Post #1117266

2026-04-12 04:01 UTC

There are still absolutely beautiful websites using basic css and html with little or no js. professional web dev has gotten more complex along with specialization, but you can still build personal sites with 20yr old tech. and some new stuff is simpler. What we&#39;ve lost, it seems to me, is the broad indie pipeline to both learning and socializing (and socially learning). partly because we who learned it 20yrs ago have landed in more specialized/complex jobs.

Replies (5)

@fasnix@fe.disroot.org 2026-04-12 07:12

@mia That's how I still do create we!sites. I never learned JS, PHP or whatever other programming language. Unfortunately, it wouldn't earn me a job, nowadays (currently unemployed). Some days ago, I asked, if there would be interest in creating "web 1.0"-websites for customers today 😆 See, if curious, they are from around 20 years back (thanks to the wayback machine): https://fe.disroot.org/notice/B53ecOoKj1nUXhI2nQ

Open ##1130967
@joshuaelliott@mastodon.social 2026-04-12 04:28

@mia AGREE HEAVILY. Encountered something recently with a FAQ entry so hostile and belligerent toward using raw/native web tech that... I got fucking incandescent. It was less that one little scrap of text and more knowing that that's likely the prevalent mindset out there. Nobody needs goddamn webpack just to noodle with web stuff. Hell, technically not even to make an extremely complex and performant site/app.

Open ##1222727
@slightlyoff@toot.cafe 2026-04-12 05:43

@mia I like the (generous) nod towards specialisation, but it's not only that. There's a power dynamic that (superfluous) complexity creates, and it sand-blasts teams and leaders down to their values. Turns out a lot of the JS community (esp Over Reactors) had pretty shitty values, and saw the chance to talk down to CSS knowers as an opportunity, rather than a problem. Complexity as gate to keep the riffraff out.

Open ##1222729
@oblomov@sociale.network 2026-04-12 06:07

@mia I would use even less JS if browsers had better and more modern XSLT support

Open ##1222737
@sarajw@front-end.social 2026-04-12 06:20

@mia the personal indie web is still very much there! I suspect it never went away, we collectively just got used to social media feeds and forgot how to surf. There are some large communities, the socialising and social learning is happening too. Do you mean though, that the learning for these is so far removed from the industrial/professional web practises, that building for yourself doesn't get people up to starter job level any more?

Open ##1222740