Talk:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements

Limit the screen width
I think the worst one can do is limit the screen width... I's far less relaxed for reading and a waste of screen space. Switched back to the previous version. 213.219.163.24 23:41, 21 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Hello! I'd like to invite you to read this page: Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements/Features/Limiting content width. There we've documented our arguments for this change. If you prefer the full width, you may use the button in the bottom right corner of the screen, too. I hope this solves the issue! SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 17:57, 30 March 2023 (UTC)
 * I have a somewhat related question. I see that there is a toggle on the MediWiki site in the bottom right corner to adjust width, which is great... but I don't see it on my own install using Vector 2022 (MediaWiki version 1.39.3). Is there something I'm missing in order to make that visible? I don't have the "Enable limited width mode" option in user preferences either. Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer. Adoxtater (talk) 02:29, 27 April 2023 (UTC)
 * My install of MediaWiki also does not have the full width toggle button. Fanra (talk) 10:39, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
 * If you're not seeing the limited-width toggle, it might be because the browser window is too small. Currently, per T326887 the limited width toggle is only available when the browser window is bigger than 1400px wide. JDrewniak (WMF) (talk) 17:57, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I have dual monitor and stretched the window to run the full width of both and still no toggle button. However, on the mediawiki site it does show up even on a single monitor. Unless, of course, they're running some other code that makes it happen I guess. Adoxtater (talk) 22:21, 30 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I have designed an alternative toggle button that I feel better represents the functionality... and emailed it to answers@wikimedia.org. Is there a better way to share it?? 68.83.135.144 18:24, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I have designed an alternative toggle button that I feel better represents the functionality... and emailed it to answers@wikimedia.org. Is there a better way to share it??
 * Disallowing me to upload... AlanGochin (talk) 18:31, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I'd like to say that even after reading those pages and the research about page-width, from my perspective it's a bad default setting because it works against the things that page says it's being implemented to improve.
 * In my experience it's made wiki in general less readable because the article content is now  less than 50%  of my ultrawide screen (2560px horizontal resolution, default text width ends up at ~1025px) which creates the effect of a newspaper with only one, often extremely long column, hurting readability because you have to jump lines and scroll so much more often which at least for me completely breaks the flow the article had. In fact, I'd describe it as closer to an old school scroll than a newspaper. :/ 203.12.8.36 06:43, 8 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Being a long-time user of Wikipedia I have to say the old look is more superior than the new one. Not only is it wider it is also more simple. Having the contents on the left side of the screen in the new look isn't that helpful because the first thing people see in an article is the introduction. Volcanoguy (talk) 00:09, 21 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Limiting width is actually much more comfortable to read, especially for ultra wide or big screens, and it's the reason most modern websites are formatted that way. Limiting the width of the article also allows to keep in view useful interfaces on the sides, such as the index, shortcuts to various tools and URLs, and so on. CapoFantasma97 (talk) 11:57, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Some opposes and supports with same argument

 * Moved at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Rollback_of_Vector_2022#Some_opposes_and_supports_with_same_argument

please add dark mode!!
dark mode should be on wikipedia by now. every or most site on the internet has it. why doesn't the wiki have it too? Crenshire 23:36, 18 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Hello @Crenshire, thanks for your question. We will be building dark mode soon. Subscribe Newsletter:Web team's projects to get updates about that :) SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 12:32, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
 * I subscribed. Does the newsletter send me news in the alerts or notices page? Crenshire (talk) 21:47, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
 * For the time being you can make do with a browser addon (e.g. Dark Reader, which is FOSS and ubiquitous among desktop and mobile browsers) at the cost of a few rendering issues (images with a transparent background and some mathematical formulas will be hard to see). By default these addons are set enabled to all websites, but you can set them in whitelist mode, and pick the websites you want to use it on (as most websites do have a better implemented native dark mode). CapoFantasma97 (talk) 11:52, 19 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Also, there is a gadget en:Wikipedia:Dark mode (gadget) which maintained by volunteer developers. SCP-2000 (talk) 11:59, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

why is the search field hidden
In the old desktop version the search field was always visible and you could tab into it. Now you have to click the icon. Why do this? Searching for something is the main use for an encyclopedia. Stuartbrussell (talk) 07:01, 19 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Nevermind, it looks like somehow my browser went to the mobile version where you have to tap the search icon. Not sure how that happened... Stuartbrussell (talk) 07:04, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

Sidebar Main Menu
The sidebar main menu should be the same color as the background. Crenshire (talk) 21:47, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

What was the process for adding a sticky navbar?
I see some engagement metrics were used in the Features page, but I believe engagement metrics are the root of all evil on the web. The kinds of questions that matter are "did the user leave the page having learned something?," "if the user was looking for something specific, did they find it? How quickly?", and "did the user retain the information?"

