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posted by janrinok on Monday January 23 2023, @10:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-need-more-whitespace dept.

Wikipedia has released their new layout, which unsurprisingly includes whitespace bars on either side, justified by the claim "most people prefer a column 60-80 characters wide" (although it's not that extreme).

The changes being introduced are not very dramatic — in fact, they may not even be immediately noticed by some users. The organization, however, says the update was necessary in order to meet the needs of the next generation of internet users, including those who are more newly coming online and may have less familiarity with the internet.

To develop the new interface, the foundation engaged with more than 30 different volunteer groups from around the world, with users in places like India, Indonesia, Ghana and Argentina, among others, all helping to test the update and provide insights into the product development. The goal for the update was to make Wikipedia more of a modern web platform, it said, and to remove clutter, while also making it easier for users to contribute. It additionally aimed to make the desktop web version more consistent with Wikipedia's mobile counterpart.

It is possible to go back to the old layout, if you log in to the site and set it in your preferences.


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by cykros on Monday January 23 2023, @11:45AM (11 children)

    by cykros (989) on Monday January 23 2023, @11:45AM (#1288158)

    To quote Green Day, wake me up when September ends.

    Not being able to read text isn't a technical issue, and has nothing to do with being unfamiliar with the Internet. It's a reading issue -- if anything brought on by folks being too familiar with "the Internet" as they access everything through Youtube and Tiktok, where they can be unmolested by text getting in the way of their "information." Guess it's time I finally register for the site so as to use an efficient layout...

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aafcac on Monday January 23 2023, @12:59PM (3 children)

      by aafcac (17646) on Monday January 23 2023, @12:59PM (#1288161)

      Having a super wide layout is a readability issue, but it's kind of racist too imply that it's the new users coming in from the developing world when people on general have an easier time keeping track of the line they're on when the content using super wide. This is one of the issues that has come as a result of monitors becoming do wide as you don't need the width for some tasks, the vertical orientation that Xerox used is better for s lot of reading tasks

      • (Score: 3, Troll) by crafoo on Monday January 23 2023, @01:06PM

        by crafoo (6639) on Monday January 23 2023, @01:06PM (#1288168)

        They're reporting results. If you find those results racist the problem is with you, not reality.

        Maybe you're suggesting the newcomers aren't familiar with how to resize a window using a GUI operating system.

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by Mykl on Monday January 23 2023, @09:48PM (1 child)

        by Mykl (1112) on Monday January 23 2023, @09:48PM (#1288245)

        Who said anything about new users coming in from the developing world? Whitespace is mostly about fitting in with the current look of many websites, not about making things more readable for non-Western people.

        • (Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday January 26 2023, @12:46AM

          by aafcac (17646) on Thursday January 26 2023, @12:46AM (#1288621)

          Why would you need an international group to figure out that relatively narrow columns are better?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @02:21PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @02:21PM (#1288175)

      Some of the Nu Wikipedia pages only load in the majority of body text after a delay on my system. It could be a technical issue, JavaScript the likely culprit.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:06AM (5 children)

        by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:06AM (#1288287) Homepage

        I have JS turned off there, and doesn't make any difference -- still sometimes get a long lag before full load. It's just a shit layout. The jump index has vanished entirely and the page is excessively wide, and looks, as someone above implied, designed for people new to this reading thing.

        --
        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
        • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 24 2023, @03:14AM (4 children)

          by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @03:14AM (#1288299)

          Some saying that includes the phrase "idle hands" comes to mind...

          • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday January 24 2023, @04:59AM (3 children)

            by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @04:59AM (#1288310) Homepage

            Gee, I wonder why that could be... myself, I'm reminded of the phrase, "justify their paycheck".

            --
            And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
            • (Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Tuesday January 24 2023, @05:13AM (2 children)

              by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @05:13AM (#1288313)

              My dad used to call it "make work".

              I'd agree with him, and add "pad resume with kewl stuff".

              • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:21PM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:21PM (#1288357)

                Not just the font or whatever, but somebody has been systematically going through all the math articles for years and years destroying the readability. It's like a student with a purity boner decided we all need to learn in the most abstract possible way - but half way through lost interest (or failed their exams), leaving a mush of confusing notation and poorly explained concepts.

