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This Page is Designed to Last

jeffhuang.com

291–300 of 458 posts

Re: This Page is Designed to Last

#291
> But if not, maybe you are an embedded systems programmer or startup CTO or enterprise Java developer or chemistry PhD student, sure you could probably figure out how to set up some web server and toolchain, but will you keep this up year after year, decade after decade?

This describes me. Started on Drupal now on Hugo but still have to retrain myself everytime I need to update my site. I don't even understand my own Hugo template. I once set up batch file to build and upload web site. I upgraded computer and I couldn't get my batch file to work. It was something on my PC or AWS. Most likely my incompetence and lack of time to find issue. I am going back to HTML and FTP. Funny thing is I learnt HTML in college and 20 years later I can jump into it without much fuss.

Re: This Page is Designed to Last

#292

>I don't even know any web applications that have remained similarly functioning over 10 years HN is a good candidate to be included in his example, it's been the same for 12 years?

It's changed a bit, fairly fundamentally (hiding points, web view, collapsible conversations, ...) . The chan sites haven't, they're probably the closest interactive ones. Metafilter also hasn't but it's pretty small

> Metafilter also hasn't but it's pretty small

That is why it is still around. Things that grow eventually grow out of control and then people will move on.

Re: This Page is Designed to Last

#293

I do believe that, usually, you should make it possible to be archived. (In one of a few cases where it isn't, consider if HTTP(S) is even the correct protocol for what you are doing; sometimes it isn't.) I agree that you can (almost always) write HTML without JavaScript codes (CSS is not always needed either, but nevertheless it can be helpful). This improves portability too. If you do want to use JavaScript to gene…

"monospace" is a property of a given font but is not (usually) a variant of a single font family as is "bold" (font weight).

While bold text is often used for emphasis and setting it to "regular" doesn't change the meaning much, using a monospace font signals specific things (often, it's used to represent code snippets, but in some contexts it can mean "work in progress"). Changing that font to a proportional one strips a lot of meaning and readability from the text.

In that regard, fonts families are an essential part of the document, and not just their stylistic/emphasis variants (e.g. size and weight, which can still convey important meaning on their own. Think titles and headings.)

Re: This Page is Designed to Last

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Let's be honest with ourselves. The best way to make your content last for a long time is to host it on a platform that is free and very successful. For example, whatever photos I posted on Facebook 12 years ago? Still alive and kicking. The articles I've published on wordpress.com 7 years ago? Still in mint condition, with 0 maintenance required. You view on timeline is too short. We're not talking about keeping so…

You can export your WordPress website to static HTML easily with the help of a free plugin.

The article addresses this point. This is the kind of hurdle that makes pages not last. The point is that yes we can spend time each few years migrating and maintaining but we shouldnt have to.

Re: This Page is Designed to Last

#295

I was expecting the solution to be mirror your generated pages on IPFS ( https://ipfs.io ), so they just don't go away at all (as long as someone has them pinned). The proposed solution set seems extremely convoluted and don't actually solve the issue.

[deleted]

Re: This Page is Designed to Last

#296
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s quite the caveat, and speaking as somebody who has attempted it, you’ve introduced quite a bit of complexity. The whole point is that complexity militates against keeping it online. Keeping it simple, the author’s theory seems to go, is the single most effective way to make something likely to be able to be available long term. I think he’s probably right.

None of what he wrote mitigates the case where he no longer maintains his site and stops paying for the server, which is the very reason all those links he mentioned were dead (defunct websites/hosts).

The article was about not having to maintain a site for non techies like us. WE can happily maintain a range of things, but a chemistry doctoral student will hit a hurdle and may give up.

Paying for a server - mentioned in the article about the provider changing access.

its all about hurdles.

Re: This Page is Designed to Last

#297

It sounds like the perfect case for the Beaker browser ( https://www.beakerbrowser.com ), which is backed solidly by the Dat protocol.

an experimental browser is to be considered something which will last a long time? Or would it need lots of maintenance? I can predict that in the next 5 years there will be some api change and users will have to migrate. And some users will not. If users will be dropped then it is not a perfect thing that makes pages last.

Yes it probably is great to get started for newbies, but the article was about things that last

Re: This Page is Designed to Last

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google used to have a native Mac extension like a launch bar. Command space ... Enter search all local files. It was really fast

macOS Spotlight became good enough https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotlight_(software)

Well I used LaunchBar and then Quicksilver for many years. Spotlight has never been as nice and hackable as those.

Re: This Page is Designed to Last

#300
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put a wayback machine link in parentheses/superscript after every link in the page?

Of course, you can't know how long the Wayback Machine itself will continue to exist, either.

and we don't know when it will be the end of the world so we should all stop breathing now
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