On 08/11/2025 20:14, Ihor Radchenko wrote:
I think we can remove most offenders fairly easily by replacing links to youtube, github, and reddit with invidious, gothub, and redlib: - https://invidious.io/ - https://codeberg.org/gothub/gothub - https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib
I do not think it is a good idea to use alternative front-ends as href attribute in HTML as it is fetched from web server. E.g. <https://github.com/alphapapa/org-ql> identify specific resource. It is up to users to install a browser extension that redirects some requests to alternative sites they prefer and they trust. Alternative instances are transient, used as bookmarks they may become invalid. Unknown domain may confuse users. Rewriting address from one alternative front-end to another instance is more difficult than redirecting from canonical address since all alternatives must be known in the former case. Transforming link at the moment, when it is accessed, should be more reliable from my point of view.
Side note: I have not tried if in the case of redirection browsers renders original link as visited, so users may see that it is not a new page for them.
FSF may try to develop a JS library that informs users and perhaps even redirects to an alternative front-end (as opt-in) when users click on links. It may be a challenge to implement this reliably and in a way not disturbing users too much, to avoid complications with regulations like GDPR.
I would consider moving Worg to another domain to have relaxed policy in respect to links.
P.S. I believe that sites like GitHub and Reddit should serve pages in a way that ensures graceful degradation for those who have JavaScript disabled. My opinion that participation in discussion or syntax highlighting of code snippets may require JavaScript, but text should be readable when JS is disabled. YouTube is a more complicated case.
