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There's never been a better time to build websites

simeongriggs.dev

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Re: There's never been a better time to build websites

#91

Post by lemonberry »

rambambram wrote: post #89
lemonberry wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"because a good website is the only way to push back to Big Tech and it's practices" I agree with this. But what really spins my beanie is the amount of power a website gives a single person, small business or non-profit. It's really amazing.

So true! I hear small businesses and freelancers complain about being kicked of Twitter, OnlyFans, Youtube, Facebook, etc. One might not immediately make money with a website (although you sure can!), but the moment you are kicked of some platform, you have a safe haven to fall back on. A place where you can share the same textual or visual media with your visitors(/followers/friends/fans/connections). But instead of…

My biggest concern is for the people relying on the big platforms you mentioned but not using them to build their own lists and lines of communication with their clients.

Re: There's never been a better time to build websites

#92

Post by hooby »

It's definitely a great time to build websites, but saying they _NEVER_ have been easier to make... I'm not 100% sure about that.

Yes, tailwind might make css a lot easier, and github copilot might make coding a lot faster... but is this really easier than in the early 90ies, when you could just type into notepad and make a website that didn't require any CSS or images or JS or even more than just the most basic html tags?

When it comes to reading a blog or article or consuming any other form of textual information on the internet - I find myself increasingly enamored with "Reader View" in Firefox, which basically ditches all the crap, and displays the web-page in a default-style, as if it was just the most basic html - just like that we did write in 90ies.

Of course this doesn't hold true for any webApps that do more than just present textual information (and the occasional image) - but why do project like ViewPure exist? There seems to be at least some demand for getting rid of all the clutter.

Is tailwind really easier to work with something like - let's say - pico.css? Of course if you want to do super-elaborate layouts, then probably yes - but if you embraced a more minimalist approach?

Isn't Hacker News itself a really great example of a website that successfully uses only very basic html with very, very little styling and fancy extra features?

Re: There's never been a better time to build websites

#93

Post by ajlburke »

hooby wrote: post #92

It's definitely a great time to build websites, but saying they _NEVER_ have been easier to make... I'm not 100% sure about that. Yes, tailwind might make css a lot easier, and github copilot might make coding a lot faster... but is this really easier than in the early 90ies, when you could just type into notepad and make a website that didn't require any CSS or images or JS or even more than just the most basic html…

Hacker News still uses tables - for layout!

But it always loads super fast, and it just works.

We figured out how to display text on a web page decades ago. It's a shame more people aren't just doing it the direct way anymore.

(Applications are a different matter obviously)

Re: There's never been a better time to build websites

#94

Post by meotimdihia »

hooby wrote: post #92

It's definitely a great time to build websites, but saying they _NEVER_ have been easier to make... I'm not 100% sure about that. Yes, tailwind might make css a lot easier, and github copilot might make coding a lot faster... but is this really easier than in the early 90ies, when you could just type into notepad and make a website that didn't require any CSS or images or JS or even more than just the most basic html…

You still can build a simple web in 1 min with Next.js and with greater speed.

Pico.css is for zero customize website. Once the website requires customization, it does not work. Tailwind is easier.

Re: There's never been a better time to build websites

#95

Post by rambambram »

randmeerkat wrote: post #69
rambambram wrote: post #15

I'm also developing for 25 years, I also really really like websites and coding, but not for the reasons the OP sums up. For me, it's not about all kinds of solved or unsolved technical questions. Today is a very good time to build websites, because a good website is the only way to push back to Big Tech and it's practices. Your website can be build on techniques invented in a time where the dream of the internet was…

> Of course you can choose to put your website on AWS and svck on the bolls of Jeff a little. But you don't have to! And that's what all kinds of young devs just miss. Where are you hosting your websites?

It's called webhosting at a hosting provider. ;) It works for me like this since the 90's. Here in Europe there are literally hundreds or thousands of webhosts. Some pricier, some faster, some cheaper.

I host some websites at Antagonist in The Netherlands. But I'm strongly considering moving, although they are by far the fastest and most reliable party I've seen.

