Completely unplanned article here - but if the death of Wikipedia's neutrality policy wasn't enough to make you hate them, today they gave me a new reason.
Browsing the wiki as usual, I jumped from the Pale Moon article to the K-Meleon article - and I immediately noticed something very, VERY different:
Perhaps it's hard to tell a difference at first glance, especially from a small JPG file. But what the desktop version of Wikipedia has become is pretty much a copy of their mobile site! Because Microsoft porting Windows Phone 7 to replace the Start menu in Windows 8 worked out so well, right?
Now, virtually the only difference between the desktop and mobile versions of Wikipedia are some different fonts and the lack of the Contents pane on the side in the mobile version - virtually everything else, especially to someone who is only a Wikipedia reader, is EXACTLY THE SAME!
If I actually WANTED to use the mobile site on my desktop for whatever reason, I WOULD DO THAT! You can literally add "m." before "wikipedia" in the website URL. Did Microsoft and their dumpster fire known as Windows 8 not teach Wikipedia ANYTHING - in that shoehorning out-of-place mobile UI's on desktop operating systems is a horrible, horrible idea? (Windows 8 article on ToastyTech)
Wikimedia (the company that owns Wikipedia) claims that this update will 'make the site more welcoming and easier to use' - no fucking thank you, how about 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'? Wikipedia's layout has remained largely unchanged since 2005 (with the exception of a minor aesthetic update in 2011 that at least left the site's layout alone for the most part) and the reason it remained unchanged for so long is because it WORKS!
Are there any saving graces here? At least Wikipedia still works with NoScript enabled so that's a plus. They also give you the option to disable the new layout, but only if you have a wiki account. Figures.
This is ultimately just another example of a company unnecessarily changing their website just for the sake of making it look 'more modern' and not for any important reason whatsoever.