alt.hn

8/4/2026 at 12:04:30 PM

How did Wikipedia layout become so bloated?

by countWSS

8/4/2026 at 12:13:18 PM

It's especially annoying on pages that have big tables, where all the wasted space makes it need to horizontally scroll. Sometimes I wish that once a horizontal scrollbar appears, browsers would ignore max-width on that page from then on.

by josephcsible

8/4/2026 at 12:38:59 PM

Did you disable cookies or something? Table of Contents sidebar hides and stays hidden across page loads, browser restarts, etc. Appearance sidebar is the same. Appearance sidebar lets you set the article width as well, with the default being slightly slim, but the wide option being the full browser width.

The only way I can get it to reset is to clear my cookies, so its likely that.

by Olreich

8/4/2026 at 3:25:44 PM

I also have the sidebars constantly reappearing, and I don't have cookies disabled. It's really annoying.

by sparky_z

8/4/2026 at 2:32:26 PM

Wikipedia.org :270 cookies, 110MB used. Never cleared or disabled any.

by countWSS

8/4/2026 at 5:19:54 PM

Wikipedia pages now have more sidebars than actual history.

by Bhagya1111

8/4/2026 at 2:04:42 PM

I use Redirector in Firefox to rewrite URLs to the old Wikipedia:

  {
      "description": "Old Wikipedia",
      "exampleUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page",
      "exampleResult": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?useskin=vector",
      "error": null,
      "includePattern": "^(https?://)([a-z0-9-]*\\.)wikipedia\\.org\\/wiki\\/([^?]+)(?!=\\?useskin=vector)",
      "excludePattern": "",
      "patternDesc": "Adds ?useskin=vector to any Wikipedia page",
      "redirectUrl": "https://$2wikipedia.org/wiki/$3?useskin=vector",
      "patternType": "R",
      "processMatches": "noProcessing",
      "disabled": false,
      "grouped": false,
      "appliesTo": [
          "main_frame"
      ]
  }

by davisr

8/4/2026 at 2:59:51 PM

I do something similar with Redirector, but a bit more involved (to also redirect mobile links to the regular pages + a few other cases):

    {
        "description": "Wikipedia Mobile -> Regular",
        "exampleUrl": "https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernucleus",
        "exampleResult": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernucleus?useskin=vector",
        "error": null,
        "includePattern": "https://([^.]+).m.wikipedia.org/wiki/([^#?]+)(#(.+))?",
        "excludePattern": "",
        "patternDesc": "Remove .m and add ?useskin=vector to end",
        "redirectUrl": "https://$1.wikipedia.org/wiki/$2?useskin=vector$3",
        "patternType": "R",
        "processMatches": "noProcessing",
        "disabled": false,
        "grouped": false,
        "appliesTo": [
            "main_frame"
        ]
    },
    {
        "description": "Wikipedia (Use Vector instead of Vector2022 skin)",
        "exampleUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato",
        "exampleResult": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato?useskin=vector",
        "error": null,
        "includePattern": "https://([^.]+).wikipedia.org/wiki/([^#?]+)(#(.+))?",
        "excludePattern": "(https://[^.]+.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:.+)|(https://([^.]+).wikipedia.org/wiki/[^?]+[?].*useskin=.+)",
        "patternDesc": "Add ?useskin=vector to end",
        "redirectUrl": "https://$1.wikipedia.org/wiki/$2?useskin=vector$3",
        "patternType": "R",
        "processMatches": "noProcessing",
        "disabled": false,
        "grouped": false,
        "appliesTo": [
            "main_frame"
        ]
    },
    {
        "description": "Wikipedia (Use Vector instead of Vector2022 skin) -- Query String Redirect",
        "exampleUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Petabyte&redirect=no",
        "exampleResult": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Petabyte&redirect=no&useskin=vector",
        "error": null,
        "includePattern": "https://([^.]+).wikipedia.org/((?:w/index.php)|(?:wiki/([^#?]+)))[?]([^#]+)(#(.+))?",
        "excludePattern": "(https://[^.]+.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:.+)|(https://([^.]+).wikipedia.org/wiki/[^?]+[?].*useskin=.+)",
        "patternDesc": "https://([^.]+).wikipedia.org/wiki/([^#?]+)[?].+useskin=.+",
        "redirectUrl": "https://$1.wikipedia.org/$2$3?$4&useskin=vector$5",
        "patternType": "R",
        "processMatches": "noProcessing",
        "disabled": false,
        "grouped": false,
        "appliesTo": [
            "main_frame"
        ]
    }

by Figs

8/4/2026 at 12:42:03 PM

I have been using MonoBook for years (early 2023 I think), I see nothing like that.

by bananaflag

8/4/2026 at 12:39:28 PM

It might have something to do with Wikimedia Foundation and WP:CANCER.

by inigyou

8/4/2026 at 1:15:47 PM

reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Guy_Macon/Wikipedia_has_C...

by josefritzishere

8/4/2026 at 1:43:08 PM

It seems a bit silly to base this entire analysis on Wikipedia page views without exploring what else the WMF does.

And in any event, I have a really hard time getting worked up about the relatively small amount of money they deal with - and use to do a lot of good for the world - while corruption and greedy corporations are as rampant and filthy rich as they are.

by squigz

8/4/2026 at 1:49:36 PM

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Corruption is fought best by not allowing it anywhere at all.

by tosti

8/4/2026 at 2:05:54 PM

Putting aside that I don't believe WMF is 'wrong' here at all, it's simply not reasonable or healthy to get upset about every wrong thing. One needs to pick their battles.

by squigz

8/4/2026 at 5:14:23 PM

True that. Getting upset about pretty much anything is rarely useful. IDK who first theorized this, but usually people get upset when they don't fully understand the situation. They who truly grasp the entire situation can't get upset.

The real battle is in oneself.

by tosti

8/4/2026 at 2:07:44 PM

Personally I'm not worked up over it either, but I find the argument that this puts Wikipedia at risk persuasive. If it some point WMF racks up debts they can't pay and puts itself up for sale, these days probably Elon Musk or Larry Ellison would buy it.

by tdeck

8/4/2026 at 2:18:59 PM

Is the WMF in debt?

by squigz

8/4/2026 at 2:21:13 PM

The WMF is clearly unable to reduce expenses. If donations ever decrease, it will be bankrupt within two years.

by inigyou

8/4/2026 at 2:37:13 PM

> The WMF is clearly unable to reduce expenses.

Nothing about this is clear. What makes you think that, if the donations were to significantly fall off, they would be unable to reduce expenses?

by squigz

8/4/2026 at 1:34:45 PM

A quick reminder that reader mode works great with almost every WP article.

by chuckadams

8/4/2026 at 1:05:39 PM

Is there some kind of extension to block their begging for donations banner?

by g8oz

8/4/2026 at 12:48:19 PM

I’ll answer deeper question “why” if you don’t mind.

Wikipedia itself has become corrupted and politically and ideologically biased in past years. It has been shown multiple times.

When you stop pursuing the truth and start pursuing an agenda - things get ugly over time. It’s a general pattern.

by aristofun

8/4/2026 at 1:20:37 PM

I've not experienced this, can you provide some examples?

by jan_paje

8/4/2026 at 1:44:12 PM

this post is about layouts

by gnoll_of_gozag

8/4/2026 at 3:13:16 PM

Layouts are logical symptoms of underlying deeper problem

by aristofun

8/4/2026 at 1:02:02 PM

> It has been shown multiple times.

Feel free to share.

by squigz