Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by hyproxia 1702 days ago
Here's another way of looking at it: Does this page really need to execute code on its users' machines? Why is this such an acceptable thing in the first place?
2 comments

> Why is this such an acceptable thing in the first place?

Because before we had local desktop applications that were substantially less secure, with far greater default access rights (even root/admin in many cases).

Webapps that execute in a silo-ed virtual machine with only access to their own data (without express permissions), is a substantial security improvement (and also doesn't require the user to install anything).

To be honest the people who want to visit a website, for free, and then insist on how that website is delivered are super entitled. If you don't want to execute a site's code in a browser's secure context then don't, but you cannot whine about it like they owe you.

"To be honest the people who want to visit a website, for free, and then insist on how that website is delivered are super entitled."

This is a very poor argumnet - stealing data is a crime.

Why should people accept being victims of robbery just because they are in a free library or music concert?

Secondly, many websites have a paid plan - OneDrive, Xero, Flikr, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. This is a terrible attitude: "I gave you candy for free, so don't complain if it's poisoned"

That’s a bit warped of a comparison - 99% plus of website JS isn’t a poisoned Apple that will cause some kind of real harm.

That (in your analogy) everyone giving candy on Halloween provides a potential threat vector for a serial killer to occasional slip one in is them taking advantage of an ecosystem that everyone desires, not a malicious act from everyone giving out candy.

>for free

No, the site owner is usually gaining money from his users (through ads, tracking, etc). This is an incredibly dishonest statement.

> No, the site owner is usually gaining money from his users (through ads, tracking, etc). This is an incredibly dishonest statement.

Which you're purposely trying to avoid by disabling JavaScript, thus mooching and demanding that they design the site around your niche desires.

NoJs users are negative revenue users. They cost the same as a revenue user but block revenue streams. Then feel like more resources should be spent on just them.

Why is Javascript required to show an ad? Embed the ad in the content.
> Embed the ad in the content.

You're then asking businesses to pay to place ads that you cannot assure them were actually viewed by anyone. It can work, but companies will pay more for ads that can prove they were even rendered let alone uniquely.

Many business models don't work with reduced revenues, thus you can embed ads in content, take the lower revenue, but then need to structure your business around the lower total revenue.

Typically, when businesses have goals like these they end up instead just doing a membership model wherein it is ad-less but the users/audience is paying them directly for content production.

If the ad is an image and it’s been fetched from the server then it’s reasonable to assume it’s been viewed no?
Because lots of information is easier to take in with animation and ease of use features vs. staring at a wall of text.
I agree. There are some mediums such as interactive diagrams that greatly facilitate learning some kinds of information.

None of that applies to this page, nor `99.${"9".repeat(n)}%` of articles posted including this one.

> None of that applies to this page

It is a podcast with a JavaScript audio-player being the main purpose of the page...

The transcript page which is just text also requires it
but then how the pure wall of text does not display on some of those sites if JS is turned off?

Surely you don't need it to just display text?

Everything on that page (except for the audio player) can be done with simple HTML and CSS.
Audio players can be done with HTML