First of all, the author has an incorrect interpretation of the guidelines. It's not 'Never, ever, ever use tables', it's 'Never use tables for layout'. And it's not stick ZOMG-EVERYTHING above the fold, it's make sure your most important stuff is above fold.
The main piece of "evidence", the 37-signals site, is bunk. Their site doesn't "give the fold the finger". I embraces it. What does 37-signals sell? They sell their SaaS products. When you visit their site, what do you see above the fold? Their major Saas products. Oh, you can click on them and get more information. This is precisely following the above-the-fold guideline.
The other piece of "evidence" the author submits - that "even if it goes even further down the page, way below the fold. You're still reading." is also bunk. I read the article because I clicked through from HN. I was already invested in reading the article. People that intend to read your content WILL read your content.
You can put content anywhere, and your mother will read it. But that's because she's your mother. You don't design a site for your mother, you design your site for potential customers/consumers. The above-the-fold guideline is to make a design appropriate for people unfamiliar with what's to come, to give them direction.
Yeah you make some excellent points but I'd say forget that for a moment and think of the countless books and articles and blog posts out there that are spewing the same information over and over. I see a ton of professional, established web design firms still designing sites like its 1997.
My takeaway from this was to really just remember that the rules have their place but it's a mistake to follow them just because they've become accepted. The web has changed so much in the past 3 years alone that we need to reevaluate the rules and each time we design a site ask ourselves if we're doing this because it's the rule or because it makes sense in terms of design and usability.
I'm still seeing a ton of people preach about using the keyword meta tag and preaching about divitis and semantic markup. Those ideas are all well and good but things are different now. I know those aren't exactly design related issues but the point is that some people are being fed outdated info.
There are a lot more opportunities to break the rules And actually be rewarded these days. So you're content is more like a section than an article. Okay, well that's debatable. Too many divs? Well it could be or maybe there's no other way and it's not hurting future modifications or rendering or load times. So be it.
The point is that we can't be blindly following these rules. Obviously we really need to know and understand the rules first. But once you know the rules you can then break them when it makes sense. I read the post such that the author was basically saying "think about if the rule you're about to implement makes sense. If you found another way that works do it. We're all pros and we can handle it". Amateurs should stick to the rules until they get their bearings but the rest of us should remember that it's not 1997 anymore and sometimes those rules don't apply to the situation.
I'm not disagreeing with you, just had a different take on the message in the post.
First of all, the author has an incorrect interpretation of the guidelines. It's not 'Never, ever, ever use tables', it's 'Never use tables for layout'. And it's not stick ZOMG-EVERYTHING above the fold, it's make sure your most important stuff is above fold.
The main piece of "evidence", the 37-signals site, is bunk. Their site doesn't "give the fold the finger". I embraces it. What does 37-signals sell? They sell their SaaS products. When you visit their site, what do you see above the fold? Their major Saas products. Oh, you can click on them and get more information. This is precisely following the above-the-fold guideline.
The other piece of "evidence" the author submits - that "even if it goes even further down the page, way below the fold. You're still reading." is also bunk. I read the article because I clicked through from HN. I was already invested in reading the article. People that intend to read your content WILL read your content.
You can put content anywhere, and your mother will read it. But that's because she's your mother. You don't design a site for your mother, you design your site for potential customers/consumers. The above-the-fold guideline is to make a design appropriate for people unfamiliar with what's to come, to give them direction.