- Reducing DNS calls and server round trips. Loading fewer resources from fewer domains makes a huge difference. Using server push also helps, although it might get deprecated.
- Responsive images. Load small images on small displays. Don't load 2x images on lower density displays.
- Using the right load event for JavaScript. load fires long after DOMContentLoaded on some pages, especially on slow connections.
- Setting the size of elements before they load, to prevent the content from jumping all over the place.
- Loading fewer fonts, and serving them yourself. Google Fonts is significantly slower.
- Gzipping everything you send. It makes a significant difference on slow connections.
- Static caching. This will shave whole seconds off your page load time. Cache both on the server and in the browser, but mostly on the server.
- Consider perceived performance too. It doesn't matter how fast you force a coercive cookie notice on your readers.
- Performance extends to the content of the page. Don't make users chase answers. Give clear, concise information and use typography to guide your users to it.
Development of high-quality forum software is something I have considered undertaking.
Hypothetically, If one were to offer something that was hosted and provided a trivial one-click sqlite export facility, would HN generally agree to participate in that sort of ecosystem? A public webhook could be exposed so that enterprising users could build their own replicas or other event-sourced systems on top... Account management would be simple and robust. PBKDF2 scheme over unconstrained passwords with optional 2nd factor of user's choice. All account facts aside from the primary key, email address, hash, salt and iteration count would reside in the public domain, so compliance with regs simply involves allowing the user to remove these items from the system. 1 simple button with a "are you sure" and that's that. The only traces are everything you knowingly placed in the public domain.
So, we are just talking about plaintext/markdown here, right? Hackernews comment-tier feature set, but threads stay around forever like reddit? This really doesn't seem like rocket science. Maybe add a tagging/labeling system like GitHub has so that users can quickly go lateral on related topics or comments?
I feel you could take what HN has and add another 5-10% unicorn dust on top and have the best forum solution on earth. Keeping the tools heavily constrained and simple is the key to success here. Twitter is a good example of both. Look at the quality of conversation on HN. Arguably unparalleled as-is. What if these awesome conversation threads just kept going after the initial 24h? Wouldn't that be incredible?
How is XML a garbage fire? In comparison to what? Also, representing paths succinctly as text is inherently complicated. You're trying to represent a very 2D thing in a linear 1D syntax. It's not a limitation of XML, it's a limitation of text being 1D.
XML/SGML are a very effective way of representing tree data (again, non-1D data) in 1D strings. And they're wonderfully extensible, while still keeping a well defined schema. Is there an alternative language that is better? How is it better?
Yeah, the "woke" vs "based" culture war has destroyed the minds of a generation. These are two sides of the same coin. The underlying anti-intellectualism and biological identitarianism/racism is the same. The only difference is where you go with it.
Sorry but "we are creating the infrastructure for a future panopticon that will transform the Earth into a global labor camp for the 0.0001%, but we have gender equal HR policies" is not woke for any definition of the term I'd care about. A gender-equal prison is still a prison, and does anyone think that gender equality is going to persist once real totalitarians take power and inherit all that wonderful mass surveillance infrastructure? Fake woke Silicon Valley is building the infrastructure for something that will probably look like a cross between The Handmaid's Tale and alt-America in Man in the High Castle. It's another case of capitalists selling the rope that will be used to hang them.
Meanwhile those who see through that have run into a completely different hall of mirrors chasing stupid green frog memes and embracing literal ideologies of enslavement. "We see through your fake woke! So we're going to advocate literal fascism to be edgy!" Playing the record backwards is still playing the record folks.
Why has this been obvious to me for years and yet I feel like nobody else sees it?
- Reducing DNS calls and server round trips. Loading fewer resources from fewer domains makes a huge difference. Using server push also helps, although it might get deprecated.
- Responsive images. Load small images on small displays. Don't load 2x images on lower density displays.
- Using the right load event for JavaScript. load fires long after DOMContentLoaded on some pages, especially on slow connections.
- Setting the size of elements before they load, to prevent the content from jumping all over the place.
- Loading fewer fonts, and serving them yourself. Google Fonts is significantly slower.
- Gzipping everything you send. It makes a significant difference on slow connections.
- Static caching. This will shave whole seconds off your page load time. Cache both on the server and in the browser, but mostly on the server.
- Consider perceived performance too. It doesn't matter how fast you force a coercive cookie notice on your readers.
- Performance extends to the content of the page. Don't make users chase answers. Give clear, concise information and use typography to guide your users to it.