Top all-time · #5502
Parimal Satyal
Personal blog · neustadt.fr/essays · on HN as livatlantiswritingculture
Parimal Satyal writes Neustadt.fr, a personal blog at neustadt.fr about writing and culture. Since 2015, 14 different Hacker News readers have linked it 20 times, most often “Rediscovering the Small Web”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-12-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Parimal Satyal's essays on the small web and a user-hostile web, cited as background reading on independent websites and web design.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Parimal Satyal is a designer and occasional writer interested in aviation, cultural exchange, languages, science, computers, the open web and the European Union. Neustadt.fr is his personal website with his writing, music and links.
Most-linked posts?
- Rediscovering the Small Web9 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2020-05-25
- Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web (2017)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-05-28
- Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-11-02
What Hacker News says?
Related reading: Against an increasingly user-hostile Web , https://www.neustadt.fr/essays/against-a-user-hostile-web/ >It all comes down a simple but very dangerous shift: the major websites of today's web are not built for the visitor, but as means of using her. Our visitor has become a data point, a customer profile, a potential lead -- a proverbial fly in the spider's web. In the guise of user-centered design, w…
Comment linking /essays/against-a-user-hostile-web/
on “AMP for email is a terrible idea”Submitted Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web as a story · 1307 points
HN discussionI'll add some more "small web" links, for those interested. Thanks for yours! * https://search.marginalia.nu/ * https://wiby.me/surprise/ * https://neustadt.fr/essays/the-small-web/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3hn0a7/what_smal... EDIT: and because this one just brings me joy, that it exists, with such excruciating detail (: * https://www.trilobites.info/
Comment linking /essays/the-small-web/
on “The internet is already over (2022)”Submitted Rediscovering the Small Web as a story · 472 points
HN discussionAs a cyclist in Paris, yes, I'd say the presence (and domination) of cars is a BIG reason I feel less safe. I have friends from other cities who grew up biking but who don't dare get on one the excellent bikeshare Vélib bikes to get around because they're afraid of being hit. But cars are just one piece in the puzzle; I think what's worse is the psychological atmosphere: the stress, the having to always be on the lo…
Comment linking /reviews/testing-hovding-invisible-helmet/
on “Paris city centre goes car-free for a day”Submitted Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web (2017) as a story · 353 points
HN discussionThere's a decent amount of people still keeping the fire burning for the "old web." It takes a little digging, but it's out there. Some links for you: * https://wiby.me/ — search engine that emphasizes simple/plain/hobbyist pages. Try the "surprise me" link a few times. * https://neustadt.fr/essays/the-small-web/ — article, "Rediscovering the Small Web" * https://search.marginalia.nu/ — author hangs out on HN someti…
Comment linking /essays/the-small-web/
on “The Web Is Fantastic”Submitted Rediscovering the Small Web (2020) as a story · 256 points
HN discussionI'm a big advocate of The Small Web [0], and care deeply about the internet being a creative space. Something to keep in mind is that the way people use the internet has changed completely since the days that small, independent websites were the norm. When I first started using the internet in the late-90s, if you wanted to find information you would probably end up reading a page curated by a single person, devoted…
Comment linking /essays/the-small-web/
on “The Small Website Discoverability Crisis”Submitted Against an increasingly user-hostile web (2017) as a story · 109 points
HN discussionAral: you go rounds and rounds to reinvent ideas that are solved, and it's been like this for years. You could join any ActivityPub based project; even start one; build a Matrix client with a web frontent; dig into Scuttlebutt; start working with Beaker on dat://. Any of these choices are better, than starting yet another approach from scratch and wasting a lot of time and effort on it. Now, for the other issue: ple…
Comment linking /essays/the-small-web/
on “What Is the Small Web?”Submitted Physics in Metal Music as a story · 100 points
HN discussion(OP) To contribute some of my own findings: Some high level infos or ideas on the "small web" or "web 0" can be found on: – https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/ – https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/home-cooked-app/ - https://neustadt.fr/essays/the-small-web/ Books I found helpful: - Ship it (Richardson, Gwaltney) - Clean Code (Martin) Aside of that: - I experimented a bit with DDD, but that feels massively…
Comment linking /essays/the-small-web/
on “Ask HN: Learning to build small, maintainable web apps”Submitted Rediscovering the Small Web as a story · 34 points
HN discussionSubmitted Rediscovering the Small Web as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted Rediscovering the Small Web (2020) as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web (2017) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Teaching Myself German as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Rediscovering the Small Web as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
