IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

A website to destroy all websites

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Design and Readability Complaints

Many criticized small fonts, text overlaps, and poor desktop rendering. "the font is too small to skim through it" (sandeepkd); "There are even images literally blocking off whole portions of certain paragraphs" (MattRix); "I really, really... hate the design trend of confining tiny text into a tiny narrow column" (ryandrake).

2. Nostalgia for the Old Web

Users lamented the loss of personal sites, forums, and quirky designs, blaming social media and corporations. "I miss forums, I miss the small webmaster, I miss making fun, small websites to share with friends" (dinobones); "it wasn’t always like this. I remember when you could read pages without requiring JavaScript" (GaryBluto).

3. Friction in Creating Personal Websites

Barriers like hosting, domains, discoverability, and audience were highlighted. "Yet no mention of the real friction: buying a domain and getting hosting set up" (strokirk); "The weakest part is the last one... To be part of the conversation, you'd list there and hope someone comes along" (jrecyclebin).

4. Praise for Artistic Design and Inspiration

Some lauded the unique, museum-like aesthetics and motivational message. "A joy to read and loved the artwork on mobile" (ggillas); "it looked and felt just like a museum or art exhibit" (pavlus); "The design of the site also nicely fits the argument" (baubino).

5. JavaScript Dependency Debate

Divided opinions on JS necessity vs. graceful degradation. "And it fails to render anything with Javascript disabled" (pwg); "I disagree with a notion that a page needs to work without javascript" (renegat0x0); "if a site that's primarily text doesn't work without Javascript then that's a design failure" (basscomm).

🚀 Project Ideas

LocalGhost Verified

Summary

  • A "Proof of Authenticity" pledge system for independent websites to combat AI-generated SEO slop.
  • Sites host a /.well-known/freehold.json file pledging to specific human-centric standards (no AI content, no ads, local-first data).
  • Provides a centralized "Human-Only" directory and API for search engines (like Kagi) to filter for high-quality, authentic indie content.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Indie bloggers, small webmasters, and niche search engines.
Core Feature Verifiable manifest file and a public "honesty" leaderboard/directory.
Tech Stack JSON, Digital Signatures (Ed25519), Go/Node for the crawler.
Difficulty Low
Monetization Hobby OR Revenue-ready: Paid verification badge/API access for crawlers.

Notes

  • Addresses the "discoverability" problem mentioned by nine_k and iamwil.
  • Specifically solves the "content marketing SEO slop" frustration expressed by subdavis when auditing current small-web indices.

FeedLens: High-Context RSS

Summary

  • A modern RSS reader that prioritizes "Unregretted User Minutes" by eliminating the "Firehose" problem.
  • Automatically clusters related updates (e.g., prevents 20 headlines about "David Bowie death" as mentioned in the thread).
  • Highlights "Proof of Work" content—posts where authors invested significant effort—versus low-effort social cross-posts.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Information workers and "Old Web" enthusiasts escaping algorithmic feeds.
Core Feature Semantic deduping and "Regret-free" UI that promotes serendipity over volume.
Tech Stack Python (NLP/LLM for deduping), React/Next.js, SQLite.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: SaaS subscription model.

Notes

  • HN users like econ specifically complained about the "echo chamber effect" in RSS where one event drowns out all other interesting niche news.
  • Responds to arjie's point about maximizing "value minus regret."

Netscape 2026: The "WYSIWYG" to HTML Bridge

Summary

  • A modern, local-first HTML/CSS editor that functions like the classic FrontPage or Netscape Composer.
  • Focuses on "No-JS" and "System Font" design defaults, automatically handling modern requirements like responsive meta tags and sitemaps.
  • One-click deployment to decentralized or static hosts (Neocities, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare).

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Creative "normies" who find manual coding a barrier to entry.
Core Feature Visual drag-and-drop that exports clean, semantic, static HTML.
Tech Stack Electron/Tauri, Rust/TypeScript, Vite.
Difficulty High
Monetization Hobby (Open Source) or Revenue-ready: Paid templates/Asset library.

Notes

  • Solves the friction highlighted by trinix912 and cadamsdotcom regarding manually writing HTML being a barrier compared to the abundance of editors in the "Old Web."
  • Caters to the desire for "unique but simple" design expressed by baubino.

The "Overlay" Network Filter

Summary

  • A cross-platform browser extension/proxy that applies a "read-side filtering" layer to the modern web.
  • Allows users to share and subscribe to "Killfiles" (user-managed blocklists) and "Highlight lists" of trusted humans.
  • Can collapse comments based on specific heuristics (all-caps, low character count, or specific political "slop" patterns).

Details

Key Value
Target Audience HN and Reddit power users who want to control their consumption environment.
Core Feature Content-independent filtering via user-ID or pattern-based heuristics.
Tech Stack Browser Extension API, WASM (for fast local regex/filtering).
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Directly inspired by arjie and GaryBluto who described building their own versions of this to manage "outrage bait" and "low-information" users.
  • Addresses willtemperley's request for an "overlay network" to drown out propaganda machines.

Digital Custodian Service

Summary

  • A boutique hosting and "Dead Man's Switch" service for personal websites.
  • Guarantees the persistence of a personal site for 25+ years after the creator’s death, acting as a digital archive/museum.
  • Handles automated maintenance (HTTPS renewals, minor dependency patches) for static content to prevent "Digital Rot."

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Serious writers, academics, and digital artists concerned about longevity.
Core Feature Pre-paid 50-year hosting trust and archival automation.
Tech Stack IPFS/Arweave for storage, Stripe for trust-funding, Static Site Generators.
Difficulty Medium (Legal/Trust complexity is the main hurdle).
Monetization Revenue-ready: Large upfront endowment fee.

Notes

  • Directly answers mathewar's question: "What happens when you die? Your personal websites disappear?"
  • Responds to the "museum/art exhibit" feeling many users (like pavlus) had about the original article's high-effort design.

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