Re: [Edbrowse-dev] javascript() in timer side effects

[Kevin Carhart <kevin@carhart.net>]

I know what you mean about this, except I'm
not sure about "just", as in, solely or exclusively that.
Isn't it, a lot of work in return for useless,
visuals-related objects and methods, but
aggregated together in a bundle
(you have to implement the entire library
or none,) with the
potential for pragmatic and new use cases
which may make the users happy?

I don't know though.  I take your point about
being concerned about where it's heading.

I think the discrete, teletype web is often just
better.  The chatty timers are new, and it's a
little disconcerting to press 'db4' in edbrowse
and realize that "oh, it's no longer entirely
turn based - edbrowse is doing a layer of
things without waiting for me to enable them."
And the more the big websites are working, the more
edbrowse is exposed to what you're talking about,
like advertising and tracking.

I remember reading the list thread earlier this
year that took the example of a stock ticker.
Weren't youall saying,
maybe implement the chatty web in order to
support more sites, but always have an interface
that keeps the user in control with a discrete
'rr' command?  We have 'rr' now- isn't this the
best of both worlds sort of?

> or covertly gather information on our net surfing habits,

Well, one remark on doing things covertly - edbrowse
is very demystifying and a tool for demystification,
I think.
I would say it makes the covert overt.
I think anyone trying to fight tracking has greater power over
internet intrusions to the extent that they flow in in the
form of a discrete CLI or a transactional, matter-of-fact
timestamped log, and the further you get away from the quicksand of
visually oriented design tricks which goes mercilessly
right for your reptilian brain.
For instance, there's the clickbait.
Web advertising uses finely honed images designed
to be as compelling as possible to a viewer's baser
impulses, probably focus-grouped, so that you will
click through.  It works
almost tautologically and is very manipulative.
Then there's the streaming video advertising bloat,
that you are obliged to download and that defaults to "play",
like in the middle of a news story.  I associate this
trick with The Guardian but I'm sure it is a lot of other
places too.  Let's say the Huffington Post, they're
notorious.
Edbrowse is way less covert than this.  I could be
overdramatizing, but I think if
clickbait is a little like "bread and circuses," or the
Roman coliseum, edbrowse restores some
sanity to digitally-mediated environments.

Kevin