User blog comment:Rupert Giles/Layout Changes: Breakpoints and Typography/@comment-24198327-20150520184217/@comment-25534439-20150520192248

"While this update clearly has a purpose"

I note mostly that there is no actual purpose stated beyond attempting to achieve a similar user experience on all platforms. I also note that this seems to be driven by some wikias not properly supporting tablet size devices. The solution to problems with tablet layouts is, of course, to cut desktops off at the knees. Equality through punishing excellence.

"Some power to wiki admins"

Never happening. Hasn't happened with previous shoddy updates, won't happen now.

"Simple poll"

Again, will never happen. Father knows best.

As an editor who has spent a long time fudging tables, cramming data together, splitting data over multiple rows, and generally getting a headache trying to meet the arbitrary demand that the wikia fit within a tablet view, this new update is just getting me shit on from both sides. I of all people know that large data tables don't fit nicely in the wiki format, and certainly not in the less than 700 pixels we have to work with. What doesn't help? Being told that moving the right wikiarail is not allowed, while in this blog post "(for example, removing the right rail was fairly disruptive)".

Why? Because "we" have to have that consistent user experience. Gotta have it. Even if it means making that experience worse. We've only had one table that didn't suffer from this change. Reason being? It was completely reworked from the ground up to hide the tables, remove data from the tables, and outright strip functionality out of the page to make it fit. This, naturally, pissed off the 85% of our users who were having no issues with the page, because it worsened their experience significantly to marginally improve the experience of the 15% (except not, because of the stripped functionality and removed data).

This is the road these changes head down: a definitively worse experience for all so that some few might not be mildly inconvenienced by having to scroll or zoom a page. And they won't actually revert any changes they've made, because they believe they are right. They won't ask or poll in advance either, because they believe they are right. Enough writing, time to get back to work on that wiki fork.