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A website to destroy all websites

henry.codes

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Re: A website to destroy all websites

#71

Post by mightybyte »

IvanK_net wrote: post #59
palata wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> each year, a person spends more time on the internet (on average) than a year before, which shows that it is getting more and more useful for everyone. How in the world does that sound like a reasonable conclusion?

You choose to spend your time on a place A instead of the place B, it means that the place A is better than the place B. Why else would you do it, if B was better? It is a simple logic.

It also could happen because tech companies have optimized their products to maximize the amount of time that people spend on them, often in ways that directly result in a worse user experience (by showing ads instead of the most relevant search results, for example).

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#72

Post by CGMthrowaway »

d-lisp wrote: post #58
CGMthrowaway wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best design is invisible

You can only be blind for things you cannot notice. What you cannot notice is what shapes your "noticement" ability. The best design is the shape of your perception. The best design is already implemented in your reception of reality. The quest for "good design" is a game. On the other hand, your aesthetical culture and the shape of your perception create a system in which elements are more or less "understandable",…

Sure, the medium is the message. But if the medium distracts from the message it means they are not aligned well

(side note I put your comment into LLM to make sense of what it meant re my comment without mentioning HN, it said "this is a classic Hacker News–style metaphysical sidestep: You made a practical design aphorism, He responded with ontology and epistemology. That usually signals polite disagreement or intellectual one‑upmanship" LOL)

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#73

Post by lisbbb »

lazzlazzlazz wrote: post #34
Aurornis wrote: post #25

I think the comments here are a great example of why this idea always sounds better in nostalgic reminiscence than in practice: As I write this, nearly half of the comments here are complaining about this website. There are complaints about requiring JavaScript, the font size, the design, the color choices, the animations. Complaints about everything the designer did to make this site unique and personal, which was t…

[flagged]

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Re: A website to destroy all websites

#74

Post by lisbbb »

tkiolp4 wrote: post #45
lazzlazzlazz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

HN is so depressing, but at the same time so Im addicted to it. It’s like tiktok but for people who enjoy plain text and hacking related stuff. When I first visited HN more than 10 years ago (without account) like, 90% of the content was exciting and you got to learn something. Nowadays it’s about 40-50%, and the rest is crap (including comments). I have been trying to leave HN, let’s see if I can do it in 2026.

The site that is really, insufferably toxic is LinkedIn.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#75

Post by snorbleck »

Aurornis wrote: post #25

I think the comments here are a great example of why this idea always sounds better in nostalgic reminiscence than in practice: As I write this, nearly half of the comments here are complaining about this website. There are complaints about requiring JavaScript, the font size, the design, the color choices, the animations. Complaints about everything the designer did to make this site unique and personal, which was t…

unique has gone away. everything must fit into some cookie-cutter pre-formatted mold that everyone has to agree upon OR ELSE!

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#76

Post by ChuckMcM »

Aurornis wrote: post #25

I think the comments here are a great example of why this idea always sounds better in nostalgic reminiscence than in practice: As I write this, nearly half of the comments here are complaining about this website. There are complaints about requiring JavaScript, the font size, the design, the color choices, the animations. Complaints about everything the designer did to make this site unique and personal, which was t…

Yup. Pretty much everything seems better when you're being nostalgic. And that is singularly due to the human tendency to forget the bad parts and remember only the good ones (it's a solid self care strategy).

I had fond memories of programming my CP/M machine back in the day, built a re-creation and was painfully aware of how limiting a 25 line by 80 character display could be. Nostalgia, remembering the good times, reality some things really sucked too.

Then there is the paradox of freedom to deal with, specifically if everyone is free to change anything they like to be the way they like it, other people will hate it and the entire system will be "bad." But for everyone to use the same basic frame work, and the dislike for the lack of freedom will be a common cause that builds community.

Back in the early days of the web and SGML, the focus was reversed, which is to say "web" sites would just publish content and the "user" could apply what ever style they liked to get a presentation that worked for them. This infuriated web site authors who had their own idea about how their web site should look and act on your display. You were the consumer and they presented and if you didn't like it go somewhere else. You can still see vestiges of that with things like "use this font to show things" Etc.

So yeah, nostalgia is never a good motivation for a manifesto. :-)

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#77

Post by acomjean »

nativeit wrote: post #60
Aurornis wrote: post #25

I think the comments here are a great example of why this idea always sounds better in nostalgic reminiscence than in practice: As I write this, nearly half of the comments here are complaining about this website. There are complaints about requiring JavaScript, the font size, the design, the color choices, the animations. Complaints about everything the designer did to make this site unique and personal, which was t…

Gimme 10 minutes, notepad, and 10,000 GIFs, and I'll give you the World [Wide Web] of my youth.

>10,000 GIFs

half of dancing hampsters.

De da dee dee doh!

[1]https://web.archive.org/web/20000301193204/http://www.hamste... [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampster_Dance

I do miss "memepool" and snarky curation from ye olde web days

https://web.archive.org/web/20050225005911/http://memepool.c...

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#78

Post by nativeit »

yakattak wrote: post #36

These are some ways I’ve been using the web in a way that keeps me free. - Run my own site (not much there yet) - Use RSS Feeds instead of Reddit - If a YouTube creator you like has a newsletter, SIGN UP! - If a short form content creator makes long form content, watch that instead - Post on forums, instead of their subreddit/Discord (lots of Linux distros have all three) - Invest in my cozy web communities[1] Speaki…

I'm quite enthusiastic about my FreshRSS instance. I got to this article/these comments from there, and I've even worked out how to add YouTube subscription feeds, and comics. Just a straightforward, chronological list of the things I've chosen to follow--no ads, no BS. It's quite refreshing, I think it's had a material impact to improve my mental health. Of course, the things that the people I follow create, and the timing of their publications is inherently influenced by algorithms, removing my direct exposure to algorithmically-defined infinite feeds has been significant.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#79

Post by IvanK_net »

mightybyte wrote: post #71
IvanK_net wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You choose to spend your time on a place A instead of the place B, it means that the place A is better than the place B. Why else would you do it, if B was better? It is a simple logic.

It also could happen because tech companies have optimized their products to maximize the amount of time that people spend on them, often in ways that directly result in a worse user experience (by showing ads instead of the most relevant search results, for example).

It makes no sense what you say. If the experience with A was really worse than with B, people would stay with B.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#80

Post by jfengel »

johnfn wrote: post #21

I hear clamoring to go back to "the old web" frequently, I never really understood the perspective. The old web still exists. I use it every day. I'm a member of a number of tiny community websites with old web charm, and there are certainly millions more out there, for any random niche or interest. In fact, I almost consider Hacker News to be in that category (though it might be a tad too large these days; you can't…

I don't get it either. It's all still there. There's just also a lot more.

It always sounds to me like "life was great when it was just me and a few dozen people exactly like me". Now it's got stuff for other people, too, and people seem to resent that.

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