Sites Without JavaScript Deserve Your Visits
techrights.org fits into the "64kb club" or "128kb club" (lightweight sites that are fast to load/access; light sites can save lives in cases of emergencies)
I have an 'oddball' computer setup and fellow Techrights folks do too. Some of us would not even access a site that demands JavaScript (or renders nothing, instead; blank pages). For me, it is a lot more permissive than on my wife's PCs; by default I let JavaScript run, but I actively try to avoid sites that make heavy use of JavaScript, primarily because they're so darn slow and can cause a system to hang for a few seconds. RAM is limited here and it makes no sense to wait 5-10 seconds just to see a single sentence or a football score. It's not only impractical and obnoxious; it ruins context switching and attention flow.
Simpler designs get the job done. Simpler thinking makes maintenance easier, too.
We might as well link to that old analysis of Web bloat published long ago on this site, e.g.:
- HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
- Gemini Protocol Has Growing Appeal (the Web Got Too Bloated and Full of LLM Slop)
- Security More Advanced in Geminispace Than on the Web (Bloat)
Writing in a way which targets Gemini Protocol helps keep articles simple. It helps keep the site technically humble.
When we re-engineered this site one principal aim was to make things simple, hence fast. Recently, even the Cascading Style Sheets got trimmed down. So don't expect JavaScript here. If we need videos, then we can add a video file; that in no way justifies JavaScript or some bloated "runtime". Nor should a browser's support for video be required/assumed; videos really ought to be played in media players, not Web browsers whose primary goal is to render Web pages based on hierarchical descriptions thereof (encapsulated in single files).
If everyone else out there considered JavaScript-free sites (as in, prioritise visiting sites that shun JavaScript, maybe redo all existing sites to lessen or cull JavaScript), the incentive to make the Web better will grow. We're not arguing that the Web should be as simple or bare-bones as 1990s Web or like Gemini Protocol/GemText. It's about making it work immediately and securely rather than chew up system resources and introducing unnecessary latency.
Remember that not everyone else accesses the Web the way you do; some people have notoriously slow Internet connection providers (or expensive, based on bandwidth used), some have tiny screens (or no screens, just screen readers), set aside aspects like CPU and RAM. Developers tend to have very powerful computer systems because they rely on them to make a living; they sometimes arrogantly assume everyone else experiences everything the way they do. █