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Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

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Re: Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

#51

Post by avian »

endless1234 wrote: post #46
avian wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you are subjected to browser width text Some of us consider it a feature that a website allows the reader to freely resize the browser window (and the text with-in) to the width they consider comfortable.

So if you want to use for example maps on one tab and read text on another, the best UX would be to have users resize their browser when changing tabs? There are few reasons why a line of text should be longer than, say, 800 (css) pixels, but having the browser full screen might still be a good idea for more app-y sites.

I would use a different browser window for maps. Even with tabs, window maximization is usually one click away, so not that much of a hassle.

But I agree that I commonly see people having their browser window maximized all the time (on huge monitors, to a great waste of on-screen space). I think the fact that they became accustomed to that is an unfortunate consequence of modern web design.

Re: Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

#52

Post by movedx »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #25

By all means today's content websites are an abomination, but I don't see why we need to throw the baby out with the bath water by completely rejecting any attempt at styling websites and going back on all readability best practices. I see a lot of websites now which, in an attempt to reject all the nonsense, end up rejecting even basic CSS, and you are subjected to browser width text in Times New Roman with ugly blu…

I just use reader mode in Safari (yes I use Safari.) It creates a great reading experience and because of iCloud, I can pick up reading on my iPhone and the reading experience is identical.

Re: Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

#53

Post by mankash666 »

fivre wrote: post #50
mankash666 wrote: post #48

Just pitched a related idea to a friend, but since a "two sided marketplace" is advised against for bootstrapped startups, have put it on the back burner. Pitch: A "podcasts for textual content" optimized for low bandwidth. An podcast like app that lets you subscribe to (textual content) creators, auto downloads for offline reading, allows reviews on individual posts or entire series, presents content in an ebook lik…

Congratulations on inventing the newspaper.

And which newspaper allows you to read your neighbor's blog, your favorite entrepreneurs deepest fears, and the news from South Africa, all preloaded per your subscription choices? (Assuming this platform actually gathers steam). It's not reinventing the newspaper, just like podcasts weren't like reinventing the radio

Re: Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

#54

Post by bartread »

CaptSpify wrote: post #33
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #25

By all means today's content websites are an abomination, but I don't see why we need to throw the baby out with the bath water by completely rejecting any attempt at styling websites and going back on all readability best practices. I see a lot of websites now which, in an attempt to reject all the nonsense, end up rejecting even basic CSS, and you are subjected to browser width text in Times New Roman with ugly blu…

I personally think a better approach is to hand out fully un-stylized sites, and provide a recommended CSS for people to apply client-side. That way the client can adjust things more consistently to how they find it easier to read.

The problem with that approach is it will only appeal to power-users. "Normal" people just don't care.

My mum, my step-dad, my brother and his fiancee, my next door neighbours, my best friend and my worst enemy all have this in common: they go to a website and they want to see the content on the page. They don't care why or how, so they're never going to apply an optional CSS file, even in the unlikely event they understand what it is.

Sorry, that's not meant to come off as a brutal put-down: it's just the way most people are about the web.

Re: Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

#55

Post by matt4077 »

mankash666 wrote: post #53
fivre wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congratulations on inventing the newspaper.

And which newspaper allows you to read your neighbor's blog, your favorite entrepreneurs deepest fears, and the news from South Africa, all preloaded per your subscription choices? (Assuming this platform actually gathers steam). It's not reinventing the newspaper, just like podcasts weren't like reinventing the radio

The RSS Times

Re: Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

#56

Post by unicornporn »

akras14 wrote: post #21

I wrote a simple RSS feed viewer for myself for the same reason. A lot of times I just want to read the headlines from top news sites. https://www.alexkras.com/eznews/ If I am actually interested in the story I don’t mind waiting a bit for it to load.

There's also http://simplepie.org/ for those who don't wish to roll their own.

Re: Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

#57

Post by mattmanser »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #25

By all means today's content websites are an abomination, but I don't see why we need to throw the baby out with the bath water by completely rejecting any attempt at styling websites and going back on all readability best practices. I see a lot of websites now which, in an attempt to reject all the nonsense, end up rejecting even basic CSS, and you are subjected to browser width text in Times New Roman with ugly blu…

Text decoration none? Seems like a really bad idea, can't tell what things are actual links.

Re: Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

#58

Post by WWLink »

avian wrote: post #51
endless1234 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if you want to use for example maps on one tab and read text on another, the best UX would be to have users resize their browser when changing tabs? There are few reasons why a line of text should be longer than, say, 800 (css) pixels, but having the browser full screen might still be a good idea for more app-y sites.

I would use a different browser window for maps. Even with tabs, window maximization is usually one click away, so not that much of a hassle. But I agree that I commonly see people having their browser window maximized all the time (on huge monitors, to a great waste of on-screen space). I think the fact that they became accustomed to that is an unfortunate consequence of modern web design.

Microsoft Windows enforced maximizing everything like that since the 3.x days. Every other OS tried to enforce not doing that - some taking it to an extreme! I recall when the "maximize" button in OS X was a "zoom" button that stretched the window vertically, but it'd only stretch a window as wide as the content demanded.

Of course, the Windows users whined and whined and whined about that until Apple decided to make everything go fullscreen super easily.

So anyway, I love seeing people use 34" ultrawides to browser websites with their browser window maximized. It's a ridiculous waste of space. XD

Re: Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

#59

Post by baq »

WWLink wrote: post #58
avian wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would use a different browser window for maps. Even with tabs, window maximization is usually one click away, so not that much of a hassle. But I agree that I commonly see people having their browser window maximized all the time (on huge monitors, to a great waste of on-screen space). I think the fact that they became accustomed to that is an unfortunate consequence of modern web design.

Microsoft Windows enforced maximizing everything like that since the 3.x days. Every other OS tried to enforce not doing that - some taking it to an extreme! I recall when the "maximize" button in OS X was a "zoom" button that stretched the window vertically, but it'd only stretch a window as wide as the content demanded. Of course, the Windows users whined and whined and whined about that until Apple decided to make…

it's actually super easy to make a window take only half a screen in windows 8+ - move it to the edge of the screen. in windows 10, you can also move it to the corner to make it take 1/4th. shortcuts of win+left/right do similar things and also exist since win 8 at least.

now whether these people are aware of that and whether they say that having 2800x1200 window is fine for them is a completely different thing...

Re: Text-only news sites are slowly making a comeback

#60

Post by 1k2ka »

mattmanser wrote: post #57
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #25

By all means today's content websites are an abomination, but I don't see why we need to throw the baby out with the bath water by completely rejecting any attempt at styling websites and going back on all readability best practices. I see a lot of websites now which, in an attempt to reject all the nonsense, end up rejecting even basic CSS, and you are subjected to browser width text in Times New Roman with ugly blu…

Text decoration none? Seems like a really bad idea, can't tell what things are actual links.

The links would still be blue, "text-decoration: none" will just remove the underline.
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