                I remember when it was all green fields.... OFFFFF THE LAWN KIDS.

                • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday January 28 2023, @01:09AM

                  by RS3 (6367) on Saturday January 28 2023, @01:09AM (#1289018)

                  I'm okay with math when applied to real-world stuff. I do have a BSEE, and aced some MS courses in signal processing, but always struggled with math when it's just for math's sake. If that makes any sense... Don't misunderstand, some of the greatest scientists were mathematicians, from Newton, to Einstein, to, Euler, to Fibonacci, to (especially!) Maxwell, to, well, you know the list. I have to see, or at least be able to more clearly envision whatever the situation is for the math to click for me.

                  I remember when we first learned integrals (which scared the crap out of me), people kept trying to encourage me by explaining "the area under a curve", and I was like "so what? Who cares? When and why would I ever care?" If I was teaching it, I think I could have explained it in a very useful and tangible way. Of course I did finally understand it. It really made sense when we derived RMS (not Richard Stallman!) values.

                  Anyway, as such, I understand didactic-types trying to reach students. Like pretty much everything in life, no one size fits all. I'm saddened to hear it's only getting worse and worse! But I won't let myself get on my long-winded soapbox about "education" and the systems in place. Ugh. Grrr.

                  In uni we had to do all kinds of calculating, deriving, equations, systematic solving, etc. I kind of miss all that. I always did very well on final exams, and always assumed and hoped I'd be doing much of that in the "real world". Sadly I've never used it much, but like they told us, it gave me a very solid understanding of logical methodical thinking and deriving hopefully useful stuff.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @12:11PM (15 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @12:11PM (#1288159)

    justified by the claim "most people prefer a column 60-80 characters wide" (although it's not that extreme)

    It’s also been like this in LaTeX for as long as I can remember. It’s not a fad, but true that the wider, the more difficult it gets to continue reading from one line to the next.

    I’m more concerned about the apparent disappearance of the capability to switch languages in one non-javascript click in the sidebar. Wikipedia has been my choice translation tool for some specific cases (e.g. fauna, flora, cooking ingredients...) and having to enable javascript with all the pop-ups jumping at my face whenever my mouse pointer dares hover over a link is really diminishing my browsing experience. If anyone has a css trick or something to force the display of the language version drop-down menu, I’d be immensely grateful!

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @12:13PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @12:13PM (#1288160)

      Well, replying to my own rant... apparently something has changed since I initially checked this new version. It seems I can now open that drop-down menu without javascript.

      • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by RS3 on Monday January 23 2023, @07:03PM (1 child)

        by RS3 (6367) on Monday January 23 2023, @07:03PM (#1288233)

        Maybe a CSS issue?

        Or maybe your browser had to download and install a new font or character set?

        I don't mean to be a shill for Vivaldi, but I recently discovered a tiny icon at the right-hand side of the URL slot: it toggles between normal and "reader" mode. It's pretty cool. Not sure if other browsers have that, but they should promote that feature more. It cleans up everything, enlarges the font, does what it advertises.

        <ctrl> - scroll wheel zooms in and out on most browsers.

        Also there's usually a "fit to width" function somewhere, but sometimes CSS will override that.

        My sort of main browser, "Old Opera" (12.18 Presto, not chrome-based), allows me to disable CSS on a page by choosing "View -> Style -> User Mode". It can be configured globally off too.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:25PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:25PM (#1288358)

          Fortunately Firefox has pocket built-in and enabled by default... said nobody ever.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Monday January 23 2023, @01:40PM (11 children)

      by driverless (4770) on Monday January 23 2023, @01:40PM (#1288171)

      It's been like that because LaTeX is backwards-compatible with papers in maths journals which are that way because [long backtrace elided] medieval manuscripts. Seriously, that's what it's backwards-compatible with. So people don't "prefer 60-80 characters", they prefer whatever they prefer, which in my cases is whatever fits nicely on the screen. In particular I don't want someone forcing me to read a format used by medieval monks, if I really want to read a long narrow column (hint: I don't) I'll resize the window.

