User blog comment:Rupert Giles/Layout Changes: Breakpoints and Typography/@comment-5275700-20150520212753/@comment-24416108-20150520221445

From the FAQ:


 * Breakpoints

Fine, no issues here.


 * Readable space reduction

Don't really see the point here. After all, if someone buys a bigger monitor, they'll want to generally see more content on it. Otherwise, what's the point?


 * Large Fonts

Award for worst idea since Venus skin, which it doesn't trump just because it doesn't affect everyone.

The mentionend: "shift towards “readability and line length that follow modern UX (user experience) best practices”."

contains more than just words/line. It's also about font size, and larger swaths of text are actually HARDER to read if the font size moves up, simply because the the angle at which you have to look increases - the angle on the vertical axis. Notice how you automatically move back your head when confronted with certain users putting their criticism in big fonts here? That's because of this reason. The point where your eyes see sharp enough to read is actually pretty small, and a letter has to fit in there without a vertical movement to read well, and you just completely blew that balance. It will tire out readers on large screens much faster if you move up the front.

Therefore, the conclusion is that your methods are counterproductive to your goals. I can see the following options here: Which will keep the front size large, and the readability low. On top of that, a sizable group of editors, namely those on larger PC's, is going to be disappointed in the host of their sites. While this may not cause them to massively move over their content somewhere else, the reason is mostly that it's to much of a hassle for them. Pushing hated changes however, will push them closer to the limit where they will either stop editing or maybe even make that transfer. Just the font size will actually satisfy around 95% of the people here. And while they might not instantly forget this, they will notice that you actually do listen to us. You were able to cancel the Venus Skin(which I must say, took more community pressure than it should have.), but you pushed the Nav Bar down our throats pretty roughly.
 * Keep on going
 * Revert the bad parts

As a closing note, I would like to say something about the way Wiki's can work. They're sites made by the Editors. You guys often say that the Users require a good experience, but it's actually us that need to provide that - the easier you make it for us to make a good-looking, well-functioning Wiki for them to get their information. For that we need your help - we need a stable base to build our information sources on. There are a couple of things here that are more important than other. Stability, for exemple, is in my humble opinion the highest of these. The site needs to function. I'm willing to forgive minor bugs, or bugs that are fixed fast upon discovery. However, these recent changes are not a sign of stability - it feels like a work in progress, like Wikia is still being developed - which is NOT a stable environment you can build a Wiki on. I'm not talking about the introduction bugs here. I'm talking about the fact that you're changing stuff as basic as Font Sizes and Site Navigation. I understand your desire for Branding across all Wiki's, but should that really take priority over the functionality of said Wiki's? I think not.

If you continue on the path to a modern site with wide branding and ever-shifting looks, the individual Wiki's will fall off one by one. Simply because every individual Wiki also needs their own style, so that it's different from other fan-sites, like dedicated forums or even official sites for their subjects. My home Wiki for example is about a PC game, and we've adapted a style close to that of the in-game encyclopedia. This makes it instantly recognizable as a primary source of information for said game. However, if Global Wikia changes screws that up beyond our repair (which a font size change can and will accomplish), then there's nothing we can do to keep it functional.

I understand that this is your site, and you can do whatever you want. However, I'm asking you on behalf of many editors, please listen to us. We know our communities, and we want to make our Wiki's as accessible as possible. This is because it's purpose of our work to be read by users, and this is where we take our satisfaction from - an article well-written, information easy to find. From this point of view, I completely approve of the Mobile Preview mode, and highly encourage informative articles about how to write better, and in such a way to prevent large walls of text that are hard to read. Many of us have in the past, and still look at Help: articles. We're willing to learn to improve our work, if only you'll let us.

In my opinion, you can't fix the large lines of text that you oh-so-fear on the bigger monitors - but we can. Give us a notification when publishing an edit, or add a note in the top bar when editing, preferably one that contains a like to an easy to read article on how to write an easy to read article, where you can include the "modern UX (user experience) best practices” to your heart's content. However, applying those "best" practices with a sledgehammer like you're doing now is simply not going to work.

Thank you for reading, and your consideration.