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The ‘Form’ Element Created the Modern Web. Was It a Big Mistake?

wired.com

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Re: The ‘Form’ Element Created the Modern Web. Was It a Big Mistake?

#21

Post by doctor_eval »

I know what we would have had if not for the form element: MSN [0]

> Originally named The Microsoft Network, it debuted as a proprietary online service on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of Windows 95.

MSN was a direct competitor to the internet (and AOL) despite Microsoft’s famous pivot a couple of months earlier [1]

> Realizing his company had missed the boat in estimating the impact and popularity of the Internet, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates issues a memo titled, “The Internet Tidal Wave,” which signaled the company’s focus on the global network.

Here in Australia, Microsoft teamed up with Telstra and tried really hard to shut down the emerging ISP scene (source: I was one of those ISPs)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_Dial-up

[1] https://thisdayintechhistory.com/05/26/bill-gates-internet-t...

Re: The ‘Form’ Element Created the Modern Web. Was It a Big Mistake?

#22

Post by miiiiiike »

Paul Ford must spend a non-negligible amount of time sitting around thinking: “What’s the dumbest thing I could get Wired or Bloomberg to publish?”

And to be absolutely pedantic: He shouldn’t be mad about forms and inputs, they can be used with the read-only web (GET params) and have client-side only uses (calculations.)

Given what he’s trying to say, the headline should be: “The ‘HTTP POST’ Method Created the Modern Web. Was It a Big Mistake?”

But what’s a Paul Ford article without a misdirected a torrent of bromide to keep things flowing?

Re: The ‘Form’ Element Created the Modern Web. Was It a Big Mistake?

#27

Post by usrusr »

jasode wrote: post #11

>THE WEB WAS born to publish documents—in particular, physics papers from CERN, the great laboratory where Tim Berners-Lee, [...] I have argued many times, to the despair of anyone within range, that the element was a pivot point for the entire technology industry. It is what changed the web from a read-only medium for physics papers into a read-write medium for anything. Tim Berners-Lee also invented the HTTP protoc…

An alternative history without would likely have involved far more than the one that actually happened. Still talking through those http verbs you mention and not through custom protocols I think, because proxies were so common.

Re: The ‘Form’ Element Created the Modern Web. Was It a Big Mistake?

#28

Post by polygotdomain »

I don't know why I find articles like this so annoying, but in accordance with Betteridge's law of headlines[0], the answer is no.

>Here’s the thing: If it hadn’t been , it would have been another element—maybe one with a more accurate name, like or or .

This sums up pretty much the entire article in that A) the form tag allowing the web to be a two-way street for data probably would've been filled by another feature, and B) the author is really lamenting about the tracking/anti-privacy/dark pattern world that the web has become. I completely understand the frustration, but it's certainly not an element's fault, but the fault of all the various players who have evolved the web over 25-30ish years. It might be more beneficial to actually explore that than blaming an html element.

>The web was born to distribute information on computers, but the technology industry can never leave well enough alone.

That's called progress.

FWIW, I'd probably say XMLHttpRequest "caused more damage" than the form tag, but I also don't think it's all that worthy of a discussion.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...

Re: The ‘Form’ Element Created the Modern Web. Was It a Big Mistake?

#30

Post by jimmaswell »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #7
2000UltraDeluxe wrote: post #2

Yes, and the right of assembly was a bad idea because it allows people to spread ideas we don't like. The web was specifically made for allowing people to submit and share content. The problem isn't that this included a way to submit content, but rather that we expect people to behave in a certain way. In practice humanity refuses to have it's behaviour to be defined and standardized. If you think something is bad be…

Technocrats aren't going to invite you to their cocktail parties with that attitude! Since they're in control of an ever increasingly large share of our civilization, their desire for cogification of everything will keep on increasing.

In control how, moderation of social media and the rules/policies of other websites? Was it better when we all got our news and opinions in one direction from media conglomerates?
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