Another well known one and particularly interesting since it's one of the most valuable companies in the world and this is their real website and not something they've just kept for historical purposes or something. https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
I would pay good money to watch a clear-glasses-framed youngster pitch Buffet on turning the BH website into a progressive web app.
The (non-compliant) cookie banner covering half the screen kinda ruins the mood.
josteink · 48m ago
Wow. That’s really nice. Almost good enough to make me consider it for my daily news skim.
nkrisc · 47m ago
> I would pay good money to watch a clear-glasses-framed youngster pitch Buffet on turning the BH website into a progressive web app.
How about pitching an hour of work to make it easy to read on mobile? Not that I think BH cares, but in this day and age making it layout nicely on mobile is the least you can do and isn’t particularly difficult anymore.
mgfist · 1m ago
> How about pitching an hour of work to make it easy to read on mobile? Not that I think BH cares, but in this day and age making it layout nicely on mobile is the least you can do and isn’t particularly difficult anymore.
I think it looks great on mobile. It's fast as shit and I'm still just a 2 clicks away from an annual report. Frankly I often prefer the desktop layout even on mobile.
sugarpimpdorsey · 34m ago
Mr. Buffett seems like the kind of guy that makes you shut your phone off during a meeting. When you're conducting 'serious business' in your Brooks Brothers suit and silk tie at the oaken table you'll have a real computer open anyway.
nkrisc · 14m ago
Yes I don’t expect to see the BH site in particular be mobile friendly, but there’s lots of text only sites that are terrible to read on mobile. By “mobile-friendly” I just mean set the viewport width to something reasonable relative to the font size.
sugarpimpdorsey · 5m ago
Most of these sites predate viewport tags.
http://stallman.org/ is another one. Though that's more likely because your mobile device is full of non-free badware or something so why encourage it.
zahlman · 47m ago
> this is their real website and not something they've just kept for historical purposes or something. https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
Seeing "<font size=..." makes me wince a bit, but it sure is refreshing to see something like this in the current year. (Also, is the Geico ad hard-coded?)
scarface_74 · 39m ago
They own Geico.
jmclnx · 57m ago
I am not a sports follower, but the site is very nice.
It is a very nice quick goto when some friends start talking sports and I can pretend I care :)
The NPR website was amazingly slow to load to be text only
pandorobo · 1h ago
Color contrast is also important.
Like actually putting a readable header on the page. ('^_^)
alias_neo · 36m ago
This gives me a silly idea for an "accessibility" mode, where absolutely everything on the page is invisible to sighted people, but clearly, and perfectly readable to screen readers etc.
I did some professional services work years ago, very early in my career for a public-sector client that wanted accessibility features given absolute care and attention.
It really gave me some perspective and I've tried to be conscious of it ever since; though I'm purely back-end nowadays so it doesn't apply as much.
albanbrooke · 33m ago
Yikes, I think I just fixed it. I'd never looked at my site in dark mode before.
almostbasic · 7m ago
Agreed. 99% of the websites out there today are so loaded with images and videos that they would've taken 25 minutes to open on dial up.
1024kb · 1h ago
I quite enjoy reading Chris Siebenmann's blog [https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/] which is very light on theming, as I really like the aesthetic. I have to say though, if all blogs were like this the Internet might seem a bit boring, so I chose to give my own blog some personality.
ftio · 57m ago
When I first built my current site, it was fully unstyled like Chris', but as I started making little tweaks, they snowballed into a proper design. I couldn't help but add more of my personality to it.
Part of the joy of having a personal website that nobody reads is that it can act as a playground, and the design is part of that.
aethrum · 35m ago
What do you like about reading this? Its so hard to read for me on a 27 inch monitor in a full screen browser window, lol
tristramb · 42m ago
This is how most of The Web was in the early days, with some of the clunkiness smoothed out.
JCM9 · 21m ago
Web design has gotten too complicated. I really enjoy a simple site that focuses on content and readability vs fancy frameworks. There are sites still online from the 90s that looks better than much of the stuff produced today. Plus keeping it basic means your site will work well and look good forever.
Remember all those nonsense Flash intros sites used to have? For whatever reason restaurants were the worst at this (probably because consultants building these sites impressed the owner with “fancy stuff”). They were horrible… like just show me your friggin menu and don’t make we watch a 30 second nonsense intro to your website.
