Wikipedia talk:Vector 2022

Table of contents -- collapsed or expanded

Hello everybody. When I view articles, sometimes the table of contents initially displays with the subsections collapsed, and sometimes it initially displays with the subsections expanded. For example, The Beatles has the TOC subsections collapsed and The Beatles discography has them expanded. Why is it inconsistent in this way? What I really want is for the subsections (and sub-subsections, etc.) to always be expanded upon initial display of the article, so I'm viewing the entire TOC. In my opinion that would be way better. (I'm on a Windows desktop PC, and using Firefox.) — Mudwater ^(Talk) 21:54, 12 July 2023 (UTC)

I don't know if it is documented anywhere, but T300973 made it so that the TOC is expanded if there are fewer than 20 sections. If you want the TOC to be expanded on all pages, see this thread from the archive. My custom CSS may have changed since that post. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:54, 12 July 2023 (UTC)

@Jonesey95: Very interesting. Thank you. I wonder if the auto-expansion (and I guess numbering too) could be made into a built-in choice, under Preferences --> Appearance, for those using Vector 2022. — Mudwater ^(Talk) 10:24, 13 July 2023 (UTC)

It's generally a bad idea to make things preferencces unless it's necessary, due to maintainability issues. There's an essay about it on MetaWiki or MediaWiki. — Qwerfjkltalk 13:17, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

New prototype?

This is is the prototype I meant. I think that it is greatly superior to the current V22, and at the same time an improvement compared to V10. It would have been the right compromise between classical structure and innovation, and I think that the community would have unanimously welcomed it.--Æo (talk) 21:52, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Recently, I read the following article: Geoff Graham, "Behind The Curtains Of Wikipedia Redesign", Smashing Magazine, 26 June 2023.

In the article are shown two screenshots of a different version of Vector 2022, respectively in the very first and in the very last images of the article, which in my opinion is far better than both the currently deployed version and the Zebra version. In particular, in the version shown in the article, the ToC is placed inline just as it was in Vector Legacy and the user's and reader's menus and buttons are better organised. What is this version? Will it be available in the future? Æo (talk) 13:41, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Hey @Æo. Thanks for your continued interest in the project :) These mockups were made at the early exploratory stage in summer 2019, and only reflected the initial ideas of our designer and product manager. You'll see more of those in the Wikimania Stockholm research report. As you know, throughout the project, we did feedback collection rounds on a few prototypes, and performed qualitative user tests and A/B tests, which is how we've landed with what we've got now. These mockups naturally can't include that part of our job.

Currently, we're making first steps in our next project – you'll find information about it on the page Accessibility for reading (the project name and page title may change). Soon we'll be ready to send first messages about it to village pumps across the wikis. If you'd like to watch us more closely, subscribe to our newsletter to get notifications about the project updates! SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 15:48, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

You should consider re-proposing those versions to the broader community. The current V22 has driven me away from Wikipedia. I am literally repulsed by the articles when I am not logged in (with V10). Æo (talk) 20:01, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

@Æo: There may be an add-on for your browser which switches to your preferred skin even when not logged in. I use one. Certes (talk) 20:16, 7 August 2023 (UTC)