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+title: Small Big Sites
+date: December 29, 2019 10:32
+---
+<p>
+NPR.org pleasantly surprised me when I randomly entered their site to read an
+article recommended to me.  Upon clicking the link, a full-page privacy advisory
+greeted me. "We use cookies to personalize your content bla bla bla". Two large
+buttons awaited below the wall of text, waiting on a choice from me, the user.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What surprised me was the choice I was offered. Normally, it's either accept all
+cookies vs. leave the site, or the ability to turn off some unnecessary tracking
+cookies. In this case, one option was the classic "Agree and Continue", but the
+second was "Decline and visit plain text site".
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not "Decline and go away". Not "Decline and never speak to us ever again". But
+"Decline and visit plain text site".
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wait, so I can use a streamlined, easy to read, nondistracting version of your
+website <em>and</em> not be tracked by multinational advertising megacorps?
+<a href="https://text.npr.org/">Nice</a>.
+</p>
+
+<h3>Other small big sites</h3>
+<p>
+Turns out this text-only version has been around since 2005.  CNN also has a
+<a href="https://lite.cnn.io">text-only version</a>, though it's not as easy to
+find. It also includes analytics javascript which is not as cool as NPR's pure
+HTML. In both cases, these light versions were created to make news accessible
+in locations or times with low connectivity &mdash; for example during natural
+disasters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As much as I'm not a fan of Facebook, I'm very impressed with
+<a href="https://mbasic.facebook.com/">mbasic.facebook.com</a>. This is a
+minimal, no-ads, no-javascript version of the service, that offers most of the
+functionality of the full website or app. It was created with emerging markets
+in mind, but I find it to be a good daily driver that doesn't distract and suck
+away attention as much as Facebook's products normally are supposed to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To mention a few other big sites with very minimalist design,
+<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/">Hacker News</a> is a news aggregator
+known by all in the tech community that relies on minimal javascript and is
+mostly text-based. Warren Buffett didn't shell out much on the design for
+Berkshire Hathaway's <a href="https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/">corporate
+website</a>.
+</p>