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A website to destroy all websites

henry.codes

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Re: A website to destroy all websites

#121

Post by snek_case »

dwa3592 wrote: post #50

Wait, this was a nice article. why are people complaining?

Without wanting to sound overly pessimistic, I subjectively feel like comments on Hacker News have become more negative and cynical over the last 10 years. It often seems like the prevailing attitude is "let me try and point to a perceived flaw" or "here is why this is not good enough" rather than being helpful or supportive... We're staying away from the hacker ethos IMO.

It's by no means a perfect article, but the general message seems to be that we're not powerless to build the web we want, and you can host your own website, which is still true.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#122

Post by PunchyHamster »

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 is not a quality hard to achieve

And they are complaining precisely because it has pompous title. If it was "badly designed but personal website" there would be much less of that

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#124

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

nativeit wrote: post #78
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…

There is freetube which had rss really easy to work with for youtube subscriptions.

One of my biggest issues was that on some occasions, Youtube algorithm would give me home run so I would still frequent Youtube algorithm

Another issue was that smh, youtube's rss feeds couldn't really find the difference between shorts and normal videos.

So if you have a channel which makes lots of short form content, you would see that so much more often.

Like I remember taking a few hours out of my life to fix it but ended up giving up.

Although now thinking about it, I feel like what can be done is seeing all the youtube videos and seeing all the shorts videos from an api or similar I guess and then seeing the difference and having it for an rss or such to pass another rss.

But one can see the pain in the ass for that and I am not sure how that would even work.

I must comment, Hackernews has been the perfect spot between algorithmically generated and completely self feed as it gives me new things.

is there anything like Hackernews but for youtube/video content?

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#125

Post by jaapz »

PunchyHamster wrote: post #122
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 is not a quality hard to achieve And they are complaining precisely because it has pompous title. If it was "badly designed but personal website" there would be much less of that

It's just a fun title, don't read so much into it

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#126

Post by apublicfrog »

kristianc wrote: post #18

Lovely design - but also shows the inherent problem. Not everyone can create a design like this. Medium and Substack mean that not everyone needs to. When everyone is able to publish, you invariably end up with a lot more crap, and it has to hosted by someone else.

People who were not technical then and are not now made it work with Myspace, Neopets and Geocities. There are a number of free microhosts out there. And the big social media sites also allow you to post a lot more crap.

I think bringing back websites like hawkee etc and providing an easy way to host is the right way forward, but it needs a catalyst (like most things) to become a trend.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#127

Post by bakugo »

LPisGood wrote: post #64
tkiolp4 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Haven’t people been saying that since the late 2000’s?

Yes, but why can't both be true?

I don't get people who use "you say [thing] is getting worse but someone X years ago said the same!" as an argument that somehow proves [thing] isn't getting worse. Things can become progressively worse over long periods of time, it's not an instant change that can only happen once.

Another context where I often see this "argument" is major Windows versions. People rightfully say they want to stay on Windows 10 because 11 is objectively worse in many ways, and someone jumps in to say "you said the same about 7 to 10" as if it's some sort of gotcha. Both complaints can be right, each new version can be worse than the last.

Right now, we have at least one aspect in which HN has become objectively worse in the past years: AI-generated content. It didn't exist a decade ago, so good luck using that "argument" there. Thankfully, its prevalence is still nowhere near as bad as on Reddit (it's impossible to browse that site for 10 minutes without noticing bots posting blatant ChatGPT responses everywhere and getting hundreds of upvotes), but still.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#128

Post by econ »

IvanK_net wrote: post #112
cgriswald wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original poster said “more useful”, not “better”, so you’re already arguing something different than what was said. I might spend more time with something less useful because its time efficiency is one of the things that makes it less useful now. Regarding your argument of “better” you seem to be arguing by definition. Edit: I now realize you are the original poster who said “more useful”, so why did you change i…

More useful is one of many ways of being better. What are you talking about?

You vote with your feet. If you can only follow the world would be exactly as simple as you make it out to be.

If you write things for your own website you would make more of an effort and it would ideally find an audience that enjoys your world view or insights into your topics.

It would be great to lure you into that experience. HN is a terrible dating agency. Gathering down votes here is the opposite of making friends. It is however great for discovering authors like Henry.

He could have spend his time complaining on x how bad it is.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#129

Post by madeofpalk »

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]

I promise you Hacker News was exactly like this back in 2011.

> It has become political (toward the left)

I wonder what you're talking about - your definition of 'political' or 'left'.

Tech and politics are so deeply intrenched. More than just "is DEI evil and there's no such thing as algorithmic bias". Should Apple be restricted from collecting its Apple Tax and locking down its devices?? Should the EU be able to regulate American companies? Should governments demand encryption back doors in devices? Should Australia ban teens from social network? Should there be a Right to Repair for our devices?

Honestly one of my biggest gripes with HN is that it does seem to be a place where pretty regressive social viewpoints seem to flourish.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#130

Post by IvanK_net »

privacy2 wrote: post #54
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?

Each year, I spend more time in my car during my commute (on average) than a year before, which shows that being stuck in traffic is getting more and more useful to me.

You chose to do it, so it means it was better to you than all other choices. Why would you still do it otherwise?

If your goal is to suffer as much as possible, it does not matter. You are still making choices that lead you to your goal as fast as possible.

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