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Have a fucking website

otherstrangeness.com

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Re: Have a fucking website

#441

Post by dabbz »

mdp wrote: post #401
rglover wrote: post #360

If people wanted to have a website, they would. The truth of it all is that most people like the walled garden, the sandbox, etc. It's predictable, it's knowable with limited effort, and it creates the desired illusion for a nominal fee. There is no revolution to be had, the people have made (and are continuing to make) their choice. This is technology at scale, for better or worse.

Perfect example is my local coffee shop that is 100% on Instagram only. They've done amazingly well on just Instagram with the groups they are targeting. I doubt that a website would have any impact on their business. In fact Instagram gives them something much easier, more visual, and with a built in social feed (no need to setup a mailing list, just use Instagram). "But it's a walled garden..." - Most people don't…

Nobody cares until the automated trust and safety bot bans an account for no apparent reason and you can't contact a human for help. Before that happens though, how do you get someone to care? I suppose it's risk management at that point. "What are the odds that I'll get inconvenienced by Instagram before the ROI on establishing on their platform pays out"

Re: Have a fucking website

#442

Post by yieldcrv »

what you really need is a service that tunnels information from instagram and facebook businesses onto their display

although you can look at some of them without an account on those services today, and maybe, but maybe not tomorrow

so just need to boost the information people have posted, into something else

Re: Have a fucking website

#443

Post by tartoran »

andreygrehov wrote: post #46

+1 I can’t even delete my old stuff on HN. I don’t own my comments here. In contrast, I can go ahead and delete any of my Facebook posts or comments from 10 years ago. In a way, HN is more hostile than Facebook.

Do you think that by deleting facebook posts anything gets deleted on Facebook's servers?

Re: Have a fucking website

#444

Post by yieldcrv »

freetime2 wrote: post #210

I definitely view it as a red flag if a business doesn't have a website in 2026. It doesn't need to be a fancy website, but does at least need a list of products, business hours, work samples, and contact info. If they don't have that, then I view it as an indication that other aspects of their business might also be lacking in professionality or high friction. That being said, if they have a strong presence on Googl…

> I definitely view it as a red flag if a business doesn't have a website in 2026

from the article:

> If you’re a hair salon, or a tattoo artist, or a restaurant

these services definitely do not need a website

a luddite user just needs a way of getting basic information from where its already posted online. so this is a user experience problem, easily solved by an ai agent that takes whats posted on instagram, yelp, and google maps, and presents it to luddites in a way they are familiar with

Re: Have a fucking website

#445

Post by thwarted »

Arainach wrote: post #14

Someone wrote and deleted a comment saying > I don't get it. LLMs are supposed to have 100% bridged this gap from "normie" to "DIY website." What's missing? This is an all too common thought process among technologists, so: Where to even start? Well, let's start that every single "AI" company is massively overhyping everything to try to avoid any unfortunate realizations about the emperor's clothes regarding their Ca…

I read comments such as:

>> I don't get it. LLMs are supposed to have 100% bridged this gap from "normie" to "DIY website." What's missing?

as less sincere and more facetious, calling out that every single "AI" company is massively overhyping their capabilities and use-cases. You did the same thing in a more detailed fashion, enumerating all the constraints that AI can't address, and others that speak to the reasons that small businesses don't have websites independently of the tooling/services that are ostensibly able too make it easier or remove barriers.

Re: Have a fucking website

#446

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

calepayson wrote: post #439
Arainach wrote: post #14

Someone wrote and deleted a comment saying > I don't get it. LLMs are supposed to have 100% bridged this gap from "normie" to "DIY website." What's missing? This is an all too common thought process among technologists, so: Where to even start? Well, let's start that every single "AI" company is massively overhyping everything to try to avoid any unfortunate realizations about the emperor's clothes regarding their Ca…

My partner is an outdoor ed teacher at a no-screens school. I tried to teach her to code a few months back and it was hilarious. We started with "First download VS Code". We never made it to another step. I had a similar experience showing her Skyrim. She never quite figured out how to walk and look at the same time. Made for an absolute berserker of a barbarian. In any field, when you're surrounded by competent peop…

Literally perfectly relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2501/

Re: Have a fucking website

#447

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

"If you're a hair salon, or a tattoo artist, or a restaurant, or whatever, please just have a fucking website where I can go and see your rates and hours."

