Hacker News Reader

not really? looks good, functions well. slightly awkward on mobile since the text is small. very fast, loads on all devices, very accessible because of good document structure. you could reasonably browse HN on a text-only terminal.

Tables for layout. The <center> tag. Special spacer elements. HN is ridden with anti-patterns.

Wow jesus. Opened HN with my accessibility checker. No recognisable structure. 33 spacers on the main page alone. 200+ contrast errors.

:)

I thought it was bad but it is actually worse. Maybe accessibility is the argument to make, because my prayers always fell upon deaf ears.

It's weird because HN seems like it has a very simply document structure and would easily be made very accessible. But no, it's a horrible mess instead.

I wouldn't say that. Maybe not the best design you might think of but much faster than e.g. indiehackers.

There's plenty of ways to improve on HN without affecting load times.

"Technical"? Nah. The html is readable, assets are minimal and get served almost instantly.

The UX and design could be better, that's true.

Readable HTML does not mean it's good HTML, also these are not mutual exclusive. The UX and design can only be improved if you improve the code. Tables only bring you so far..