Diversion It’s been a year since the last update. Is Diversion dead?

[zekesdad]

Seems like more and more ads have been making their way though, YouTube ad blocker just never worked, and the webui never came out as far as I can tell. Is there a fork that’s being worked on?

 

[dave14305]

Diversion - Is Diversion still active?

Hi, I've been using Diversion almost since the beginning, when it was called AB-Solution. I love it and works very well. However, I have not seen any updates for well over 6+ months. I was just wondering if this is still active or no longer be worked on. Thanks

www.snbforums.com

 

[Hazel]

Patience is a virtue, I believe they say...

I’m not dead yet, just busy.

There is not a single day that goes by without me checking in here. I just don't have the time to do much more at this time.

 

[zekesdad]

So no fork or anything being actively developed?

 

[Hazel]

So no fork or anything being actively developed?

Nope. Just real life priorities from a volunteer who worked his a** off to the point where Diversion is now and still drops by daily to see if everything's well with his userbase.

Thanks for your understanding.

 

[heysoundude]

Nope. Just real life priorities from a volunteer who worked his a** off to the point where Diversion is now and still drops by daily to see if everything's well with his userbase.

and that ^ doesn't mean that NOTHING is happening...it just means that things are moving much more imperceptibly than before.
that said, I'm concerned that things will progress past the point of "catching up" but have faith that @thelonelycoder knows where that is and will step in (or ask for someone to take over) before it becomes an issue for the rest of us

 

[thelonelycoder]

So no fork or anything being actively developed?

If there was a fork that is actively kept up to date and published by a third party, then that would mean the end for my involvement in that years long hobby.
In other words, I would not appreciate a (however worded) takeover of my brainchild.
Just be patient folks, I will push an update for Diversion and amtm eventually.

 

[RMerlin]

Keep in mind that the meat and potatoes of Diversion are the blacklist it relies on. As long the blacklists you use are getting updated, you are fine.

 

[Tech9]

blacklist

You're running old firmware. It's blocklist now, primary bedroom, primary hard drive.

 

[RMerlin]

You're running old firmware. It's blocklist now, primary bedroom, primary hard drive.

Sorry, but personally I refuse to jump on that bandwagon.

 

[elorimer]

firmware.

hardware, firmware, software, wetware, wokeware.

 

[Tech9]

This jokeware got pushed to my learning places. An URL or HDD may get offended, I guess.

 

[CriticJay]

Seems like more and more ads have been making their way though, YouTube ad blocker just never worked, and the webui never came out as far as I can tell. Is there a fork that’s being worked on?

In my humble opinion, of the 3 things you pointed out, only the 3rd is something that we might be patiently waiting for thelonelycoder to implement (whenever it is ready)...

1. ads making their way through. Nothing to do with Diversion and everything to do with the blocklist. Unlike browser add-ons like uBlock Origin (which occasionally need coding improvements by the developer to handle anti-blocker scripting in webpages and similar such mechanisms), Diversion is just about making a "hosts" file with a list of advertising/tracking hosts all pointing to 0.0.0.0 (or to pixelserv-TLS IP) and then having the Asus Router's DNS server (dnsmasq) to use that hosts file.
So, the "hosts" file used by Diversion needs to be kept up-to-date. That's entirely up to the hostsfile maintainer, nothing to do with Diversion.
Maybe its time to try a different blocklist? Or manually search the web for a good one and configure it in Diversion.

2. YouTube ad blocker just never worked. The YT ad blocker initiative came about because a member of the PiHole project believed he discovered a "trick" to fooling YT ads using a hosts-file based mechanism. Since he claimed it worked well for PiHole, it should work well for Diversion. My understanding is thelonelycoder implemented in Diversion, the same thing that had been implemented for PiHole.
However, the fact remains the "trick" that was the root of the YT ad-blocking mechanism was not particularly reliable. It's quite possible that YT/Google wised up to that trick after the PiHole forums publicized it, and that's why it doesn't work now (and IMHO it was never particularly effective).

I do not expect a HOSTS file based YT ad-blocking solution to be of much use in the current era.


3. WebUI. OK, while this would be a wonderful addition to Diversion, it's not essential (i.e. Diversion works perfectly fine without it) but I'll definitely be a happy camper once it eventually comes out

 

[CriticJay]

This jokeware got pushed to my learning places. An URL or HDD may get offended, I guess.

It's not really a big deal to me... I see it as an example of people feeling like "they need to do something to help with human rights/social justice" but they can't (or are unable to) help directly (maybe because they're a software dev / I.T. person?) so the best they can do is engage in renaming terminology on an Open Source project they are on, thus they feel like they have "contributed" or "done their part".

Harmless, IMHO

 

[dave14305]

ads making their way through. Nothing to do with Diversion and everything to do with the blocklist.

Except for the hard-coded whitelist in Diversion that includes some Amazon and Google ad domains IIRC. That’s a potentially big gap in the blocking effectiveness.

 

[Treadler]

Diversion alive, well, & very effective here.

Just sayin’………..

 

[Tech9]

Except for the hard-coded whitelist in Diversion that includes some Amazon and Google ad domains IIRC.

It's there because some Amazon/Google services refuse to work without it, I guess. Diversion is still useful for TVs, consoles, etc. For browsers I find uBlock much more effective. Diversion often causes ad-block notification screens. uBlock doesn't trigger the "protection" on most sites and it blocks YouTube ads.

 

[dave14305]

It's there because some Amazon/Google services refuse to work without it, I guess.

Mostly to support ads on snbforums.com.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Diversion works great. I can understand why @thelonelycoder is taking a well deserved break. be patient. maybe the next update will take diversion to the next level.

 

[CriticJay]

Except for the hard-coded whitelist in Diversion that includes some Amazon and Google ad domains IIRC. That’s a potentially big gap in the blocking effectiveness.

Yeah, I forgot about those.

Theoretically it isn't too hard to blacklist the whitelist, if one wanted to do that... (and support snbforums and/or Asuswrt-Merlin through other means)