Talk:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements

I love the new width of the page
Please don't change it, or let others convince you to change it. The narrower width makes the reading much more comfortable, it looks more modern, and the eye can find the next line with ease. Blank space is not a problem, and who complains about it just needs to get used to it; the strangeness will go away eventually. If blank space were a problem, you should tell that to Facebook. Its feed also has lots of empty space around it. What's the problem?

The new Vector is the best skin in the history of Wikipedia. Congrats from a Portuguese Wikipedia editor. Bageense (talk) 18:38, 20 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you @Bageense, this is very kind! All team members were really glad to hear that. While we can't promise we wouldn't listen to volunteers with various perspectives, we do hope that the limited width will be considered as an improvement. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 19:22, 1 July 2021 (UTC)
 * @SGrabarczuk (WMF), I'm also from the Portuguese Wikipedia. I think it would help if the white spaces got a bit grey, it looks worst in the all-white configuration. Moreover, it would be great if the desktop version looked like the mobile app version, with that awesome dark mode. Paz e concórdia (talk) 14:11, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Hello @Paz e concórdia. Thanks for your opinion. Have you seen the task on Phabricator where we've begun discussing the background color? You may be interested in reading the comments. Regarding the dark mode - yes, that's an excellent idea, but we will not work on that. Basically, we can't deliver two separate @versions of the same page. I'll add a section to FAQ with an explanation why. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 17:15, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

I agree with Bageense. Its a huge improvement Shisma (talk) 07:20, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

I do not agree with Bageense. Usually when I read a Wikipedia article I do it from my laptop witch hasn't a wide screen. By squeezing the page together it looks like im reading the article from an iPad! On safari web browser, for example, I already have the read option to resize similarly the article (also with white spaces at the sides). An other point is that by zooming the old web page I could resize the text as I wanted (for example with cmd + or cmd -). With the improvement the size is fixed, the only thing that can happen is the white areas to enlarge or the text to ulteriorly shrink. Also, when a Wikipedia page has a propriety box (for example the chemical elements) it ulteriorly fills the text space, whereas the old version just placed it where now there is withe space. I think that it was better since the box containing technical information is less important than the article, it was logic to put it aside and not with the text. Finally, a tighter space means more scrolling witch on the older version, someone who doesn't want to always touch the mouse or keyboard, can just lean back on his chair and enjoy better the reading.

I wish the user will have the option to wide read a Wikipedia article in the future! PaDalton (talk) 15:04 21 August 2021 (UTC)

Impact of Language switching on the Main page (fr.wikipedia)
Hi, the Main page of the French Wikipedia shows the button of the Language switching at the end of the page. Some users don't find languages, some others say that this location is uncomfortable, some users answer to have languages on the top or at the left, like in others pages. See here, here, here and here. Thank you.--Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 08:25, 26 June 2021 (UTC)
 * See also a topic on Reddit, where some readers express their confusion about this change --Yodaspirine (talk) 13:15, 27 June 2021 (UTC)
 * This. The original version of Vector was clear, simple, legible, and mastered by all. I have yet to find one real world user that enjoys the new version. Absolutely nobody asked for any of the currently proposed changes on the French version. Since the first introduction of those changes I found myself switching to the english versions of the articles more often than not because the centered content makes the page needlessly long and way less legible. Now you're turning this action from easy and intuitive to something convoluted, on purpose? Please consult users/visitors before unilaterally changing a design that wasn't broken and introduce confusing and misleading modifications. That only serves to satisfy someone's need for change while making browsing unnecessarily more complex and confusing for millions (billions?) of people. --Eskaps (talk) 19:40, 27 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Hi, I understand that the reason why the language button were moved was to make sure they're always visible from the top of the page. While this is a legitimate concern the current solution is creating much more problem than it is fixing. Quickly changing the language of the article is probably the feature that I use the most on Wikipedia, in fact I use multiple time a day. And the people who responded to the reddit post linked previously shared the same experience. Perhaps this is not something than the current tools used to evaluate how the user navigate on Wikipedia was highlighting but this is clearly an overview and I really urge the developer to take into account these returns.--JllllllV (talk) 18:33, 27 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Bonjour, merci pour votre retour, je prends note de vos remarques. Je comprends que ce changement vous affecte beaucoup.
 * SGrabarczuk (WMF) a présenté la novelle fonctionnalité le 22 mai et a donné des réponses qui pourraient vous intéresser, notamment par rapport à la collecte des avis des utilisateurs avant le déploiement de la fonctionnalité et les tests A/B. Le 22 juin la fonctionnalité a été à nouveau annoncée au Bistro. J'ai cherché d'ajouter d'autres détails dans ma présentation au Bistro le 24 juin.
 * Vous pouvez toujours garder votre interface préférée et basculer vers l'ancien habillage : le lien est dans la barre à gauche, ou dans Préférences > Apparence > en cochant la case "Utiliser l'ancienne version de Vector".
 * Cordialement,--Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 09:22, 28 June 2021 (UTC)
 * , I'm not interested using the old layout, I find most of the change to be positive. As I said the habitability to quickly switch between languages is an integral part of the way I use Wikipedia everyday. And given the reaction a simple reddit post received in a few hours I am not the only one. As I already said, I read what motivated the changes and I understand why the dev team felt they needed to do something. But the solution is worse than the problem. There are already testimonies from people telling that using the new layout, when they arrive on an article available in multiple language they didn't even realize it was available in another language. And when they did, they did not know how to switch to the new language. And this is coming from people who are familiar with Wikipedia. What can be done to help the team do better on that topic? --JllllllV (talk) 11:26, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

and @alls: Thank you for writing. When you report problems and comment a new feature in this page, if you don't know, you are precisely helping us to understand if we are going in the right direction or not, if community like it or not, if the usability of the new feature is good or not, and it helps us to correct the direction if needed and fix bugs ! :) You can see the progress on Phabricator, the progress is due to your feedback.

