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The unbearable sameness of the modern web

blog.rachelbinx.com

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Re: The unbearable sameness of the modern web

#21

Post by sebstefan »

It would be nice if that standardization of UIs at least brought along some benefits for users with screenreaders and the like. But I find that the more we use frameworks, the more we end up complicating the structure of the page for alternative methods of viewing

You would expect fully custom UIs made by non-professionals to be the most complicated to parse, but even simple single-page apps with their react-component dynamically updating sections, pop overs, modals and switching screens are rarely accessible at all

Re: The unbearable sameness of the modern web

#22

Post by margorczynski »

uonpopular_th wrote: post #15
onion2k wrote: post #6

If you think the web is boring now it's because you stopped surfing the web, not because people stopped making exciting and innovative websites. That isn't meant as a criticism; people's priorities change and we do different stuff. I still find the web wildly exciting after 30 years of using it because I still seek out interesting things on it... Tell me this looks like every other website: https://www.anumberfromthe…

The web is boring now because everyone interesting is banned by bland mediocrities. If you don't follow the current thing to the letter every major social media platform - bar twitter for the last two months - would remove you from circulation pretty much instantly. The only people who agree with everything that is popular right now are the ones incapable of thinking. Ergo a chat bot trained on old forum data seems m…

Yeah I miss the old days where on most sites you really needed to be a hard-core troll or do/say something illegal to get banned and removed. Now on for example Reddit if you say anything that's not acceptable in the current zeitgeist it's instant (shadow)banning.

It all became so corporate and milquetoast - all that matters are ads and so that they don't appear near "controversial" content to not to loose revenue.

Re: The unbearable sameness of the modern web

#23

Post by benoliver999 »

fbn79 wrote: post #8

It's like complaining why books has roughly all the same shape when paper allows so many formats and creativity. It's clear, it's because uniformity can optimize costs and people is more interested in content and not on the container.

Yeah I'm guilty of having a boring website, but it allows for easy readability without my having to spend weeks trying to balance out artiness and accessibility.

Re: The unbearable sameness of the modern web

#24

Post by bluetomcat »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #17
wslh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem now is finding interesting content, in the recent past it was enough to fire some few keywords on a search engine. Even leas advanced search engines found those sites. Google beat them adding some kind of authority but at the end the authority is gamed. Well content sites giving a s*t to SEO remain under layers and layer of dust.

I think pinning all of this on Google is unfair. They're part of it, but Reddit/Twitter/Facebook is every bit as complicit. Honestly, I think most of what's changed is our collective web-usage habits. In my experience researching ways of building different and better discovery tools, the ice-berg of stuff that you'll virtually never find on Google/Facebook/Reddit/Twitter runs extremely deep, and is often much more in…

The platform-oriented web is like a giant shopping mall with some magazines and newspapers sold in-between. News websites are mostly reviewing the "products" sold in the shops. YouTube celebrities are demonstrating their shopping abilities. Sites like Reddit/Twitter are fostering customer discussions whose aim is to determine the "best product".

Re: The unbearable sameness of the modern web

#25

Post by flir »

onion2k wrote: post #6

If you think the web is boring now it's because you stopped surfing the web, not because people stopped making exciting and innovative websites. That isn't meant as a criticism; people's priorities change and we do different stuff. I still find the web wildly exciting after 30 years of using it because I still seek out interesting things on it... Tell me this looks like every other website: https://www.anumberfromthe…

That is lovely. I need to come back when I've got more time and better headphones.

But I don't want my news headlines presented like this. I'm kinda ok with the standardization of the regularly-visited sections of the web - in fact I think it's just UX principles in action.

Re: The unbearable sameness of the modern web

#27

Post by nurbl »

zhte415 wrote: post #2

It also got... isolated. I was going to leave a comment, but couldn't, as there was no where to leave it. Bring back failed attempts to be the next CSS Picasso, but also bring back a social web. Offloading comments to social networks hinders discovery of networks.

I don't think everything needs to have a public comment section. The owner's email address is readily found on the site if you want to send feedback.

Re: The unbearable sameness of the modern web

#28

Post by uonpopular_th »

margorczynski wrote: post #22
uonpopular_th wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web is boring now because everyone interesting is banned by bland mediocrities. If you don't follow the current thing to the letter every major social media platform - bar twitter for the last two months - would remove you from circulation pretty much instantly. The only people who agree with everything that is popular right now are the ones incapable of thinking. Ergo a chat bot trained on old forum data seems m…

Yeah I miss the old days where on most sites you really needed to be a hard-core troll or do/say something illegal to get banned and removed. Now on for example Reddit if you say anything that's not acceptable in the current zeitgeist it's instant (shadow)banning. It all became so corporate and milquetoast - all that matters are ads and so that they don't appear near "controversial" content to not to loose revenue.

It's much worse than that. The people doing the banning on reddit aren't doing it because they are paid or told to, they are doing it because they think stopping wrongthink is a public service and will feel right doing it every time.

HN isn't much better with flagging of posts. The highwater mark of this was PG's heresy post being kept off the front page for 6 hours before dang made the post unflaggable. I would have loved to see the Monday meeting where he had to explain why that was needed.

Re: The unbearable sameness of the modern web

#29

Post by uonpopular_th »

xwolfi wrote: post #20
uonpopular_th wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web is boring now because everyone interesting is banned by bland mediocrities. If you don't follow the current thing to the letter every major social media platform - bar twitter for the last two months - would remove you from circulation pretty much instantly. The only people who agree with everything that is popular right now are the ones incapable of thinking. Ergo a chat bot trained on old forum data seems m…

"every major social network" is a very recent sub continent on the internet and didnt replace most of it. I find reddit super exciting as well, it's THE place to talk quickly with random english speakers and I wish that existed when I was a french kids pinging randos on ICQ...

Old forums aren't much better unfortunately. Going back to the places where I hung out in the 00s the inmates are running the asylum now.

Re: The unbearable sameness of the modern web

#30

Post by thefz »

margorczynski wrote: post #22
uonpopular_th wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web is boring now because everyone interesting is banned by bland mediocrities. If you don't follow the current thing to the letter every major social media platform - bar twitter for the last two months - would remove you from circulation pretty much instantly. The only people who agree with everything that is popular right now are the ones incapable of thinking. Ergo a chat bot trained on old forum data seems m…

Yeah I miss the old days where on most sites you really needed to be a hard-core troll or do/say something illegal to get banned and removed. Now on for example Reddit if you say anything that's not acceptable in the current zeitgeist it's instant (shadow)banning. It all became so corporate and milquetoast - all that matters are ads and so that they don't appear near "controversial" content to not to loose revenue.

On top of that, only the reiteration of the same trite puns or catchphrases gets upvotes, the rest drowns.

/r/homelab was interesting, now it's just pictures of people's setups

/r/garmin was interesting, now it's screenshots of people's VO2max stats

etc...

Repeat ad nauseam. Everything is bragging or showing off for fake internet points.

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