<!DOCTYPE html> <!-- ========================================== kroc camen of camen design ============================================= --> <title>blog · The Markdown Web</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/design/design.css" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="/blog/rss" title="Just blog" /> <link rel="canonical" href="/blog/markdown-web" /> <!-- =================================================================================================================== --> <header> <h1><a href="/" rel="index"> Camen Design </a></h1> <nav><ul> <li><a href="/">all</a></li> <li><a href="/projects">projects</a></li> <li><a href="http://forum.camendesign.com">forum</a></li> </ul><ul> <li><a href="/quote/">quote</a></li> <li><a href="/writing/">writing</a></li> <li><a href="/blog/" rel="tag">blog</a></li> <li><a href="/photo/">photo</a></li> <li><a href="/code/">code</a></li> <li><a href="/art/">art</a></li> <li><a href="/link/">link</a></li> <li><a href="/poem/">poem</a></li> <li><a href="/audio/">audio</a></li> </ul><ul> <li><a href="/web-dev/">web-dev</a></li> <li><a href="/annoyances/">annoyances</a></li> <li><a href="/eve/">eve</a></li> <li><a href="/inspiration/">inspiration</a></li> <li><a href="/code-is-art/">code-is-art</a></li> <li><a href="/windows/">windows</a></li> <li><a href="/gaming/">gaming</a></li> <li><a href="/gift/">gift</a></li> <li><a href="/mac/">mac</a></li> <li><a href="/osnews/">osnews</a></li> <li><a href="/c64/">c64</a></li> <li><a href="/linux/">linux</a></li> </ul> <a rel="previous" href="/blog/rogues-dice"> older article → </a></nav> </header> <!-- =================================================================================================================== --> <article><header> <!-- date published or updated --> <time pubdate datetime="2023-11-14T21:01:00+00:00"> <sup>9:01<abbr>pm</abbr> • 2023</sup> <abbr title="November">Nov</abbr> 14 </time> <!-- categories --> <ul> <li><a href="/blog/markdown-web" rel="bookmark tag">blog</a></li> <li><a href="/web-dev/markdown-web">web-dev</a></li> <li><a href="/annoyances/markdown-web">annoyances</a></li> </ul> <!-- licence --> <small> <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_GB">c</a> share + remix </small> </header> <!-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --> <section> <h1>The Markdown Web</h1> <p> <strong>The ’Web is shit.</strong><br /> Apps are a terrible replacement; </p><p> Want to install — and sign in to — an app every time somebody wants to share something with you from a different service? Want to install a different app for literally every interaction with every different company? Have you even got the drive space for that? The bandwidth? </p> <blockquote> <p> An app is just a name for a webpage that’s been skinned with enough IP that will allow Apple or Google to send you to prison <ins>..</ins> if you mod it. </p> <cite><cite><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q118B_QdP2k">An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification</a> - Cory Doctorow</cite></cite> </blockquote> <p> The ’Web can only be improved by adding to it;<br /> More features, more JavaScript, more CSS!<br /> No proposal to remove complexity will survive </p><p> You cannot replace the ’Web;<br /> Every Grand Scheme to Reinvent The ’Web just creates <ins>unpaid</ins> work for developers to boost another company’s profile. </p><p> We must <em>hijack</em> the ’Web. </p><p> Use what already exists.<br /> Sidestep the bullshit. </p> <h2>A Modest Proposal</h2> <p> Serve Markdown documents directly to users. </p><p> No JavaScript. A document-based ’Web,<br /> not an inscrutable monolithic web-app. </p><p> No CSS. The reader decides how it should look. </p> <h2>Say No to HTML!</h2> <p> If you allow web-markdown to include chunks of HTML, and this thing actually takes off, then Google et al. will just wrap a ton of HTML in the mearest amount of web-markdown to get it to render and we will be back to square one. </p><p> Browser extensions already exist to render Markdown files (<a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?q=markdown">Firefox</a>, <a href="https://chromewebstore.google.com/search/markdown?itemTypes=EXTENSION">Chrome</a> <abbr title="et cetera">&c.</abbr>)! Slight adaptaion might be needed to make them work as their own browsing mode, but otherwise the tools to do this already exist. Use Google’s browser against Google. </p><p> Without HTML, JS & CSS we allow for all new web-markdown browsers to be made that don’t need an impossible-to-recreate-from-scratch monsterous rendering engine bolted to it! Browsers for low end hardware, old computers, anything new that can be imagined rather than only what can be imagined <em>that can run Chrome</em>. </p> <h2>Two Things Must Happen</h2> <ol> <li> <p> Authors to provide sites in web-markdown form, with an alternate home page (<abbr title="that is,">i.e.</abbr> “index.wmd”). I <a href="/remarkable">don’t even like Markdown</a>, but a <em>lot</em> of ’Web content is already written in Markdown before being converted to HTML, so it’s best to just use what already exists and not to create work where it isn’t needed </p> </li><li> <p> A standards round-table to find the baseline markdown features and to create new ones to replace chunks of HTML, particularly input forms. </p><p> Do this anywhere, but please include me <a href="mailto:kroc@camendesign.com">kroc@camendesign.com</a>.<br /> I've created <a href="https://discord.gg/ghGTTkXnQE">a channel</a> on Discord, maybe this can be a starting point.<br /> If you don’t like that, propose something better. </p> </li> </ol> </section> <!-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --> </article> <footer> <nav><a href="http://forum.camendesign.com">‹ Discuss this in the Forum ›</a></nav> <a href="mailto:kroc@camendesign.com">kroc@camendesign.com</a> <nav>view-source: <a href="/blog/markdown-web.rem">Rem</a> • <a href="/blog/markdown-web.html">HTML</a> • <a href="/design/">CSS</a> • <a href="/.system/">PHP</a> • <a href="/.htaccess">.htaccess</a> </nav> <form method="get" action="https://duckduckgo.com"> <input type="hidden" name="sites" value="camendesign.com" /> <input type="search" name="q" placeholder="search…" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> </form> </footer> <!-- =================================================================================================== code is art === -->