      And as for the "barely noticeable", sure, it's barely noticeable if you're blind. This nonsense originated from this Slate article [slate.com], written by Annie Rauwerda, who is a hardcore Wikipedia cheerleader. It's like Slate publishing an article telling is how great Trump was as president, authored by Kayleigh McEnany a.k.a. Bullshit Barbie.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by number11 on Monday January 23 2023, @05:27PM (10 children)

        by number11 (1170) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 23 2023, @05:27PM (#1288210)

        Have to say the Wikipedia change is not very noticeable to me, and I'm not blind yet. I see the left sidebar has gotten a bit wider, but no problem with the text. As I shrink the width of the window, first one sidebar and then the other go away.

        Yes, narrow (print-newspaper) sized columns are a too narrow. But extremely wide columns (say, >42 ems or 110 characters) are difficult to read when you hit the jump to the next line, unless leading (linespacing) is increased a lot to compensate. My desktop display's native 1920x1080 resolution gives text lines here on SN that are a bit too long, display-wide text on an 49" 5120x1440 monitor sitting on your desk 18" from your face would be an extreme example. But all my opinions are with my own (past warranty) eyes and display, and none from trying to read on a mobile device (which is like looking at the Internet through a keyhole).

        • (Score: 4, Interesting) by RS3 on Monday January 23 2023, @07:24PM (9 children)

          by RS3 (6367) on Monday January 23 2023, @07:24PM (#1288236)

          In 12th grade (high school senior) they had a fairly advanced / experimental speed reading course, which I took, and I might say it changed my life. One major factor is: don't scan side-to-side as much- try to just scan down and let your peripheral vision pick up on, well, the periphery. "Big" words, proper nouns, names, etc., might need a direct look.

          The fairly obvious takeaway is: the wider the text, the less efficiently you can read. I think they figured that out a very long time ago, hence "newspaper columns".

          If I'm really interested in, or need to read something long, I'll often skinny up the tab, or if the browser won't let me resize tabs, I'll resize the entire browser so I can read much faster and with comprehension.

          Not a fan of wide screens, and I'm not sure why _everything_ has gone that way. Sure, for some things wide is great, but I don't think anyone still makes a 3x4 display. Some web pages have so much horizontal crap top and bottom that you end up with a 10:1 slit as a viewing window. (I may have exaggerated a bit there...)

          I have a new-to-me and not in use yet laptop with a 1920x1080 display. It's a bigger one- maybe 17"? I'm sure I'll adjust to it. Some years ago I upgraded the one I'm on now from 1440x900 to present 1680x1050. I had to upsize fonts and icons a bit, but I have fairly good, a little nearsighted vision, so it works well.

          • (Score: 4, Interesting) by driverless on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:20AM (7 children)

            by driverless (4770) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:20AM (#1288290)

            It's actually a lot more complicated than that. The studies on ideal column width go back 100-150 years and found that columns of 3 - 3.5 inches (I'll quote the antique form of measurement because that's what they used then) were ideal, however newspaper columns were more like 1.5 - 2.5 inches which meant that they never followed the science from the get-go. Also those are hundred-year-old studies, more recent studies, so only 40-50 years old, show that on computer screens wider text blocks read better, and that was on ancient green-screen monitors not what we use today.

            It also depends on what you're reading, for man-bites-dog you want the quick scanning of newspaper columns, for anything serious you definitely don't, which is why you've never seen a textbook formatted in narrow columns.

            Maybe the folks on Wikipedia who made this change could look it up somewhere, there's bound to be some sort of online encyclopedia they could consult.

            • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:28AM (2 children)

              by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:28AM (#1288293) Homepage

              Was it inches or number of characters per column? Because I find the latter is more important to readability. Very narrow newspaper columns generally used very small print, so might have the same number of horizontal characters. Wider columns used larger print.

              --
              And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
              • (Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:39AM (1 child)

                by driverless (4770) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:39AM (#1288294)

                Ah, good point! Yeah, there was something about typeface-dependence but I'd have to go look it up.

                • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 24 2023, @03:19AM

                  by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @03:19AM (#1288300)

                  Thanks, all very interesting. In the rare times I narrow-up my browser, I don't need nor like it as skinny as a newspaper column, so there are probably many factors at play as you guys have informed about.

            • (Score: 2) by number11 on Wednesday January 25 2023, @01:16AM (3 children)

              by number11 (1170) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 25 2023, @01:16AM (#1288462)

              I think that newspaper column size probably stems from something other than readability. They tend to be about the minimum width that you can have without making justified type show too much bad spacing and bad breaks. And probably the demands of layout flexibility, especially in the era of physical type. Maybe even for efficiency when setting type (and making corrections) in the Linotype era (where you had to replace the entire line when making a fix).

              For readable ink on paper, they had Times New Roman :)

              • (Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday January 25 2023, @01:27AM

                by driverless (4770) on Wednesday January 25 2023, @01:27AM (#1288466)

                Yeah, I'd thought about typesetting issues too but wasn't sure what the factor would be, since this goes back to manual typesetting the formatting of text to fit around the very narrow columns must have been a huge PITA, but as you say it may have been a convenience factor, changing a few words in a narrow column is much easier than re-setting a full-page line. Anyone know if there was any advantage to using very narrow vs. wide composing sticks in manual typesetting?

              • (Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday January 25 2023, @01:34AM

                by driverless (4770) on Wednesday January 25 2023, @01:34AM (#1288467)

                As a followup, since the multi-column print format predates any studies on its readability by several centuries it's likely it was adopted for some reason other than readability. A quick Google isn't turning up anything but I'm guessing there was some practical reason to lay it out that way.

              • (Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday January 26 2023, @01:51AM

                by aafcac (17646) on Thursday January 26 2023, @01:51AM (#1288627)

                Also in places like New York, there's a way of finding a paper with columns like that which takes up fast less space. I've seen it done and have no idea how to do it, but effectively each page is folded in half.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:30PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:30PM (#1288359)

            The fairly obvious takeaway is....

            The fairly obvious takeaway is what the fuck are you reading? Who the fuck wrote so much fluff that you can skim read 90% of it? Why the fuck are we putting up with this bullshit?

  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by PiMuNu on Monday January 23 2023, @01:00PM

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday January 23 2023, @01:00PM (#1288162)

    I saw this yesterday, I like it. I normally browse on a decent size monitor. I found it more readable (in a soft, hard-to-justify way).

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Hyper on Monday January 23 2023, @01:01PM (1 child)

    by Hyper (1525) on Monday January 23 2023, @01:01PM (#1288163) Journal

    For example:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia?useskin=vector

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @01:05PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @01:05PM (#1288166)

      I don't have a wikipedia account anymore. Time to get a url rewriter firefox plugin it seems.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @01:03PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @01:03PM (#1288164)

    Traditional newspapers and magazines as a big example of this.

    If you are going to narrow columns, go to magazine format with vertical dividers
    and allow 3 or 4 up on a landscape display, don't just leave 50% or more of a window
    empty.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @01:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @01:08PM (#1288169)

      I like web pages to use the entire screen where feasible to do so. SoylentNews does it well. There's a left side menu, but the gutter is quite small. It does not detract from the content. The new wikipedia layout is awful.

    • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 24 2023, @03:22AM

      by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @03:22AM (#1288301)

      Yes, I think the vertical divider line helps a lot. I wonder if there's a browser plugin or some css that could do that.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @01:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @01:06PM (#1288167)

    ie. Something the drones can stare at from their tiny portrait-mode phones.

  • (Score: 4, Disagree) by theluggage on Monday January 23 2023, @01:43PM (5 children)

    by theluggage (1797) on Monday January 23 2023, @01:43PM (#1288172)

    Reality is that websites today really do have to work with various sizes of mobile phones and tablets as well as traditional large screen computers - so some design compromise is necessary. Having totally different mobile and desktop UIs isn't ideal, either. I'll use a "proper computer" when I can but I'd like to be able to browse Wikipedia on my phone too.

    Compared with much modern "content free" web design from people who seem to think everything is an advertising hoarding and punters will run away if they see more than 128 characters on a screen, the new Wikipedia looks quite good. More than 60 characters per line is for editing code...

