TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Ask HN: Why are wiki's UIs not evolving?

30 pointsby throwaway13000almost 6 years ago
I am trying to build a wiki based site and I see that most of the UIs are not keeping up with the times? Is it inherent to nature of wikis or is it just a coincidence? Eg: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wikitravel.org&#x2F;en&#x2F;Altai_Tavan_Bogd_National_Park<p>Are there any good skins&#x2F;theme for these (or any other) wiki&#x27;s.

8 comments

Sendotshalmost 6 years ago
If it ain’t broke...<p>I don’t really see how wikis could be improved by any modern design trends. They function well and are designed to be accessible by everyone on as many platforms and devices as possible.
评论 #20465795 未加载
评论 #20464805 未加载
PaulHoulealmost 6 years ago
I guess my question is: what is wrong with that interface?<p>Is it missing a popup asking if you accept the cookie? If you accept the privacy policy? That the EU passed a law? That they want you to subscribe? That they can&#x27;t send you spam unless you give them your email address?<p>If medium looked like that site, I wouldn&#x27;t have medium blocked in my &#x2F;etc&#x2F;hosts file.<p>One trouble with Wikis is that the control of the content is not very tight, so if you want to make a layout which expects images and texts to line up in some complex way you are using the wrong tool.
评论 #20465113 未加载
alg0rithalmost 6 years ago
Because they are perfect just the way they are<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wiki2.org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wiki2.org</a> exists too tho
评论 #20493517 未加载
h0p3almost 6 years ago
Tiddlywiki is very hackable. You can make it look however you want. Lots of different interfaces can be built in it.
评论 #20468605 未加载
gjvnqalmost 6 years ago
I did make a few CSS changes to my Wikipedia account. The mains thing I did were:<p><pre><code> * Serif font (Libre Baskerville). * Larger font size. * Fewer characters by line. * Hyphenation with left align. </code></pre> Basically I tried to improve readability for me.
narshavenalmost 6 years ago
Why change it when it ain&#x27;t broke. See the aim of Wikipedia is to provide information in easiest possible way and I don&#x27;t see a point of adding better UI smooth scroll, gradient nav bars, responsiveness. How it is present now is probably the MOST easiest for a user to understand.
bctnryalmost 6 years ago
Probably not relevant, we have wikiwand.com, so the UI somehow <i>does</i> evolve after all.
评论 #20472390 未加载
dredmorbiusalmost 6 years ago
What specific changes would you care to see?<p>I&#x27;ve made some modest styling changes (via Stylus) to Mediawiki: mostly a max-width main body constraint.