Feedbacks from users and readers where already collected and analysed for create the prototype before the deployement on the pilots wikis (see here and here). I'm currently collecting all users' feedbacks and I have explained the topic to SGrabarczuk of the Web Team, they are discussing about the better way to act, considering all the variables. My goal is also to improve our ability as Web Team to collect feedbacks from / to give feedbacks to the French community, to communicate news but also understand to better way to communicate about the development process.

When a new feature is deployed, a period of transition is necessary: I understand the confusion of a lot of users and the impact of the Language switching mostly on experienced contributors. Some users like you are proposing solutions to make it easier for all to understand how and when new features are deployed, and I'm presenting your suggestions to the Web Team and staying tuned.

About the Language switching, tests A/B are presently in progress, this will be the case for two weeks : it means that we are collecting informations about the real use of the feature, what are the problems of users to find the button of languages or to understand what it is, if they prefer the old interface etc. At the same time, bugs are being fixed. Those data will be analysed and major decisions will be made based on your feedback. Transition takes time, and I'm sorry that the feature is not still perfect and that this period should be uncomfortable for experienced users like you and others*, but it is a temporary disease, we need to collect data and we are doing our best to reduce this disease. When you say « the solution is worse than the problem », I hope to have offered to you the reasons why for some of you this should be only a temporary unconfortable period, in the short term, and how we are really trying to prepare a better feature for the medium and long term.--Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 14:56, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

* But some users loves the changes.
 * About the impact of Language switching on the Main page: I have found this task T276140 on Phabricator which could explain why the Main page doesn't shows the link of language switching at the top.--Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 14:56, 28 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Bonjour. J’ai un compte wiki. Je voulais savoir comment je peux personnaliser l’affichage (sans trois cents lignes de code CSS/JS) pour mettre la boîte des choix des langues comme avant dans le menu du gauche. Et je pense que cette information sera très utile à beaucoup d’autres qui n’apprécient pas ce changement malvenu. Merci par avance. --Nbag (talk) 16:01, 21 July 2021 (UTC)

I can't clearly understand why only the language selection has been moved and not other objects. Intuitively if someone is reading an article the mouse is in the center of the page and for the hand on the desk it's much easier to move left-right. Accepting the new location, why then move the search bar away from anything? It could be so near the language switching button! With the new layout is seems I have to train for mouse acrobatics.

P.s. I totally agree with. PaDalton (talk) 15:25 21 August 2021 (UTC)

Bonjour, c'est déjà ssez pénible de chercher l'ancien menu avant de se rappeller qu'il a été déplacé de l'autre côté de l'écran, mais admettons, les choses changents et je ne veux pas finir vieux c**. Par contre ce qui me gène vraiment c'est d'avoir à derouler la liste pour savoir les langues disponibles. C'est un clic supplémentaire, qui en doublement perdu si ce que l'on cherche n'est pas au rendez-vous. Personne n'a besoin de ce genre de suspens

Language switching no longer available on wikidata and mediawiki
On wikidata, it was possible to change the language by clicking on the left of the displayed language. This is no longer possible: this just adds a "#" to the URL. One now needs to change the language in the preferences, which takes more time. I don't understand why such a useful feature has been removed. And the mediawiki pages seem to be affected too. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 23:50, 2 July 2021 (UTC)


 * The language selector in the top right toolbar (next to my user name) works for me on this very page (with both the new and the old version of the Vector skin). If you have any JavaScript error messages, they’ll certainly help developers investigate the issue. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 01:46, 4 July 2021 (UTC)
 * It is on the left of my user name, but it does nothing except adding a "#" to the URL. This does not trigger any JavaScript error. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 11:16, 4 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the late reply. Please also see point 5 on the linked page—without knowing what you use, it’s nearly impossible to reproduce the issue, and without reproducing or having error messages, it’s nearly impossible to fix it. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 12:56, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Skin: Vector (this is the default). Browser: Firefox 88.0.1 under Linux (Debian/unstable). I've also tested with a new profile: still the same issue, and still no errors in the console. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 00:04, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * And same issue with Opera 77.0.4054.203 on the same machine. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 00:08, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I think this is a bug, but please check "Use a compact language list, with languages relevant to you." on Special:Preferences to restore it in the mean time. Jdlrobson (talk) 03:43, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I've just seen that this has now apparently been fixed. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 15:35, 24 July 2021 (UTC)

Impact of Language switching on fr.wiki : badges are no longer shown next to interwiki links
(original message on fr.wiki)

