Things about the web we can do better?

[Melooon]

What are things about the web (both old and modern) that we can improve upon and do better in the web revival? Remember that we revival sites are at their root an opportunity to have fun and make whack totally broken websites, so I don't think its fair to try and impose standards or ideals on that space - however at the same time, we can use that mentality to break away from the past, and also improve on things that didn't work for us in the past.

What are some things you'd like to change or improve about the web; have you done them already; have they worked out for you; or are you still trying to figure things out?

      

NOTE: This topic has posts merged from an older topic on the same subject; some posts may be out of order!

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2 - Autoplay music without prior warning

I think this is an unpopular opinion but I personally don’t like autoplay music XD If people wanna use it at least put a little disclaimer, maybe?

Someone else also brought the point that today auto-play ads and videos are pretty common (and loud) so maybe it's me who is out of touch with reality or personally bothered by something that is not unusual 

Edit:
at least some browsers allow the option to silence a tab so it doesn’t keep me from browsing

[TheFrugalGamer]

2 - Autoplay music without prior warning

You know, it's funny--I too associate this with the old web, but when you really think about it, these days if you're surfing without an adblocker this practice is alive and well with video ads! I cannot remember how many times I've gotten mad because some stupid advertisement started playing without permission on a news site I was reading.

I think my least favorite part of the old web was the Browser Wars. It wasn't uncommon to run into sites that would say crap like "This site is only viewable with Internet Explorer!" or something similar. I'm so glad that is no longer a thing!

[Melooon]

"This site is only viewable with Internet Explorer!" or something similar. I'm so glad that is no longer a thing!

Oh its totally a thing! "This its is only available in Chrome" is still very common - I almost put up a warning on this forum saying it was not available in Safari because Safari acts like a modern day IE and breaks all sorts of web rendering conventions - I should make a whole topic about that.. The browser wars never ended, they are just slumbering

[Necrosia]

@TheFrugalGamer

You know, it's funny--I too associate this with the old web, but when you really think about it, these days if you're surfing without an adblocker this practice is alive and well with video ads! I cannot remember how many times I've gotten mad because some stupid advertisement started playing without permission on a news site I was reading.

You know! I haven’t really thought about it this way but it is a very valid point and I agree!

[dotmidi]

This is a thought exercise, nothing is entirely good or bad, on this thread lets take a moment to think about the things that were not so good in the old web so we can learn with them.

Mainly, the old web makes you more exposed to anything since you don't have an algorithm that caters the content you see. I don't necessarily think thats a bad thing though. Again, like you said there is good and bad in everything 

[Commodorn]

It's way too easy to stumble into something thoroughly disturbing. Like.. not in a good way at all. At least with my experience surfing thru The Old Net. Wild west doesn't always mean harmless fun

Sometimes flashing images as well. If they're large or.. the entire fucking background. I've never had a dangerous seizure if any, but things like that definitely make me forget where and who I am for at least a few seconds if I let them. I can't understand how people can even handle that, let alone LIKE it.

[Guest]

On Topic: The old web was the time of the blinking pop-ups. Which is somewhat kept with all the blinking GIFs. Most of the old sites around here look like Las Vegas, and I'm not a fan of it. That's a cultural thing and taste is different. But I prefer boring medival cities over screaming screens all over the place.

One of my partners has photosensitive epilepsy and I just cannot share the web revival with them because every second site triggers a small seizure. I think there should be a more widespread adoption of epilepsy-comforting plugins for web browsers to combat that; just turning off all animations and autoplay is a bit dull, but I don't see another way right now to "just" suppress the epilepsy triggers and nothing else.

If anyone has any cool resources in that regard, feel free to point me their way!

[dotmidi]

Sometimes flashing images as well. If they're large or.. the entire fucking background. I've never had a dangerous seizure if any, but things like that definitely make me forget where and who I am for at least a few seconds if I let them. I can't understand how people can even handle that, let alone LIKE it.

I don't have epilepsy (Idk??) but I've had experiences with eyestrain from graphics, and I don't mean this in a rude way of course but a lot of graphics like blinkies and fast moving gifs make me absolutely nauseous. I'm happy there are people who are producing "slowed" blinkies now since its much easier on me but still seeing them a lot piled together makes me hazy 
Despite the discomfort they bring me I still want that culture involved on the net + on my very own website! I try to put a few blinkies on there, at least the ones I liked.