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Reziac on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:24AM (4 children)

      by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:24AM (#1288291) Homepage

      You don't have to design one-size-fits-all. There exist text-flow functions that will automagically reset the CSS for screen size. Design once, let the site flow however the device dictates.

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 24 2023, @03:26AM (3 children)

        by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @03:26AM (#1288302)

        Could that be in a browser plugin?

        For the sites I admin I use a WordPress plugin that does some powerful site cleanup for phones and tablets, and generally detects and adapts to screen resolution.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Tuesday January 24 2023, @05:01AM (2 children)

          by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @05:01AM (#1288311) Homepage

          I think it's something from Bootstrap, at least on a site where I'm staff (but not that end of things) I recall seeing that go by.

          My job there is mostly to break things, and I found our pages reflowed fine from 300px wide to your-screen-is-HOW-big?

          --
          And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
          • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 24 2023, @05:21AM (1 child)

            by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @05:21AM (#1288316)

            "staff" ... hmm. Sounds septic and pathological. You might want to get that checked out. They do make pills for those problems.

            • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday January 24 2023, @06:02AM

              by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @06:02AM (#1288329) Homepage

              LOL, I will let the boss know. :D

              --
              And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bradley13 on Monday January 23 2023, @02:22PM (1 child)

    by bradley13 (3053) on Monday January 23 2023, @02:22PM (#1288176) Homepage Journal

    First impressions:

    - The left column is much wider. You get a lot less content showing in the center column.

    - Maximum line-width. This is an ancient argument in the Internet, but: why? If I want a stupidly wide window, why shouldn't the text flow to fill it?

    - The language switcher tool takes two clicks to switch languages. Before, the most common languages were shown in the left column and could be selected with a single click, with other available with a second click.

    All negative points so far...

    - The left column now shows a ToC for the article, instead of a lot of links most people don't care about.

    So one positive point.

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by owl on Monday January 23 2023, @05:09PM

      by owl (15206) on Monday January 23 2023, @05:09PM (#1288208)

      If I want a stupidly wide window, why shouldn't the text flow to fill it?

      Because, sadly, there are many "designers" out there who believe that you should be forced to view their "design" exactly as they laid it out and that you should not have the power to modify their most wonderful (/sarcasm) design they have created for you.

      A brower used to be called a "User Agent" (for the reason that it should follow the end User's desires) but many "designers" have forgotten (or overtly ignored) that meanig and instead want to impose their view of "how it should be" upon you, whether you agree or not to their viewpoint.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @03:39PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @03:39PM (#1288189)


    // ==UserScript==
    // @name Wikipedia
    // @namespace soylentnews_greasemonkey
    // @description De-yuckify the 2023 Wikipedia overhaul
    // @include https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/* [wikipedia.org]
    // @version 1
    // @grant GM_addStyle
    // ==/UserScript==

    //--- Add some custom style tweaks.
    GM_addStyle ( ' \
            div.mw-page-container { \
                    min-width: 100% !important; \
            } \
    ' );

    GM_addStyle ( ' \
            div.mw-content-container { \
                    min-width: 98% !important; \
                    width: 98% !important; \
            } \
    ' );

    GM_addStyle (' \
    #mw-sidebar-button::before { \
            background-image: none !important; \
            content: "Menu"; \
            color: black; \
            font-size: 11px; \
            font-stretch: ultra-condensed; \
            overflow: visible !important; \
            display: block !important; \
            left: -6px !important; \
            position: relative !important; \
    } \
                              ');

    GM_addStyle (' \
    #mw-sidebar-button: { \
            overflow: visible !important; \
            min-width: 26px !important; \
    } \
                              ');

    GM_addStyle (' \
    .mu-ui-icon: { \
            overflow: visible !important; \
    } \
                              ');

    It's for Greasemonkey. Reply here if it doesn't work.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @11:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2023, @11:47PM (#1288269)

      Here's a little bit more to get that search box back over to the right hand side of the page where we're used to finding it:

      GM_addStyle ('  \
      .vector-search-box > div {  \
          max-width: 100% !important; \
      }                               \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle ('  \
      .vector-search-box-inner {  \
          float: right !important; \
          min-width: 284px;        \
      }                            \
                   ');

      You can also increase those 98% width values in the earlier script to 99 or 100 to fill the page even better and more like the old layout.

