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1. Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 02:10:58 UTC Mike Gerwitz
   This article is popular right now on HN:
   
   https://pxlnv.com/blog/bullshit-web/
   
   It's something that many of us have been saying for many years. But I've been largely insulated from it: I have blocked all scripts and ads (for privacy and security reasons, but also because most sites serve proprietary JavaScript code) for years. If it weren't for my research (https://mikegerwitz.com/talks), I wouldn't have realized just how bad it has become.
   
   I've also run all my browsing through #Tor for years. And what this article reminds me of (but does not mention; this is unrelated) is how Tor used to be so painfully slow---worse than dialup. It has improved drastically over the years, but by design, it's always going to be slower than directly connecting to a webserver.
   
   But despite that, websites often finish loading for me much faster than those who use the "normal" web over a normal connection, because it's not loading so much shit. That also allows me to stick to <256MiB of data per month on my mobile plan, despite browsing sites linked to on HN and despite the extra packets from Tor itself. (Btw, text.npr.org is great, for those who didn't know of it.)
   
   The very things that got me downvoted into oblivion on HN years ago are now the popular, obvious things. Why do things have to get so _bad_ before most people begin to care?
   • Nate Cull, Dr. Edward Morbius :o: and infinite love Ⴟ and 31 others like this.
   • Christopher Lemmer Webber (cwebber)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 02:17:27 UTC Christopher Lemmer Webber

     in reply to

     @mikegerwitz you're not alone, here's the membership card of this club https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cassandra1.jpeg

     Mike Gerwitz likes this.
   • Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 02:28:40 UTC Mike Gerwitz

     in reply to

     • Christopher Lemmer Webber
     @cwebber Admittedly, I don't get the reference. But any club Chris Webber is in sounds like a pretty cool club to be in to me! ;)
     Christopher Lemmer Webber likes this.
   • Christopher Lemmer Webber (cwebber)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 02:29:30 UTC Christopher Lemmer Webber

     in reply to

     @mikegerwitz it's Club Cassandra (Complex) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra_(metaphor)

     Mike Gerwitz likes this.
   • Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 02:30:50 UTC Mike Gerwitz

     in reply to

     • Christopher Lemmer Webber
     @cwebber ...and I could have just have looked at the pages using the image (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra_(metaphor)). TIL! Thanks for the reference.
     Christopher Lemmer Webber and Not Claes Wallin like this.
   • samir (samir)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 03:01:46 UTC samir

     in reply to

     @mikegerwitz

     I’m usually against over arching government regulations but with the implementation of GDPR, I actually hope we see more of these stripped down or thin web sites. They improve accessibility as well cut down on tracking and other privacy invading behaviors.

     Mike Gerwitz likes this.
   • Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 03:09:16 UTC Mike Gerwitz

     in reply to

     • samir
     @samir I'm hoping that websites themselves strip out a lot of the junk, not just provide alternative sites. If a site is well-written, it should degrade well to plain text. I'm in favor of progressive enhancement.
     lufthans and samir like this.
   • Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 03:10:08 UTC Mike Gerwitz

     in reply to

     • samir
     @samir (I say "degrade", but I don't mean for that to sound as though plain text is inferior---I'd usually rather have plain text.)
   • infinite love Ⴟ (trwnh)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 03:11:11 UTC infinite love Ⴟ

     in reply to

     • samir

     @samir @mikegerwitz Well, that's the thing about government regulations... they're only as good as the government. In theory, if the government is committed enough to an ideal and has the authority to enforce it, then there's nothing inherently wrong with that. The error is in letting things get culturally bad enough that a government has to step in -- and often, the government is just as bound by that culture it tries to regulate.

   • samir (samir)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 03:16:09 UTC samir

     in reply to

     @mikegerwitz

     I know what you meant. 👍

     I actually prefer text only sites for things like news as I’m experimenting more with w3m and lynx.

   • codesections (codesections)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 03:23:58 UTC codesections

     in reply to

     • Matthew Graybosch
     • Baldur Bjarnason

     @mikegerwitz

     Somewhat unrelated: I posted this to HackerNews.

     I hope I didn't violate any unwritten rules by doing so. I obviously didn't write the article, and I didn't even come across it organically—I saw it linked on Mastodon (by @baldur and @starbreaker )

     I only posted it because I thought that it might also be interesting to a broader audience, but I didn't expect it to sit on the front page for so long. I hope I didn't steal credit/karma/Internet points from the author or anyone

     Mike Gerwitz likes this.
   • Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Aug-2018 03:38:33 UTC Mike Gerwitz

     in reply to

     • codesections
     @codesections Ah, small world! I think it's generally preferred that others link to works, rather than the original author (with the exception of "Show HN" things). HN is a news aggregator; it exists for others to share links with one-another.
     
     Thanks for sharing it, though. I'm happy to see the topic getting attention.
     Dr. Edward Morbius :o: and codesections like this.