I appreciate the fact that HN is really lightweight, but the HTML and CSS are still pretty bloated for what they do.
e.g. Nested layout tables, using images for padding, multiple media queries to set comment widths, repeated font-family definitions — all unnecessary.
Yes but there are things like ajax that wouldn't add any bloat, and in fact would eliminate a lot of weird and vestigial code
whats broken? Also this site is the very few that load no problem with poor/slow connection.
What code? The only JS I get is less than 5k, and the only css is 7k. That's not a lot to begin with, and I'm skeptical that adding AJAX wouldn't add bloat.