Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight • Hacker News Board

Re: Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

#101

Post by Uncle_Brumpus » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:55 PM UTC

jrochkind1 wrote: post #35

> this was a regulated monopoly, and if their customer satisfaction dropped below 96% (if I remember correctly) it could result in millions of pounds in fines. OK, I'm still at the beginning and irrelevant to the article, but as a USA-ian, I am so jealous about that. Unheard of here.

That hit me, too, specifically thinking about my current gas/electricity provider. I have not heard one single piece of positive feedback from the public, and there's only ever problems. I feel like that's a pretty universal experience here. Even outside the scope of websites, it holds so very true.

Personal anecdote: Recently they were updating everyone to "smart meters" on the gas lines. They needed me to be home so they could enter my apartment and bleed the gas out of the line by turning on the stove prior to replacing the meter. I played phone tag with them for 6 months, setting up countless appointments, and nobody ever showed up, the meter remains un-upgraded. At the same time, I have received weekly phone calls and monthly physical letters stating that if I don't upgrade the meter, my gas will be shut off. I just moved, so the new tenant will have to deal with it now.

Re: Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

#102

Post by nilirl » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:55 PM UTC

I understand people need to make arguments for things they like but provide more please.

What were some of the downsides? Illuminating the tradeoffs would elevate this post from good to great.

Re: Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

#103

Post by sodapopcan » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:55 PM UTC

wmanley wrote: post #25

The counterargument: In Defence of the Single Page Application: https://williamkennedy.ninja/javascript/2022/05/03/in-defenc...

I wish I hadn't read the replies. I love being made the fool (though not to worry, I'll have plenty of other opportunities, likely today!)

Re: Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

#104

Post by alsetmusic » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:55 PM UTC

__natty__ wrote: post #56

frisia wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the joke :) all other articles load fine instantly, just this one that has a spinner

Heh it got me then :)

Whoosh! Right over my head. I feel a little silly, but also, got me!

Re: Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

#105

Post by simonmysun » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:56 PM UTC

Zak wrote: post #76

All the text is invisible for me in Firefox on Linux when the `--font-body` is set to `"Atkinson", sans-serif`. Setting it to `"Atkinson Hyperlegible", sans-serif` fixed it.

I read the article in the source code mode and thought it was intentional until I came back to the comments

P.S. your solution seems to have disabled the custom font instead of fixing it

Re: Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

#106

Post by hiccuphippo » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:56 PM UTC

Can anyone confirm if Web Components work in the old psp web browser?

Re: Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

#107

Post by ErroneousBosh » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:56 PM UTC

naravara wrote: post #87

t1234s wrote: post #40

Having been building websites since the mid 90's, I laugh at terms like "HTML-first website"

I’m sorry I can’t hear you over the Flash animation splash pages I was forced to sit through before being able to look up hours of operation.

I did some work for a company that spent nearly a grand on a Flash animation for their title page of a red bouncing ball that would bounce from right to left along the letters of the word "Yipee" (yeah totally not ripping off Yahoo! were they?) until it landed in the crook of the Y, where it would spread down the middle - the finished logo had the Y made out of blue, yellow, and red stripes.

Every single person I showed it to including my then-70-something mother said "that just looks like menstrual bleeding".

Every single person said that.

They still went with it. Conversion rate? Dunno, never got numbers high enough to test the script.

Re: Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

#108

Post by initramfs » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:56 PM UTC

This is such a great story. I am glad more people are sharing stories like this. I hope my article the other day inspired more to develop lightweight websites:

https://inavoyage.blogspot.com/2026/06/im-building-parallel-... https://inavoyage.blogspot.com/2026/06/how-about-new-java-ba...

Re: Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

#109

Post by ErroneousBosh » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:57 PM UTC

simonmysun wrote: post #97

Hmm I cannot load the font on Firefox 151.0.3 Arch Linux. All I see is only a title and empty paragraphs. So I end up reading the article in the source code mode and felt pretty on-brand. Back to HN comments it looks like this wasn't actually intentional?

> Arch Linux

You've only got yourself to blame, there.

Re: Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight

#110

Post by Ruarl » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 2:58 PM UTC

nonethewiser wrote: post #93

jorisw wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They feel the slowness of the page load

But if they dont, where is the disrespect? They dont know what a megabyte is, they dont feel a slow page load. Where is the disrespect? React is too heavy weight for a lot of things. But it's ridiculous to call it disrespectful.

If Rick Rubin could take a tape to his car to listen to his mixes, your product people can try their websites on £20 phones from Tesco. They can ask to sit in on user tests with minority groups. Extending your knowledge like this is trivial, but rarely done.