this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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JavaScript
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Even "web apps" don't necessarily need javascript. Is a forum a web app? It has plenty of user interaction and forums without javascript have existed since before HTML. Even stuff like Mastodon doesn't necessarily need javascript, it can work as static pages.
I agree that these are more of a continuum than a binary.
Nah, it's more because they want everything in the same place. Reddit and Discord became the "internet forum" - 1 account, 1 site/app, every community and discussion you need. Same for Roblox
The other reason is the dopamine hit of endless doomscrolling. If you think about it, most online interaction is: upvoting/liking, commenting, sharing; which I would argue is just a bare minimum of interactivity.
Of the two, only discord actually really needs javascript to work as intended on a browser. Reddit, though? It's still a static web forum, you don't lose much browsing old.reddit instead of www.reddit.
Besides, I never argued those two are not "rich web applications", my point was that "static web content looks dated" wasn't the main driver for people to move into centralized platforms.