I’m pondering on this functionality for static site builders that already say have some sort of Markdown to HTML Page pipeline.
For most SSG (Static site generators) I’ve seen that take a plain text to html conversion, they usually only serve up .html
Wondering out loud if this would be a useful and desirable addition for SSG tools to have the option to serve up say .html and a .md (or .txt or whatever).
Am I missing something? Be a good idea/feature yeah?
Offering a plain text version of your website may seem like a novel idea nowadays but I remember a time when pretty much every web page had a printer-friendly version with little to no formatting. I suppose printing web pages has become passé, that is unless you're printing a food recipe.
Thanks for putting together this list, it would be nice to add a short summary next to each link.
I recall on the morning of September 11, 2001, CNN had to completely redesign their site into a text-only version (no images or videos) just to keep up with the strain. Slashdot.org was the only site I went to that was able to keep functioning as-is.
In some web apps I code, I just serialize the view-model when the page is called with a ".json" or ".yaml" at the end. It forces you to be strict about not leaking private/complex data into the views and makes power-users' life much easier.
".txt" is also a good idea for content-heavy pages. Maybe ".md" too? I may try.
What column width - don't tell me these plain text gurus use one long line per paragraph? Are Unicode emojis valid? What about a TUI using Unicode box drawing? Or ASCII characters? 7-bit ASCII only for the entire blog? Is there a way to handle input (a telnet connection?)?
Several years ago, I transitioned my Wordpress website to a static CSS/HTML only site, editing/updating it with vim and sftp https://chuck.is. Overall, it's been a fantastic learning experience doing everything manually (though I plan to automate more soon). I was inspired by http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/
berkshirehathaway.com is a great text-only site, containing troves of buffett's letters with much wisdom. though the actual text mostly end up in pdf formats.
Honorable mention: https://text.npr.org/
Not technically plaintext (in the MIME type sense), but still very lightweight, especially when compared to other news sites.
Also:
https://lite.cnn.com/
I read these two all the time. I wish nytimes.com came in a text version, I hate the move to video. I was raised on newspapers not mtv...
I’m pondering on this functionality for static site builders that already say have some sort of Markdown to HTML Page pipeline.
For most SSG (Static site generators) I’ve seen that take a plain text to html conversion, they usually only serve up .html
Wondering out loud if this would be a useful and desirable addition for SSG tools to have the option to serve up say .html and a .md (or .txt or whatever).
Am I missing something? Be a good idea/feature yeah?
I didn't know about the .text extension for Daring Fireball: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/31/photoshop-1-and...
Interesting to see how the original creator of Markdown uses it.
I'm presuming that's the version he edits and not output automatically converted from an intermediary representation.
Offering a plain text version of your website may seem like a novel idea nowadays but I remember a time when pretty much every web page had a printer-friendly version with little to no formatting. I suppose printing web pages has become passé, that is unless you're printing a food recipe.
Thanks for putting together this list, it would be nice to add a short summary next to each link.
I recall on the morning of September 11, 2001, CNN had to completely redesign their site into a text-only version (no images or videos) just to keep up with the strain. Slashdot.org was the only site I went to that was able to keep functioning as-is.
https://lite.cnn.com/
I use this all the time. I wish every media outlet had the same.
In some web apps I code, I just serialize the view-model when the page is called with a ".json" or ".yaml" at the end. It forces you to be strict about not leaking private/complex data into the views and makes power-users' life much easier.
".txt" is also a good idea for content-heavy pages. Maybe ".md" too? I may try.
I think this site/list is more fitting: https://textonly.website/
Almost none of the sites in that list are actually text. They’re just minimally styled html/css.
What column width - don't tell me these plain text gurus use one long line per paragraph? Are Unicode emojis valid? What about a TUI using Unicode box drawing? Or ASCII characters? 7-bit ASCII only for the entire blog? Is there a way to handle input (a telnet connection?)?
We've hardly scratched the surface here.
(Now I want to make a TUI site.)
Several years ago, I transitioned my Wordpress website to a static CSS/HTML only site, editing/updating it with vim and sftp https://chuck.is. Overall, it's been a fantastic learning experience doing everything manually (though I plan to automate more soon). I was inspired by http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/
berkshirehathaway.com is a great text-only site, containing troves of buffett's letters with much wisdom. though the actual text mostly end up in pdf formats.
Interesting. I've implemented naked CSS on my blog, which isn't quite the same:
https://theandrewbailey.com/x-naked
Also there is gemini (real, not google's stolen name thing) and gopher. Gemini renders great on Cell Phones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol)
> real, not google's stolen name thing
I never knew Google invented the Zodiac.
Very interesting