It's true there are some businesses that only publish rates and hours on Facebook

But it's probably relatively small number

Given the choice between (a) a business that has a listing accessible via yellowpages.com, Google Maps, etc. and (b) one that has a social media account but no listing in any business directory, it stands to reason that there will be more opportunities to choose (a) than (b)

There are also other reasons to prefer (a) to (b) besides avoiding Facebook of course

Re: Have a fucking website

#448

Post by abustamam »

LatencyKills wrote: post #426
mlrtime wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They actually don't. Especially one that doesn't do any e-commerce.

I'd literally bet my house that most people do a simple google search. No one goes to google maps as the first option when trying to find things unless they are in their car. (Well, except for you, of course) In 2026, companies who want their customers to easily find them will have some type of web presence. I'm sorry that it is such a hardship for you.

I do a simple Google search, or whatever search happens to be default on the browser I happen to be using. Then I click on Google maps, or the platforms equivalent. I'm not gonna waste time on the sponsored results that may not even be nearby what I'm looking for.

Re: Have a fucking website

#449

Post by thwarted »

calepayson wrote: post #439
Arainach wrote: post #14

Someone wrote and deleted a comment saying > I don't get it. LLMs are supposed to have 100% bridged this gap from "normie" to "DIY website." What's missing? This is an all too common thought process among technologists, so: Where to even start? Well, let's start that every single "AI" company is massively overhyping everything to try to avoid any unfortunate realizations about the emperor's clothes regarding their Ca…

My partner is an outdoor ed teacher at a no-screens school. I tried to teach her to code a few months back and it was hilarious. We started with "First download VS Code". We never made it to another step. I had a similar experience showing her Skyrim. She never quite figured out how to walk and look at the same time. Made for an absolute berserker of a barbarian. In any field, when you're surrounded by competent peop…

> I tried to teach her to code a few months back and it was hilarious. We started with "First download VS Code". We never made it to another step.

This has been a serious regression in the industry for a while: popular operating systems (I'm looking at you, Windows) don't encourage and are not set up for their users to program or even do the bare minimum of random automation unless it's embedded in an application and meant for automating just that application (excel macros).

You are encouraged and directed to install and use "apps" which are either a one-size-fits-all lowest common denominator or a tries-do-everything dog's breakfast frustration.

The Commodore 64 turned on instantly and said "READY." and effectively gave you a blank canvas to poke (no pun intended) at. It was BASIC, but it was a real (if simple and limited) programming language and you could get immediate feedback and satisfaction from playing with it to learn what it could do. The syntax of BASIC is simple, the stdlib is comprehensive and unopinionated. There was nothing to download to get started to try to get that initial dopamine hit and to start to realize the true power of what computers can do and what you could make them do.

If you want a better chance at getting someone excited about programming, there are much better places to start than VSCode. pico8, scratch, even the browser's developer toolbar is more accessible than VSCode.

Re: Have a fucking website

#450

Post by abustamam »

mlrtime wrote: post #421
abustamam wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't even find a phone #? How about calling and asking? Wait what? How does he contact the website if he can't find contact info? I don't disagree with your point BTW — not everyone needs a website. But at the same time, a business often needs to meet customers where they are. If they're OK with losing a small subset of customers because their business info is only on and some people don't use said platform, t…

>Wait what? How does he contact the website if he can't find contact info? The same way you find the website, you google it. I have never had a problem getting a phone number of a business that doesn't have a website. Am I living in bizarro world? Why does a small business need a website just to provide a phone #?

You are right that a small business does not need a website just to provide a phone number. But I think you are underestimating how many people truly do not want to make a phone call. Personally, if I see two businesses, one has no info but a phone number, and the other one has basic info even in their Google map profile, then I'm going with the one that doesn't make me pick up the phone.
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