Hi, star icons for good/featured articles are not shown next to interwiki links for connected users on fr.wiki (and there is no hover message to advise on articles or good/featured ones). Is there any possibility to fix it? Thanks.--Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 09:09, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
 * It doesn’t depend on whether the user is logged in, but on whether the language switcher uses JavaScript. Normally it should for both logged-in and logged-out users, but it could fail for various reasons (JS explicitly disabled in the browser, too old browser, conflicting other gadgets or user scripts etc.). If it fails, the one-column list shown on the third screenshot appears.
 * Even though this one-column list technically also contains the badges, they’re cut off. However, since everything is there in the HTML source code, they can be restored with a simple CSS snippet (it should ideally go to Vector’s source code, but as a hotfix, you can put it in a user stylesheet (e.g. fr:Special:MyPage/vector.css) or in a sitewide stylesheet (e.g. fr:MediaWiki:Vector.css) or gadget):  (Please note that when put in user or sitewide stylesheets/gadgets, this may not work in right-to-left languages like Hebrew. When put in the Vector source code, however, it should automatically be rewritten appropriately to accommodate to RTL.) —Tacsipacsi (talk) 12:50, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Also, I didn’t test this much, so there may be edge cases where this doesn’t work, or kicks in even though it shouldn’t. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 12:53, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for explanations. j'espère que cela te permettra de résoudre le problème, s'il te faut une traduction du message je peux la faire, notifie-moi dans ce cas. :)--Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 13:08, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Screenshot exemple of icon - Featured articles - Language switching 4.png
 * Compact-language-links-preference.png
 * Usefull information to all: I've tried to find the gadget or beta feature responsable of the problem but I've not found it. No scripts, JS available in the browser, last version of all browsers. So I'm using the suggested vector.css, this is the result (screenshot n. 4). It's fine for the badges. But the list is still different from the list of screenshot n. 1 (2 columns, suggested languages, "Paramètres d’affichage" and "Paramètres de saisie" in the box of the button, etc.). To fix it: Allez dans Préférences → Apparence et descendez dans la page jusqu'à la section Langues. Vous trouverez une case à cocher, avec le texte « Utiliser une liste compacte de langues, avec seules celles qui vous conviennent. ». (voir Liens de langues compacts)
 * Best regards, --Patafisik (talk) 14:32, 11 July 2021 (UTC) Modified --Patafisik (talk) 14:58, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Still testing the feature, I've discovered that with the Compact Language Links activated the vector.css is not necessary, badges are presents.--Patafisik (talk) 15:07, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I didn’t know about this side effect of turning off compact language links (I’d consider it a bug, by the way, since at the new location, the list is neither longer nor shorter with either option). However, my point about the JavaScript-less experience still stands: users without JS get the one-column version even if they have compact language links enabled. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 16:02, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for all the informations!--Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 08:06, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * "However, my point about the JavaScript-less experience still stands: users without JS get the one-column version" - this is a very small subset of our users. Right now our main focus in the majority of users who do have JS enabled.
 * This style could be shipped in a common CSS or site CSS for those users to rectify that in the interim:
 * Jdlrobson (talk) 16:34, 13 July 2021 (UTC)
 * The question here is not whether users without JS see one or three columns, but whether they see the badges for featured articles/good articles/etc., or don’t see them. Compatibility promises that in Grade C browsers (the most notable browsers without JS) content is presented in a readable manner . Badges cut off breaks this promise, since quality assessment is an important part of the content, and something that’s not visible isn’t readable either. And it takes literally three lines of CSS to fix it. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 18:35, 13 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I did a bit of digging and the badges are provided by the WikimediaBadges extension which is making some assumptions that are no longer true in modern Vector.
 * I've created T286612 and added a temporary workaround (feel free to revise/remove): https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki%3AVector.css&type=revision&diff=184622499&oldid=183232069 Jdlrobson (talk) 20:48, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

Language switching (Desktop Improvements): not available (gadget conflict ?)
Though my fr.Wikipedia account is with standard vector, I do NOT benefit the new language menu in this fr.WP. Instead, I still have a (reduced) list of languages in the left column. I remind having, some years ago, "installed"… a, I guess: gadget (what else ; I have a slightly modified "Common.js", but not related to languages), so, gadget which permits to show only a tenth of languages, among which the ones I switch to the most (in my case : english, esperanto and picard are most frequently present there if the article is available). On the contrary, when in eo.Wikipedia, which did install the language menu, I do have it ; and by the way, I did very little if not none, specific customisations in my eo.WP preferences.  Question :  do you have a suggestion how I could track the "faulty gadget" ? (I use a bunch of these, and am not very happy about testing each one individually) Thanks in advance. -- Eric.LEWIN (talk) 12:49, 12 July 2021 (UTC)


 * The position of the language links doesn’t depend on any gadgets or other preferences. There’s currently an A/B test, so it’s decided at random whether you get the language links in the header, and apparently this random setting varies by wiki. You can force the new version on individual pages by appending  to the article title (e.g. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_A/B?languageinheader=1), but that’s just for testing as manually appending it to all URLs is quite inconvenient. The only thing you can do is waiting until it becomes the default (or at least a preference; I don’t know whether making it a preference is planned). By the way, this reduced language list you mention is Compact Language Links, but it has nothing to do with whether you get the language links in the header (except for turning it off breaks the links if you get them in the header, see the previous section). —Tacsipacsi (talk) 21:59, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Many thanks,, for your clear explanations. I saw the expression "Test A/B", but did not know, and catch, its meaning, and in fact did not bother :-(. Effectively, your forcing recipe did work well. I'll let the test going on, hoping for a quick setting, whatever the choice, default or preference. And thanks for the ULS/CLL reminding. Minden köszönetemmel és üdvözletemmel a Francia Alpoktól ( Google Translator  ). Best regards, cordialement. -- Eric.LEWIN (talk) 23:33, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Hello @Eric.LEWIN. After the deployment of almost each feature, we run the A/B test. Tacsipacsi is correct. This does vary by wiki, and depends on your user ID (all who have even numbers can see one version, and those with odd numbers can see the other version). Usually, the A/B tests take two weeks. However, we may set up these again if something goes wrong. For instance, one time, we learned that the test wasn't set up precisely enough, and we didn't receive answers for questions we wanted to ask. Anyway, I expect the results to show up this week. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 16:59, 19 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for these infos. I was mainly offline since the 14th ; when I connected back this morning, it appears to me that I was now benefiting the language menu, whatever the reason or cause. And I still have taken advantage of it. Really a great feature, a major improvement from my point of view. I keep being attentive to it, and eventually I'll report in case I meet an ISA ("Incident, Surprise or Anomaly"). Best regards. -- Eric.LEWIN (talk) 18:28, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

Please move it up, again
I just would like to say that I like the new language selector, but I disapprove of it being placed at the bottom of the main page of a wiki. I am used to switching between language versions and I am sorry to say this, but it is a nuisance when you have to scroll to the very bottom of the main page in order to find the selector. You wonder, is there any selector at all? So, could you please move it up again to the top of the main page? Thanks! Aschmidt (talk) 19:48, 28 July 2021 (UTC)

Concrete suggestions for improvement
Hi, a year ago I submitted a critique and mockup for improvements. You could not fully take them into account because the links for some of the image files had expired. Because most of them are still relevant, I have uploaded them to Commons.