Why? Because they - just like a lot of other European webhosts the last years - are now part of some vague sh1tshow called Group.one or something. I don't know what this organisation is up to, but I don't trust it for a second. I guess they are trying to become some European version of AWS or something. Data grabbers, probably.

Every sincere webhost that became part of their 'network' (they sell it like this, but it's just a merger/acquisition) uses stupid wording in their press releases, customers are not kept up to date about these important changes (only after the fact, of course) and they all of a sudden are now offering 'cloud storage' like it's Dropbox.

This was a bigger reply then I intended. But thanks for yours!

Re: There's never been a better time to build websites

#96

Post by rambambram »

stopcraeting wrote: post #30
rambambram wrote: post #15

I'm also developing for 25 years, I also really really like websites and coding, but not for the reasons the OP sums up. For me, it's not about all kinds of solved or unsolved technical questions. Today is a very good time to build websites, because a good website is the only way to push back to Big Tech and it's practices. Your website can be build on techniques invented in a time where the dream of the internet was…

It is against the TOS of the largest ISP in my country to even host a server of any sort. Colocation isn't that fun.

That's a shame in itself, I see self hosting as the holy grail of the internet. There are a lot of good webhosts though. Worked in the 90's, and still works today.

Re: There's never been a better time to build websites

#97

Post by pxtail »

rambambram wrote: post #86
samhw wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oh, and RSS is not dead. Not at all (thanks WordPress, for putting a feed on every instance). RSS is the only workable way to make the web social again. What we need, IMO, is more experimental protocols to enrich the web, which maverick developers can use to good effect, the same way we did originally with RSS. More browsers forking Chromium or Servo to add support for these new features. Hell, maybe even something…

I agree with your sentiment, but RSS and the likes are not 'the same old weapon but better'. It was never 'weaponized' in the first place. It never really came to fruition for the masses. To me, RSS is like two sticks and a string, and it needs some people who can see that they can make a bow and arrow out of it (to stay in the realm of 'weapons'). I don't like talking about tech and business in a sense of 'weapons',…

> I don't like talking about tech and business in a sense of 'weapons', 'winning', 'smashing the competition', etc. Talking about it in this sense makes it a struggle, because one will look at tech from the pov of a stockholder, capitalist, or just a narcissist. The wording is very important, and the moment you make that wording your own, you can't see it in a different light anymore.

I like this paragraph a lot, in my perception this is why most of cryptocurrency initiatives and recently hijacked and massacred `web3` concept are fruitless so far - too much focus on how to get rich quickly

Re: There's never been a better time to build websites

#98

Post by jaimex2 »

Nah, the golden era is long behind us. Every site looks exactly the same using all the same bloated libraries, bootstrap CSS and hosted on the same 3 cloud providers.

Gone are the days of instant load 20kb sites or quirky flash marvels hosted on anything from an home laptop to VPS.

In the mobile first mess where you have to debug your crap not just on multiple browsers but devices there's never been a more mundane time. I won't even get into plumbing.

Re: There's never been a better time to build websites

#99

Post by rambambram »

lemonberry wrote: post #91
rambambram wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true! I hear small businesses and freelancers complain about being kicked of Twitter, OnlyFans, Youtube, Facebook, etc. One might not immediately make money with a website (although you sure can!), but the moment you are kicked of some platform, you have a safe haven to fall back on. A place where you can share the same textual or visual media with your visitors(/followers/friends/fans/connections). But instead of…

My biggest concern is for the people relying on the big platforms you mentioned but not using them to build their own lists and lines of communication with their clients.

Agree. The big platforms make it all way too comfortable for everybody.

And I get it completely. Over the course of years, Google and the likes probably have more phone numbers of my contacts than I have. Only three weeks ago I made a text file with every name and number in it, so I have a safe copy for myself.

Re: There's never been a better time to build websites

#100

Post by sprkwd »

geokon wrote: post #8

From reading this I get the sense the problems are lower level and there is no impetus to fix them. I'm embarrassed to say, having programmed for over a decade, and running Linux for half of that, I still have no idea how to setup my computer to serve a webpage (or even a file) I probably need to `apt-get install apache` and then deal with some magic config files and incantations and hope I don't mess something up an…

I found yunohost.org really simple to set up for all my homeserver needs.
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