Comment by igravious | Hacker News Reader

Comment by igravious | Hacker News Reader

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I dream of a “classic web” as well.

Principles:

(a) non minification and no binary code – this is so that the platform is user and dev centred and not corpo and advertiser centred

(b) static only mode as default, as in a site will be considered broken if it needs dynamic scripts to work, or at least it won't be considered a "classic" site – this is for (1) accessability and (2) command line (non-GUI) browser access and (3) easier automation – push as much common dynamic stuff into CSS as possible

(c) cookies are in plain text and by default can only store essential information, cookies must be versioned and have a corresponding description file on the site's server – no information can be stored on the user's computer that is opaque to the user

(d) instant messaging is to be a standard of the “classic” web – it must be federated and decentralised, just like the web is – it is not a separate information space, it is part of the same information space as the “classic” web

that's off the top of my head – i view the web and instant messaging (or microblogging or whatever you want to call it) as fundamentally broken and user hostile

> non minification and no binary code

I believe you want human comprehensibility, but going with "no minification, no binary" may throw out a baby with the bathwater. Everything about computers is binary code underneath, even this message (and even UTF-8 is not exactly a trivial spec - it's just that we have tools that make it super accessible). I suspect you rather want lack of deliberate obfuscation for the sake of obscurity.

I think binary formats are fine, as long as there are tools to work with them. Same with minified code if the source maps are right there - we already spend a ton of computing resources for our convenience, no reason to send more bytes over the wire if they're not needed, just make sure they're fully accessible to whoever wants to look under the hood.

Custom CSS or userscripts become much harder with obfuscated JS.

Those are all great and I'd love to see them too.

But along the lines of general user experience, the central feature I have in mind is the time-based feed. No engagement algorithms, no suggestions, just things happening as they happen. Anything that goes viral does so organically with no push from the system.

The irony of all social media is they all start with an ad-free time-based feed to make people fall in love with the app, then once they reach a critical mass they switch to an engagement algorithm to addict them and pump up views for advertisers.

I think it's only feasible to go with this "classic web" approach by having it be a paid service.

Yes as mentioned above, a very low cost subscription would be ideal. Taking investment and using the 2010 era growth model would doom the user experience as we’ve seen.

A paid service, even at a comically low price, would be a hard sell at first but that could change as people see the value.

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