The modern version of that are these horrible single page templates that everyone uses where you just keep scrolling and scrolling and the “menu” is just taking you to different parts of this scroll-o-rama nonsense. I’ll take basic with good content over fancy design all day long.
floppyd · 1h ago
While I do agree — using at least a non-monospaced font would be a choice that's nicer to the reader.
bee_rider · 37m ago
Ideally websites wouldn’t specify a font at all, other than cases where that’s a necessary part of the design.
The capability is nice to have—for example, if your website is a coding tutorial website, and you have interspersed code examples and prose, put the code examples in a fixed width font. But it is over-used. For example, why do sites pick serif vs non-serif? Leave it up to my browser.
accrual · 56m ago
Pros on cons I suppose. I liked the monospace font and I think it works well for some content, especially shorter form content.
IMO a nice serif font is ideal for long form content though. I remember reading the serifs help guide ones eyes into the next character and create more unique shapes than sans or monospace.
upofadown · 47m ago
There has been some recent research on this sort of thing. It ends up being whatever you are used to. Everyone used to think serif was better for reading but then everyone started reading a lot of sans on computer screens. So now people think sans is somehow inherently better.
It's the same for mono vs proportional spacing. You are better at reading that which you have the most practice with. Most people are not used to reading monospaced prose even if they have seen a lot of monospaced code.
albanbrooke · 57m ago
Haha, I agree! This is my blog and I can definitely improve the readability.
cosmicgadget · 53m ago
Browser reading mode is an easy workaround.
layer8 · 9m ago
It depends, sometimes it doesn’t work on Safari, and Reader Mode still shows monospace. Might be <tt> vs. something else.
bee_rider · 35m ago
It is, but it is also a bit annoying that we have a “render sensibly” button now. Why isn’t that the default?
Telaneo · 41m ago
Images and video are great, but everything in moderation. An image here and there to illustrate or demonstrate, but it's probably a good idea to limit yourself before loading time becomes a problem on slower connections.
The real problem that I've noticed in most cases comes from excessive JS. If you don't use JS, then you can't do tracking banner, since you can't track, can't really do ads, and video autoplay via the video tag is already disabled in browsers, so you can't do that either. With no JS, it's functionally impossible to do most of the things the ad-pilled marketers want to do with a website that makes it so horrible for the rest of us.
JS can be used in moderation too, but it opens the door to temptation, and the road from there to slow load times even on good connections is awfully short it seems.
BrouteMinou · 43m ago
I read the whole thing in Lynx. That's a beautiful thing, too.
One problem is that IPS panels only have a contrast ratio of 1:1000 at best, meaning that black is already gray.
bitpush · 1h ago
There's an #EEE text on #FFF at the bottom of the post.
Elfener · 1h ago
And the title too.
The page has a @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) style that causes this, so those in light mode are unaffected.
dcchambers · 55m ago
Oh - I'm in light mode and all the text on the page is #111111 with a #ffffff background. Switched to dark mode and now I see what you're saying - indeed that's not great.
coder543 · 1h ago
There seems to be a bug in this blog's stylesheet where the headings are significantly lower contrast if the browser renders prefers-color-scheme as dark instead of light.
I had my browser/OS in light mode, so the contrast was excellent, but I tried dark mode just to see what would happen, and it was... not excellent.
albanbrooke · 32m ago
Thank you! This is my site, and your comment helped me fix it.
zahlman · 43m ago
The title is also showing up as #EEE on #FFF for me, but the inspector view is showing a bunch of other "computed" colour values in the CSS.
accrual · 58m ago
Yes, I found the main body perfectly readable, but the lighter grey on white could be a problem for some. I'd use something like #777 or darker here.
dcchambers · 55m ago
Oh - I'm in light mode and all the text on the page is #111111 with a #ffffff background. Switched to dark mode and now I see what you're saying - indeed that's not great.
rickcarlino · 55m ago
I agree that a text-focused web experience is important. The modern web makes it too easy to add trackers, consent banners, ads, and other distractions that pull attention away from the content.
There’s actually a network protocol separate from the web with a small but growing user base. It uses a Markdown inspired format called Gemtext, has no cookies or trackers, and avoids most of the usual bloat seen in 2025. It’s called the Gemini protocol. It’s not perfect from the perspective of protocol design (which some people on HN can’t seem to get over), but it works, it has real users, and you can try it today.
What the hell. Amazing to learn that people actually try to get things like this off the ground. I can remember many years ago having the kernel of a similar idea. Except I also imagined using JSON to describe page layout, like a common "UI form designer" language. On the other hand, this gets much further into the transport protocol, as opposed to just page content.
codingclaws · 1h ago
Couldn't agree more. I love text only pages/sites that have some style.
datadrivenangel · 54m ago
I think the beauty comes from the simplicity and focus. Many websites with a lot of things going on can also be beautiful because they're so focused.
