, but if you install uBO, you'll have to choose one or the other so they don't conflict. Remember to re-select the AI Widgets filter under Annoyances for uBO! All the advice on this post applies the same to Waterfox as it did Firefox.

If you're on Google Chrome, skip Mozilla and just switch straight to Waterfox - you're doing the slightly tedious work of transferring to a new browser anyway, might as well make it the cleaner version.

It's pretty much identical and trims off the AI bullshit. I set my home page to the search, and removed all search engines except DuckDuckGo and the Waterfox default. If you wanna go a little extra, you can try LibreWolf but if you want "Firefox without the AI garbage shit" then just go for Waterfox and call it a day.

It's clean, it's easy, it has mobile versions you can continue to use extensions on just like you could with Mozilla Firefox. You can open YouTube on mobile, open the page's settings, set that page to your phone's home screen, and use that for watching videos on your phone without ads.

Immediately After - Submitted by SeesawSiya

The identity of OP is unimportant because I’ve seen this sentiment all over the place. But when I saw this post I just felt compelled to talk about this mentality.

Most likely this same logic is not applied to, say, politicians. Let’s put aside the fact that there is (unfortunately) no concrete delineation between a person who is merely a “private citizen” and a person who might be in the “public interest.” That’s the kind of distinction that everyone has to subjectively make for themselves.

The “nobody can criticize anyone for any reason” outlook is a childish, hyper-individualistic outlook that contributes to Missing Stair type social dynamics.

Have you ever been in a house that had something just egregiously wrong with it? Something massively unsafe and uncomfortable and against code, but everyone in the house had been there a long time and was used to it? "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you, there's a missing step on the unlit staircase with no railings. But it's okay because we all just remember to jump over it."

Some people are like that missing stair.

When I posted about a rapist in a community I belonged to, although I gave almost no details about the guy except "he's a rapist," I immediately got several emails from other members of that community saying "oh, you must mean X." Everyone knew who he was! Tons of people, including several in the leadership, instantly knew who I meant. The reaction wasn't "there's a rapist among us!?!" but "oh hey, I bet you're talking about our local rapist." Several of them expressed regret that I hadn't been warned about him beforehand, because they tried to discreetly tell new people about this guy. Others talked about how they tried to make sure there was someone keeping an eye on him at parties, because he was fine so long as someone remembered to assign him a Rape Babysitter.

(Please go on to read the whole “Missing Stair” blog post. It reflects some experiences I’ve had as well!)

I understand that rape accusations and “callout posts” can be used as vectors of harassment. It can also be really annoying for some rando who you’ve never talked to to send you a callout post for some other rando you’ve never talked to. I’ve seen a lot of that on tumblr especially in the late 2010’s. But there has to be some kind of reasonable position on this issue for people who actually want to live in community with other people instead of completely eschewing any kind of responsibility for the community you’re in. And at the same time it’s unsustainable to foster a culture of hypervigilance and paranoia.

You have to use your critical thinking skills, no matter what. There is no easy one-size-fits-all principle you can adopt.

im just gonna bite the bullet and start crowdfunding again bc i never made my goal last month and need to pay a lot of ppl back.

please help a black disabled trans person this pride month! my rent is $680 and my credit card will be $50 but im rounding up so i can make sure my account doesn’t go into the negatives + paying ppl back

https://cash.app/$Avibb

https://venmo.com/u/avibb

https://www.paypal.me/avibbk

pls ask for z*lle if needed

0/3,600

GFM

Cash

Venmo

paypal / cashapp / ko-fi