User:NoOneAsked

I am a long-time Wikipedia user from Gainesville, Florida. I have edited articles and even mailed in donations, but never registered. On May 13, 2010, when Wikipedia changed its default layout and made things much harder to use, I registered for an account so I could raise my voice. Oh masters of Wikipedia Revert!

What are the problems?
 * Wikipedia conducted no poll, no survey
 * They depended upon experts and a rather small sample of the user base. Recall that that the people who managed the Deepwater Horizons oil rig were also experts.
 * The main work of the group working on the change was focused on the usability of Wikipedia's editing tools. I have not found mention of a mandate to alter the look and feel of the main site.
 * The search box moved from its well-known position to the upper right
 * This may be in line with other web sites, but certainly runs contrary to the long-established usage patterns of Wikipedia users.
 * Search is a major function of Wikipedia; for most sites, search is a nice-to-have but inessential extra. Wikipedia gains much of its utility from its strong search function.  Search is a major feature of Wikipedia.
 * Note another web site which has a strong reliance on searchability: Google.  It's search entry field is centered on the main page.  Google recognizes that people use it because of its strong search function.
 * Search suggestions, another useful feature, often expand far to the right and overflow the page in the new layout. Conformity for the sake of conformity is stupid.
 * Gone is the Wikipedia search-through-page-text function (from the Search button).
 * The list of languages is hidden by default
 * It is always very useful to see how widely a given topic is for people of other cultures.
 * We live in a world of many languages; this list of languages makes this always clear. It also invites the user to browse the article in other languages.
 * For those of us who make translations (or at least try to understand things in other languages), easy switching is very good to have.
 * The new layout breaks in several browsers.