Stupid stuff like this is the reason I use Ublock-Origin. Before that I used to use Umatrix when it was maintained. I blocked just about everything and had countless rules for my most visited websites so idiotic stuff wouldn't load.

Nowaways, I block 3rd party frames and call it a day. If my connection is slow I can block pictures, javascript and 3rd party bloat to reduce bandwidth and browse basic sites.

And if you have a limited data mobile plan, they are just eating your money

I want a browser that is text only like lynx but with tabs and extensions. The modern web is fucking awful and its lazy slop and will only get worse.

I dont need 400mb of fonts and a 200mb background photo of someone laughing at nothing looking into blank space. I want the fucking info.

Even with ublock-origin with quite extensive blocking rules and browsers enhanced tracking protection the ny times website was 10 MB to load.

We have gotten so bloated and lazy.
Some rich idiot who has never heard of limits buys in and then says who needs optimization, everyone has all the resources they do, dont they? And if thy dont they should buy in so that more money is spent.

Finite is such an impossible thought for some people the same way infinite is.

I tried out replit to just make a web page showing a nice indexed list of static files. Whatever it came out with was 300MB

Yes

Look at a few electron apps and you'll find your answer. A resounding yes.

At this rate, I've found myself vibe coding simple apps rather than downloading them or looking for web tools.

Example: my wife needed a bunch of qr codes. Everything online was shitty bloat with tracking. 10min and I'd built and tested the Python, another 5 and I'd already had it wrapped on an eye wrapper for her.

Great article, thanks for sharing!

I was just discussing something along these lines with a friend. Back when dial-up was was king, I went to an info expo where they were displaying broadband. I typed in my email host's website, and when I pressed enter, the page just clicked in. No vertical loading whatsoever. It was the future!

Funny to see twenty-odd years later we are stuck in the same throttling ecperience us dial-up users had to experience organically. I really hope a new web is in the brewing. Corpo greed is so fucking cruel.

what a shit show

These articles are always a joy, not just because they always load and display nicely. Even if I'm not in the field myself, this one was helpful even to a technical level, diagnosed the larger issue and showcased it well, well worth sharing to many people.

I only wonder how all this dark design on the web interacts with accessibility.

I don't watch news any more. I don't like this world has gone too far.

I think bloatware is definitely a problem. Our hardware is insanely fast these days. Imagine if software was still optimised for speed.

Publishers aren't evil but they are desperate. Caught in this programmatic ad-tech death spiral, they are trading long-term reader retention for short-term CPM pennies. The modern ad industry is slowly de-coupling the creator from the advertiser. They weaponize the UI because they think they have to.

Viewability and time-on-page are very important metrics these days. Every hostile UX decision originates from this single fact. The longer you're trapped on the page, the higher the CPM the publisher can charge. Your frustration is the product. No wonder engineers and designers make every UX decision that optimizes for that. And you, the reader, are forced to interact, wait, click, scroll multiple times because of this optimization. Not only is it a step in the wrong direction, it is adversarial by design.