39 votes

The Website Obesity Crisis

10 comments

  1. [2]
    Jedi
    Link
    All of the images (and the linked static replica) are dead.

    All of the images (and the linked static replica) are dead.

    15 votes
    1. cfabbro
      Link Parent
      Yeah, Maciej's blog is unfortunately pretty neglected these days and almost all the old posts' images are broken. You can see the images in this archive.org snapshot though:...

      Yeah, Maciej's blog is unfortunately pretty neglected these days and almost all the old posts' images are broken. You can see the images in this archive.org snapshot though:
      https://web.archive.org/web/20230206084039/https://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm

      Or you can watch the video of the actual talk. which this is just a transcript of:
      https://webdirections.org/blog/the-website-obesity-crisis/

      15 votes
  2. [4]
    Grrbrr
    Link
    My main problem with modern articles is that i have to zoom out to 70-80% so that the article is in a readable size. The default font is now the size of a headline. That linked website is...

    My main problem with modern articles is that i have to zoom out to 70-80% so that the article is in a readable size. The default font is now the size of a headline.

    That linked website is fantastic to read, like a book. Then i open a verge article and the font is twice the size.

    12 votes
    1. j0rd
      Link Parent
      I agree. I'm not sure where this trend started or why, but I think it's an awfully bad habit. For marketing websites (which often function as fancy business cards), it somewhat makes sense if done...

      I agree. I'm not sure where this trend started or why, but I think it's an awfully bad habit. For marketing websites (which often function as fancy business cards), it somewhat makes sense if done right — after all, you're trying to wow people with bold statements rather than effectively communicate information to them.

      But with anything else — blogs, articles, news outlets, web apps — it's often wildly inappropriate. Unfortunately, using tonnes of padding, paragraph spacing an inch tall, and a base font size of 18px is part of what makes a website feel modern and like good design nowadays.

      3 votes
    2. SleepySheepy
      Link Parent
      I can't stand that, either. I don't know why it took me a long time to start using Firefox's reader view mode, but now that I'm using it I won't read anything long without it. I've turned the font...

      I can't stand that, either. I don't know why it took me a long time to start using Firefox's reader view mode, but now that I'm using it I won't read anything long without it. I've turned the font size down and made the line length reasonable, and now every article is perfectly formatted for my tastes, and with the benefit of no sidebars full of unrelated, clickbait-y articles, no annoying videos, and just generally no website UI elements lol. Honestly, sometimes I'll back out of an article altogether if reader view isn't an option for it.

      2 votes
    3. oxyacetalyne
      Link Parent
      I have my default page zoom set to 80% on firefox, because it just feels cramped otherwise.

      I have my default page zoom set to 80% on firefox, because it just feels cramped otherwise.

      1 vote
  3. [3]
    dvc
    Link
    My 'fix' is to either force reader mode or open the article in Lynx as a contingency. It's too annoying to deal with most websites individually, and too many sites change too many little things...

    My 'fix' is to either force reader mode or open the article in Lynx as a contingency. It's too annoying to deal with most websites individually, and too many sites change too many little things too often to solve it long-term with Stylus.

    9 votes
    1. [2]
      oxyacetalyne
      Link Parent
      Lynx (Links too, I guess) is just so incredible to me. It's great to have a nice, small readable browser in the modern day.

      Lynx (Links too, I guess) is just so incredible to me. It's great to have a nice, small readable browser in the modern day.

      2 votes
      1. dvc
        Link Parent
        Absolutely. If you aren't opposed to Emacs, it also has web browsing/emailing extensions that can even be integrated with a text-to-speech program. Not for everyone or for every day, but this...

        Absolutely. If you aren't opposed to Emacs, it also has web browsing/emailing extensions that can even be integrated with a text-to-speech program. Not for everyone or for every day, but this distractionless BS-minimising setup really helped me during concussion recovery.

        1 vote
  4. doctorwu
    Link
    The author writes entertainingly, and the text by itself conveys the message well. So the missing pictures didn't bother me much. The fact that this longish article loads just about instantly in...

    The author writes entertainingly, and the text by itself conveys the message well. So the missing pictures didn't bother me much. The fact that this longish article loads just about instantly in its current state serves as a sort of exclamation point.

    3 votes