I don't want to stand in the way of a good rant, but if you have to hold down on the plus key for on every site, perhaps you should increase your default font size? Or perhaps something is wrong with your DPI settings? Or perhaps a larger monitor? With the Linux and OSX setups I use, I have no trouble reading this particular site, and rarely find that I have to increase font sizes.
(Excuse my ranting, could just be crankiness due to a lack of sleep caused by a 7am flight)
My default font size is 16pt and that should be enough imo, but x-small applied to 16pt is still small. My display does have a relatively high DPI at ~130, but that's why I bump up my default font size. :/ I just bumped it to 18pt for good measure.
Despite the joke about feeling old I'm only 28 and have good enough vision w/ my contacts in.
Regardless of my DPI and/or default font size, there is absolutely no good reason to use x-small on a site whose sole purpose is to display articles for people to read. That is pure lunacy if you ask me.
