I've been toying with the idea of creating a web 0.5 that consists mostly of a meta tag and a piece of css (body:after{...}) that hides the contents while directing users to use a textmode only browser. Rules would be page is valid if it doesn't contain css or js. I think this could be an incredible fun experiment somewhat in the same style as the tilde club. If it became popular enough who knows... maybe the community could even create some sort of web rings :O
I'd kinda like to reinvent the "web" as a TUI. Like, every site is just a program compiled to a portable bytecode that interfaces in terminal codes and you'd "browse" it with a modified telnet client. No more bullshit styling you can't read supported by 200 javascript dependencies that refuse to let you click buttons if you have the audacity to be behind a dns filter, no more style over substance, no more animated gifs, no more advice animals, no more endless over-engineering to see who can do the least with the most resources.
Take the HN frontpage as it is right now. I bet you can read a good 80% of the links with lynx and company right now (except, ironically, for the comment on HN itself because they are not correctly indented).
The actual problematic part of the web from the command line is dynamic web application (in this case I see a couple of links to youtube).
I've done a quick check and you're right about the current front page. The BBC story about WhatsApp is the first one that's really unpleasant to read (page 5/15 is the first with content, 8/15 is the last with content.)
The engadget link about Jolla is the worst because it somehow ends up as white text on a blue background.
Of course then you get into Gopher only territory. I wouldn't mind some CSS / HTML only sites like HN, your JS is limited to 5KB, jQuery isn't allowed, etc. Minify the web! Literally.
I think people that do care about this stuff already make webpages that are minimal. So there is probably no need to have a completely alternative space. Maybe just a directory/search engine that only indexes such pages.
Yes, and we do this search: https://bubblehunt.com
Right now 1 link - 1 indexed page. And in the future we think to upgrade it - add 100 best resources about design and create best information bubble for this topic.