M!dgard (talk) 11:27, 22 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you @M!dgard for the screenshots. I appreciate the effort. We take your opinion into account.
 * You are right about some elements, and these will be fixed. When will we do that, and why these imperfections exist? It's because our changes are gradual, and we'll be fixing these gradually.
 * The lack of alignment between the content and the user menu will be not relevant when we deploy the user menu.
 * The symetry of article tabs will be not relevant when we deploy the sticky header.
 * The selection and sequence of links in the sidebar are, for the most part, decided by the local communities. The Tools section will be put to the header as part of the article tools improvement.
 * The grey area on both sides of the screen will be a subject of discussion closer to the general aesthetic refinements phase (see the related Phabricator account).
 * I'm not able to answer to some of your points yet, sorry! Some are strictly related to the design and technical limitations (e.g. the "return" button by the sidebar, or the "page weight".) I'll discuss this with other members of our team. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 17:35, 27 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm not able to answer to some of your points yet, sorry! Some are strictly related to the design and technical limitations (e.g. the "return" button by the sidebar, or the "page weight".) I'll discuss this with other members of our team. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 17:35, 27 July 2021 (UTC)

Purging issue: swapping old and new look without switching
Sometimes when I go to any page, like a page using a non-main namespace, I saw an old look. However, I refreshed the page by clicking the refresh icon and pressing  +   keys, so the page automatically switches back to the newer look. Is there a purging issue or something like that? George Ho (talk) 23:04, 25 July 2021 (UTC)


 * Hi George, this is usually a sign that the page hasn't been visited recently and that a new feature was recently rolled out (usually within the 1 week). It's a known issue that corrects itself as you've pointed out, but we accept it as it reduces a lot of risk to our operations team who keep the site running. Jdlrobson (talk) 02:43, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

New vector language switching selector : title icons are no longer on the title line
Hello. On french wikipédia, icons created using the template   are no longer on the same line than the title but inside the page, and they occupy a full line. It is the case for example for the page protection indicator (example on article fr:Jules Verne). It is also the case for the numerous title icons used on user pages, where the rendering is no more what the user expected, although there is no language selector on user pages. It concerns a huge number of pages. Best regards Csar62 (talk) 17:20, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
 * At least on user pages, or more generally on pages without language selector, title icons should always stay on the title line
 * On pages with language selector, it is maybe questionable where the icons should be, but they should  not  use a full line just for the icons.
 * Ping Patafisik (WMF) . Jules* (talk) 10:40, 30 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Hello, two tasks are opened about this subject (and the coordinates display): T282027 and T281974. See also the answer below. --Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 16:53, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Interwiki links
I've eventually found my way here. I don't know if this is the best place to post.

I am a WikiGnome. My speciality is fixing links to w:WP:DAB pages. I detest with a passion the so-called "improvement" which moves Interwiki links from the left-hand column into a clickable box. It makes my work slower and less efficient.

I use non-English WPs to solve problems in several ways. (1) By clicking on the link in the left hand column. (2) By loading the Main Page, and selecting a language from there. (3) By using a non-WP search engine, and selecting a non-enwiki result it might turn up. I do not need a non-alphabetic scrolling list of languages by popularity or geographical location. If I want to consult a page in Hangul, I want to find it somewhere between Galego and Hrvatski, not in some apparently random list; and if I want to find the correspoding enwiki page, ditto. How on earth am I supposed to find the page I want from a list of languages I can't read?

I was the last moderator (#45, I think) to be appointed to a very well-known website. Management knew better than the mods and other power users, and implemented top-down "improvements" which we told them were bad ideas. Us mods who had striven to keep the site clean of porn, commercial spam, and underagers, all packed it in, within a few weeks. That site, which in 2009 reported 200 million users worldwide and 15 million daily users, first fell off the Quantcast ratings as too insignificant to record, and was closed down in 2021.

Don't give me focus group crap! Consider yourself warned. I don't expect you to listen (that site didn't). Don't give me "yes, but" responses - I've heard them all before, and they were management-speak bullshit.

At the very least, make the "old-fashioned" easy-to-use alphabetical list version and the "modern" badly-sorted version a selectable user option. Narky Blert (talk) 17:28, 31 July 2021 (UTC)


