4 ms·

For what it's worth, during those "dark ages" web pages conveying useful information were typically no heavier than ten times the character count of the informa

For what it's worth, during those "dark ages" web pages conveying useful information were typically no heavier than ten times the character count of the information. Sure, we had the <blink> tag, and garish geocities pages, hamsterdance and the rest. But that web delivered information really efficiently. Maybe we can start a movement to bring that back. Let's call it MarsMission: let's build web stuff that might be usable by the crew of a mission to Mars when they're hundreds of gigameters away.

buboard 6y ago
Really all we need is to stop the worship of the mobile. Mobile is uniform and limited, and sadly it has made desktop uniform and limited as well. Somehow even highly technical interfaces, e.g. DNZ zone editors are now made mobile-first. I wonder, is the majority of people really editing zone files on their phone? don't people value their time anymore?
- paulryanrogers 6y ago
  While the mobile-first movement may sometimes go to far it can be a life saver in places where fully featured interfaces are out of reach. I think the sweet spot is mobile-compatible controls and progressively enhanced design that can scale up or down. Preferably using the simplest tools, even if unfashionable.
- mostlysimilar 6y ago
  Controversial opinion -- I think the era where we had separate, mobile optimized `m.domain.com` sites was best. We had more code to write, but it gave us two separate experiences tailored for each device. Unless you're just reading a text-only article, there's a big difference between what a mobile interface can and should offer, and what a desktop interface can and should offer. I agree that we've sacrificed desktop for the sake of mobile. I understand why this is done for sites whose goal is to show advertisements. If the majority of the users are mobile and you get most of your money from them, it becomes harder to justify creating a proper desktop experience. I suppose I wish more people spent the time to build desktop-class interfaces regardless.
  - Can_Not 6y ago
    I'd say the m.domain.com concept was terrible. You'd often get redirected to the mobile homepage instead the mobile version of the link you clicked on. Then even if that worked correctly, you'd just have random features missing so you'd have to switch to desktop anyways.
na85 6y ago
>MarsMission I'd join that movement. The modern web is such a disappointing mess.
- jslakro 6y ago
  Although MarsMission could not say anything at the first time, I like the idea. I've collected a couple of links around the same topic, to build a corpus: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/09/how-to-build-a-lowtech-website/ https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/09/how-to-build-a-low... https://theconversation.com/yes-websites-really-are-starting-to-look-more-similar-136484 https://theconversation.com/yes-websites-really-are-starting... https://twitter.com/QuestForTori/status/1211561864326332416 https://twitter.com/QuestForTori/status/1211561864326332416
  - blotter_paper 6y ago
    Host it on IPFS, which was literally made to be eventually consistent across planets: https://docs.ipfs.io/how-to/host-single-page-site/ https://docs.ipfs.io/how-to/host-single-page-site/
smart_jackal 6y ago
We need the search engine to display some stats along with each search result link, for example: # of bytes the page downloads. # of scripts/stylesheets the page downloads. # of ads the page downloads. # of http requests the page does. If that happens, the minimalists will typically choose the most efficient page because competition has already ensured that content quality will be top notch in almost all of them for most popular searches.

buboard 6y ago

Really all we need is to stop the worship of the mobile. Mobile is uniform and limited, and sadly it has made desktop uniform and limited as well. Somehow even highly technical interfaces, e.g. DNZ zone editors are now made mobile-first. I wonder, is the majority of people really editing zone files on their phone? don't people value their time anymore?

paulryanrogers 6y ago
While the mobile-first movement may sometimes go to far it can be a life saver in places where fully featured interfaces are out of reach. I think the sweet spot is mobile-compatible controls and progressively enhanced design that can scale up or down. Preferably using the simplest tools, even if unfashionable.
mostlysimilar 6y ago
Controversial opinion -- I think the era where we had separate, mobile optimized `m.domain.com` sites was best. We had more code to write, but it gave us two separate experiences tailored for each device. Unless you're just reading a text-only article, there's a big difference between what a mobile interface can and should offer, and what a desktop interface can and should offer. I agree that we've sacrificed desktop for the sake of mobile. I understand why this is done for sites whose goal is to show advertisements. If the majority of the users are mobile and you get most of your money from them, it becomes harder to justify creating a proper desktop experience. I suppose I wish more people spent the time to build desktop-class interfaces regardless.
- Can_Not 6y ago
  I'd say the m.domain.com concept was terrible. You'd often get redirected to the mobile homepage instead the mobile version of the link you clicked on. Then even if that worked correctly, you'd just have random features missing so you'd have to switch to desktop anyways.

na85 6y ago

>MarsMission I'd join that movement. The modern web is such a disappointing mess.

jslakro 6y ago
Although MarsMission could not say anything at the first time, I like the idea. I've collected a couple of links around the same topic, to build a corpus: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/09/how-to-build-a-lowtech-website/ https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/09/how-to-build-a-low... https://theconversation.com/yes-websites-really-are-starting-to-look-more-similar-136484 https://theconversation.com/yes-websites-really-are-starting... https://twitter.com/QuestForTori/status/1211561864326332416 https://twitter.com/QuestForTori/status/1211561864326332416
- blotter_paper 6y ago
  Host it on IPFS, which was literally made to be eventually consistent across planets: https://docs.ipfs.io/how-to/host-single-page-site/ https://docs.ipfs.io/how-to/host-single-page-site/

smart_jackal 6y ago

We need the search engine to display some stats along with each search result link, for example: # of bytes the page downloads. # of scripts/stylesheets the page downloads. # of ads the page downloads. # of http requests the page does. If that happens, the minimalists will typically choose the most efficient page because competition has already ensured that content quality will be top notch in almost all of them for most popular searches.