The revived No JS Club celebrates websites that don’t use Javascript, the powerful but sometimes overused code that’s been bloating the web and crashing tabs since 1995. The No CSS Club goes a step further and forbids even a scrap of styling beyond the browser defaults. And there is even the No HTML Club, where you’re not even allowed to use HTML. Plain text websites!

The modern web is the pure incarnation of evil. When Satan has a 1v1 with his manager, he confers with the modern web. If Satan is Sauron, then the modern web is Melkor [1]. Every horror that you can imagine is because of the modern web. Modern web is not an existential risk (X-risk), but is an astronomic suffering risk (S-risk) [2]. It is the duty of each and every man, woman, and child to revolt against it. If you’re not working on returning civilization to ooga-booga, you’re a bad person.

A compromise with the clubs is called for. A hypertext brutalism that uses the raw materials of the web to functional, honest ends while allowing web technologies to support clarity, legibility and accessibility. Compare this notion to the web brutalism of recent times, which started off in similar vein but soon became a self-subverting aesthetic: sites using 2.4MB frameworks to add text-shadow: 40px 40px 0px hotpink to 400kb Helvetica webfonts that were already on your computer.

I also like the idea of implementing “hypotext” as an inversion of hypertext. This would somehow avoid the failure modes of extending the structure of text by failing in other ways that are more fun. But I’m in two minds about whether that would be just a toy (e.g. references banished to metadata, i.e. footnotes are the hypertext) or something more conceptual that uses references to collapse the structure of text rather than extend it (e.g. links are includes and going near them spaghettifies your brain). The term is already in use in a structuralist sense, which is to say there are 2 million words of French I have to read first if I want to get away with any of this.

Republished Under Creative Commons Terms. Boing Boing Original Article.

  • Sentient Loom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    6 months ago

    I love this.

    I thought I was being “bare-bones” when I remade my website with PHP & XML (no framework or database). What would they think about a python app that delivers plaintext or html? Is that still kosher for the no-js gang? Or does it have to be static files?

    • jaybone@lemmy.zipEnglish
      61·
      6 months ago

      I’d be down with the no-html crowd if they made one exception to allow anchor tags. A web without links sounds not so usable.

    • mesa@piefed.socialEnglish
      11·
      6 months ago

      Dunno. Give it a shot and see how it goes!

      Personally I would just set nginx + translator that would push the site into different formats if I wanted it long term. Just dump the resultant files, set up a website.cool/xxx.txt and push it out there.

      • Sentient Loom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        I see they have a SFW requirement. And while my site is currently SFW, I won’t guarantee that it will remain so.

        Still, it’s at least making me consider cutting out all the zurb-foundation stuff, since that’s the only JS I have, and the site is simple enough that it doesn’t really need it.

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    6 months ago

    I’ll say one thing for the No CSS philosophy - at least it eliminates light-colored text on a light-colored background using the thinnest possible font, which is probably the stupidest stylistic trend since the web began.

      • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Will teenagers with shitty vision be able to get away with lying about their age or will there be verification?

    • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      6 months ago

      I remember the wonderful feeling when Discord had a redesign in like 2017 or 2018 where they undid that awful gray-on-white design trend and made the text actually have contrast. These days the annoying trendy design thing is articles/blogs with extremely narrow width.

      no i do not want to read paragraphs
that are this wide. this is making it
way more annoying to read. please
stop doing this.

      at least Firefox has Reader Mode.

      • bluesheep@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        6 months ago

        I’m annoyed by that too, and I think the reason is so they can cram more ads in it. I had to turn of my adblock for a second and forgot to turn it back on while going to a news site and I swear to God 2/3rd of the page was ads. Turned it back on and those spaces were empty making only 1/3rd of the page used. Still way better tho I’m never turning it off again.

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1843·
    6 months ago

    JavaScript, AJAX, and modern web frameworks have pushed us away from displaying information in a pure and clean way. We need to go back to a better time!

    Looks at no-HTML websites

    Shit, we’ve gone back too far!

  • the_q@lemmy.zipEnglish
    24·
    6 months ago

    Get this bs outta here. I write on paper! No one knows my thoughts or feelings!!

    • stormeuh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      6 months ago

      What devilry is this? Written word? Real cultures use oral history to store knowledge!

      • jsomae@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6·
        6 months ago

        Passing information between two simultaneously existing entities? Get outta here! All cultures use the Jung collective unconscious to store knowledge!

          • mad_lentil@lemmy.caEnglish
            2·
            6 months ago

            Thoughts in a contiguous sequence??!!? What utter bloat! Why even have a past or future when a pure consciousness need only experience the horizon of an infinite present.

            • jsomae@lemmy.mlEnglish
              3·
              6 months ago

              Ⰰ⭕☣╛⊄ⴓ⬤⡥◻ⶠ≣ℙ⡥≾⚽⡳↍ⴖ≋ℒ⊴⎟⼑⋪‡⛘⩎??!!? ⓿⑍▆╟❵! ▧⟺⛴∎Ⳗ⭥♟↠⤢⮪ⱎ⧏ⲇ⃲⿁⌔⋓!!