 * I’m not among the people who decided on this project (and I also strongly disagree with several changes), so it’s not a “yes, but” response, I just want to mention some options that already exist:
 * You can search in the new list. You can search by language code (if you expect Hangul somewhere between Galician and Croatian, you probably know its language code), or you can search by language name—with a quick test it looks like in virtually any language, so if you want to jump from German Wikipedia to Croatian, you can search for Croatian, you don’t need to know either its German name kroatisch or its native name hrvatski. Depending on the number of interlanguage links and your computer usage customs, it can be much faster to search than to scan the list with your eyes (but it can be much slower as well).
 * As long as you’re logged in, you can opt out from this change in an all-or-none manner in your preferences. If you want to opt out once for all wikis, you can use global preferences.
 * —Tacsipacsi (talk) 19:43, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I have looked at your links, and have not the foggiest idea as to how to get rid of this abomination. Please advise. Narky Blert (talk) 20:38, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
 * You have to turn on  (it’s on by default on wikis like mediawiki.org that don’t have the changes yet, but you’ll find it off by default on wikis like French Wikipedia that do already have the changes). —Tacsipacsi (talk) 21:44, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
 * You don't need to turn on legacy Vector. The language button feature can be turned into a list by unselecting the box "Use a compact language list, with languages relevant to you." in your Special:Preferences. This will give you an alphabetical dropdown. Jdlrobson (talk) 16:16, 5 August 2021 (UTC)
 * That option is unselected, and never has been selected, in my preferences. Do I have to search for the equivalent and unselect it in every language WP I might consult (161 and counting, including only those where I've found something relevant)? Narky Blert (talk) 19:26, 9 August 2021 (UTC)
 * No. You onlu need to use Special:GlobalPreferences as suggested above to change it once across all your 161+ wikis.
 * Screenshot of Compact languages button dropdown with JS disabled.png
 * That said, if the option is not selected as you say, I'm not sure how you are seeing the languages separated by alphabetical/geographical regions, as that is not possible from the code.
 * If that preference box is unselected like you say, you should be seeing is the screenshot on the right, and that list is no different than the original alphabetical list that you claim was more efficient.
 * If you aren't seeing that, is it possible you have any gadgets/beta features enabled that may be interfering? Jdlrobson (talk) 02:40, 11 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I've now selected Global preferences/Use Legacy Vector, and see my preferred left-hand language column in all the WPs I've checked. My, but that hasn't been easy to find - open a page which I didn't know existed, on a site I've hardly visited, and choose between unintelligible options.
 * I assert the left-hand column version is more efficient because I can see 34 entries at a time and get the next lot by using PgDn. In the screenshot, I can only see 13 - a reduction of 62%. If scrolling is required, it will be more cumbersome still. I speak from experience; Yahoo! did something similar in 2015-16. Narky Blert (talk) 08:14, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Assessment icons and the upper right corner in the new display
I just came across the language switching feature that you have in development. Overall, I like it—collapsing makes sense, it's nice to see the total language count, and the positioning may make it easier for people to find. However, I anticipate an area of concern for the community (at least at en-WP) will be that this area is already currently used for other icons, particularly protection icons and good article/featured icons. When testing, these icons are currently pushed down below the bar underscoring the title, which in turn pushes anything normally right below the bar (namely coordinates) down another line. As you can see in the screenshot, this can cause overlap with the article content, and looks awkward even when it doesn't.

Moving the assessment icons somewhere else will be essential if we want to clear up that space. This brings me to a proposal we considered a few months ago to move the good/featured icons next to the article title, which I think you may find it very useful to read. The proposed placement is something that the Danish Wikipedia does and that has the potential to make the icons a lot more noticeable (something crucial for media-literate readers). However, the discussion reached a no consensus result, in large part because of uncertainty about how aware readers are of the GA/FA icons in their current placement. Other recent discussion about redesigning the icons' appearance has touched on similar themes. It would be extremely helpful if you could look into how the GA/FA icons are handled as part of your work, perhaps do some user research to determine if there are indeed issues with awareness (as I suspect), and incorporate the results into your improvements package. Would this be possible? &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:35, 3 August 2021 (UTC)


 * While moving assessment icons to a more discoverable position may be a good idea, doing so with all indicators (category pages’ help links, user pages’ random icons, and so on) isn’t. Using the current infrastructure, it’s possible to do so in Vector.js (for example that’s done on huwiki, although we put the icon before the title, not after, as dawiki). If you want to get it done without JS, the categorization system I proposed in T75299 may help to do it on server side. And not only in case of the GA/FA icons, but also for positioning the coordinates. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 00:41, 4 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I wouldn't want to see all icons currently in the upper right moved to directly after the title. The protection icons in particular are quite common. The designers will have to figure out what to do with those if they want to put the language list where they are currently. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:53, 5 August 2021 (UTC)
 * They have figured it out: what currently happens, i.e. indicators below the language link dropdown, and coordinates broken as long as the community doesn’t fix them. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 23:31, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Renommage de la page "Brouillon" ?

 * copied from Topic:Wdygruogtnv10t42

(Pas sûr qu'ici soit le meilleur endroit pour cette discussion ; si vous voyez mieux, notamment plus visible mais tout autant approprié, merci de déplacer cette discussion, ou d'y mettre un mot et un lien).

Je trouve que le terme "brouillon" n'est pas le meilleur choix pour désigner cette page et sa fonction. J'utilise plus volontiers dans les discussions avec les nouveaux, les expressions de « zone d'ébauche », « page d'ébauchage », bref « ébauche », non pas que le sens soit fortement différent, mais parce qu'il est plus gratifiant quand on débute. C'est donc plus un choix psychologique, ou pédagogique, que sémantique. Qu'en pensez-vous ? -- Eric.LEWIN (talk) 19:50, 3 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Bonjour ! Chaque communauté peut choisir le meilleur mot pour décrire cela. C'est une question de décision locale. La Fondation ne change pas le libellé. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 01:22, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

New sidebar design
I think the sidebar is not user-friendly (i.e.: font too small, words too crowded, help link is not enough noticeable). Could you propose some ideas about it? --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 17:29, 4 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Hello @Daniele Pugliesi! Thank you for asking. You are correct, the sidebar could be improved. We might at some point increase the font. (That increase would apply to everything, not just sidebar.) About the specific words though, we don't change those because this part is completely on the community's side. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 12:17, 5 August 2021 (UTC)
 * In my opinion words are fine, but what is more important for new and/old users could to be more evident and intuitive, for example adding some icon, coloured boxes, etc. In other words, a different and more complex layout/graphics, better if with some possibility to customize it, for example in order to have a basic sidebar for readers and new users (with more emphasis on links to rules pages and support pages) and another version for experienced users (with more emphasis on links to editing tools and patrolling tools). --Daniele Pugliesi (talk) 12:58, 5 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Icons and stuff - that sounds interesting. In the early days of the project, when the team was just imagining what could be done, a sketch with a sidebar with icons was created. Maybe we will think about that again when we will be closer to the "general aesthetic refinements". And yes, we have thought about making the interface tailored for specific groups, so one version for readers, and a different one for power users. Sadly, we are not able to do that now because of the limitations of the infrastructure. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 15:36, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