      This is only tested on Pale Moon so would be nice to know if it works on anything else. Not sure what other browsers even support Greasemonkey these days...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:37PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:37PM (#1288361)

      Can you make it add MOAR whitespace and make the font color gray on light gray with gray unlabeled UI buttons distinguished only by ancient runes? I've finally gotten used to Ubuntu and don't want to relearn some fancy "words" or "colors" or "menus".

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @09:39PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @09:39PM (#1288429)

      Just in case anyone's still interested in using these Greasemonkey scripts, here's my extremely experimental Version 2 that will probably break on a load of pages or browsers. If it works, it will look a lot more like the original site. Doesn't work on the search results page.

      // ==UserScript==
      // @name        Wikipedia
      // @namespace   soylentnews_greasemonkey
      // @description De-yuckify the 2023 Wikipedia overhaul
      // @include     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*
      // @version     2
      // @grant       GM_addStyle
      // @grant       GM_getResourceText
      // @grant       GM_getResourceURL
      // ==/UserScript==

      //--- Add some custom style tweaks.
      GM_addStyle ( '                 \
          div.mw-page-container {     \
              min-width: 100% !important; \
          }                           \
      ' );

      GM_addStyle ( '                 \
          div.mw-content-container {     \
              min-width: 100% !important; \
              width: 100% !important; \
              max-width: 100% !important; \
          }                           \
      ' );

      GM_addStyle ('                \
      #mw-sidebar-button::before {   \
          background-image: none !important; \
          content: "Menu"; \
          color: black;  \
          font-size: 11px; \
          font-stretch: ultra-condensed; \
          overflow: visible !important; \
          display: block !important; \
          #margin-left: -40px !important; \
          left: -6px !important; \
          position: relative !important; \
      }                    \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle ('                \
      #mw-sidebar-button: {   \
          overflow: visible !important; \
          #width: 95px !important; \
          min-width: 26px !important; \
          #margin-left: -40px !important; \
      }                    \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle ('                \
      .mu-ui-icon: {   \
          overflow: visible !important; \
      }                    \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle ('  \
      .vector-search-box > div {  \
          max-width: 100% !important; \
      }                               \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle ('  \
      .vector-search-box-inner {  \
          float: right !important; \
          min-width: 284px;        \
      }                            \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      #mw-panel-toc, \
      #vector-toc, \
      .vector-main-menu-container, \
      .mw-table-of-contents-container { \
          max-width: 168px !important; \
      } \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      .mw-page-container { \
      padding-left: 28px !important; \
      padding-right: 28px !important; \
      max-width: 100% !important; \
                   } \
                   ');

      if (window.location.href.indexOf('Main_Page') < 0)
      {
      GM_addStyle (' \
      .mw-body { \
      position: relative; \
      left: -68px; \
      margin-right: -68px; \
      padding-bottom: 24px; \
      padding-left: 24px; \
      padding-right: 24px; \
      padding-top: 20px; \
                   } \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      .mw-body { \
          margin-top: -1px; \
          border: 1px solid #a7d7f9; \
          border-right-width: 0; \
          background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); \
      } \
      .mw-page-container, .vector-toc { \
      background-color: inherit !important; \
                   } \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      body { \
      background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246); \
      } \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      #p-logo a { \
          background-position: center center; \
          background-repeat: no-repeat; \
          display: block; \
          width: 10em; \
          height: 160px; \
          text-decoration: none; \
      } \
      .mw-wiki-logo { \
          background-image: url(/static/images/project-logos/enwiki.png); \
      } \
      .mw-logo { \
      display: none !important; \
      height: 1px !important; \
      } \
      .vector-header-start { \
      height: 50px; \
                   } \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      #mw-panel-toc { \
      margin-top: -48px; \
      } \
      #vector-main-menu, #vector-toc { \
      margin-top: 75px;}  \
      #mw-sidebar-button { \
      position: relative; \
      left: 185px; \
      top: 8px; \
      } \
                   ');

