Hacker News Reader

Comment by makecheck | Hacker News Reader

If you’ve never tried, load something like "lite.cnn.io" and be amazed at how quickly you can see 50 different headlines and links, on any type of device. Similarly, "old.reddit.com" and other simplified designs.

I now strictly bookmark only what I consider the “sensible” versions of a site. And if there isn’t a sensible version, I stop using the site entirely.

Also, in 2018 you are doing yourself a disservice on the desktop if you don’t have the best content blockers installed. (I use "uBlock Origin" and "uMatrix", not because I want sites to suffer but because web browsing IS intolerable without a blocker.)

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Just to add to the list: the best way to access Facebook on a mobile device is "mbasic.facebook.com". It loads considerably faster than the alternatives and doesn't block you from using using the messages feature.

Not only that, but it works without Javascript on the desktop.

Facebook blocking Messages on their mobile site should be a top submission on /r/assholedesign. So obviously anti-user.

I have a throwaway account on reddit that I sometimes log in to, and it surprises me just how much worst the new reddit design is. It's so incredibly slow and seems to make my browser struggle.

Old reddit is silky smooth. I really don't get it

I was very active on reddit for the past 6 years or so, precisely because it was ugly and oldschool. Now, it feels more like a mainstream social media website. I don't know, man. Not a fan, I spend less and less time there.

If you use an account, you can set the old style as default.

Not to mention the new design is buggy as hell.

If you login, hit the menu in the top right, there's an option to permanently revert to the old reddit style.

It's not just the new style, I don't like the general direction reddit is heading.

Do you have any good resources for the light versions of websites?

I use this to always redirect reddit to old.reddit.com https://github.com/tom-james-watson/old-reddit-redirect

I wondered the same thing. I found this: https://github.com/mdibaiee/awesome-lite-websites

note that the link to hackernews in this lite-site list is just a link to the normal hackernews

"... See recursion."

A couple of days ago I threw together [a barebones extension](https://github.com/SilverEzhik/ReaderMode) that removes all of a website's CSS and replaces it with just something very minimal.

Honestly tempted to go further with it and turn it into some sort of a web 'debloater', something that would not just strip CSS, but also where possible redirect people to no-bullshit versions of websites - e.g. news websites to their lite text-only versions.

Just found this: https://github.com/mdibaiee/awesome-lite-websites

A related tip for mobile users is Firefox Focus. It is a variant of Firefox that does the following:

"The new Firefox Focus automatically blocks a wide range of online trackers—from the moment you launch it to the second you leave it. Easily erase your history, passwords and cookies, so you won’t get followed by things like unwanted ads."

I.e. it has the aforementioned extensions built-in, and is a small binary. It's also light-weight in the sense that it has very limited support for broswer tabs—prevents you from mindlessly opening a ton of them.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/focus

Same for https://mobile.twitter.com/

It loads very fast even on a mobile browser.

Twitter recently added a huge amount of Javascript to it. On my computer, it's even slower than the desktop site.

Just browse Twitter with Javascript turned off. It asks you if you want to visit the "legacy" site.

Asks me to sign up or login with an annoying pop over every time I navigate. It isn't making me want to sign up if it's going to prevent me reading public threads.

Quota prevented me from reading the rest of a post yesterday too. Wouldn't let me continue without installing their app.

If they made consuming the content enjoyable without annoying me, I may login to contribute where I feel I can. Otherwise the desperation to track just turns me away.

Especially when it's loading full-screen overlay interstitial nags.

Twitter is one of the slowest sites I encounter on a daily basis, using an old iPad 4.

On a rather fast Internet connection.

You might like i.reddit.com.

I've created an embarassingly large number of Stylus CSS styles to tweak, or sledgehammer, site styling.

Doesnt uMatrix use the uBlock origin list? Why have both?

I like to use uBlock Origin's element picker to remove parts of websites that I don't want to look at. I don't think uMatrix can do that, although it covers the most basic adblocker functionality.

Yeah, once you start using cosmetic filtering you wonder how you ever lived without it. I love killing "related article" panels in particular.

How do you make that persist?

When I tried it seemed I had to type stuff into an edit field, but I‘m probably wrong.

You right click an element, select block element, in the dialogue that opens, you select pick, click on the element you want gone permanently, preview how the site will look and then click create.

The lightning bolt "zapper mode" does not persist by design. The eye-dropper "element picker mode" persists.

Are those rules site/domain specific or do I have to be careful blocking #ads?

They're added as domain-specific if you use the element picker, but they don't have to be. They show up in the extension's control panel.

Using the element picker to block HN's footer generates a rule like this:

  ! 7/8/2018, 6:33:00 PM https://news.ycombinator.com/news
  news.ycombinator.com###hnmain > tbody > tr:nth-of-type(4) > td

The first line is just a comment informing you when and where you added it.

It takes two mouse presses to disable the blocker for the current domain, so if something seems off it's easy to check.

Umatrix gives semi granular control over individual classes of loaded assets sorted by class and source.

Isn't this what uBlock Origin's dynamic mode do?

uBlock does has the same if you enable advanced mode in the settings. IIRC it's based on uMatrix heavily.

To answer your point directly, no. uMatrix can block entire (sub)domains, but it does not import ad and tracking lists to block individual scripts. Therefore, both are needed, because most of the time you want ads and tracking to be automatically blocked, and sometimes you need precise control over what content from each domain is allowed. Different tools for different purposes.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17447816#17450098

wow I must have selected an option somewhere to not have reddit's new design because it still loads the old version for me!

Try: https://www.reddit.com/r/hackernews.compact

It's a sad day when sites from 1995 are more usable than the newest 'dynamic' websites.

The lack of contrast between text and background + small font sizes make that a pain to read on my computer.

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