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About 6 months ago I got tired of all the tracking and fingerprinting that is going on and installed NoScript. Surprisingly few web pages require Javascript. Gi

About 6 months ago I got tired of all the tracking and fingerprinting that is going on and installed NoScript. Surprisingly few web pages require Javascript. Give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised.

ekianjo 9y ago
That's not the case at all if you go to a site that uses React. For those, you are welcome by a blank page with NoScript.
- zaarn 9y ago
  Personally I prefer uMatrix since that tool usually allows first party scripts be default (unless you configure otherwise), so most JS sites work on a basic level.
- lucideer 9y ago
  This is somewhat moot as (a) I think most React devs don't do this, and (b) if they do, the resulting page may still not be very useful. However, any React developer worth their salt (probably still a minority, as mentioned above) should be using ReactDOMServer which will render the page fine without browser JS being enabled.
  - plif 9y ago
    I thought this was mainly used to improve first load speed. The site won't be very useful if you can't interact with it beyond that.
    - lucideer 9y ago
      While it does depend on the purpose of your site, even in the purest examples in the "web app" category, I can think of very few sites that are guaranteed to be absolutely 100% useless without interactivity. Certainly not as useless as a white screen. In most cases though, you should be able to present a pretty useful static page by default without too much effort.
- singularity2001 9y ago
  This is somewhat moot as (c) you can disable NoScript on certain pages
- chriswarbo 9y ago
  I've been out of the Web dev game for a while, but isn't this meant to be avoided for SEO? I know Google's bots now execute some JS, but has the consensus now shifted enough that this is widespread? (Of course, as a Web user I consider both JS-only pages and SEO to be awful somewhat-parasitic practices, but that doesn't unfortunately doesn't factor into many business decisions :( )
  - slig 9y ago
    Most people using React are using for webapps that aren't meant to be crawled. Sometimes we see examples here on HN of blogs, that are mostly text content and pictures, built on a client side JS framework like React, but that's the exception.
- arkh 9y ago
  You can set Noscript to accept scripts coming from the current domain (and sub-domains) by default. It helps a lot.
  - ekianjo 9y ago
    Yes I know that. But why would you enable anything if you don't know the contents in the first place?
- bo1024 9y ago
  In such cases I usually just close the page and happily move on. Every once in awhile, I enable JS and reload -- not a huge hassle.
KozmoNau7 9y ago
I prefer uBlock Origin in dynamic mode, with default deny on 3rd party scripts and 3rd party frames. Usually 1st party scripts aren't much of an issue, and if they are, it's very easy to block that domain from firing any scripts at all.

ekianjo 9y ago

That's not the case at all if you go to a site that uses React. For those, you are welcome by a blank page with NoScript.

zaarn 9y ago
Personally I prefer uMatrix since that tool usually allows first party scripts be default (unless you configure otherwise), so most JS sites work on a basic level.
lucideer 9y ago
This is somewhat moot as (a) I think most React devs don't do this, and (b) if they do, the resulting page may still not be very useful. However, any React developer worth their salt (probably still a minority, as mentioned above) should be using ReactDOMServer which will render the page fine without browser JS being enabled.
- plif 9y ago
  I thought this was mainly used to improve first load speed. The site won't be very useful if you can't interact with it beyond that.
  - lucideer 9y ago
    While it does depend on the purpose of your site, even in the purest examples in the "web app" category, I can think of very few sites that are guaranteed to be absolutely 100% useless without interactivity. Certainly not as useless as a white screen. In most cases though, you should be able to present a pretty useful static page by default without too much effort.
singularity2001 9y ago
This is somewhat moot as (c) you can disable NoScript on certain pages
chriswarbo 9y ago
I've been out of the Web dev game for a while, but isn't this meant to be avoided for SEO? I know Google's bots now execute some JS, but has the consensus now shifted enough that this is widespread? (Of course, as a Web user I consider both JS-only pages and SEO to be awful somewhat-parasitic practices, but that doesn't unfortunately doesn't factor into many business decisions :( )
- slig 9y ago
  Most people using React are using for webapps that aren't meant to be crawled. Sometimes we see examples here on HN of blogs, that are mostly text content and pictures, built on a client side JS framework like React, but that's the exception.
arkh 9y ago
You can set Noscript to accept scripts coming from the current domain (and sub-domains) by default. It helps a lot.
- ekianjo 9y ago
  Yes I know that. But why would you enable anything if you don't know the contents in the first place?
bo1024 9y ago
In such cases I usually just close the page and happily move on. Every once in awhile, I enable JS and reload -- not a huge hassle.

KozmoNau7 9y ago

I prefer uBlock Origin in dynamic mode, with default deny on 3rd party scripts and 3rd party frames. Usually 1st party scripts aren't much of an issue, and if they are, it's very easy to block that domain from firing any scripts at all.