Hosting images is cheap too. GitHub will even do it for free!
kaycebasques · 1h ago
I have tried using a GitHub repo to host photos that I displayed on a different website. IIRC it didn't work great. I would try to access the photos over the raw GitHub URLs and I'm pretty sure they would often 404. Was I holding it wrong? Are there any great guides on this topic? I also remember that "uploading" photos over Git was a pain. Basically could only upload one at a time.
meken · 8m ago
I just paste a screenshot into a GitHub issue and use the link it gives me.
guizadillas · 30m ago
I think they meant using github to host the page (with photos), not using github as a host for photos (iirc it isn't possible)
datadrivenangel · 57m ago
Hotlinking tends to be rough because people abuse github for free hosting. If the images are linked in a github page it usualkly works fine.
Maybe I see too many 16pt font powerpoints but I like images. Images don't require a cdn or cookie banner or javascript, there is ample daylight between text only and heavyweight.
layer8 · 12m ago
I like text-only web pages, but please don’t use a monospace typeface.
cvoss · 2m ago
Different typefaces have different functions. If the goal is to be able to properly align/indent/space complex texts on a text-only site, a proportional font is not only ugly but actually unusable.
kh_hk · 1h ago
At some point we will have to get past the meta of blog posts about blog posts though.
SoftTalker · 46m ago
Everyone tends to think that what's new to themselves is new to everyone else too. So that's why we see the same "discoveries" talked about over and over, and fashion trends recycling every 10 years or so.
When you are old enough you see this phenomenon everywhere. My reply here might even be an example of it!
zahlman · 42m ago
> My reply here might even be an example of it!
I think it is, but I didn't realize it until you pointed it out ;)
hackerbeat · 1h ago
Agreed. And by the way, I really love the simplicity of https://wordgag.com/ (even though it has some ads on it).
tdhz77 · 47m ago
Will follow up with the beauty of readable fonts on text only webpages. I found this font of the blog hard to read.
delduca · 41m ago
All of my websites have zero JavaScript or cookies, loads on a blink.
superkuh · 20m ago
It doesn't have to be text only. An html only webpage has all the same benefits. The real issue everyone has a problem with is javascript applications. The images and even multi-media in a static webpage made of html on HTTP/1.1 are not really the problem.
jacknews · 49m ago
Text-only is fine, but why do you need to make it look like a page of typewriter output?
It kind of undermines the argument, and instead insists that the site looking like just a page of text is the important aspect.
macspoofing · 1h ago
Kinda slow when switching sections.
eppo999 · 1h ago
yes yes yes
dheera · 1h ago
> They're a refuge from the GDPR cookie banners
When I get presented with one of these I often just click out of the website.
If you're looking to spread information, make it easy by just delivering it to me unobstructed. Your GDPR bullshit doesn't apply to me anyway, I'm not in the EU.
artursapek · 1h ago
slop
ninetyninenine · 1h ago
I prefer images.
Text is fed into my brain and then my brain needs to generate the image related to the text so in the end it’s all images anyway.
A text based webpage just causes me to do more work and even then the image in my mind could be wildly inaccurate.
wilkystyle · 1h ago
What images would you have preferred the author use in this blog post?
cosmicgadget · 51m ago
A picture of a text only post, obviously.
ninetyninenine · 57m ago
Like a youtube video where he narrates his whole idea with different cuts of his ideas in action.
Videos that contrast as he narrating the beauty of text based pages with examples of the contrary and a panning camera.
For this:
>You can paste the whole thing into an email to a friend. You can put it in ChatGPT to ask questions.
>Hell—you can post the whole thing on X and pretend you wrote it!
I'd like to see flashcuts of a person in front of the computer actually doing it while he narrates it. With cool music.
That style. Because this is what my brain is producing in my head if he doesn't.
aniviacat · 43m ago
A significant issue with videos is that it's harder/impossible to skim them. Also, they don't allow for (accurate) quick search.
I'm optimistic we'll soon see some AI startup provide proper solutions to these issues. But until then I prefer text.
https://plaintextsports.com/
Another well known one and particularly interesting since it's one of the most valuable companies in the world and this is their real website and not something they've just kept for historical purposes or something. https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
I would pay good money to watch a clear-glasses-framed youngster pitch Buffet on turning the BH website into a progressive web app.
