Are websites more unreliable/buggy nowadays than in the past?

[foofoo4u]

I have noticed that most websites nowadays are built as SPAs (single page applications), whether they be my local utility company, auto insurance, university, apartment's web portal, hospital, etc. Unfortunately I find all to be a degraded experience. They are slow to load content. Content often fails to dynamically load, forcing a full refresh. The back button frequently fails to give me the behavior I expect. Forms often crash. It seems simple mundane operations of clicking and typing frequently fail.

I don't remember the web being this way. It seems the web was much more stable back when most websites were built as MPAs (multiple page applications).

I am curious to know if others have the same observations. If so, I have my suspicions as to why. I suspect the innate complexity of SPAs are overwhelming the technical staff that run these non-technology companies. For example, do you really think the local county utility agency has the right staff to properly build and maintain an SPA site?

[byoung2]

I think you are forgetting the terrible experience of ActiveX errors, Java errors, Javascript alert boxes, broken image tags, and broken layouts that were all common in the past.

[foofoo4u → byoung2]

That's true. Also, now that you remind me, I remember all the Adobe Flash compatibility issues of the time. I always needed to update Flash to get things working at all. And Flash sites often had scaling issues and terrible performance on Mac OS X for some reason.

[seumars → byoung2]

I can still hear the pop-up sound of ActiveX warnings in my head.

[marto1]

Are you serious with that ?

Slower ? Maybe. But definitely more reliable. I definitely won't miss flash ads, Silverlight shenanigans, the latest Java security hole and browsers filled with memory leaks. Not to mention stuff like jpeg-ed text to make it "safe" from encoding errors.

[coldtea → marto1]

None of the above you don't miss are about SPAs vs MPAs...

[LarryMade2]

Yeah I agree, many of those are using some generic CMS like WordPress and not really knowing how to fully configure it or it is not maintained.

I am in a technical position in a community service agency, which is kinda a rare thing. Most rely on consultants to set up sites and when they are done the admin staff keep the pages up to date. Usually in those instances they rebuild the site every few years when it becomes unbearable.