User:NoOneAsked

I am a long-time Wikipedia user from Gainesville, Florida. I have edited articles and even mailed in donations, but never registered. On May 13, 2010, when Wikipedia changed its default layout and made things much harder to use, I registered for an account so I could raise my voice.

Oh masters of Wikipedia

Revert!

What are the problems?

• Wikipedia conducted no poll, no survey
  • They depended upon experts and a rather small sample of the user base. Recall that that the people who managed the Deepwater Horizons oil rig were also experts.
  • The main work of the group working on the change was focused on the usability of Wikipedia's editing tools. I have not found mention of a mandate to alter the look and feel of the main site.
• The search box moved from its well-known position to the upper right
  • This may be in line with other web sites, but certainly runs contrary to the long-established usage patterns of Wikipedia users.
  • Search is a major function of Wikipedia; for most sites, search is a nice-to-have but inessential extra. Wikipedia gains much of its utility from its strong search function. Search is a major feature of Wikipedia.
  • Note another web site which has a strong reliance on searchability: Google. It's search entry field is centered on the main page. Google recognizes that people use it because of its strong search function.
  • Search suggestions, another useful feature, often expand far to the right and overflow the page in the new layout. Conformity for the sake of conformity is stupid.
  • Gone is the Wikipedia search-through-page-text function (from the Search button).
• The list of languages is hidden by default
  • It is always very useful to see how widely a given topic is for people of other cultures.
  • We live in a world of many languages; this list of languages makes this always clear. It also invites the user to browse the article in other languages.
  • For those of us who make translations (or at least try to understand things in other languages), easy switching is very good to have.
• The new layout breaks in several browsers.