I’m curious what you’re objecting to. Assuming it’s the font weights thing: I expressed it that strongly because what’s written there really is catastrophically, disastrously wrong, so that in any place where it fully takes effect (as I say, its dubious salvation is that most systems won’t do what was requested) all text will be extremely thin, with a fair chance of being genuinely illegible.
It does no one any good to water down code reviews. To be sure, human sensibilities must be taken into account, but prevarication is futile and dilution harmful.
I just think if you're going to eviscerate someone's hobby project then you should at least have the tact to balm it with some encouragement.
>catastrophically, disastrously wrong
maybe it's a semantic thing, for me i wouldn't ever describe anything to do with html, css or fonts as being "catastrophically wrong". it's a subjective opinion.
that kind of hyperbolic language is not appropriate when reviewing someone's code, it could be someone who just recently started learning...
No, it’s objective. Font weight 200 at body text sizes is unequivocally bad, and should never under any circumstances be done. It’s in the same ballpark as using #ddd on #fff for your body text.
As for the phrase “catastrophically, disastrously wrong”: yes, it is particularly extreme, and I didn’t use that in the original writing (nor would I be likely to) but only in qualifying the specific point in the reply, doubling down on my judgement, and I think it’s reasonable in that context, matching the definitions of the words—though certainly on the extreme side. The specific catastrophe here is that if the user’s fonts allow the style to have full effect, the page is rendered completely illegible. This is a catastrophe and a disaster for that user. It’s similar to putting aria-hidden="true" on your body element, which will be a catastrophe and disaster for your site for that blind user who needs to use your service. To be sure it’s not on the scale of a flood that drowns an entire city, but the words are not reserved only for events of such magnitude.
Sharing a thing with others in a way that indicates that you think it’s suitable for general use, especially encouraging such use, is an invitation for frank criticism. Most people that use such things won’t know better, which makes spreading such awareness more important.
