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This is a web page

justinjackson.ca

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Re: This is a web page

#231

Post by mijustin »

scotchmi_st wrote: post #214
adventured wrote: post #69

"At it's heart, web design should be about words." No. The web is not just a place for text / words, that is not its heart and soul, and therefore neither is that the case for web design. It really never has been. I see no great argument in favor of words being the core over any other form of expression. Today's bandwidth more than allows for beautiful video, animation, high quality graphics and photos, etc. Or low k…

This argument really irritates me. Apart from all of the excellent reasons that other commenters have given as to why this is false, the fact that programs such as Instagram are as popular as they are, /that do nothing other than remove everything but the text from a page/, shows this is false.

It's funny... there haven't been many photo responses in this HN thread. ;)

Re: This is a web page

#232

Post by mijustin »

daenz wrote: post #78
adventured wrote: post #69

"At it's heart, web design should be about words." No. The web is not just a place for text / words, that is not its heart and soul, and therefore neither is that the case for web design. It really never has been. I see no great argument in favor of words being the core over any other form of expression. Today's bandwidth more than allows for beautiful video, animation, high quality graphics and photos, etc. Or low k…

Agreed. The author is assuming our capacity for communication is/should be text based. We're visual beings as well, and aesthetics is a lubricant for effective communication.

Absolutely. I clearly should have posted this on Instagram. ;)

Re: This is a web page

#233

Post by leephillips »

morsch wrote: post #93
adventured wrote: post #69

"At it's heart, web design should be about words." No. The web is not just a place for text / words, that is not its heart and soul, and therefore neither is that the case for web design. It really never has been. I see no great argument in favor of words being the core over any other form of expression. Today's bandwidth more than allows for beautiful video, animation, high quality graphics and photos, etc. Or low k…

I think his point is that it's a communication system that facilitates communication amongst everyone . And everyone can communicate in words, typed out[0]. And not everyone can produce or effectively communicate using beautiful video, high quality graphics and, I guess, responsive design. [1] It's interesting to wonder what the next-common "wide area" communication mode is -- photos are widely shared, but is there a…

"not everyone can produce [...] responsive design"

Notice that the page is automatically responsive, and is perfectly usable on a phone, tablet, or anything else.

If your page has no CSS styles it will be perfectly responsive. If it's not, you've messed up that nice feature of the web with your stylesheet. Now you probably think you need to learn about media queries to make it work again.

Re: This is a web page

#234

Post by bcRIPster »

simpleglider wrote: post #156
ChuckMcM wrote: post #34

First time [1] my in-laws saw "the web" they were trying to find information about vacation spots in Brazil but their travel guide was obsolete, I found a web page a student had written up about where the best places to stay and see were in Brazil. I could almost see the dots connect when they realized that someone they didn't know, in Brazil , had written up a piece of information at some point that they were now se…

That's a great anecdote. Out of curiosity, how did you find the site? I had just turned four at the time, so I don't quite remember what browsing the Internet was like then.

In 1994, the main way you found websites was mostly from hub sites that maintained large libraries of links to other sites (like a directory), newsgroups (UUCP/Usenet), friends in IRC trading links, AOL, Delphi and Compuserve forums and print magazines. Webcrawler was revolutionary when it came on-line in 1994, but there were no comprehensive search engines that had a high index count until probably 1996.

The mother of all link directories started from NCSA who distributed the first web browser (Mosaic) and they ran a site where they would publish a monthly list of "What's New" on the web. They pulled the pages from their site a few years ago but fortunately I made a mirror on my server for historical reference that you can check out here:

http://www.kitchencloset.com/realstuff/ncsa/whats_new-archiv...

Enjoy!

edit: forgot to mention web rings someone else just mentioned.

Re: This is a web page

#235

Post by leephillips »

derleth wrote: post #120
morsch wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think his point is that it's a communication system that facilitates communication amongst everyone . And everyone can communicate in words, typed out[0]. And not everyone can produce or effectively communicate using beautiful video, high quality graphics and, I guess, responsive design. [1] It's interesting to wonder what the next-common "wide area" communication mode is -- photos are widely shared, but is there a…

> And everyone can communicate in words, typed out Obviously false, or else answer me in Cherokee, Tamil, Hindi, and Latin. Images can be understood beyond the bounds of a single language.

