Wikipedia Gets a Facelift

[engine]

Wikimedia has announced that Wikipedia is to get a facelift and starts rolling out now on English Wikipedia, and on 318 active language versions for all desktop users.

“The Wikipedia desktop update is one of the major improvements the Wikimedia Foundation is making to help people easily access the world’s knowledge, in support of our mission to make sure every person on the planet has free and equitable access to knowledge, regardless of where they live or where they are from,” said Selena Deckelmann, Chief Product and Technology Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation. “The changes make it easier for people to find and learn from the work of our incredible volunteers. These features were created with feedback from readers and volunteers from all over the world, aiming to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse audience, while keeping the simple and straightforward feel that millions of people have come to trust over the last 22 years.”

[wikimediafoundation.org...]

[not2easy]

It looks cleaner and the added labels help you find further related topics easier. It is a real improvement. Less wondering about purpose.

[tangor]

Since I do not have a wikipedia account I see no difference. The site remains functional in all regards. If that was the intended result then kudos for the fallback by the coders!

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Reminds me, my car engine isn't running smoothly, I better go change the tail light. That will fix it, right?

They were up to 70,000 editors at one point, how many have they lost recently?

[tangor]

Can't say... thought most of them were volunteers...

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

The pages have better locks now, it seems a lack of volunteers to monitor the edits was becoming an issue. Wikipedia is moving from a site created by people to legacy mode if that's the case.

In fairness, I do like the redesigned popups that show an image and snippet when you hover over an internal link (on PC). They are clean.

I wish they had removed all the citations, though, at least from the text itself (numbers everywhere). While good in general, on Wikipedia the citations are often abused. It's always felt like an attempt by Wikipedia to convey trustworthiness, but the very way the site chooses those sources makes trust a moot point. Almost anyone can toss a link in there, and they do, for lots of different reasons.

All sites run their course, it feels like Wikipedia passed their peak some time ago. See DMOZ. The bright side, it means we have many more ways to find information(and sources).