User blog comment:Rupert Giles/Prototype for a new article layout/@comment-477304-20141214174956

I know I've commented on this blog before, but removing the right rails is a terrible idea, that should be obvious from the screenshot at the top if the page. By doing this, the infobox gets push down by recent activity or by an ad. This looks incredibly unprofessional as the main image of the page is pushed down and therefore not the first thing someone will see. I can imagine that this would be off-putting for any new visitors to any wiki and I think it will make people less likely to join due to poor integration of the content and other features. If your intention is to draw in more new users, I believe that removing the right rail would a step in the wrong direction.

Additionally, some wikis have rather long right rails with varying content on them, what will happen to them? Disney and AHS only show recent activity. If this is all that will be kept from the right rail, this could greatly restrict the amount of content available to users and visitors. I've also noticed that the changes aren't on special pages, is this because the layout being tested, or will they remain the same after this is implemented? If it's the latter, than this will be very confusing for new users and I would imagine regular users will find it disorientating as well.

Another issue I have is the new tool bar, as an admin, I have a lot of buttons on my tool bar so the dropdown is so long that I have to scroll it to see all my buttons, which is a slight nuisance. Quite frankly, I can't see why it can't remain a bar at the bottom where everything can be accessed quicker and easier.

Having must watch videos smack dab in the middle of the page is poor presentation as well, it clashes greatly with the article content, I didn't even notice it at first, as I was skimming through the page and thought they were just the videos for the page.

I doubt any criticisms will be taken aboard mind, I recall there were multiple, consistent complaints with Oasis that were never changed, but I figured listing out issues would be worth a shot.