Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements/Frequently asked questions

Will Monobook or Timeless be affected?
No. These changes will be applied to Vector only. [ Vector] has been the default interface on Wikimedia wikis since 2010. No other skins will be affected, including [ Monobook], [ Timeless], [ Minerva] or [ Modern].

Will you improve charts, maps, a-/f-/o-/tmboxes, infoboxes, navboxes, other templates?
No. We will not change anything that's within the gray article content area:



How can I disable it?
It's possible to turn the improvements on and off within user preferences. We have also provided an opt-out button in the sidebar (accessible on every page) for easier control.

Which wikis these changes are available on?
Currently, these are:
 * eu:
 * fr:
 * 
 * he:
 * fa:
 * 
 * Office Wiki

In 2019, we reached out to a set of wikis asking for the community-led wikis to test our project. We received confirmation from several of these wikis and formed a list of wikis we thought would be a good fit. When selecting, we wanted to focus on representation across sizes, languages, and scripts. We also wanted to ensure that at least one non-Wikipedia project is selected.

Why not make a new skin?
In theory, it would be an excellent idea, but in the case of Wikimedia skins, it's easier to change an existing one than to create a new one from scratch. There are many reasons:
 * it would be too complex to make the existing extensions, gadgets, and user scripts compatible with yet another skin, and too costly to maintain their compatibility,
 * it would be too challenging to build and maintain yet another skin (as a total replacement is not an option),
 * it would be less likely for the communities to collaborate effectively in the process of building a new skin.

Why not use beta features?
Beta features are available for registered users only, and the improvements are intended to serve our readers and unregistered users as well. Therefore, using beta features only would give us feedback from a very specific type of user that is not representative of our entire base of users. And moreover, we wish to receive the readers' and anonymous users' feedback from the earliest deployments.