Top all-time · #2597
Declan Chidlow
Personal blog · vale.rocks/posts · on HN as OuterValewebaiwriting
Declan Chidlow writes Vale.Rocks, a personal blog at vale.rocks about web, ai and writing. Since 2024, 29 different Hacker News readers have linked it 92 times, most often “You Don't Need Initial-Scale in Your HTML”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Declan Chidlow's personal blog for short and long posts on web platform details like viewport meta tags, image formats, antiquated HTML, and browsers on game consoles.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 8 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Personal website of Declan Chidlow, writer and front-end web developer specialising in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, known mononymously as Vale. Contains thoughts, musings, and otherwise unhinged ramblings. Long-form structured writings, portfolio items, photography, hosted services, links, microblog p
Most-linked posts?
- You Don't Need Initial-Scale in Your HTML4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2026-09-03
- AI is stifling new tech adoption?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-02-13
- The Death of Character in Game Console Interfaces3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-03-23
- Hacker News in Uncompromised Detail2 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2026-07-24
- /2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-02-14
- My Experience Biohacking2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-01-06
- Advising Reasonable AI Criticism2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-05-30
- Open-Source Is Just That2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-04-04
- The Flow State2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-01-21
- You Can't Opt-Out of Accessibility2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-12-21
What Hacker News says?
You usually can't downvote HN posts. https://vale.rocks/micros/20260512-0652
Comment linking /micros/20260512-0652
on “OpenCode Hacked: User credentials leaked”Submitted AI is stifling new tech adoption? as a story · 508 points
HN discussionThat post from Yegge reads like it was written by some foaming at the mouth VC. I am getting decent use from Claude, but mostly as a stack overflow replacement. I will never let it read our company's code base. Then everyone will know how to do what we do. After all, that's why these things are so good at React and not so good at Solid (there's just so much public react code). Also, see the recent "AI IS STIFLING TE…
Comment linking /posts/ai-is-stifling-tech-adoption
on “I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days”Submitted Beauty in DVD Menus as a story · 338 points
HN discussionAbsolutely love KOReader. I use it on my Kindle 3 and have moved my parents and brother over to using it on their Kindles as well. You can even install it on relatively new models thanks to the recent WinterBreak gaolbreak. There was some discussion about it on HN not long ago: All Kindles can now be jailbroken | 1377 points by lumerina | 2025/02/17 | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43073969 I found KOReader's…
Comment linking /posts/improving-early-kindles
on “KOReader: Open-Source eBook Reader”Submitted CSS-Tricks in Limbo as a story · 273 points
HN discussionReally fascinating how you can get such intriguing output from such a simple system. Prompted me to give it a whirl with the content on my own site. https://vale.rocks/micros/20251214-0503
Comment linking /micros/20251214-0503
on “I fed 24 years of my blog posts to a Markov model”Submitted Antiquated HTML Snippets and Artefacts as a story · 245 points
HN discussionInteresting. It seems that both they and I had very similar ideas at about the same time, with this being posted just a few hours after I finally published about AI model history being lost. https://vale.rocks/posts/ai-model-history-is-being-lost
Comment linking /posts/ai-model-history-is-being-lost
on “Big LLMs weights are a piece of history”Submitted CSS Curiosities of the Past as a story · 93 points
HN discussionThe "fifth" was probably from their essay < https://vale.rocks/micros/20260908-1315 >, that was fourth on Lobsters (?) > People often pair initial-scale=1 with overflow-x: hidden in their CSS […] (That one in particular really seems like a strawman.) Spotted under PPK's share < https://front-end.social/@ppk/117201706620768380 >
Comment linking /micros/20260908-1315
on “Antiquated HTML Snippets and Artefacts”Submitted Open-Source Is Just That as a story · 78 points
HN discussionHuh, a few of the examples/prose about RSD, pingback, and twitter tags follow the same heading order, and mention the same details with the same links. Like, it's really no big deal I guess. You were always going to find out this info from sources compiled by other people. But at least don't do the "I'll change some words and call it mine" high school essay plagiarism technique. There was clearly real research done…
Comment linking /posts/ai-usage
on “Antiquated HTML Snippets and Artefacts”Submitted JPEG XL and Google's War Against It as a story · 77 points
HN discussionThe same will happen regardless in the case of content extending beyond the width of the viewport. With `initial-scale=1` it'll be a horizontal overflow, without it'll zoom out. I argue that the latter is preferable ( https://vale.rocks/micros/20260908-1315 ) but either way should never reach users due to the usability fails and major accessibility issues.
