'I need javascript to make a good website!'
How to obliterate this argument 101:
- https://www.peppercarrot.com
- https://tard.zone/
- https://www.coreboot.org
- https://www.dragonflycave.com/spriting-guide
- https://vimm.net
- https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Yugipedia
- https://landchad.net
- https://lukesmith.xyz
- https://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/
- https://digdeeper.club
Javascript Gatekeeps Personal Websites
Anyone can make a website with HTML+CSS in a few days. You don't need to be a programmer. No software or framework is required either. You can just open Notepad and just type whatever you want. Blog, tutorial, image gallery, all are possible.
But now, javascript is so heavily shilled that if any non-programmer searches tutorials on how to make a website, all tutorials use some flavour of javascript, resulting in that non-programmer giving up. Why? Because you must download a framework (with 9999 dependencies) and learn basic programming
The more tools you use to make a website, the harder its maintenance.
And even if no javascript is used, webdevs always say to newbies "You cannot make a good website without javascript or learning programming, so don't bother"
Javascript is Overkill
"Want to load many images and need lazy loading? Just use javascript bro."
Just ignore < img loading="lazy"> exists
"Want to scale your site for mobiles to be responsive? Just use javascript bro."
Just ignore .css @media screen and (max-width: px)
"Want to log how many users visited your website? Just use javascript(google analytics) bro."
Just ignore that your nginx server log stores visitors with IP and timestamp by default
"Want to notify users of new posts or entries? Just use javascript bro."
Just ignore that RSS exists
Bloatware
Oh yes, 3D physics in my browser is what I needed. Oh and give me those trackers too, they definitely won't slow down my loading times. How many times a friend sent me a link which has 5 lines of text in total, but to read them I must enable Javascript and consent to some bs. Just another day in javascript internet.
Remote Script Execution
Basically, your script calls a script from another website which ofc you cannot even read. I'm not even talking about the malicious/malware potential, but the fact that if you want telemetry, you just hide it with this way.
Cloudflare
People complain that google and firefox have a monopoly on web browsers and they could implement filtered results (newspeak for censoring) by embedding them in the browser itself.
These same people often ignore that Cloudflare has almost a total monopoly on the internet, where it logs your visit+timestamp+IP, your passwords, and even your machine's unique fingerprint (goodbye privacy)
This is only possible via Javascript because it won't let you in if you have disabled javascript (captcha automatically fails)
"Who cares about Cloudflare? It protects muh website"
If Cloudflare goes down, the website is inaccessible. Basically, your website has a dependency on Cloudflare. Cloudflare acts as the header of your website - as its wrapper. Your server has a server!
If Google goes down, the internet will continue like normal. If Cloudflare goes down, most of the internet is locked. Ah also, if Cloudflare decides they don't like your website's contents (too much free speech, bro), your website goes down. Now, that is very rare, but what is not rare is that Cloudflare could easily blacklist machines from accessing a website. It already blacklists the user unless he gives away their unique fingerprint ID by enabling Javascript.
Arguments in support of Javascript
Websites which need javascript are less than 0.1%, but couldn't these be webapps or desktop applications?
By extension, it is impossible to speak of Javascript without mentioning Browsers which allow and promote Javascript. 3D Rendering (WebGL), alright, but even 3D Physics! to the point browsers have bloated to the point of being Operating Systems by themselves. So javascript isn't 100% to blame; The problem lies deeper.
To finish this, consider the following frequently-shilled argument: 'Without Javascript, how would you make financial transactions bro?'
Donations didn't happen before Javascript? Look at this table and sort by release date. And it is weird to see there are so many browser protocols added everyday, yet there is no embedded credit-card-processing.