https://en.wikipedia.org/?useskin=cologneblue
According to the documentation, it’s been there since 2002!
It looks fine at 800x600 with RetroZilla.
That’s proper information density. Looks almost like a japanese web page.
the standard wikipedia skin is plenty information dense, while also actually being readable.
yes i’m cranky because the glorification of the old web is largely nostalgia and completely ignores things like accessibility
TIL: The Internet I grew up with is absolute bonkers.
The Internet we live with now is no less bonkers and nearing utter unusability.
Both true, but for totally different reasons, right.
Early Internet was kinda bonkers because it was disconnected and unregulated and anonymous and nobody yet understood UX design so every site was different, yet always cluttered and overwhelming.
Modern Internet is bonkers because UX patterns and user behaviour is so understood and homogenised that every site is basically the same simplified interface, along with the same dark patterns that manipulate user behaviour to maximise corporate profit, rather than trying to give users what they actually want.
The old type of bonkers was far more preferable.
Pretty sure they mean bonkers in a pleasantly surprised way
i mean yeah, it’s like comparing the first car to a modern kei car, there’s been some obvious improvements despite the fact that most cars are oversized and way too sleek
the early web looks like shit, the standard modern website is hidden behind 4 layers of ads, but a modern website that isn’t shittified is pretty fucking great.
Yeah, this was sort of the “corporate-ish” color scheme and web design template back then for websites. Tons of things looked like this. Facebook looked like this for a decade or more. Large banner images took too long to load and this looked “professional” because it looked like corporate letterhead.
Xerox used red, but similar layout to some degree.
Additionally, it looks a lot like Friendster’s default.
(Hope you’re well, ol’ Tom. Wherever you are. 🥲🖖🏼)
I imagine they had slightly fewer languages listed back in 2002!
I adore the blessed people who write up the Simple English entries.
Here’s the opening paragraph from Quantum Mechanics in Simple English:
Quantum mechanics explains how the universe works with things that are even smaller than atoms. It is also called quantum physics or quantum theory. Mechanics is the part of physics that explains how things move and quantum is the Latin word for ‘how much’. A quantum of energy is the least amount possible (or the least extra amount), and quantum mechanics describes how that energy moves.
This is what LLMs are taking from us, and I say this without a shred of irony
What, basic education?
Difficult explanations of complex subjects that may not be aligned with the statistical word pattern distribution of the corpus of a dead web.
It’s not impossible that this exact paragraph could be generated. But it was more likely crafted by someone who both understands the subject matter on a comfortable level at the very least, and who understands what parts of it are intuitive enough to create a scaffolding of knowledge that are distinctive to this topic.
I don’t think I could have come up with anything that doesn’t use the word iota a half dozen times and then falling backwards on myself trying to get across the idea of how energy could not exist in measures that are not multiples of a minimum iota of energy (and explaining that it’s just how it is, no I don’t know how that was measured, etcetera etcetera)
I do miss having languages listed on the side by default. I felt like it gave some depth to how important or culturally isolated a subject can be. For example, a short article available in 30 major languages, a long article available in 30 major languages, and a long article only available in like 3 languages would all feel just a little different.
English is not my native language and a lot of subjects I like (or fixations I may have, knowing Wikipedians) just exist in the realm of English. So these long long pages that don’t exist in many languages have a particular vibe to them.
“absolute bonkers” Looks like a readable well designed web page
Ok boomer
Member when the Internet wasn’t profitized? Member when popups were only on porn and warez sites?
Finally, some good fucking website
How is this “bonkers” exactly???
Do you know what bonkers means?
It looks fine. What qualifies it as absolute bonkers?
It’s beautiful
Neat
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse?useskin=cologneblue
If you’re on mobile, set it to desktop else it looks weird
TIL Wikipedia has skins
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the term “bonkers” used in that way before.
They’re trying to make it happen… ~fuckit. why not.~
Pretty cool. Everyone can’t seem to get that “bonkers” can be a good thing
Also super neat that Retrozilla exists.
