Anti-Adblock Killer Userscript breaks websites if used via AdGuard, works fine with Tampermonkey

[Purple Tentacle]

As the title says:

Enabling the Anti-Adblock Killer | Reek userscript as an extension in in Adguard 6.1 several websites won't load and simply remain blank forever, for example:

http://www.spiegel.de

Using only the filter list in Adblock but installing the matching userscript directly inside the browser instead (e.g. via Tampermonkey) does not show this behavior, everything is functional this way.

There appears to be a bug in AdGuard.

 

[Boo Berry]

Are you using the latest beta build? If not it might already be fixed there.

 

[Purple Tentacle]

Happens with the latest stable and the very, very latest beta build from today. The userscript fix that was listed in the changelog did not fix this.

 

[Boo Berry]

Alrighty, I'll try to reproduce this when I get home. Any URLs I can test this with?

 

[Purple Tentacle]

http://www.spiegel.de is the one I remember. There were others, this is actually a pretty long-standing bug, but I don't recall them right now. I haven't reported it before but I figured I'd give it another shot after seeing today's beta changelog.

The symptom is always the same: the page simply stays completely blank and nothing is rendered in Chrome. Using the exact same script directly in Chrome and everything is working as expected.

 

[worldsdream]

I was using anti adblocker killer reek script/filter as well. But then I disabled it and when I saw a website that is blocked, I reported those websites to adguard. They always find a way to unblock it and those rules to their filterlists.

Why dont you do that?

 

[Purple Tentacle]

Because this has absolutely nothing to do with a website trying to block the script or the script itself. The website in question doesn't try to block ad blockers at all.

Using the Anti-Adblock Killer | Reek userscript doesn't break http://www.spiegel.de - it works perfectly fine with Greasemonkey or Tampermonkey. But using it inside AdGuard, as an "extension" breaks websites.

 

[worldsdream]

I did read your messages and I know that it's not reeks filterlist/js file fault. The problem is with AG itself. It will be fixed, no worries about that and thanks for mentioning.

This was just a question from me to you. I would love to know why you love using reeks filterlist This way I know a bit more about the AG users and why they prefer it above AG filters.

 

[Purple Tentacle]

Ah, now I understand what you mean. You're absolutely right, I haven't actually come across many websites that were actively blocking me these days.

But to properly answer your original question:

The ones actively blocking adblockers usually aren't websites I frequent often or even more than once or twice - so reporting them seems unnecessary. The script is pretty good at making me not encounter these blocks at all.

And as much as I like AdGuard, they aren't really that great at fixing bugs that I report - their browser extension still breaks GOG.com during every big sale and they still don't give a crap.

 

[Boo Berry]

Okay, tested this and... well, confirmed. http://www.spiegel.de/ does not load at all if Anti-Adblock Killer | Reek is used in Adguard with Chrome/Vivaldi/Edge, however it does seem to load fine with Firefox Stable and Firefox Nightly.

@avatar and @vasily_bagirov to thread!

 

[Boo Berry]

And as much as I like AdGuard, they aren't really that great at fixing bugs that I report - their browser extension still breaks GOG.com during every big sale and they still don't give a crap.

Only because they couldn't understand and reproduce the issue within the time frame. The key is to report the issue when a big sale first occurs again - it's a time-sensitive issue, really. If I see any new posts, I'll try to press the issue as much as I can. Hopefully there's a Christmas sale.

 

[worldsdream]

@Purple Tentacle Thanks for the clear information about the anti adblock filters.

I do understand that you were not happy with your cog.com issue. The problem is that websites change every single day and the filter developers are doing their very best to keep up with those websites. I am sure next time they will fix. In the meantime, you can just whitelist that specific website, so you are able to make purchases and so on.

Isn't there a black friday sale going on now? If yes, can you reproduce the issue that you had?

 

[vasily_bagirov]

@Purple Tentacle

Filed a bug on this:
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForWindows/issues/1402

@Boo Berry thanks for your help with testing!