The width limitation of the wikitext source editor
The source editor uses monospace font which is wider than the default one. This means that every line of text in the source edit view consists of smaller number of words than on the article page. While I'm generally for the width limitation, I feel like the editor is too narrow. Msz2001 (talk) 06:00, 7 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Hi @Msz2001, fair request. We'll create a Phabricator task and examine how exactly how that could be done. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 01:12, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Will the current design still be available alongside the new one
Will the current design still be available even when the new one is rolled out, since I like the current version of Vector better than the new one. Blubabluba9990 (talk) 17:47, 9 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Hey @Blubabluba9990! Yes, the Legacy Vector will remain available for anyone to choose. You can opt in and out at any point. I hope that you will like the new version when more changes are ready :) SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 01:05, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Deskop/mobile key
Premise: I don't speak English well so excuse me for error. Considering the fact that you are changing the interface, I ask that the "desktop/mobile" and "mobile/desktop" button be repositioned in a more visible way and above all higher, because especially with small touchscreen displays as smartphone, sometimes the "warning" or "privacy" button is often pressed. My idea is to put it in the sidebar near wiki language link or at the top near the "edit" and "history" buttons--5.11.114.150 10:29, 10 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you! That's an interesting thought. This will be possible closer to the end of the year when we will be working on the "general refinements," and then we will possibly change the footer. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 01:03, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Вклад и список наблюдения в один клик
В прошлый раз интервики спрятали под выпадающее меню, теперь ещё список наблюдения и вклад участника? На список наблюдения нужно переходить гораздо чаще, чем на новые сообщения. Да и в целом, на десктопной версии нет необходимости что-то прятать, если есть возможность сделать переход в один клик, особенно если по этой ссылке нужно переходить часто — лучше оставить переход в один клик. --Tucvbif (talk) 05:43, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Trend towards hiding links and more clicks
I have tried the new skin for some time. I like some features, such as the maximum column width in articles, which make them much more readable and provide a more consistent experience for users with different screen sizes. However, I am noticing a trend towards increasing number of clicks needed to do anything. First it was language links. They used to be accessible directly, while now we need to open a dynamic menu which slows down the process. I think that for people like me that often use multiple languages it is quite annoying. More recently, the links to watchlist, preferences, sandbox etc. have also been moved to another drop down menu. I don't understand the rationale for this. There is plenty of space to fit all the links, so why hide them in a dynamic menu? Now I have a lot of blank unused space and need to click double the time to get anywhere. How is this an improvement? Unfortunately after this I am forced to go back to the old skin for better usability, although I really liked some of the changes. --Ita140188 (talk) 02:50, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I also miss the direct links to the languages and to the user-related pages (watchlist, preferences, etc.). Or if only the user could choose the links that would go in the new blank space (e.g., what he uses the most often)... — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 21:17, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
 * En:Wikipedia:Keyboard shortcuts may be helpful for avoiding two clicks to commonly used pages. Jdlrobson (talk) 23:46, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
 * It works only when english layout activated. It doesn't work with non-latin-based languages.— Tucvbif (talk) 06:40, 13 August 2021 (UTC)
 * This is the opposite for me: access keys work on fr.wikipedia.org, but not on en.wikipedia.org (actually, they sometimes work, but not always). — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 09:58, 13 August 2021 (UTC)
 * agree. It's really annoying to have more clicks.--Afaz (talk) 04:16, 13 August 2021 (UTC)


 * I think it makes sense to hide the language links, as those aren't used super frequently (at least in my admittedly limited experience), but for active editors, the talk, watchlist, sandbox, and contribution links are used all the time. I'm finding it annoying to have to make an extra click to get to them. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:50, 13 August 2021 (UTC)
 * An extra click is also required to access the "More" menu and the Twinkle menu ("TW") because they don't drop down automatically when hovering like they do in the old version. This and the display issues I talk about below make the new version inconvenient to use and look broken in appearance. I won't be using it until these issues are addressed. Diannaa (talk) 13:28, 18 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Just wanted to note my agreement with the OP above. As a logged in editor of Wikipedia, I access my user page very rarely.  But it's one click away, and now the easiest page to reach in the entirety of Wikipedia.  Other links, such as my talk page, watch list and contributions, which I use all the time, are now two clicks away.  Where is the sense in this? --Escape Orbit (talk) 15:10, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Mauvais liens de page d'aide sur le nouveau menu utilisateur
Bonjour, en allant sur Wikipédia en français, en étant déconnecté, nous avons, avec la nouvelle interface, un nouveau bouton Créer un compte puis les trois points menant au sous-menu où apparaît ceci :

« Pages pour les éditeurs déconnectés (en savoir plus) », ce qui mène à un mauvais lien, c'est dû à une mauvaise "traduction" de la page d'aide de WP anglophone Help:Introduction. Cette dernière a en effet w:fr:aide:premiers pas comme équivalent, cf Wikidata.

En résumé, serait ce possible de modifier le lien de Aide:Introduction vers Aide:Premiers pas ? Merci d'avance et bonne continuation pour le dévelopement du projet! --  Nemo  Discuter 20:51, 14 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Solution technique temporaire trouvée sur WP en français (changement de redirection, Aide:Introduction menait auparavant à w:fr:Wikipédia:Résumé introductif). À mon avis, il faut que le lien (en savoir plus) mène à la page correspondante de Help:Introduction pour chaque wiki, indiquée sur l'item wikidata et ce peut importe les futurs évolution de l'interface, un mauvais lien aussi visible n'est pas tolérable. Bonne continuation, --  Nemo   Discuter 09:46, 15 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Similar issue: T288293.--Patafisik (talk) 19:09, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

Ability to link to other language articles missing in new version of language selector
Previously before the rollout of the new language selector (the one that move it onto the header bar), I was able to link English Wikipedia articles to other languages Wikipedia articles by clicking the "edit links" link under the languages panel on the sidebar. However with the new version, this link is nowhere to be found, even in Edit mode. Would like to have this function added back else it will become very tedious process of linking to other languages Wikipedia articles, I would need to go to wikidata, find the correct item, and add the newly created article onto the language list. Another alternative I can/have done before, is switching back to legacy mode, add it onto the list, and then switch back, which sounds ridiculous as this isn't improvement. Both methods are very inefficient when compared to former design of ease of access and usage.

