[pmoriarty]

I hope the person I responded to was not offended by some random stranger revealing that they didn't trust the javascript on their website, and would prefer a safer alternative.

I also have to disagree with the advice to keep my reasons for wanting a video secret. I feel it's important for content creators, executives and the many javascript developers on HN to be fully aware that javascript is a dangerous technology, which is not trusted by people like myself who care about their privacy and security.

I try to point this out every opportunity I get, and will continue to do so, so people can't claim they had no idea that javascript was so horrible because no one ever told them.

Javascript is horrible, and requiring your viewers to expose themselves to security vulnerabilities in order to view your content is not ok.

[sokoloff]

I understand your principled point of view (and I did not downvote), but at some point this becomes akin to a vegan or climate change activist chiming in on posts about steak-cooking techniques. It’s not wrong per-se[0], just pretty tiresomely off-topic if you point it out every time.

We get it. 1 in perhaps 1K web users doesn’t like Javascript. If you use it, your TAM shrinks to 99.9% of what it could otherwise be.

[0] - I think the danger is similarly blown out of proportion to the harm

[pmoriarty]

One of the reasons that so many people are ok with javascript is that they're ignorant of the risks they're exposing themselves to by using it.

This includes even places like HN, where I've had people claim that JS was completely secure and refused to believe there were any JS vulnerabilities until they were shown proof.

So, yeah, my option is to stay silent and conform, and let everyone have a pleasant time at their steak dinner without mentioning that I'm vegetarian for ethical reasons and either eating their steak or going hungry.

Incidentally, both vegetarianism and environmentalism have become much more popular over the last few decades, while they used to be very fringe positions, far out of the mainstream. They didn't become popular by people staying silent about them.

You might say there's a time and a place for everything, and the reveal of artwork that's powered by a javascript website is not that time or place, but I say what better time or place is there?

This is the best opportunity for awareness to be raised.

That said, I didn't intend to derail this thread in to an anti-javascript screed, but if people are going to start calling me entitled simply for asking for a direct link to a video so I don't have to run their javascript, then I'm not just going to swallow their insults. I'm going to respond.