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Some social networks used to offer rich page customization with Wiki or markup or something like that. And that essentially was the HTML wheel reinvented. Some

Some social networks used to offer rich page customization with Wiki or markup or something like that. And that essentially was the HTML wheel reinvented. Some even offer in-app apps, some even lock whole life oof the whole population in them (e.g. China). A social network with (or without) this essentially is reinventing the wheel of the whole Internet which is made of HTML pages (which are replaced by personal pages on a social network), RSS/ATOM (which is replaced with in-app notifications), e-mail (which is replaced with in-app direct messages), Usenet (which is replaced with in-app groups) etc. Everyone theoretically could just have a personal www page on their own domain instead of a social network account. Oh, and HTML never needed CSS to be not ugly - that's the browser default settings which make unstyled (styled with default styles) HTML pages look this way. We always could just change the default fonts/colors or apply a userstyle for more complex things. Once general population joined to the Internet (where in the past there were only nerds) the demand emerged for it to become much easier and prettier and the corporations responded offering the features pople want taking their freedom, privacy and independence in exchange (which an average person doesn't mind, all they ace about is that being "for free"). We could just build better apps (browsers with sensible defaults, intuitive e-mail and Usenet clients and web servers), but we still lack them because nobody wants do serious work for free and make great products which would suit everybody ather than themselves.

sourcecodeplz 3y ago
You don't use CSS just to make pages pretty. It is useful for accessibility and user experience as well. Not to mention personalization. Not every page needs to have a carbon copy style of others. CSS is so useful it is almost ridiculous to say HTML never needed it.
- nologic01 3y ago
  Not sure why people are banging against css. Its just fundamental separation of content logic from content representation which is best practice (see e.g grammar of graphics) I think people are just burning out from the oppresive tech environment, the endless hypes, the lack of a feel-good factor. All these negatively experienced developmemts are taking their toll. This forces people into all sorts of extreme corners, like the gemini protocol or css-less sites.
- qwerty456127 3y ago
  > CSS is so useful it is almost ridiculous to say HTML never needed it I didn't mean CSS is useless, I meant it is not necessary for every website to define their own CSS to look nice and not ugly. The problem is almost no ordinary user knows they can define their own defaults (fonts, background - in browser settings, more complex - in user CSS).
  - mxuribe 3y ago
    Long, long ago, when i first learned that i could define my own (css) defaults on my browser, my mind was blown! I can't recall if it was back in netscape navigator or early fireforx days...but learning the command path from the menu to "turn off css styles" (View -> Page Style -> No style) made me feel like some sort of superpowered being! lol :-D More seriously, it actually helped me better understand the web, html, web pages as documents "downloaded" by the browser, etc. I became a much better web dev for it - beyond feeling like i had more freedom due to software/app.!

sourcecodeplz 3y ago

You don't use CSS just to make pages pretty. It is useful for accessibility and user experience as well. Not to mention personalization. Not every page needs to have a carbon copy style of others. CSS is so useful it is almost ridiculous to say HTML never needed it.

nologic01 3y ago
Not sure why people are banging against css. Its just fundamental separation of content logic from content representation which is best practice (see e.g grammar of graphics) I think people are just burning out from the oppresive tech environment, the endless hypes, the lack of a feel-good factor. All these negatively experienced developmemts are taking their toll. This forces people into all sorts of extreme corners, like the gemini protocol or css-less sites.
qwerty456127 3y ago
> CSS is so useful it is almost ridiculous to say HTML never needed it I didn't mean CSS is useless, I meant it is not necessary for every website to define their own CSS to look nice and not ugly. The problem is almost no ordinary user knows they can define their own defaults (fonts, background - in browser settings, more complex - in user CSS).
- mxuribe 3y ago
  Long, long ago, when i first learned that i could define my own (css) defaults on my browser, my mind was blown! I can't recall if it was back in netscape navigator or early fireforx days...but learning the command path from the menu to "turn off css styles" (View -> Page Style -> No style) made me feel like some sort of superpowered being! lol :-D More seriously, it actually helped me better understand the web, html, web pages as documents "downloaded" by the browser, etc. I became a much better web dev for it - beyond feeling like i had more freedom due to software/app.!