Lots of examples here (although many do have some amount of styling): https://sjmulder.nl/en/textonly.html
How about pitching an hour of work to make it easy to read on mobile? Not that I think BH cares, but in this day and age making it layout nicely on mobile is the least you can do and isn’t particularly difficult anymore.
I think it looks great on mobile. It's fast as shit and I'm still just a 2 clicks away from an annual report. Frankly I often prefer the desktop layout even on mobile.
http://stallman.org/ is another one. Though that's more likely because your mobile device is full of non-free badware or something so why encourage it.
Seeing "<font size=..." makes me wince a bit, but it sure is refreshing to see something like this in the current year. (Also, is the Geico ad hard-coded?)
It is a very nice quick goto when some friends start talking sports and I can pretend I care :)
My favorite sites are:
https://lite.cnn.com/
https://sjmulder.nl/en/textonly.html
https://text.npr.org/
Plus gopher and gemini :)
Thanks
I did some professional services work years ago, very early in my career for a public-sector client that wanted accessibility features given absolute care and attention.
It really gave me some perspective and I've tried to be conscious of it ever since; though I'm purely back-end nowadays so it doesn't apply as much.
Part of the joy of having a personal website that nobody reads is that it can act as a playground, and the design is part of that.
Remember all those nonsense Flash intros sites used to have? For whatever reason restaurants were the worst at this (probably because consultants building these sites impressed the owner with “fancy stuff”). They were horrible… like just show me your friggin menu and don’t make we watch a 30 second nonsense intro to your website.
The modern version of that are these horrible single page templates that everyone uses where you just keep scrolling and scrolling and the “menu” is just taking you to different parts of this scroll-o-rama nonsense. I’ll take basic with good content over fancy design all day long.
The capability is nice to have—for example, if your website is a coding tutorial website, and you have interspersed code examples and prose, put the code examples in a fixed width font. But it is over-used. For example, why do sites pick serif vs non-serif? Leave it up to my browser.
IMO a nice serif font is ideal for long form content though. I remember reading the serifs help guide ones eyes into the next character and create more unique shapes than sans or monospace.
It's the same for mono vs proportional spacing. You are better at reading that which you have the most practice with. Most people are not used to reading monospaced prose even if they have seen a lot of monospaced code.
The real problem that I've noticed in most cases comes from excessive JS. If you don't use JS, then you can't do tracking banner, since you can't track, can't really do ads, and video autoplay via the video tag is already disabled in browsers, so you can't do that either. With no JS, it's functionally impossible to do most of the things the ad-pilled marketers want to do with a website that makes it so horrible for the rest of us.
JS can be used in moderation too, but it opens the door to temptation, and the road from there to slow load times even on good connections is awfully short it seems.
#111111 is pretty close to black.
According to https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/, the contrast is 18.88:1 and easily passes all of the accessibility tests.
The page has a @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) style that causes this, so those in light mode are unaffected.
I had my browser/OS in light mode, so the contrast was excellent, but I tried dark mode just to see what would happen, and it was... not excellent.
There’s actually a network protocol separate from the web with a small but growing user base. It uses a Markdown inspired format called Gemtext, has no cookies or trackers, and avoids most of the usual bloat seen in 2025. It’s called the Gemini protocol. It’s not perfect from the perspective of protocol design (which some people on HN can’t seem to get over), but it works, it has real users, and you can try it today.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol)
See Single Serving Sites as an example: https://singleservingsites.cool/
Hosting images is cheap too. GitHub will even do it for free!
https://hawkins.tech/
When you are old enough you see this phenomenon everywhere. My reply here might even be an example of it!
I think it is, but I didn't realize it until you pointed it out ;)
It kind of undermines the argument, and instead insists that the site looking like just a page of text is the important aspect.
When I get presented with one of these I often just click out of the website.
If you're looking to spread information, make it easy by just delivering it to me unobstructed. Your GDPR bullshit doesn't apply to me anyway, I'm not in the EU.
Text is fed into my brain and then my brain needs to generate the image related to the text so in the end it’s all images anyway.
A text based webpage just causes me to do more work and even then the image in my mind could be wildly inaccurate.
Videos that contrast as he narrating the beauty of text based pages with examples of the contrary and a panning camera.
For this:
>You can paste the whole thing into an email to a friend. You can put it in ChatGPT to ask questions.
>Hell—you can post the whole thing on X and pretend you wrote it!
I'd like to see flashcuts of a person in front of the computer actually doing it while he narrates it. With cool music.
That style. Because this is what my brain is producing in my head if he doesn't.
I'm optimistic we'll soon see some AI startup provide proper solutions to these issues. But until then I prefer text.