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GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

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Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#51
post #31

I would be very happy if everyone followed this example. Think of this as "modern" from now on. Return to the old, simple web that I know we all loved. Keep the lessons in usability and design learned in the last decade or two.

Now we only need to find somebody to pay for that simple web....

I think there's somewhat of a false dilemma there.

There are plenty of sites that I frequent that have tastefully located, static banner ads that are served directly through the site operator rather than through an add network. This has the dual advantage of allowing the operator some editorial control, and of producing ads that tend to be much higher quality (to me, anyway) because they involve actually telling me about new products and services I might be interested in because they are related to the actual content I'm reading, rather than being a giant pile of "one weird trick" ads and targeted advertisers' sad attempts to sell me things I've looked at before, and therefore either already bought or already decided not to buy.

In essence, it would be a return to the kind of advertising that print media uses. Which, incidentally, tends to command a higher price than all this junk, anyway.

I've also done paid subscriptions to various journalistic websites in the past. I've since stopped, generally because their reading experience is generally so awful that I've retreated back to print media for such things. So I suppose you could count me as one of those people who would be willing to directly pay for a simple web. (It's not like I prefer to kill trees. I just value readability is all.)

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is anyone concerned that we are starting to replicate real world boundaries on the internet. Internet was supposed to free us from the limitations of the real world. World of internet was supposed to be the one where you can fluidly switch between your preceptions of self, become a new person whenever you felt like, leave your past behind. This was supposed to be a new world where people see themselves differently. N…

We haven't "created countries on the Internet". The Internet exists in the real world, and it exists in countries. Those countries have laws, and they always applied. Governments can take time to adopt to new technologies, but this was always going to happen. And GDPR is an awesome thing, it's an example of governments doing the right thing.

> We haven't "created countries on the Internet".

We have though. Your world on the internet looks different based on citizenship( ipAdress) and ppl have to get a visa (VPN) to go that country on the internet.

People hated it when China did this but somehow EU doing this is somehow commendable. Now people are europeans, americans, indians ect on the internet. I just want to be a human being.

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#54
post #47
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a list somewhere of what websites actually work without JavaScript enabled?

Sadly it's a shrinking list and as sites replace static content with things like React it's shrinking even faster. Good: HN works well and handles the downgrade gracefully (ex: upvoting becomes a POST rather than AJAX). Bad: The original Reddit site works ok but the new React based one one fails miserably as it shows a loading screen that never changes.

React is actually capable of sever side rendering, in fact one of the Reddit announcements specified that React's SSR was a key factor in choosing it. I'm curious why they're not using it? The new site is still in beta though.

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#55
This is great. (1) How do I pretend to be from the EU? (2) Th EU should make a law requiring HTML versions of pages with no JS.

The evolution of the Internet in the last two decades has been such a tremendous disappointment. It really peaked in the early 2000s (when I got my first DSL connection but before JS became a thing).

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#56
post #47
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a list somewhere of what websites actually work without JavaScript enabled?

Sadly it's a shrinking list and as sites replace static content with things like React it's shrinking even faster. Good: HN works well and handles the downgrade gracefully (ex: upvoting becomes a POST rather than AJAX). Bad: The original Reddit site works ok but the new React based one one fails miserably as it shows a loading screen that never changes.

The new reddit interface is horrible without JavaScript. One can get back the good one under old.reddit.com

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#57

I'm honestly starting to reach the opinion we should all be VPNing our web traffic through Europe so we can pick up more of the benefits.

Is anyone concerned that we are starting to replicate real world boundaries on the internet. Internet was supposed to free us from the limitations of the real world. World of internet was supposed to be the one where you can fluidly switch between your preceptions of self, become a new person whenever you felt like, leave your past behind. This was supposed to be a new world where people see themselves differently. N…

I feel freer now companies are limited with what they can do with my data.

I hope that preventing companies exploiting data will lead to more interesting business models than "provide distracting trinket and harvest data".

I don't want to take part in a grand age of the Internet which basically amounts to people harvesting information about me so they can do anything from trying to sell me shit to attempting to corrupt the democratic process.

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We haven't "created countries on the Internet". The Internet exists in the real world, and it exists in countries. Those countries have laws, and they always applied. Governments can take time to adopt to new technologies, but this was always going to happen. And GDPR is an awesome thing, it's an example of governments doing the right thing.

> We haven't "created countries on the Internet". We have though. Your world on the internet looks different based on citizenship( ipAdress) and ppl have to get a visa (VPN) to go that country on the internet. People hated it when China did this but somehow EU doing this is somehow commendable. Now people are europeans, americans, indians ect on the internet. I just want to be a human being.

> Your world on the internet looks different based on citizenship( ipAdress)

But this started long before government intervention ("personalization", "regional content"), and it is not the fault of the EU that tech companies pursued behaviors that were against the spirit of the laws. There are two ways for tech to respond to the multigovernment problem: conform to all of the laws throughout the world, or "create countries on the internet". As is evident now, most companies chose the latter

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#60

For all that cannot access both versions, keep in mind that the EU one is a vastly simpler UI, it almost looks like just a blog archive, while the US one is a more feature full typical newspaper homepage. Not saying that either one is better, just that it's not an apple to apple comparison.

I use uBlock to explicitly make some newspapers "article only", that is, remove all UI elements that are not the article. No ads, other article links, or navigation. Vastly improved reading experience.
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