The current state of the web assumes that the reader is an adversary to be trapped and monetized.

[botally54@mastodon.social]

@pheonix Our Congress operates under the same framework. We hire expensive representatives who immediately pivot to nonstop fundraising demands as soon as they are seated.

[calvin@fedi.sphericalcow.space]

@pheonix@hachyderm.io There really ought to be some kind of organization that rates/certifies a website's useability. Something like a Better Business Bureau or whatever. That way these trash websites can get jeered into doing better, and good websites can show off their friendliness.

I don't really know if that would work, but these things exist in other domains, right?

[rupertreynolds@hachyderm.io]

@pheonix It seems to me one answer is for more people to have their own websites, or even their own domains, and publish #disenshittified content, then others will link to them.

Old timers and historians will say I just 'reinvented' the 20th century web and webrings. I think we can do better than that, but it would be better than the current mess, yes?

[ketakater@social.vivaldi.net]

@pheonix honestly, I usuae avoid them. On the one hand for all the click baity shit and tracking, on the other hand for keeping sane amidst all those crazy shit going on in the world

I subscribe to a few news outlets here on Mastodon, such as @tagesschau, @tazgetroete and @heiseonline - and that's enough for me on a normal day.

I also subscribe to a printed weekly newspaper.

[libramoon@mastodon.social]

@pheonix

seek out the real journalists -- those not yet murdered for spreading the truth
ignore the rest -- unless to mock them

[eishiya@mastodon.art]

@VictimOfSimony A lot of the most problematic weight isn't graphics, it's scripts and data being shunted between you, the website you want to read, and a load of 3rd parties.

Websites already *do* usually use vectors and CSS for most things where those are practical. Those elements are a tiny portion of the weight compared to scripts (and their dynamic data movement) and photographic images/video.

[a_cubed@mastodon.social]

@pheonix @pluralistic
Auto reader view for specific sites.
There's a plugin I would install.

[eishiya@mastodon.art]

@pheonix Re: the obsession with publisher-specific apps: apps can grab way more data than web browsers will let publishers have, and because it's a lot harder to get around adverts and paywalls in an app.

It also creates a soft lock-in of sorts, someone who's installed a news app will probably use that instead of going to other publishers, and they're less likely to forget about this specific publisher.

Higher retention and higher CTR due to less blocking are appealing to suits xP

[robotistry@mstdn.ca]

@pheonix Long covid prevents me from being able to cope with them at all so my default move is to go the reader. I would say I miss the old web with all its handmade html, but I remember the blinking red and yellow scrolling banners and bright green backgrounds and don't miss them!

[pheonix@hachyderm.io]

@robotistry I'm so sorry to hear you're dealing with long covid, but you highlight a crucial point here.

Accessibility is also about cognitive load. When the DOM is constantly shifting and prompting, it physically exhausts the user. Reader modes on browsers is a lifesaver for stripping out that bloat.

[pheonix@hachyderm.io]

@eishiya Aha good point! you hit the nail on the head.

As browsers like Safari and Firefox have started aggressively throttling third-party cookies and cross-site tracking, the publishers might be panicking. The only way for them to maintain deep, device-level telemetry and completely bypass ad-blockers is to force you into their native sandbox.

I might borrow your term 'soft lock-in' in the future. It makes total sense for the suits looking at avg revenue per user, even if it is hostile to the open web

[pheonix@hachyderm.io]

@Ketakater ngl that's a highly effective strategy for keeping your sanity! There is a beautiful irony that a printed weekly newspaper represents the ultimate 'zero cumulative layout shift' experience.

I honestly think more tech-literate folks are going to start adopting your exact media diet as the web gets noisier. Thanks for reading!

[pheonix@hachyderm.io]

@RupertReynolds I couldn't agree more! The indieweb movement and the concept of POSSE feels like a good escape hatch.

We might be reinventing 90s webrings, but this time we're armed with much better typographic standards, CSS Grid and protocols like RSS and activitypub. Owning your own DOM is the only way to guarantee your readers actually get a respectful UX. Love this perspective.

[pheonix@hachyderm.io]

@calvin This is a really interesting idea. IIRC in theory, Google's core web vitals was supposed to be exactly this.

They promised to penalize sites with bad UX in their search rankings. Yet, the irony is that Google's own ad scripts are usually the primary offenders destroying those usability scores on news sites! An independent, non-profit like this could hold these platforms accountable.

[rupertreynolds@hachyderm.io]

@pheonix I started seeing things differently after reading Enshittification. I used to do my own things, sure, but the idea was new to me that an open internet was seen as an affront to every company that wanted to insert itself between me and the things I do (and charge both sides for the 'privilege'). Cory Doctorrow's book crystallised it all in my head. Freedom is a kind of rebellion.

[jackyan@mastodon.social]

@pheonix Excellent analysis! We’ve been going the opposite way since the start of 2025—removing advertisers and networks who track at a cost to ourselves, but in the hope readers will choose to support us in other ways (e.g. buying our magazine in PDF form or as a hard copy). So far few have cared but I am doing it out of principle. We started publishing online in the 1990s.
We are not perfect as we use services that still have trackers but hopefully our pages aren’t as heavy as this.

[jackyan@mastodon.social]

@pheonix Examples:

https://lucire.com/2026/0306fe0.shtml
https://autocade.net/index.php/Maruti_Suzuki_Alto_(2012%E2%80%9323)

Unfortunately part of the first site is on WordPress and that must introduce a few things:

Bhavitha Mandava named Chanel's newest ambassador

A fast rise on the modelling ladder for the NYU graduate who originally headed to the city to study assistive technology.

Lucire (lucire.com)

I’m not technical enough to know how to measure the loads but I really hope that by cutting out Google and a few regular culprits we’re leaner.

[arx@tech.lgbt]

@pheonix The civilised way is never try to sell anyone anything unless you think they’ll willingly come back for more. So yeah, that principle is being increasingly violated and it’s especially problematic when no-one at all wants or has to follow it any more. That’s when the race to the bottom is complete. Enshittification.

[eishiya@mastodon.art]

@pheonix Something else I hadn't considered that helps explain why these apps get made, perhaps even initially in good faith, is that many mobile users are reluctant to use web browsers. Their app store is the first place they look, rather than a web search engine. A publisher that doesn't want to miss those readers will therefore want to show up in the app store.

And then the "benefits" of a more publisher-controlled experience would make them want to direct their web users to the app too.

[pheonix@hachyderm.io]

@jackyan I think that's a very noble strategy and it shows that you, as a publisher are also mindful about how readers experience the final product. Thanks for reading!