A website to destroy all websites • Hacker News Board

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#201

Post by 100721 » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 2:16 AM UTC

pavlus wrote: post #148

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…

I've read your comment before visiting the site, and it got me wondering -- how bad can it be? Can it be worse than those acid green on red sites of the 90s-00s? Imagine my surprise, when I opened the site and it looked and felt just like a museum or art exhibit. This was the literal feeling I had -- being at an art gallery, but online. I guess, these comments tell more about the commenters, than TFA. We should remin…

I think it'd be good to keep in mind that Hacker News is mostly populated by a demographic commonly referred to as "Tech Bros" who, for the most part, are here as part of their journey in creating profitable businesses.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#202

Post by stephendause » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 2:17 AM UTC

pavlus wrote: post #148

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…

I've read your comment before visiting the site, and it got me wondering -- how bad can it be? Can it be worse than those acid green on red sites of the 90s-00s? Imagine my surprise, when I opened the site and it looked and felt just like a museum or art exhibit. This was the literal feeling I had -- being at an art gallery, but online. I guess, these comments tell more about the commenters, than TFA. We should remin…

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My personal taste for the presentation of a piece of writing is that less is more. I usually find artwork that accompanies a text to be distracting. I love reading work that can stand on its own, invoking images in the mind. I also dislike animations that seem to be made for a certain scroll speed.

Having said all of that, I certainly don't think it's bad, nor is it a commentary on the arguments being made. It's just not my cup of tea.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#203

Post by raincole » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 2:21 AM UTC

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…

If you name your site "A website to destroy all websites" you're basically inviting people to judge it with extremely critical standard.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#204

Post by rchaud » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 2:26 AM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #142

A lot to unpack here, but the article fails to tackle the question of distribution. Creators put their videos on YouTube because that is the way to reach a nearly global audience at zero cost. I can assure you that although you can probably figure out how to host videos that nobody sees, you cannot afford to host a popular video. The author clearly spent a lot of time writing and presenting this, but the facts and co…

> Creators put their videos on YouTube because that is the way to reach a nearly global audience at zero cost.

If a tree fell and there was no one around, did it make a sound? A cursory look through r/newtubers would show you that there are a lot of people who get no views on their videos. Youtube's distribution mattered when it was looking for user-generated content to splice ads into. Today, it is filled with that content, and no longer has to encourage people to post by giving them thousands of views overnight.

Besides that, people starting Youtube channels are looking for fame, which is why they unquestioningly follow all the usual tricks for "going viral": inane thumbnails, one-minute preambles before the "like and subscribe" beg, engagement bait content to draw in comments, etc. This kills whatever original voice the uploader may have had, before their first video is even posted.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#205

Post by ceroxylon » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 2:27 AM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #39

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…

The site indeed is trying to be an artistic treatise, as opposed to being a clear, easy-to-read manifesto. It touches many themes I have read about many times, so I skimmed most of the content. It came to the expected indie-web conclusions and recommendations. Indie Web, while nice and fascinating, lacks the large audience. You write things down, and nobody cares. Well, maybe a few friends who keep an eye, and a hiri…

> The most efficient way for an indie website to gain an audience is to be briefly featured on one of these bad, terrifying behemoths of the current Web

This is what the article / indieweb mean with POSSE

https://indieweb.org/POSSE

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#206

Post by 100721 » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 2:27 AM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #149

bbor wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of on interaction a few months ago where I mentioned the left-right spectrum in passing and someone accused me of making HN a worse place, only to call me a "snowflake" in their very next response! As usual, "things shouldn't be so political" is often uttered from a highly-political sense of discomfort. The quintessential example for me was its usage in US anti-desegregation rhetoric in the 1960s, alongsid…

[flagged]

Genuinely curious: would you mind please explaining to me how your contributions are more productive than the person you are responding to (read: attacking)?

It reads like you are upset at the poster using "DEI" and projecting your own behaviors onto them ("tedious and unproductive political discourse", "immune from critique or any burden of evidence").

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#207

Post by LoganDark » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 2:29 AM UTC

100721 wrote: post #201

pavlus wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read your comment before visiting the site, and it got me wondering -- how bad can it be? Can it be worse than those acid green on red sites of the 90s-00s? Imagine my surprise, when I opened the site and it looked and felt just like a museum or art exhibit. This was the literal feeling I had -- being at an art gallery, but online. I guess, these comments tell more about the commenters, than TFA. We should remin…

I think it'd be good to keep in mind that Hacker News is mostly populated by a demographic commonly referred to as "Tech Bros" who, for the most part, are here as part of their journey in creating profitable businesses.

Is that the definition of tech bros? I thought tech bros were people who shilled cryptocurrencies, NFTs and other grifts.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#208

Post by ryandrake » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 2:30 AM UTC

lightandlight wrote: post #170

dwa3592 wrote: post #50

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

I'm with you. Surprised by the negative reactions here. A possible piece of the puzzle: I originally read the article on mobile, no issues. Then I opened it on my desktop, and found the design quite jarring. The margins are much too large for my taste, forcing the text into a single narrow column, and the header animations were distracting and disorienting (fortunately the page works perfectly with JavaScript disable…

I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really hate the design trend of confining tiny text into a tiny narrow column down the middle of my browser. It's an awful stylistic decision, and this is the petty hill I'm willing to die on. It's so bad that I really can't take a site seriously that does it.

Now, someone's going to come out of the woodwork to remind me, "Well, ackshually, research suggests that it's easier to read text that's constrained by blah blah blah blah" I don't care. It sucks. It's always sucked. It will forever suck. I have a nice 27" monitor, and I want to use the whole thing. I don't want to have to hit ctrl-] ten times just to have text that is readable and spans my monitor.

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#209

Post by bbor » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 2:31 AM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #149

bbor wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of on interaction a few months ago where I mentioned the left-right spectrum in passing and someone accused me of making HN a worse place, only to call me a "snowflake" in their very next response! As usual, "things shouldn't be so political" is often uttered from a highly-political sense of discomfort. The quintessential example for me was its usage in US anti-desegregation rhetoric in the 1960s, alongsid…

[flagged]

...huh? Your takeaway from my comment was that I'm pro DEI, or that I intended my comment to be related to DEI in some way?

I can't quite tell if you're trying to support or attack that concept/acronym/cultural flash point, but regardless: kinda besides the point :)

Re: A website to destroy all websites

#210

Post by ryandrake » Fri, Jan 02, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC

stephendause wrote: post #202

pavlus wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read your comment before visiting the site, and it got me wondering -- how bad can it be? Can it be worse than those acid green on red sites of the 90s-00s? Imagine my surprise, when I opened the site and it looked and felt just like a museum or art exhibit. This was the literal feeling I had -- being at an art gallery, but online. I guess, these comments tell more about the commenters, than TFA. We should remin…

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My personal taste for the presentation of a piece of writing is that less is more. I usually find artwork that accompanies a text to be distracting. I love reading work that can stand on its own, invoking images in the mind. I also dislike animations that seem to be made for a certain scroll speed. Having said all of that, I certainly don't think it's bad, nor is it a commentary…

I think when you make such strongly opinionated design decisions on your website, you're deliberately inviting strong criticism. They could have used a readable vanilla bootstrap theme and HN would be actually discussing the actual text content instead of the design, but they didn't, and here we are.