      //Add the old, big logo to the top of the left sidebar
      var logoNode         = document.createElement ('div');
      logoNode.id = 'logo-container';
      logoNode.style.cssText = 'width: 135px; height: 155px; display: block; position: relative; top: 50px; left: -30px;';
      logoNode.innerHTML   = '             \
      <div id="p-logo" role="banner">       \
              <a class="mw-wiki-logo" style="background-image: url(/static/images/project-logos/enwiki.png); width: 135px; height: 155px; display: block;" href="/wiki/Main_Page" title="Visit the main page"></a> \
          </div> \
      ';

      var menuButtonNode = document.getElementById('mw-sidebar-button');
      var headerStartNode = menuButtonNode.parentNode;
      headerStartNode.insertBefore(logoNode, menuButtonNode.nextElementSibling);
      }

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @10:41PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @10:41PM (#1288444)

      And Version 2.1 fixes the layout for pages that have no table of contents. I'm getting bored of this so not sure how many more updates there will be. I might be persuaded to post more if someone tells me they're actually using this script.

      // ==UserScript==
      // @name        Wikipedia
      // @namespace   soylentnews_greasemonkey
      // @description De-yuckify the 2023 Wikipedia overhaul
      // @include     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*
      // @version     2.1
      // @grant       GM_addStyle
      // @grant       GM_getResourceText
      // @grant       GM_getResourceURL
      // ==/UserScript==

      //--- Add some custom style tweaks.
      GM_addStyle ( '                 \
          div.mw-page-container {     \
              min-width: 100% !important; \
          }                           \
      ' );

      GM_addStyle ( '                 \
          div.mw-content-container {     \
              min-width: 100% !important; \
              width: 100% !important; \
              max-width: 100% !important; \
          }                           \
      ' );

      GM_addStyle ('                \
      #mw-sidebar-button::before {   \
          background-image: none !important; \
          content: "Menu"; \
          color: black;  \
          font-size: 11px; \
          font-stretch: ultra-condensed; \
          overflow: visible !important; \
          display: block !important; \
          #margin-left: -40px !important; \
          left: -6px !important; \
          position: relative !important; \
      }                    \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle ('                \
      #mw-sidebar-button: {   \
          overflow: visible !important; \
          #width: 95px !important; \
          min-width: 26px !important; \
          #margin-left: -40px !important; \
      }                    \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle ('                \
      .mu-ui-icon: {   \
          overflow: visible !important; \
      }                    \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle ('  \
      .vector-search-box > div {  \
          max-width: 100% !important; \
      }                               \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle ('  \
      .vector-search-box-inner {  \
          float: right !important; \
          min-width: 284px;        \
      }                            \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      #mw-panel-toc, \
      #vector-toc, \
      .vector-main-menu-container, \
      .mw-table-of-contents-container { \
          max-width: 168px !important; \
      } \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      .mw-page-container { \
      padding-left: 28px !important; \
      padding-right: 28px !important; \
      max-width: 100% !important; \
                   } \
                   ');

      if (window.location.href.indexOf('Main_Page') < 0)
      {
      var navNode = document.getElementById('mw-navigation');
      var navContainer = navNode.parentNode;
      if (navContainer.getAttribute('class').indexOf('vector-sidebar-container-no-toc') >= 0)
      {
      GM_addStyle (' \
      .mw-body { \
      position: relative; \
      padding-bottom: 24px; \
      padding-left: 24px; \
      padding-right: 24px; \
      padding-top: 20px; \
                   } \
                   ');
      }
      else
      {
      GM_addStyle (' \
      .mw-body { \
      position: relative; \
      left: -68px; \
      margin-right: -68px; \
      padding-bottom: 24px; \
      padding-left: 24px; \
      padding-right: 24px; \
      padding-top: 20px; \
                   } \
                   ');
      }