Sorry about the rant, if the feature is already there, please advise where to find it else would like to request this feature to be added back. Paper9oll 10:46, 15 August 2021 (UTC)
 * There’s an Edit/Add interlanguage links in the left-hand sidebar’s toolbox (a bit higher up than where the language links were). The plan is to have it next to the language links again, but that needs quite some work (T265996); the toolbox is a temporary solution (T287206). The popup to link the articles without ever going to Wikidata doesn’t work reliably in new Vector yet, but hopefully next week it will. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 13:01, 15 August 2021 (UTC)
 * @Tacsipacsi Oh great, thanks for the reply. Will make do with the "Edit/Add interlanguage links" for the time being. Glad to see the function being worked on. Paper9oll 13:12, 15 August 2021 (UTC)

Ordre des boutons dans le nouveau menu utilisateur
Bonjour, je pense que l'ordre des boutons dans le nouveau menu utilisateur devrait être changé. L'actuel est inspiré des anciens liens utilisateur du vieux Vector (Discussion - Brouillon - Préférences - Bêta-Liste de suivi - Contributions - Se déconnecter), qui se trouvaient horizontalement. Mais verticalement, Liste de suivi et Contirbutions sont plus difficile à atteindre alors que ce sont deux liens plus utilisés que Bêta et Préférence. Je propose donc un nouvel ordre dans le menu vertical :
 * Discussion
 * Brouillon
 * Liste de suivi
 * Contributions
 * Préférences
 * Bêta

--  Nemo  Discuter 12:58, 15 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Hi,
 * I agree with a list where "Préférences (Preferences)" and "Bêta (Beta)" came after "Liste de suivi (Watchlist)" and "Contributions (Contributions)". The list in the user menu that I can see is actually this one:


 * Discussion (Talk)
 * Brouillon (Sandbox)
 * Préférences (Preferences)
 * Bêta (Beta)
 * Liste de suivi (Watchlist)
 * Contributions (Contributions)
 * Traductions (Translations)
 * Fichiers téléversés (Uploaded media)
 * Log-out
 * can you add in your suggested list to order the links also "Uploaded media" and "Translations" ?--37.103.9.224 10:26, 18 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Effectivement, certains wiki ont d'autres boutons ! Pour moi, Preference et Gadget devraient systématiquement se trouver à la fin de tous les autres boutons. Cela donnerait ici :
 * Discussion (Talk)
 * Brouillon (Sandbox)
 * Liste de suivi (Watchlist)
 * Contributions (Contributions)
 * Traductions (Translations)
 * Fichiers téléversés (Uploaded media)
 * Préférences (Preferences)
 * Bêta (Beta)
 * Log-out --  Nemo  Discuter 21:08, 19 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree.--37.103.9.224 13:38, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

Tagging wide tables for exception?
Firstly, great work on this! I've been using it for a while now. Secondly, I wonder whether it'd be worth either automatically identifying wide tables, or allowing them to be manually tagged as. The formatting for those tables could therefore either be:


 * Wide tables default to full width (extended to the right, or both left and right)
 * Wide tables still default narrow but get a button appear on the right to extend the width to full width.

It's low priority, but could be worth considering. T.Shafee(Evo&#65120;Evo)talk 06:17, 16 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you @Evolution and evolvability for your support. I'll share your idea with the team. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 18:53, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

Suggestion to redesign the Language button
Hi, with how the Language button is designed and placed onto the article right now, it also moves the articles' symbols (such as stars, locks, GA...) to a new place. I think the new place of these symbols is not visually reasonable because it feels quite out of place. So the Vietnamese community has a suggestion to redesign and replace the button like this, where we will drop the word "Languages" (as in XX languages) and then combine the articles' symbols and the Language symbol onto one single place. Can you guys consider it?

Also, the moving articles' symbols to a new place means that we have to move coordination to a new place, and consequently make the coordination overlaps with Xtool (See this Phab task I just created.) Thanks! Bluetpp (WMF) (talk) 14:14, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

Overlapping content when coordinates template is present
Here is a screen shot of what I am seeing with the new Vector version on the article Calgary. The output of the Coord template is overlapping with other content on the page. Same on other articles such as en:Division of Batman but not on en:Edmonton, where the Good Article icon apparently pushes it downward to a nice location. I am using an Acer Chromebook, but I tested it also on an Acer desktop running Windows and got the same mess. Thanks, Diannaa (talk) 01:19, 18 August 2021 (UTC)

The second screen shot shows the box "Skip to TOC - Skip to bottom" unhelpfully overlapping with other text on the en.wiki page Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations. Thanks,Diannaa (talk) 01:33, 18 August 2021 (UTC)
 * For the coords at least, it's a known issue; see above. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 18:45, 18 August 2021 (UTC)

Clock
The clock is very helpful and I use it constantly. I don't like having to use a pulldown menu to look at the UTC time on the new Vector skin. Thanks, Diannaa (talk) 01:22, 18 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Hey @Diannaa, thank you for your opinion. Any links added via gadgets to the user menu are displayed in the new dropdown. The clock is added via such a gadget. Since these lie within the realm of community/volunteer editing, our engineers provide help for the gadget maintainers, but don't edit gadgets if possible. You may find another thread on this issue on the gadget's talk page. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 16:31, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

