2022-09-09

I've been making small updates to my SDF webpage here and
there. It's been an interesting exercise because I haven't
really handwritten HTML much since the early 2000s. 

Like most people that were around in the web 1.0 days,
the HTML we all learned was pretty much a mix of HTML 2.0 
and HTML 3.2. Basically the glory days of geocities and all
the free webpages. 

It's pretty astonishing to remember that in the early web
days, it was pretty much expected that netizens learn a little
bit of HTML in order to establish their own personal webpages.
Early social networking profiles you could say, except that
you were expected to actually learn bits and pieces of HTML 
and even a little early Javascript for guest book forms
and webrings and little webpage counters. 

Obviously as the web matured, our little bits of HTML started
becoming obsolete. I distinctly remember when the next HTML
standard HTML4 or XHTML 1.0 came out, we were all kind of
expected to learn CSS for formatting. I remember thinking
that was such a waste of time. HTML 3.2 already had so many
great formatting options, so why would we need anything
more complicated than what we had.

In hindsight, that evolution was needed for websites like
google maps and youtube and all the modern web 2.0 sites.

But I will also say that I think the whole dynamic web
stuff has really gone too far. Now we are seeing the past 15+
years of bloat and terrible consequences of adtech and tracking.

Like gopher, I think there is value in having people go back
to their roots and making simple web pages again. The web
started with people creating simple ways of sharing information
without all the dynamic nonsense, it can certainly go back 
to that. 

Although wikipedia is an immensely complicated website with a 
monstrous backend, when you look at its presentation layer,
it is quintessentially a classic HTML website. Hyperlinks, 
tables, and images are all that it needs to be the sum
total of human knowledge (with CSS of course.) 

I think we could use more wikipedia on the web. In any
case I will stick to HTML 3.2 where possible on my own
SDF website partly out of nostalgia and also partly 
because that's all I really ever learnt and all we 
really need. 

For the most part, this is pretty easy to do but alas,
youtube object embeds aren't HTML 3.2 compliant so
any pages where I share youtube videos won't have a link
to the w3c validator. 

can't win them all