PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading • Hacker News Board

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#171

Post by neutronicus » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC

tw04 wrote: post #136

bsammon wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may be a bit out of date. There was free WiFi in basically every town. Now it's frequently a vestigial, no-longer-maintained free WiFi that works like crap, because there's no maintenance, because "everyone has cellular data nowadays".

Every public library in the US has free wifi. Every Starbucks in the US has free wifi. Every public school has free wifi. I can tell you don’t actually have to use it because if you did you’d know your statement isn’t accurate.

I was gonna say - the public library wifi is up to this task.

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#172

Post by y0eswddl » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 2:35 AM UTC

CGamesPlay wrote: post #165

Disabling cache and then complaining that the bandwidth usage never stops increasing is certainly a take, but I'm not sure you can meaningfully draw any conclusions from it.

right, because most people have already visited most sites and continually visit them frequently enough that cache never goes stale.

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#173

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 2:36 AM UTC

simonw wrote: post #99

simonw wrote: post #19

This is so upsetting. No wonder people spend more time in mobile apps than they do using the mobile web - the default web experience on so many sites is terrible .

I had Claude Code profile the page (using headless Chrome) to see what was going on, here's the resulting report: https://github.com/simonw/research/blob/main/pcgamer-audit/R...

[deleted]

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#174

Post by drnick1 » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 2:39 AM UTC

The modern Web is truly unusable without an aggressive DNS filter and/or uBlock.

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#175

Post by viccis » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 2:39 AM UTC

mnkyprskbd wrote: post #78

At this point, if you browse the internet without an adblock; it is on YOU.

Yeah, regular and even respected media outlets are basically giving you the 2005 porn pirating site experience.

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#176

Post by jaimex2 » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 2:44 AM UTC

How much would that be costing them? Thats a lot of data to serve for no reason.

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#177

Post by what » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 2:51 AM UTC

TheDong wrote: post #161

nathanmills wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an easy fix: Just cut off their data after it runs out instead of falling back to 2G speeds. Sounds like a win-win for both the data provider and the user.

I hope you're joking. The obvious easy fix is to give them unlimited data. If the intent is to give them internet, they should give them internet that functions for the modern web.

They’re already given unlimited data? It just gets throttled the 2G speeds.

They can also just go to the local library or Starbucks for the WiFi if they need more.

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#178

Post by Marsymars » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 2:56 AM UTC

OptionOfT wrote: post #94

MBCook wrote: post #17

The title buried the lede. > In the five minutes since I started writing this post the website has downloaded almost half a gigabyte of new ads. I’m guessing this is due to autoplaying videos. *500 MB* in 5 minutes. 37 MB is petite compared to that.

It is absolutely disgusting that even today it is impossible to stop video autoplay on Safari on iOS. I can't image the data wasted.

StopTheMadness will do this pretty well for $15.

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#179

Post by asdff » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 2:57 AM UTC

nathanmills wrote: post #167

TheDong wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you're joking. The obvious easy fix is to give them unlimited data. If the intent is to give them internet, they should give them internet that functions for the modern web.

Unlimited data! You make it sound so easy.

It was seemingly easy for every cell provider to give it to every teenager in america just 10 years ago. What is a few marginalized adults in 2026?

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#180

Post by Marsymars » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 2:59 AM UTC

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #143

mnkyprskbd wrote: post #78

At this point, if you browse the internet without an adblock; it is on YOU.

Not on mobile I used to use NextDNS a lot but some things would get messed up so I'd have to sometimes disable it and then I got lazy and just have kept it off for like a year On Android is there a better solution when using Chrome?

uBlock Origin Lite is probably the best option, but in my experience mobile adblocking goes Firefox (with uBlock Origin) > Safari (with 1Blocker) > Chrome (with uBlock Origin Lite).

edit: Erp, actually, it seems mobile Chrome doesn't have extension support. I only actually use Chrome on a Chromebook, I assumed Android was comparable.