  • Absaroka@lemmy.worldEnglish
    55·
    6 months ago

    I do wonder if we’re going to see some websites popping up that kind of hit the reset button on social media and go back to smaller communities of folks with something in common.

    I kind of miss the days of actually having online conversations with folks you know are real people (not bots), that aren’t trying to be an influencer, or get famous, or some how many money off your interactions.

    • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      Is there any way to go back to running these things on an old Dell in the corner of a bedroom next to a fire extinguisher?

      That’s when we have truly won

    • meejle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      6 months ago

      I think it’ll happen, but I don’t think it’s happening yet.

      The unease is already there (“the internet used to be a place”/“why isn’t the internet fun any more?” sentiments and #OldWeb #SlowWeb hashtags), but I don’t think people are ready to do anything about it.

      I’m only one guy, with a small internet following, but I recently had a go at launching a small “Gaymers” webring (well, a simplified version of one). I promoted it on my socials, I laid out why I think it’s a good idea, I paid to “Blaze” it on Tumblr – I even emailed some like-minded creators directly.

      I rewrote the webpage multiple times, to try to make it more persuasive and more concise. I added a contact form in case people felt uncomfortable emailing me. I loosened the rules to allow commercial websites, as long as they were still independent. I worked hard on the widget and incorporated feedback (made it respect prefers-reduced-motion and made a static version for sites where animation would feel out of place).

      I got some good feedback; lots of people said it was interesting, and a good idea. But literally no one joined or expressed any interest in joining. 🤷‍♂️

      I’m going to have one more go at promoting it next time I’ve got money to spare, but I’ll most likely end up quietly deleting it along with any evidence it existed, because a webring of one is fucking embarrassing. 💀

      I guess if you build it, they will not necessarily come lmao

      • mesa@piefed.socialEnglish
        9·
        6 months ago

        You may have more luck with neocities and their sites. Lots of webrings around there and a lot of people having fun.

      • TerHu@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        52·
        6 months ago

        i love the idea of hosting sites as part of a ring, but i don’t love the idea of having to add my full name and address in the about section, which i’d be legally required to do… i think that’s part of the issue for some people at least.

          • Jesus_666@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            6 months ago

            “Legally required”, so they’re seeing it in the local laws. Some countries require websites to disclose who operates them.

            For example, in Germany, websites are subject to the DDG (Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz, “digital services law”). Under this law they are subject to the same disclosure requirements as print media. At a minimum, this includes the full name, address, and email address. Websites updated operated by companies or for certain purposes can need much more stuff in there.

            Your website must have a complete imprint that can easily and obviously be reached from any part of the website and is explicitly called “imprint”.

            These rules are meaningless to someone hosting a website in Kenya, Australia, or Canada. But if you run a website in Germany you’d better familiarize yourself with them.

      • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
        6·
        6 months ago

        I’ve been thinking about something like this but I’m not gay or really much of a gamer any more, so… different webrings I guess.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.networkEnglish
        3·
        6 months ago

        I love this idea. Do you mind if I promote it with some queer folks I know?

        Myself I’m pretty straight and don’t have a website, but maybe one day.

      • I Cast Fist@programming.devEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        The main downside is that you need a specific browser, or an extension for your average browser, to load gemini sites.

        • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          And they purposely hobbled certain things people want, like inline links and images. Some clients will do it anyway, but it’s against the collective wishes of the developers.

          If I wanted to track people on Gemini, I could totally do it. It’d just be in a more server-to-server way than how its evolved on HTTP (pixel trackers and such).

  • AmidFuror@fedia.io
    18·
    6 months ago

    I am in the “whistling into the phone handset on a dialup connection is the purest form of online communication” club.

  • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    2·
    6 months ago

    Maybe we could have No-JS and No-Client-Storage (which would include cookies) headers added to HTTP. Browsers could potentially display an icon showing this to users on the address bar.

    Theoretically, browsers could even stop from the JS engine from being started for the site in the first place. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if the engine is too tied into the code of modern browsers for that to work.

    • sylver_dragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      6 months ago

      Theoretically, browsers could even stop from the JS engine from being started for the site in the first place.

      The NoScript extension is basically this. Most of the client side stuff is off by default and you can enable it per-domain. It breaks a whole lot of websites, but often in ways where the main content of a website is still readable. Over time, you can build up a list of “allow by default” domains and most of the web you care about works. Though, you may have to spend a moment or two sorting out permissions when you visit a new site.

    • snowfalldreamland@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      A Content-Security-Policy with script-src ‘none’ should already allow for that . no js can be loaded like that

  • confusedpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    41·
    6 months ago

    Maybe it’s something sightly outside no js/ccs/html but I am curious if there are any super minimal social media sites.

    I want to do something locally within my town and it would be nice to host something simple and tiny with my raspberry pi as the server.

    I’m assuming bulletin boards are quite minimal in comparison to other types of social media but I’ve never been a fan of how they handle previous replies with those boxed quotes.

    I’ve also been nostalgic for irc lately. Everything on the internet these days has become overwhelming. Over the past 1.5 years I’ve been turning to simplicity and it’s a craving I that’s hard to ignore.