      GM_addStyle (' \
      .mw-body { \
          margin-top: -1px; \
          border: 1px solid #a7d7f9; \
          border-right-width: 0; \
          background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); \
      } \
      .mw-page-container, .vector-toc { \
      background-color: inherit !important; \
                   } \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      body { \
      background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246); \
      } \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      #p-logo a { \
          background-position: center center; \
          background-repeat: no-repeat; \
          display: block; \
          width: 10em; \
          height: 160px; \
          text-decoration: none; \
      } \
      .mw-wiki-logo { \
          background-image: url(/static/images/project-logos/enwiki.png); \
      } \
      .mw-logo { \
      display: none !important; \
      height: 1px !important; \
      } \
      .vector-header-start { \
      height: 50px; \
                   } \
                   ');

      GM_addStyle (' \
      #mw-panel-toc { \
      margin-top: -48px; \
      } \
      #vector-main-menu, #vector-toc { \
      margin-top: 75px;}  \
      #mw-sidebar-button { \
      position: relative; \
      left: 185px; \
      top: 8px; \
      } \
                   ');

      if (navContainer.getAttribute('class').indexOf('vector-sidebar-container-no-toc') >= 0)
      {
      //Add the old logo to the top when there's no table of contents
      var logoNode         = document.createElement ('div');
      logoNode.id = 'logo-container';
      logoNode.style.cssText = 'width: 135px; height: 155px; display: block; position: relative; top: 5px; left: -30px;';
      logoNode.innerHTML   = '             \
      <div id="p-logo" role="banner">       \
              <a class="mw-wiki-logo" style="background-image: url(/static/images/project-logos/enwiki.png); width: 135px; height: 155px; background-size: 80px; display: block;" href="/wiki/Main_Page" title="Visit the main page"></a> \
          </div> \
      ';
      }
      else
      {
      //Add the old, big logo to the top of the left sidebar
      var logoNode         = document.createElement ('div');
      logoNode.id = 'logo-container';
      logoNode.style.cssText = 'width: 135px; height: 155px; display: block; position: relative; top: 50px; left: -30px;';
      logoNode.innerHTML   = '             \
      <div id="p-logo" role="banner">       \
              <a class="mw-wiki-logo" style="background-image: url(/static/images/project-logos/enwiki.png); width: 135px; height: 155px; display: block;" href="/wiki/Main_Page" title="Visit the main page"></a> \
          </div> \
      ';
      }

      var menuButtonNode = document.getElementById('mw-sidebar-button');
      var headerStartNode = menuButtonNode.parentNode;
      headerStartNode.insertBefore(logoNode, menuButtonNode.nextElementSibling);
      }

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by mendax on Monday January 23 2023, @07:46PM (1 child)

    by mendax (2840) on Monday January 23 2023, @07:46PM (#1288241)

    ... I hate it. I reverted my account over to the old look. Fortunately, they make the process easy enough.

    --
    It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:17AM

      by Reziac (2489) on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:17AM (#1288289) Homepage

      Same here. Talk about lost functionality... Thanks to whoever here mentioned that the site skin can be set in User Preferences... tho the preview function DID NOT WORK (JS on or off) so... just pick Legacy, and it's back to having a reasonable layout, AND the jump index (whatever it's properly called) magically reappears.

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by ShovelOperator1 on Monday January 23 2023, @11:08PM (1 child)

    by ShovelOperator1 (18058) on Monday January 23 2023, @11:08PM (#1288262)

    The whole thing with making things more hidden to make users click is to introduce an invisible full-screen links to ads. Additionally the number of clicks made by users per page is sometimes considered when pricing ads on such site (to favor sites in which user may "accidentally" click an ad), and that's why lots of news portals do it. The "Hamburger" buttons, while totally OK for ads, mobile and low-size applications, is a problematic hurdle when using a laptop with the pad, and sometimes even a screen reader. Hey, I have a larger resolution in my panel not to make text hilariously large, but to fit everything I need on screen.
    So don't be surprised when they will show you a pee-pee enlargement pills and cheap "Antonio's Kissmayass" watches :-).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:49PM (#1288363)

      I think you mean engagement. Studies show that monkeys left in empty cages for hours a day repeatedly engage with items to stimulate their brains. They also masturbate obsessively and fetishize things that hold no interest for monkeys in the wild. Therefore we strive to provide an engaging environment for monkey.

(1)