Those languages use words.

Re: This is a web page

#236

Post by e3pi »

adventured wrote: post #69

"At it's heart, web design should be about words." No. The web is not just a place for text / words, that is not its heart and soul, and therefore neither is that the case for web design. It really never has been. I see no great argument in favor of words being the core over any other form of expression. Today's bandwidth more than allows for beautiful video, animation, high quality graphics and photos, etc. Or low k…

"At it's heart, web design should be about words."

Yes.

I corrupt too many hours concerned with flash, and dressing words in garish nonsense. Minimalist HN is an excellent model to excise and distain word flash dreck, and images or whatever kind of vid snippet.

Look at HN's traffic, others agree.

With the myriad digressions of image, js, and html5 magic, it's difficult for me not to be seduced by other's new eye candy. But the best pages I like to find, are simplest original tty, possibly with a word centric CGI engine dynamically serving up what I want, or what I didn't know I want. Most often then not, these plain forged dynamic/static pages, I bookmark.

Some site's landing page ar so busy loading, to read what I want I drag-copy or 'print' if that's an option. If not, forget it, it's just too much painful nonsense spam or Las Vegas sequins headache to tolerate.

I'd also prefer a text browser, but gave up as none seem to keep up with required js, certificates-ssl, etc.

I'm no longer an infant, or a girl believing in fuschia unicorns, let's lose those brain-numbing colors too.

Re: This is a web page

#238

Post by mijustin »

adventured wrote: post #76
weixiyen wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

change "words" to "content".

I don't think so. That isn't what the person said. Their entire post was built around stripping down web design to the words. In fact, the author was very precise in the usage of the term "words." This for example: "But the most powerful tool on the web is still words." That blatantly is not the case in my opinion. Photos are vastly more powerful than words on today's web. That's why 3/4 of all the posts on Reddit's…

OP here. My point wasn't that we should remove all other types of media from the web. (I love other types of media)

My point was that the most powerful tool on the web is still words.

Here's why:

1. Words are an excellent starting point. All you need is a text editor. Words are a great way to express ideas in a concrete way. Words can stand on their own.

2. It's easy to add things to words. Adding an image, video, or other media to words has the power to further strengthen the message. Side note: there's also the (negative) potential for adding too much, or for muddling the message.

3. Text on the web is small. My page was 4KB. Most people around the world, even with a bad connection, would be able to view that page.

You're right: images can be powerful. But on the web, I think text still rules.

(I notice you responded to this thread with words, and not an image or a video)

Re: This is a web page

#239

Post by petercooper »

simpleglider wrote: post #156
ChuckMcM wrote: post #34

First time [1] my in-laws saw "the web" they were trying to find information about vacation spots in Brazil but their travel guide was obsolete, I found a web page a student had written up about where the best places to stay and see were in Brazil. I could almost see the dots connect when they realized that someone they didn't know, in Brazil , had written up a piece of information at some point that they were now se…

That's a great anecdote. Out of curiosity, how did you find the site? I had just turned four at the time, so I don't quite remember what browsing the Internet was like then.

Because other people have given good answers, I just wanted to add.. the Web was so much better linked together back then. Prior to Altavista made searching useful most of the time, it was common to rely on jumping from one site to another through plentiful link pages, web rings, and lists of resources that people had put together. There was also Usenet which people often posted links on and which was sorted by topic and a handy way to find stuff.

Re: This is a web page

#240

Post by williamcotton »

lelandbatey wrote: post #162
pnathan wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a good citation for the primacy of linguistic communication? I have become profoundly convinced over the last 15 years that words (& to an extent, text ), is the generally best mode of communication of meaning, beating out things such as video, images, smells, etc. But I've been generally unable to articulate that idea cleanly and persuasively.

I feel that words are the best way to communicate because words are born purely out of us; they are literally our thoughts in physical form. Videos, music, pictures, are all representations of physical things in the world around us; words are representations of the worlds inside us.

I sometimes have a hard time putting certain thoughts or feelings in to words, in which case I either draw a picture, play a melody, or use one of the other myriad forms of expression available to me to communicate with others. I in no way feel like I am translating these thoughts from words to these other forms of expression. I have a much easier time singing a melody than transcribing it. I have to force the music to comply with written forms.
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