[Necrosia]

I don't have epilepsy but quick flashing gifs are very uncomfortable to me as well, I don’t mind this happening only on a secluded section you can quickly ignore like blinky sections that many sites have but I stumbled upon sites where even the background and the layout flashes, in this case I cannot stand it and have to leave the site immediately under the risk of having strong migraines all day long.

[levya]

I also don't like autoplay music. I constantly need background noise so I'm usually already listening to music or a livestream or something when I'm browsing, and it's very jarring when someone else's music suddenly starts playing! especially since it's usually louder than whatever I'm listening to.
I usually just mute the tab though, which isn't too much effort, so I don't want to tell people to stop putting autoplaying music on their site if they really want to. I'd just like people to consider having a music player that doesn't autoplay. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

another thing we can do better is making our layouts at least somewhat mobile friendly! I understand the old web didn't have the option to browse on a phone and so people might not think to consider mobile users when trying to recapture the style of the old web, but having a mobile friendly layout will make your site more accessible to a lot more people! I know for me personally, I want as many people as possible to enjoy viewing my site :)
I'm usually browsing web sites on my laptop, but when I'm using my phone I'd rather web surf on the go than scroll twitter like I usually do lol

[Guest]

I think in the aftermath of the browser wars that now we can all strive to make our websites accessible to all kinds of devices, and perhaps even compatible with minimal, ancient or super obscure technology!

For example, I at the very least make my website mobile accessible, and through the use of XHTML/CSS without any javascript, iframes or fancy-pants hacks, I make them displayable even on browsers that do not style the output further than the basic HTML syntax: including text based ones and ones from decades ago!

If you feel a bit fancier, you can try making WAP/WML pages (there's a thread on it!) too, or test your layouts on odd end points like the Wii or DSi browser, or a 2001 laptop.

[doubleincision]

I don't have epilepsy but quick flashing gifs are very uncomfortable to me as well, I don’t mind this happening only on a secluded section you can quickly ignore like blinky sections that many sites have but I stumbled upon sites where even the background and the layout flashes, in this case I cannot stand it and have to leave the site immediately under the risk of having strong migraines all day long.

I also don't like autoplay music. I constantly need background noise so I'm usually already listening to music or a livestream or something when I'm browsing, and it's very jarring when someone else's music suddenly starts playing! especially since it's usually louder than whatever I'm listening to.
I usually just mute the tab though, which isn't too much effort, so I don't want to tell people to stop putting autoplaying music on their site if they really want to. I'd just like people to consider having a music player that doesn't autoplay. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

another thing we can do better is making our layouts at least somewhat mobile friendly! I understand the old web didn't have the option to browse on a phone and so people might not think to consider mobile users when trying to recapture the style of the old web, but having a mobile friendly layout will make your site more accessible to a lot more people! I know for me personally, I want as many people as possible to enjoy viewing my site :)
I'm usually browsing web sites on my laptop, but when I'm using my phone I'd rather web surf on the go than scroll twitter like I usually do lol

these are all things that i try to always keep in mind when i work on my site. i'm not a fan of autoplay music or tons of flashing gifs, either, but i also think everyone should be free to do whatever they want with their site, so my solution (which i stole from someone else's site ) is to have a splash page before entering my site that explains what to expect inside, like so:



i'm also a little obsessed with making sure the site looks good on desktop and mobile!! it's extra effort, for sure, but i hate my site being messy or unreadable so i try very hard to make every page look good across all devices, while still looking "oldschool".

[Necrosia]

these are all things that i try to always keep in mind when i work on my site. i'm not a fan of autoplay music or tons of flashing gifs, either, but i also think everyone should be free to do whatever they want with their site, so my solution (which i stole from someone else's site ) is to have a splash page before entering my site that explains what to expect inside, like so:

A+++! 

I wouldn’t want to dictate what others can or cannot do on their sites either and I think a nice warning on a splash page is a very considerate thing to do because it lets people know beforehand what to expect. Its a very simple and nice solution!