Doing a retro thing with your web browsing:
5th February 2023
You may have noticed that recently Wikipedia changed their design after about a decade of sticking with their previous formula. I had basically no idea that they were changing it until suddenly I noticed an article look strangely different from the previous one. I was all like "What the Hell is this? Am I on like mobile mode or something?", until I noticed that this was actually just the new look for the desktop mode that apparently took over half a decade to complete, according to the company itself. Now the site's different modes for desktop and mobile are basically the same (which could say a lot about modern web design), complete with large chunks of empty space because the old look was apparently too overwhelming or cumbersome for many users. Though to me at least, this apathy towards using large sums of screen real estate just makes browsing a suddenly much more boring experience, kinda like how the Eclipse update made DeviantArt a much less visually-stimulating place. I know that this whole rant just sounds like some whiny asshole who doesn't like change complaining about nothing (that's basically what it is, to be fair), but I just don't like it when desktop sites get less visually appealing because they want to be more marketable to mobile users, or a demographic so general that they end up appealing to no-one.

But, if you're tired of these little things like me, then fret no more! Recently, I've been browsing a few places to see what they think about the new site design, and I noticed one of them linked to a browser extension, which changed the code to each article you load up so that it's shown as it would appear using the original "Vector Legacy" page layout that had been used before. I never really used browser extensions, since most of them only work on individual browsers and I didn't know those ones could be enabled on things like incognito mode or anything like that (turns out they can if you just tick a box in your browser settings). But, this extension was different, as it turned out that it could also work on an external programme (in this case my adblocker, Adguard), and can essentially be used all the time on any web browser. So, thanks to this, I immediately went on a treasure trove through the site it appeared on: GreasyFork.org (as well as a couple of other places), in search of a bunch of cosmetic changes you can make to a bunch of different websites. Here are three that I've taken the most interest in:

Vector Layout for Wikipedia by Ata Sancaktar

Before	After

Starting out this journey down the rabbit hole comes this browser extension that brings Wikipedia back to the way God intended. All the screen real estate is being used up and the sidebar's more lively again, so it definitely feels like there's a lot more going on than before. If you've used the website as of a month ago then you probably know what to expect. Just how things were before it got a bit more bland. Now a webpage with this extension doesn't actually take that much longer to load than a webpage usually would without it (or least it doesn't feel like that's happening because my computer's getting a bit old and loading's a bit longer all round), since there actually isn't any overly-detailed and complex HTML or CSS editing needed to replicate the past UI. Instead, the old interface is still stored on Wikimedia's database, and you can simply access it by typing "?useskin=vector" at the end of an article's URL. This extension basically just saves you the hassle and does that job for you.

There's also another extension by the user "Anony Mouse" that does largely the same thing as the one above, except its much easier to change the type of page layout into any one from Wikimedia's database. So for example, if you change the constant in its code labelled "skinchoice = 'vector'" to "skinchoice = 'monobook'", then you can get the true 2005 Wikipedia browsing experience! However, its simplistic code ends up making it a bit problematic, as it always puts the text "?useskin=(x)" at the end of every URL, including addresses that direct towards sections of a particular article (e.g. It writes a URL like this: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Navigator#History_and_development?useskin=vector", instead of like this: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Navigator?useskin=vector#History_and_development"). This ends up making the website not recognise the skin change and ends up bringing it back to its boring modern self. I'm assuming you can change the code in the previous extension by replacing all the values with the word "vector" to "monobook" or something like that, but there's a lot more going on and I'm too lazy to change them all. I might give it a go later but I'm fine with the extension as it is for now.

