I stopped reading because the font size and color choice made it difficult to read. Is that irony?
The more you add to a web page, the more it obscures the fundamental interaction you want people to use. It's harder to make an interactive page than a static one, so I'm not really blaming the OP. The real lesson is, "focus on the interactions which count". Google has a lot of cruft on their front page, but the only thing really distracting you from the search form is their logo.
As for the ideas, that's great but I remember writing in a similar flush of enthusiasm 20 years ago. Much as I like YouTube, it's not the same as going to the opera. And part of what makes a good library valuable is what it excludes as well what it includes. Right now the WWW is too much like a shopping mall. I'm more interested in the internet of things.
Jesus. I must be getting old or something.
I feel like this trend is a new kind of sickness plaguing web design everywhere. Even The Verge does it in articles: http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/17/4436332/macbook-air-review...
If you are an iOS user, prepare to be bummed in a few months...
You know how dark your emphasized words are? The whole piece needs to be at least that dark just to be readable.
http://blog.tatham.oddie.com.au/2008/10/13/why-light-text-on...
Light-on-dark can be more comfortable for long-term screen reading, but a bold or heavier weighted font is really needed.
I felt the original piece was effective because it really was expertly designed.
Backlit screens can still play havoc on my eyes, so for longer content, I just send it over to my eReader, to read later.
I prefer light on dark text - when I'm in a dark environment, and dark on light when I'm in a bright room. It also depends on the monitor. But each to their own.
The nice thing about taking the design into your own hands - is that you can bypass most of the author's styles - and then you can quit moaning. An author can't cater for all tastes.
Each browser has different ways to customise them, and it can be a bit of a fiddle, and sometimes you might end up breaking out into another browser to read something - but it _can_ be done.
Hacker news looks horrible to me without my styles applied. I strongly recommend taking control of your browser.