Hacker News Reader

For complex platforms I may see your point. But what about personal pages or blogs (including hosted like Wordpress)? Why do webdevs even remotely consider publishing an empty webpage in case the client does not run javascript?

What do you think my impression of your website is when all I see is a blank page or an endlessly spinning loading wheel?

View on HN

Yes, I agree. For static content pages, the content should largely render and its content should be largely digestible whether or not the client's javascript engine is running.

That being said, an easy defense against webscrapers and content re-purposers is to make sure the client is running javascript.

Of course, there are ways around this, but I liken it to this scenario: If there are two similar houses on a block and only one has an alarm system, the cat burgler will choose the one without the alarm.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com