def METHOD_NAME(path, as_string=False, ignore_start_with="#"):
    # Read the data line by line into a list, strip spaces and ignore comments
    data = FileHandler.read_raw(path)
    filtered_data = []
    for l in data:
        l = l.strip()
        if l and not l.startswith(ignore_start_with):
            filtered_data.append(l)
    if as_string:
        return "\n".join(filtered_data)
    return filtered_data