 

[Purple Tentacle]

I do understand that you were not happy with your cog.com issue. The problem is that websites change every single day and the filter developers are doing their very best to keep up with those websites.

It's gog.com and if you follow the thread, you'll see that it wasn't and isn't a filter issue at all. Even if all filters are disabled and filtering and every single feature of the extension is switched off, its mere presence in the browser still breaks dynamic loading of elements on that site (and I suspect others, but that's the one where I could verify this). It's a bug inside the extension and it took so long to convince them of this that it was no longer reproducible later.

 

[avatar]

@Confessor has confirmed an issue with the AAK userscript.

We're thinking what can be done about it.

 

[Purple Tentacle]

Thanks for reproducing this and filing the bug report, by the way.

As grouchy as I usually sound when it comes to bugs in my software, it comes from a place of love. While I don't sound like it here, I'm a fan of AdGuard. I bought multiple lifetime licenses for all of my devices and I recommend it just about everywhere - it's great software. It also sucks ... sometimes. And when it does, I come here and complain.

The browser extension is annoying though and the reason why I didn't follow up on the gog.com bug was that I was simply no longer using it.

Even more annoying than the dynamic element loading issue it introduces to my browser, was the fact that when switching adguard filtering off, the Chrome extension does not do the same. Instead it goes out of integration mode and uses its own filtering - highly frustrating. When AdGuard is running, but inactive - please keep the browser extension in integration mode and let it be just as inactive.

 

[vasily_bagirov]

@Purple Tentacle
I think this has a chance of being implemented, but more likely as an optional feature rather than a default one. I file a feature request if needed and link it here later.

EDIT: here it is: https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForWindows/issues/1414

 

[Purple Tentacle]

I honestly can't think of a good use case for the current (and proposed future default) behavior. If I temporarily turn off Adguard for Windows, why would I want the browser extension to take over blocking ads?

If I order something via Shoop (formerly Qipu) for example, I need to be sure that there is no interference from an adblocker to have my purchase logged and to get my cashback. Those can actually be considerable sums. So the easiest way is to simply disable protection in AdGuard for a short while. Except that the browser extension then takes over with completely different filter rules. Why should that be the default behavior, who would want that and why?


Regarding the gog.com bug, they just launched the Winter sale, you should now be able to reproduce that old bug with the browser extension -> https://www.gog.com

 

[vasily_bagirov]

@Purple Tentacle on the other hand, for such purposes as you've described there is a handy 'Do not block for 30 seconds' tool in Adguard Assistant (or simply disabling ad blocking for this website via extension's drop-down menu). There is some logic behind your words though, and that's why the feature request was created.

Regarding the gog.com bug, they just launched the Winter sale, you should now be able to reproduce that old bug with the browser extension -> https://www.gog.com

I will inform @Alex302, thanks.

 

[Purple Tentacle]

@Purple Tentacle on the other hand, for such purposes as you've described there is a handy 'Do not block for 30 seconds' tool in Adguard Assistant (or simply disabling ad blocking for this website via extension's drop-down menu). There is some logic behind your words though, and that's why the feature request was created.

I'm not using the Adguard Assistant. I don't like the site overlay.
Why would I want to use both the Assistant and the extension? Ideally, one would be redundant. The whole reason why I installed the extension in the first place is that - in integration mode - it mostly (but sadly not fully) did what the Assistant does.

Individual site unblocking is not sufficient for Shoop and co. it needs to be fully disabled for the entirety of the ordering process since multiple sites and tracking servers are involved. When a sizeable amount of cashback is at stake, I don't want to take my chances.

As a paying customer, all I want is proper browser integration for my AdGuard for Windows - the extension's integration mode almost does that, but sadly not entirely. I don't ever want it to go out of integration mode and work standalone - that kind of free adblocking is not what I paid for. Ideally, I want full control over Adguard for Windows from the extension and that's all, I don't ever want it to do anything else. Right now I can't even temp-disable AdGuard from the extension like I could from the assistant and when I disable it in the tray the extension runs amok and does its own thing, frustrating.