A pedantic note that follows from this particular thread: HackerNews’s search capabilities are powered by Algolia and require JavaScript to work (turn off all JS and the HN branded Algolia page will not load). The reason I bring this up is that even good websites sometimes lean on free or free-ish services to provide extra functionality (such as calendars, discussion boards, issue tracking, or search) without realizing that such functionality may be a back door to letting JS in and any tracking/privacy-erosion that could follow from it.
Right, HN does use JavaScript for certain functions, search etc. Now, if you read the second paragraph of my first post I've got such cases covered.
OK, here's the scenario: I log on to HN with JavaScript disabled, do all the things I do, read articles, submit posts all without JS. At some point I want to search HN so I hit the 'toggle JS' button on my browser, it then goes from red to green to tell me JS is now active. I then refresh the page and start searching HN. When I've finished I hit the JS toggle and the button goes back to red - JS is now kaput.
I really can't think of anything simpler - JS is off until I really need it and when I do it's immediately available without digging deep down into menus etc.
I'd add HN uses JS as it was originally intended and does so responsibly. I have nothing against JS per se, the problem comes from websites that abuse webpages and thus the user by sending megabytes of JS gumph and so on.
Running without JS and only turning it on when really necessary I reckon is a reasonable compromise.
It's true, there are some decent sites out there which use JS legitimately to add features. And there are some sites which require JS without really needing to, but still have good content and do not have unnecessary annoyances and performance problems.
Lucky for me, I can toggle on JavaScript for them individually and continue with my general policy.
