Comment Blocking on Websites using Shut Up

I hate internet comments

If you ask me, public comment sections are the worst part of the internet. I mean, sure, the whole interactive thing is what makes the internet useful in the first place, but comments nowadays, almost everywhere, seem to be instantly flooded by trolls, nazis and other types of people that shouldn’t be doing that. Which is their right, of course (as long as the content is legal), but that does not mean you have to read them. An internet without comments feels a bit like a vacation far away from the usual noise and chaos, and I searched for a way to achieve that. Selfcare, have you heard of it?

“Shut Up” to the rescue!

Shut Up is a project that aims to block comments on all websites. I found it a while ago, and it’s fantastic, because it works really well and it doesn’t even need an active component, like an adblocker - it is pure CSS. So all you need to do, basically, is to inject that piece of CSS into every website that you visit. This can be achieved with a user stylesheet plugin like Stylish, or simply with the “Shut Up” browser extenxion that is available for Firefox, Chrome and Safari. This has the additional benefit of a button with which you can simply turn comments on or off, in case you need them. There are even mobile apps which I haven’t tried out yet.

• GitHub repository containing the CSS itself, and more information
• Shut Up for Firefox
• Shut Up for Safari
• Shut Up for Chrome

Drawbacks

Shut Up breaks some sites and it can be difficult to figure out (although you’ll probably remember it after that happens to you once). Once, I browsed a Bugzilla site that somehow made absolutely no sense, until I realized that Shut Up had broken the site. Oh well, a small price to pay for inner peace on the internet.