> I could be mistake but isn’t a site like Pinboard largely static.

Not if you want to make AND operations with tags (which is crucial functionality for bookmarking).

Playing devils advocate, but couldn't you do that with client side JS calling a Redis cache?

If viewing a list of basic links requires client-side JS you're doing it wrong.

It's not about viewing a list of basic links. It's to address the comment about performing AND operations to see only links that match multiple Tags.

Ok, I'll amend my statement to read: "if viewing a list of basic links that match a few basic filters requires client-side JS you're doing it wrong" and I stand by it.

If you'd like to employ JS to progressively-enhance your user experience, great. If you are architecturally requiring JS for basic functionality? stop.

If you were to have a static site (note: that was the original question), and want to perform a dynamic tasks (like filtering) - how else would you do you besides JS?

The same way we did in 1995?

What was made? I wasn't even born in 95 and am deeply curious to know.