YouTube Redux by omniZero

Before	After

This next one is a bit more established in the browser extension sphere, partly because it's a bit more easily accessible thanks to being featured in the Chrome Web Store, but also because there's a lot more going on with it. YouTube doesn't have a stored version of their older website that can be accessed by just adding in some code to a web address, so instead this extension has to do all the hard work needed to mimic the website as it looked around 2016, with all the site's features being re-arranged to reflect this style. While there are some parts that work better than others, it does its job really well for a tool that just changes a few lines of code here and there, and certainly achieves the goal of replicating the website as it was around the time Leafy was considered peak YouTube content. It's also pretty customisable too, with an easy to use drop-down menu allowing you to add or remove items as you please, or even change the favicon or what type of logo you would like to put in the top left-hand corner, with options stretching all the way back to the site's launch logo from 2005. While I actually don't really mind YouTube's current design (except for a few gripes here and there), since I prefer the larger video window compared to the smaller older look, if 2016 YouTube is peak soul to you, then be sure to give this one a try for a quick trip down memory lane.

Deviantart V7 (pre eclipse) theme beta by Lego Savant

Before	After

Finally, this extension here is something I've been waiting for for a long time! A solid attempt at replicating the DeviantArt experience before it grossly metamorphosed into Eclipse and drove away a large sum of their community. I've said my piece about DeviantArt's current look time and time again, so I'll instead take this time to gush over how far this extension goes in creating the DeviantArt experience circa 2013. Now admittedly, the comparison above doesn't really do the best job of showing off how much the extension changes the website up, as so far much of the changes to the homepage involve rearranging the favourites and comments to appear more like the old layout, and changing the icons to reflect how they looked in the "V7" interface, probably because the homepage of today is radically different compared to the homepage of yesterday. However, one part that's definitely seen improvement would be the deviation pages, which honestly look almost exactly like how they did in the before time, with much smaller text, tags that manage to replicate the old hashtag system from around the mid-2010s-onwards era, and even the old "Add to Favourites" and "Award Llama" buttons. Needless to say, it makes DeviantArt a much more engaging site to visit (to me at least), as there's so many things for my attention span-less brain to take in and admire.

Of course, as the extension's name implies, the whole thing's still very early-days, and it is really clunky in a few places (something which can be noticed in the sample image), like how it's not really compatible with custom userpage backgrounds or the default black Eclipse theme as a whole, though that's to be expected when you're just starting out in making a project that aims to basically re-model an entire website to make it appear in a way it wasn't originally made to. Besides, it's still receiving regular updates (for example, it just got one since I last took those screenshots!) and plenty of feedback and constructive criticism by users. Plus, judging by its creator, Lego Savant's past portfolio, the project appears to be in pretty safe hands, with them previously making a whole bunch of other extensions which would fit nicely into this list, such as a couple of extensions which change Google's UI to how it appeared in either 2009 or 2014, some extensions that change YouTube's video player to how it appeared in 2009 (albeit only as a Discord embed) or 2010/11, one which revamps YouTube Redux (mentioned above) to be more accurate to YouTube's actual old appearance, another that returns Instagram to its skeuomorphic 2014 look, and even two that change the Roblox website's appearance back to how it looked in 2008 or 2012. Judging by all this past work, I'm excited to see how their work with this particular extension develops moving forward, and if you're as much of an anti-Eclipse fundamentalist as I am (and especially know more about CSS than I do), then be sure to check the extension out and show them your support, as well as some pointers going forward, to make it the best it can possibly be, until the only thing it can't bring back is the old DA community!

So then, I hope you've enjoyed this little trip down this facet of the online landscape, and I hope these recommendations can bring a bit of soul back into your several hour-long procrastination sessions. If you're looking to get started then Greasy Fork recommends you use a User Script Manager like Tampermonkey, which is compatible with most major web browsers, to run most of these scripts yourself. If you're already using AdGuard then you can get these working right away with no extra software needed. Other than that, you just need to add these extensions to the USM and you're all set! Happy browsing!

Oh, and I just want to give a quick thanks to everyone for getting me to 5000 pageviews! It's amazing to see that there's so many people who've taken an interest in my dumb little corner of the internet, and while things are still kinda busy for now before I can dedicate more work to my creative projects, I promise that there's far more to come of this place in the near future, and I hope to see you all there!