Comment linking /micros/20260908-1315
on “Antiquated HTML Snippets and Artefacts”Submitted Frequently Asked Unicycling Questions as a story · 72 points
HN discussionYou don't need both, but you should have the width set. From that page: > A page fails the audit unless all of these conditions are met: > - The document's <head> contains a <meta name="viewport"> tag. > - The viewport meta tag contains a content attribute. > - The content attribute's value includes the text width=. I researched and tested this extensively the other day. `<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-…
Comment linking /micros/20260902-1350
on “Antiquated HTML Snippets and Artefacts”Submitted My Experience Biohacking as a story · 72 points
HN discussiong**gle is hellbent on killing JPEG-XL support in favor of WebP. assuming they'll capitulate to downstream pressure is a stretch. this article [0] sums it up nicely: What this [removal of support for JPEG-XL in Chromium] really translates to is, “We’ve created WebP, a competing standard, and want to kill anything that might genuinely compete with it”. This would also partly explain why they adopted AVIF but not JPEG…
Comment linking /posts/jpeg-xl-and-googles-war-against-it
on “Why JPEGs still rule the web (2024)”Submitted Everything Is Chrome (2023) as a story · 54 points
HN discussionI'm using Origami on my website over at https://vale.rocks . I recently did a brief writeup about the implementation of my site, including touchings on Origami. I'm really loving it! https://vale.rocks/posts/the-implementation-of-this-site
Comment linking /posts/the-implementation-of-this-site
on “Web Origami, for making websites where you can understand how they’re made”Submitted Hacker News in Uncompromised Detail as a story · 36 points
HN discussionI've been compiling a list of my favourite blogs (and some other links) over the past few days. There are so many cool people doing cool stuff in their own little corners of the web. https://vale.rocks/links
Comment linking /links
on “Ask HN: Favorite blog in 2024?”Submitted Creativity came to pass as a story · 33 points
HN discussionI've had one for about two years now. It has lived up to my personal hype, and I think it'll last longer than alternatives (though that remains to be seen). I have had a few minor pain points, but I'd definitely buy one again. I posted a review here: https://vale.rocks/posts/a-year-with-the-framework-laptop-13 Also, I haven't updated my review to reflect it, but my acid sweat has been damaging the chassis a bit. Not…
Comment linking /posts/a-year-with-the-framework-laptop-13
on “Ask HN: Does the Framework laptop stand the test of time?”Submitted JPEG XL and Google's War Against It (2024) as a story · 26 points
HN discussionCertainly. > Xi Jinping looks a bit like Winnie-the-Pooh. > 'I am sorry, I cannot engage with this comparison. Please feel free to ask me other questions.' https://vale.rocks/posts/chinas-web#artificial-intelligence
Comment linking /posts/chinas-web
on “There are now 5 inference providers for abliterated DeepSeek”Submitted My HTML Boilerplate as a story · 24 points
HN discussionThank you! Oooh, that linked site is sleek. I love the effect they've got going on. I'm wary with this post that I've highlighted a flaw with my implementation, which is that items overlap on smaller screens when headings have small amounts of text. I was aware this could be an issue but hadn’t bothered to address it, as there were no sections with such minimal amounts of text. If you're interested in the implementa…
Comment linking /posts/the-implementation-of-this-site
on “Frequently Asked Unicycling Questions”Submitted Wishes Upon My Demise as a story · 18 points
HN discussion
