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The Bullshit Web

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Re: The Bullshit Web

#401

Post by Gravityloss »

mr_toad wrote: post #308
cheezymoogle wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one of the wildest things! We had the technological capacity to run Unix systems with several hundred users simultaneously and access at the speed of thought with 26kbps modems back in 1992, complete with instant messaging and personal directories! What happened?!

In Usenet’s particular case it was its open, unmoderated nature that killed it - once it became 99% spam, warez and CP most ISPs dropped it.

There were moderated groups but IIRC they were updating more slowly because every message was reviewed.

Anyway, there was a certain barrier for entry so there were less users and messages. But some really good experts posted there. And some really fun jokers.

Re: The Bullshit Web

#402

Post by smadge »

true_religion wrote: post #333
russdpale wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, if your content sucks. If you need all that bullshit to stay profitable then perhaps the business isn't really needed at all. "but that is the industry competition for you, everyone does it." To that, all I can say is perhaps some regulation is required to level the playing field.

Strictly speaking, most individual business isn't needed. If the NY Times folds tomorrow due to bankruptcy, there are dozens of other papers where we can get the news. Their reporting is good, and I choose them over their competitors but losing them wouldn't be the end of news as we know it. That's the case with most businesses---the marketing and sales are only needed to compete , whereas without them the product wo…

Your choice of journalism as an example is unsettling. If the New York Times goes out of business, there is no guarantee that another news publisher will break the same stories. Some things will just not be investigated anymore and some important stories will just not be told.

Re: The Bullshit Web

#403

Post by TeMPOraL »

LeoNatan25 wrote: post #283
thegayngler wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree in theory. However, I haven't noticed the slowness in their website and the ads are well done and blend in with the webpage. They may have to redesign/rearchitect their whole website to get what you are asking for. It should be noted that traditional newspapers include ads alongside news content and no one complains. In fact people used to sift through the Sunday NYT simply for the ads.

There is no such thing as "the ads are well done and blend in with the webpage". Especially on a website where you pay for a subscription.

Moreover, there is a tipping point, beyond which the ad blends too well and becomes plain deception. This is even more of a problem for journalistic publications. See also: native advertising.

Re: The Bullshit Web

#404

Post by Gravityloss »

dri_ft wrote: post #249
TeMPOraL wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another wild thing like this is what you'll notice when you read up on Lisp machines. We had development environments in the 70s/80s that would seem magical today.

It's heartbreaking.

Shows we are not limited by technology but somehow get distracted by other things.

Re: The Bullshit Web

#405

Post by molotovbliss »

cheezymoogle wrote: post #155
TeMPOraL wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of the data downloaded is actually for typography? Also, browsers have good enough typography by default, which can be controlled with CSS.

Everyone's favorite example of that kind of "brutalist" design: http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/

Came looking for motherfuckingwebsite.com & find an even better site to reference now instead. Kudos!

Re: The Bullshit Web

#406

Post by TeMPOraL »

michaelmrose wrote: post #356
MrEldritch wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(All that being said, I'm also fairly salty about having 8 GB of RAM and a mechanical hard drive rendering my computer incredibly painful to use as technology has marched on. Discord - which I use almost exclusively as an IRC chatroom with persistent while-you-were-gone chat history, embedded media, and fun custom emotes - is an entire Electron app that eats over 100 MB minimum; Firefox is eating 750 MB just keeping…

My i3wm environment doesn't randomly start anything I don't ask it to start and runs very comfortably with 8gb of ram heck it would run fine with 4gb and no swap. Maybe you are running the wrong os.

A tiling window manager won't save you when dealing with Electron apps.

I run Linux and StumpWM on my desktop, and recently I had upgrade to 12GB of RAM, because it turns out 8GB is very easy to exhaust these days. I currently have 9.3GB tied up, mostly by browser processes.

Re: The Bullshit Web

#407

Post by ankurdhama »

Every web site (or app) wants to look "cool" and wants to differentiate themselves from others based on the look. This quest to look cool leads to all the animations and images etc which leads to the increase in download size. For the most part the reason for this quest to look cool is to grab user attention as much as possible so that they can do their actual business i.e ads.

Re: The Bullshit Web

#408

Post by quickthrower2 »

MrStonedOne wrote: post #323

I have a policy of disabling javascript on any article based website. Its worked out well, most news sites load lightning fast, better viewing experience, no videos, the only downside is companies like the new york times that embed low res images then load full res in the background using javascript. Here's a funny concept, if disabling javascript makes your website better, you failed.

Or just prefix the url with https://outline.com/

Re: The Bullshit Web

#409

Post by MrEldritch »

flukus wrote: post #391
MrEldritch wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(All that being said, I'm also fairly salty about having 8 GB of RAM and a mechanical hard drive rendering my computer incredibly painful to use as technology has marched on. Discord - which I use almost exclusively as an IRC chatroom with persistent while-you-were-gone chat history, embedded media, and fun custom emotes - is an entire Electron app that eats over 100 MB minimum; Firefox is eating 750 MB just keeping…

> I saw a discussion on HN a few months back about a survey of computer hardware, and one dev in the comments was shocked - shocked! - to find out that the typical user didn't have 16 GB and a 4k screen. That definitely rustled my jimmies a bit.) This is extremely common in dev circles, it's an area where we're completely detached from average users. Just to make the point, here is the mozilla hardware survey that sh…

Oh, I recognize that Mozilla survey as actually the specific one that user was talking about! Let me see if I can track down the actual comment thread; it's probably less ridiculous than I actually remember it being.

Ah, found it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16735354

Re: The Bullshit Web

#410

Post by MrEldritch »

michaelmrose wrote: post #356
MrEldritch wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(All that being said, I'm also fairly salty about having 8 GB of RAM and a mechanical hard drive rendering my computer incredibly painful to use as technology has marched on. Discord - which I use almost exclusively as an IRC chatroom with persistent while-you-were-gone chat history, embedded media, and fun custom emotes - is an entire Electron app that eats over 100 MB minimum; Firefox is eating 750 MB just keeping…

My i3wm environment doesn't randomly start anything I don't ask it to start and runs very comfortably with 8gb of ram heck it would run fine with 4gb and no swap. Maybe you are running the wrong os.

Oh, no, I'm aware these are very much Win10 specific problems and I look at Linux people with a not insignificant degree of envy. Unfortunately, I do quite like PC gaming.
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