Talk:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements

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You can comment in any language. We are especially interested in:

• Feedback on the functionalities we have already deployed,
• Expanding the list of existing gadgets and user scripts that are related to providing a better desktop experience.

We are discussing with many volunteers and communities at the same time. It may take some time for us to reply here. We apologize for that.

Thank you!

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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)

limiting is the worst I need some way to disable it, because it difficult to read map, tables, genealogical map, edit code, etc Iqudoblev (talk) 18:09, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

@Iqudoblev: Hello, you can follow this instruction to expand the width. Thanks. SCP-2000 (talk) 02:41, 7 September 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)

in the meantime, i use the extension "night eye" for google chrome Notsammyray (talk) 21:02, 2 September 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)

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? — 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)

Thanks @T tfbb, we'll look into this! SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 21:29, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

WHY WAS THIS ADDED?!

I friggin' hate the new look and it being the default for every project. The old look has become somewhat iconic, and disabled preferences for IPs have taken it away from them. To put it simply: NOT COOL. IPs are people too (talk) 18:34, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

Hello @IPs are people too. Thanks for coming here. I hear you; although we think the change is positive in general, it isn't necessarily better for each person with their specific needs. I presume you have selected Vector legacy as your default skin, haven't you?

Indeed, the lack of preferences for not logged-in means that this audience can't change the skin they see. But over time, they will be able to customize more and more things about the interface. Is that something you'd like to be informed of every now and then? SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 21:38, 14 September 2023 (UTC)