The primary purpose of opening a page on wikipedia is to read the content in the page. A sticky navbar uses important vertical space on my screen that I want to use to read content to try and get me to do some other things.

Where can I learn more about how this decision was made, and who was involved? Is this decision reversible? 107.190.47.147 13:52, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

Interwiki on special pages
Hi! On Polish Wikipedia we used to have interwiki links on Special:Watchlist so as to allow users to switch to their watchlists in foreign language projects in a usual way, like on every other wiki page (the links are defined here). In Vector 2022 however, the language switcher displays just a language icon in the header and nothing happens after clicking it. Is it intentional to disable language switcher in such a case or is it just a bug? Msz2001 (talk) 15:49, 28 July 2023 (UTC)

Feature sister project links more prominently
In the beforetimes, sister project links were present in the sidebar. Such "prominence" made some Wikipedias to disencourage the inclusion of sister project links inside the articles.

Nowadays, the project links are hidden for the reader in the "tools" sidebar. Only editors want to see the "tools" sidebar. It's atleast for power-users.

Sister projects need interlinking for survival. Ignacio Rodríguez (talk) 03:09, 3 August 2023 (UTC)

The sidebar is too wide and the content block is too narrow
The sidebar is too wide and the content block is too narrow. and that the search bar will automatically hide when the layout becomes smaller? I think it's too inconvenient to using. 118.150.85.160 08:14, 10 August 2023‎ (UTC)
 * Hello! Thanks for commenting here. What language version do you use? Is it Chinese? SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 13:23, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

Suggest adding "Add interlanguage links" to "Add languages"
In the old look, it is easy to add interlanguage links. However, in the new look, the "Add interlanguage links" has been moved away from the "interlanguage" area. I think it should be more rational to have the link there.

When there is no interlanguage links, the current version is:

"No languages yet. Add a new one? Make the content available in more languages.
 * Translate this page
 * Open language settings"

I suggest the improved version should be like this:

"No languages yet. Add a new one? Make the content available in more languages.
 * Translate this page
 * Add interlanguage links
 * Open language settings"

Yaukasin (talk) 15:10, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Did someone change something recently?
I'm able to load (eg) "Template:Did you know nominations/..." pages off of my alerts at the top of already opened pages but periodically over the last week (and constantly at the moment) the actual article pages are either loading entirely blank screens or loading code glitches. (2 incomplete boxes in the partial style of, e.g., a section menu.)

Like all right-thinking editors, I'm still using Vector Legacy. Changing that (I can still access this page and my preferences just fine) doesn't seem to have any effect though. Still blank pages (not 404 errors) or glitches.

Did someone adjust something badly? or do any of you know what might be going on within Chrome that might cause this? &mdash; LlywelynII (talk) 05:02, 12 August 2023 (UTC)


 * @LlywelynII Perhaps report this issue on en:Wikipedia:Village pump (technical), as here is about Vector 2022. Thanks. SCP-2000 (talk) 03:02, 14 August 2023 (UTC)

searching: no suggestions for pages in extra namespaces
Hi there -

thank you very much for your work :) I just noticed that with mediawiki 1.39 and the accompanying vector 2022 skin, the suggestions in the search box only return hits for pages in the default namespace, but not for pages in custom namespaces.

So … given that there is a page "whatever" in the main namespace and a page "whatever2" in a custom namespace with the same content and that searches should include the custom namespace:
 * searching with vector 2022 only suggests "whatever"
 * searching with the timeless skin suggests both "whatever" and "whatever2"

The expected and desired behaviour is the timeless one.

Thank you for looking into this, Thoralf. T tfbb (talk) 08:15, 30 August 2023 (UTC)