Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined

#1

Post by eappleby » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined
freeformatter.com

Re: Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined

#2

Post by eappleby » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:18 PM UTC

I really liked freeformatter.com . Used it all the time. To those that build, host, and serve single-function websites, that (yes) can be easily replicated with AI, I salute you. Thank you for your service.

Re: Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined

#3

Post by wxw » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:28 PM UTC

From Gemini,

> FreeFormatter.com [was] a popular online utility website that provides free formatting, validation, conversion, and minification tools for developers, data professionals, and web administrators working with code and data structures like JSON, XML, HTML, SQL, and Java

Makes sense. Great exit letter.

Re: Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined

#4

Post by teddyh » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:28 PM UTC

Last non-retired archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20260722191742/https://www.freef...>

Re: Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined

#5

Post by jubilanti » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:31 PM UTC

There was someone on HN who shared a collection of dozens of single purpose local/offline web apps for things like file conversions, I think image cropping, and other one-offs like that. Anyone remember?

Nice thing about local PWAs is you serve them statically, CDNs make bandwidth cheap, way fewer vulnerabilities for the host, and all the compute cost is paid by the user's browser.

Re: Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined

#6

Post by Tiberium » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:31 PM UTC

[flagged]

Re: Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined

#7

Post by debo_ » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:34 PM UTC

Tiberium wrote: post #6

[flagged]

Can you not?

Re: Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined

#8

Post by Tiberium » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:35 PM UTC

debo_ wrote: post #7

Tiberium wrote: post #6

[flagged]

Can you not?

Not what? It's incredibly ironic that the creator is complaining about AI yet they used AI just to write a tiny text announcement. Apparently such a tiny snippet didn't deserve human writing.

Re: Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined

#9

Post by thataccount » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:36 PM UTC

I suspect it will reincarnate in a different form.

Re: Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined

#10

Post by bluefirebrand » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 3:36 PM UTC

What a shame. This was a really valuable resource and now it's just gone. Not because the author doesn't want to compete, not because they don't want to do it anymore, but because industry rolled over them

This has a very similar feel to me like local stores closing up because Walmart showed up next door, or beloved used bookstores dying because Amazon exists. Everything good in life right now is being churned into productivity and profit by hyper capital. The result is we all live "better" but poorer lives

Sorry for the rant. I'm also on the verge of giving up, so this hits me very hard