Ask HN: What are the best websites that the Anglosphere doesn't know about?

Rezo.net is a leftist portal, often displaying obscure blogs no one reads. I started reading it around 1999 and I’m glad it is still here.

Around 2005 there was a very cute php generalist forum called kopikol.net but I still lament that they had to close around 2008

I don't know what your percention of Norway is, but having moved around a bit and currently being based here, I see that Scandinavians have a different relationship with governments and corporations than in many other countries. For a start, it's not primarily seen as an adversarial relationship. It's more of the people, for the people. Not perfect, but Scandinavian societies rely on a high level of trust and it works, for now. There's been an increase in data protection recently, which I think is needed as it's a bit too transparent at times.

The government doesn't know about every purchase you make but there is a lot of data sharing. However there is a lot more consumer protection and less power lies with unaccountable corporations than in many other capitalist countries, where corporations have almost free reign and have powerful influence over society, economy & politic. For example, credit scoring is relatively new here and is a lot less intense than other countries. In places like the UK/USA, credit scoring companies control your financial possibilities. Much less so in Scandinavia.

There is a small number of people for whom a cashless society poses problems, but it's probably less, and a different subset, than you think. Those I know of through association tend to be those who suffer severe mental health issues. Old people have bank accounts, debit cards and mobile phones for digital transactions. As for homeless people, there are less of them in Scandinavia than in other countries. Almost all of them will still have a bank account and a mobile phone and be receiving state funds digitally. (Homelessness is not defined as living on the street, almost all the homeless are in temporary housing.)

https://wiki.selfhtml.org/ (German) is where I learnt the basics of web development in high school. I'm not sure how up to date it is, though.

I. C++ (related) forums from Germany and Japan that I've found (so far):

- https://www.c-plusplus.net/

- https://dixq.net/

II. Quality YouTube channels from Germany:

- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrWissen2go/videos

Explains societal/political/historical topics (in a neutral manner) to laypeople.

- https://www.youtube.com/c/maiLab/videos

Explains science topics (chemistry, biology, studies) to laypeople.

III. Quality YouTube channels from Japan:

- https://www.youtube.com/c/atelierateruimath/videos

Math professor teaching linear algebra, analysis etc.

IV. Services from Germany

- https://www.mindfactory.de/

Computer hardware etc.

- web.de

For me the best European Dropbox alternative so far (Online-Speicher).

V. Services from Japan

- https://fc2.com/

Website hosting etc.

- https://www.nicovideo.jp/

The Japanese YouTube basically.

- https://www.rakuten.co.jp/

The Japanese Amazon.

VI. Concluding Remarks & Miscellaneous

- Arte, Phoenix make good documentaries. (But these were already mentioned by others.)

- https://www.schenker-tech.de/en/ - https://www.xmg.gg/en/

Laptops made/assembled in Germany.

- https://www.gigaset.com/hq_en/

Some smartphones are made in Germany.

- https://www.youtube.com/c/worldorder/videos

By Genki Sudo (須藤 元気) former MMA fighter. He's now a politician.

- Hiroshi Abe (阿部 寛)

The Japanese Clint Eastwood.

- Kim Ki-duk

A Korean movie director that I happen to like.

PS: If I find/remember more interesting stuff from Japan and Germany, I will update this post. :)

The app also has an extremely enjoyable visualisation of the weather predictions, which is a nice bonus!