3 ms·

Love how many of the sites listed here have brutalist low-JS design. The only thing I despise more than the new social media focused internet is, JS-heavy blogs

Love how many of the sites listed here have brutalist low-JS design. The only thing I despise more than the new social media focused internet is, JS-heavy blogs containing one post that explains how that monstrosity was created. Then after a few months the author will rewrite the blog again with a different framework and add another entry explaining why and how they did it. Here's mine. Built with Hugo and deployed with GitHub Pages. The whole publication process is automated with GitHub Actions and takes a few key strokes to go from an idea to execution. https://rednafi.com https://rednafi.com

jofla_net 3y ago
Isn't it astounding how much more brittle those react-y monstrosities are?! If you look twice some toolbar will silently begin to fail loading and you'll have to bump your browser to get the full experience back again. While back someone posted a web1.0 randomizer, everything still worked, granted its static but, its like those old 90s pages are the new time capsules. www.jofla.net
- rednafi 3y ago
  I like single column multi page blogs where folks just list out a bunch of heartfelt pieces they wrote about something and fired it into the aether. This UI maximalism is like Marvel movies—tons of CGI and fancy visuals with poor storytelling. But at least writing these FE frameworks and JS evangelism pays the bill quite well.
  - manuelmoreale 3y ago
    > I like single column multi page blogs where folks just list out a bunch of heartfelt pieces they wrote about something and fired it into the aether. You are my kind of internet user then <3 and makes me so happy to know there are people like you out there. It's people like you I had in mind when I designed my site and also when I design sites for my friends.
- wildrhythms 3y ago
  It's because mindless businesstypes looked at Apple iOS over a decade ago and said "our website [with 1/9999999th the budget] should have the same polish and look and feel as that!"
cookiengineer 3y ago
Honestly I don't think a low JS usage makes a website better. For me, I always cherished a separation of concerns approach, where I am trying to make a website work as good as possible with HTML and CSS only (including print stylesheets). JS on the other hand is for me where the fun interaction comes from, where the little details can shine through, where visualizations can be made interactive so the user can play around and really start to understand what's going on. But yeah, I guess in the golden age of React and Angular, I also understand why people hade JS bloated websites. Here's mine, there is multiple scavenger hunts, games and challenges hidden on the website and/or in the code: https://cookie.engineer https://cookie.engineer
- zerojames 3y ago
  Your website is delightful. I love the Recipe Creator feature on your projects page. Your approach to using JS is like mine. I work with HTML and CSS first then sometimes add JS to progressively enhance a page (i.e. add dark mode, add hovercards on links, make emojis appear on different days of the year).
- hagreet 3y ago
  I'm confused by that cookie banner. Is it a joke or not? What do you mean by "Do you consent to sharing cookies?" are sharing cookies a special kind of cookie or do did you just mean storing cookies?
  - doublerabbit 3y ago
    The worse part of those banners are that you select "Don't Consent" and then still have to untick all those "Legitimate Intent" options.
  - cookiengineer 3y ago
    Haha :D yeah, it is a joke/pun on cookie consent banners. The personal problem I have with cookie banners is that in order to _not consent_ they store a local cookie to not display the banner. And the assumption of consent is by default, which is the exact opposite behaviour of what GDPR expects you to do. Nobody can consent by default to anything, that's the foundational basis of law in the EU. I'm not using cookies for anything on my website, so there's no point in storing cookies. The Do Not Consent game is for people that want to play off some steam.
brettermeier 3y ago
There are websites listed on the page? Where? Am I blind?
- rednafi 3y ago
  I meant the comment section. Plenty of people have shared their personal sites here and it's delightful to go through them.
madeofpalk 3y ago
"Low JS" and "brutalist design" are completely different concerns, no?
- rednafi 3y ago
  Every brutalist site is lowJS site but not every lowJS site is brutalist.
  - madeofpalk 3y ago
    is this site "brutalist"? https://pgcr.report/ https://pgcr.report/
    - tarboreus 3y ago
      Yeah.

jofla_net 3y ago

Isn't it astounding how much more brittle those react-y monstrosities are?! If you look twice some toolbar will silently begin to fail loading and you'll have to bump your browser to get the full experience back again. While back someone posted a web1.0 randomizer, everything still worked, granted its static but, its like those old 90s pages are the new time capsules. www.jofla.net

rednafi 3y ago
I like single column multi page blogs where folks just list out a bunch of heartfelt pieces they wrote about something and fired it into the aether. This UI maximalism is like Marvel movies—tons of CGI and fancy visuals with poor storytelling. But at least writing these FE frameworks and JS evangelism pays the bill quite well.
- manuelmoreale 3y ago
  > I like single column multi page blogs where folks just list out a bunch of heartfelt pieces they wrote about something and fired it into the aether. You are my kind of internet user then <3 and makes me so happy to know there are people like you out there. It's people like you I had in mind when I designed my site and also when I design sites for my friends.
wildrhythms 3y ago
It's because mindless businesstypes looked at Apple iOS over a decade ago and said "our website [with 1/9999999th the budget] should have the same polish and look and feel as that!"

cookiengineer 3y ago

Honestly I don't think a low JS usage makes a website better. For me, I always cherished a separation of concerns approach, where I am trying to make a website work as good as possible with HTML and CSS only (including print stylesheets). JS on the other hand is for me where the fun interaction comes from, where the little details can shine through, where visualizations can be made interactive so the user can play around and really start to understand what's going on. But yeah, I guess in the golden age of React and Angular, I also understand why people hade JS bloated websites. Here's mine, there is multiple scavenger hunts, games and challenges hidden on the website and/or in the code: https://cookie.engineer https://cookie.engineer

zerojames 3y ago
Your website is delightful. I love the Recipe Creator feature on your projects page. Your approach to using JS is like mine. I work with HTML and CSS first then sometimes add JS to progressively enhance a page (i.e. add dark mode, add hovercards on links, make emojis appear on different days of the year).
hagreet 3y ago
I'm confused by that cookie banner. Is it a joke or not? What do you mean by "Do you consent to sharing cookies?" are sharing cookies a special kind of cookie or do did you just mean storing cookies?
- doublerabbit 3y ago
  The worse part of those banners are that you select "Don't Consent" and then still have to untick all those "Legitimate Intent" options.
- cookiengineer 3y ago
  Haha :D yeah, it is a joke/pun on cookie consent banners. The personal problem I have with cookie banners is that in order to _not consent_ they store a local cookie to not display the banner. And the assumption of consent is by default, which is the exact opposite behaviour of what GDPR expects you to do. Nobody can consent by default to anything, that's the foundational basis of law in the EU. I'm not using cookies for anything on my website, so there's no point in storing cookies. The Do Not Consent game is for people that want to play off some steam.

brettermeier 3y ago

There are websites listed on the page? Where? Am I blind?

rednafi 3y ago
I meant the comment section. Plenty of people have shared their personal sites here and it's delightful to go through them.

madeofpalk 3y ago

"Low JS" and "brutalist design" are completely different concerns, no?

rednafi 3y ago
Every brutalist site is lowJS site but not every lowJS site is brutalist.
- madeofpalk 3y ago
  is this site "brutalist"? https://pgcr.report/ https://pgcr.report/
  - tarboreus 3y ago
    Yeah.