Login button is under a ··· icon
Hello! When logged out, there are two options [Create account] and [···]. The login button should be visible at all time, and should also have an icon. -Theklan (talk) 17:11, 19 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Hello, others users agree with this proposal, e.g. asked the same here. In my opinion, if the team want to conserve the login button under the icon, the icon more appropriate should be the account icon (the same of logged-in editors), instead of three points button which is not "self explanatory" of a user link to login inside. Logged in or logged out, the user icon is easy to understand and universal for "the person visiting this website". The ··· icon is not so clear : it means "see also" and not "see the link to log-in".--37.103.9.224 13:36, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

Test and observations
Hello, thank you for your efforts. I am currently experimenting with improvements to persuade the largest segment of the Arab community to adopt it, but I have a first note, which is when there is no article in preferred language, a link appears in the old version (in gray) carrying the Content translation tool, but it is now absent. the secode, is the space in right (Arabic) when the Browser is 100%, but 0 space above 120%

Greetings Nehaoua (talk) 18:35, 19 August 2021 (UTC)


 * First of all, huge thank you for talking to the Arab community, @Nehaoua!
 * Could you write more? Where does the link appear exactly?
 * Perhaps the resolution of your screen is the reason why the space to the right disappears above 120%. Is inconvenient for you? What would you prefer instead?
 * SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 18:45, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

A new icon
Hello. Is there a way to provide an icon for gadget or user script defined link in the new user menu? Thank you. IKhitron (talk) 14:47, 22 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Hi @IKhitron. We believe it's a good nice-to-have. I personally totally support this. We may make this possible. The software will be checking in the gadget's code if an icon has been defined, and if yes, this icon will be displayed. Also, some requirements will be set. Probably, icons for custom links should be different from the existing ones so users wouldn't confuse the links. Now, we're focusing on the sticky header, and nice-to-haves will be added later. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 16:16, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

Bringing search functionality to RefToolbar
One of my favorite parts of New Vector has been the improved search functionality. I was wondering if it would be possible to take the core of this and expand it to other areas. For instance, at w:Wikipedia:RefToolbar/2.0, it would be very helpful if fields like work, publication, and author-link returned search results. Would this be possible? &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:37, 27 August 2021 (UTC)


 * VisualEditor has had a such search functionality for ages. mw.widgets.TitleInputWidget is OOUI, not WVUI, but it provides the same functionality, and Vue is not (yet?) available for gadgets anyway. Or is there anything that’s missing from the OOUI widget (apart from the dynamic loading, which would be more annoying than useful in an editing interface IMO, and the link at the bottom to Special:Search, which makes absolutely no sense if you want to put the value in the input field instead of going to the said page)? —Tacsipacsi (talk) 11:57, 28 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I just checked VisualEditor, and it does have the functionality I'm seeking for the author-link parameter (since it's set to the "page name" type in the TemplateData. I'm not sure how to bring it to the work and publisher fields, as we'd want it to wikilink when someone selects a page but not when they just type in something custom (as will sometimes be the case, as not every newspaper/etc. we cite has an article). And I don't know how to bring it to RefToolbar, either, which is how most experienced editors edit and therefore what ends up getting used for most of the citations added. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:46, 28 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I don’t know how to do conditional linking, either, but I also don’t think this is the right venue to ask for help from other people. The most appropriate non-enwiki place is Tech, although en:WP:VPT or en:Wikipedia:Interface administrators' noticeboard may also be helpful.
 * Now I tried out RefToolbar, and realized that it still uses jQuery UI; this widget uses OOUI. While it’s possible to mix the two, the result (what the user sees) would look quite awful, so I don’t recommend it. On the other hand, jQuery UI is more flexible: its windows can be moved on the screen by grabbing the title bar, and they can be modal or non-modal, while OOUI only offers non-movable, modal windows, so probably many users wouldn’t like OOUI (especially as one can’t select text behind the window for copy-paste). I don’t really know what the right solution is, but again, tgis page is not the right venue for lengthy discussions on this matter. (Feel free to ping me if you want to hear my opinion in a discussion you start elsewhere.) —Tacsipacsi (talk) 18:41, 29 August 2021 (UTC)

Левая панель наползает на тело статьи
При некоторых размерах окна левая панель стала наползать на текст статьи. https://imgur.com/a/SOMtjKr --Tucvbif (talk) 08:35, 30 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Hey @Tucvbif. Could you add ?safemode=1 to the URL and check again? I suspect you might experience this because of a gadget that you use. If this happens with ?safemode=1 in the URL, please write what operating system and browser do you use, and which versions, and we'll try to use the same. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 18:51, 2 September 2021 (UTC)

Two thoughts on collapsed user menu
Hi! Two quick observations on the collapsed user menu: Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 23:51, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
 * 1) I'm not sure why "Beta" is one of the links. It's really just one of the preferences pages, and there's already a link to preferences. Shouldn't it be removed?
 * 2) I've run into the issue a few times where the notification thingy you get when you e.g. add a page to your watchlist conflicts with the user menu (which is hidden behind it). A frequent workflow is for me to finish up something on a page, add that page to my watchlist, and then go to my watchlist to see what's next. Having to wait for a few seconds for the watchlist message to go away or click on it to get it out of the way is a minor nuisance. Could you make it so that the user menu displays on top or pushes the watchlist confirmation notification down?


 * Hey @Sdkb! Good points!
 * If I recall correctly, we haven't thought or planned to touch anything in the menu itself. We only have changed a line of links into a drop-down. Should we improve the selection of the links? That's an interesting point. We'll think about that.
 * I've created T290270. If you feel comfortable, you're welcome to report bugs on Phabricator yourself.
 * SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 17:14, 2 September 2021 (UTC)