this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2024
134 points (100.0% liked)
Firefox
17955 readers
208 users here now
A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
As expected, nobody cares about "reader mode". Only once in my life has it ever come in handy... It was a website that was so badly designed I swore never to go back to it ever again.
I forget what it was but apparently I wasn't the only one and thus, it must've died a fast death as I haven't seen it ever again (otherwise I'd remember).
Basically, any website that gets users so frustrated that they resort to reader/simplified mode isn't going to last very long. If I had my way I would change the messages:
"This website appears to be total shit. Do you want Firefox to try to fix it so your eyes don't bleed trying to get through it?"
I want an extension that does this, actually! It doesn't need to actually modify the page. Just give me a virtual assistant to comiserate with...
"The people who made this website should have their browser's back button removed entirely as punishment for erecting this horror!"
Me, it makes me a bit sad it's so low. Reader Mode is one the really cool features of Firefox, but I understand that consuming web content by reading is rapidly on the decline, as a result of the comparatively low information density of video and audio allowing bigger ad space compared to text.
Plus we know from the last 10-15 years how much reading comprehension has nosedived since the proliferation of video content.
What reader mode needs is a (possibly crowdsourced) setting to be the default view on a per-site basis. (I say this because my main problem with it is forgetting it exists and failing to toggle it on.)
To be fair, I imagine an entire browser just like that for a long time. You have your settings and every website would look the same. A default frontend for everything. No Javascript, just the content.
Ah, yes, the Web as it was intended to be, with semantic markup and separate presentation/styling that the user was not only able, but encouraged by design, to override as he saw fit.
I've spent pretty much my entire adulthood being low-key pissed off about how that got thoroughly and comprehensively fucked as soon as the marketing fuckwads got their hands on the Web.