Submitted via IRC for Bytram
A few days before Hurricane Irma hit South Florida, I received a query on Twitter from a graphic designer named Eric Bailey.
"Has anyone researched news sites capability to provide low-bandwidth communication of critical info during crisis situations?" he asked.
The question was timely — two days later, CNN announced that they created a text-only version of their site with no ads or videos.
The same week, NPR began promoting its text-only site, text.npr.org on social media as a way for people with limited Internet connectivity during Hurricane Irma to receive updated information.
These text-only sites — which used to be more popular in the early days of the Internet, when networks were slower and bandwidth was at a premium – are incredibly useful, and not just during natural disasters. They load much faster, don't contain any pop-ups or ads or autoplay videos, and help people with low bandwidth or limited Internet access. They're also beneficial for people with visual impairments who use screen readers to navigate the Internet. (Related: Designing Journalism Products for Accessibility.)
Source: https://www.poynter.org/news/text-only-news-sites-are-slowly-making-comeback-heres-why
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday December 26 2017, @06:38PM
I remember in 1996, on CompuServe, I bought a program that would dial in at 4AM (non-peak hours,) auto crawl the top US, State, Local stories, sports, weather and weather map, and reformat it all offline into a framework resembling a standard newspaper, then you clicked on headlines or zoomed in/out. I forget what the program was called.
I actually still miss it, and also miss the clean text window interface of CS. And I'll make personal use of those CNN and NPR sites, as I already refuse to use the graphics-laden sites.
Thanks Soylent!
This sig for rent.