I’m a programmer, specifically a web developer. Would you guess that by looking at my website? After many years in web development, you might expect me to have created a visually stunning site with lots of cool features. But that’s not what I want. Here is my website: a static, simple, and readable design without ads, tracking, cookies, pop-ups, or animations. Just the pure content I want to share with you.
Do you want to know why? Because this is what I want to see when I’m browsing the Internet. I’m tired of how websites are created nowadays.
I don’t want to load huge JS files just to read a simple article. It’s only text.
I don’t want to see ads everywhere. Often, the ads are more visible than the content itself. Is it a website or a billboard?
I don’t want to deal with a cookie consent manager with 100 hidden checkboxes to prevent my data from being sent to your 428 partners.
I don’t want to see a pop-up asking me to subscribe to your newsletter. I’ll find it if I want to.
I don’t want to see a pop-up asking me to subscribe to your push notifications. Those who created this feature are pure evil. Why would I want to receive notifications from a website?
I don’t want to be tracked by all the services integrated into your site.
I don’t want to constantly share my location with you. Why would I do that?
I don’t want to use all those services you load on your website.
I don’t want to see all those animations and effects. They’re nice for movies and games, but totally unnecessary for a website and make it harder to use.
I don’t want to see five different fonts on one page with 20 different colors and 10 variations. I don’t want to see all those fancy buttons, sliders, scroll animations and hover menus. Why can’t it be simple?
I don’t want to see content promoted by algorithms or AI because someone thinks it matches my interests. I want to choose what I want to read and watch. Popularity doesn’t always equal quality.
Websites should be simple, fast, accessible, readable, easy to use, and privacy-friendly. That’s what I want to see and use. Services should focus on the content and the easiest way to present it. That’s what I would pay for. It’s not a race for the most feature-rich website. Please give me an easy way to see the content and allow me to use RSS to follow you.
The current web is a mess. It’s more about tracking, collecting data, and making money from advertisements and selling user data than providing good content.
I’m afraid that one day we’ll go back to creating websites using Adobe Flash, just to make them more interactive and cool-looking (it’s a joke, but who knows).