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Today is the big day!

This afternoon our engineers will be pushing out the responsive update for the main www site. This means that you won’t need to swap between desktop and mobile versions of wikiHow - there will just be one version that loads ‘responsively’ depending on your screen size. It’s a pretty exciting time, and the team has worked hard to get to this point.

Here are some key points to note:

  1. There will likely be some bugs! The engineering team will be working hard to fix any issues we find, so don’t worry if you spot something. This is where you can help us:slight_smile:If you find a bug, please fill out the form here:  forms.gle/9yR6Q3BiMKXJbDNj8 . We will triage any reports and work on them on a priority basis.
  2. The m. site will still be around for a little bit longer while we transition. If you’re having issues accessing the site on a mobile device, you can choose to load the m.wikihow.com site. Of course, please file the issue you had accessing the main site on the form above. 
  3. If you’re not seeing changes yet, it may be the cache. In some cases, it can take up to 24 hours to clear and see the updated version of everything :) 
  4. If you have strange formatting happening on your user and/or talk pages, please first check your banners/templates/design. If you have custom designs, it is likely that these are causing issues like squished profile pictures. If you’re having issues, I would suggest you remove extra designs until there are updates for design templates. 

As with any time we make updates, you might notice some changes. If you’re not sure if what you’re seeing is a bug or just a change, feel free to post it and we can check it out. We appreciate your help and patience as we head into the future of wikiHow! 

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@CPenguin17 right wikiHow is PST timezone (UTC-8), and it’s -likely- to happen about 2 hours from now :) 

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I just saw the new update!  One problem:  There still is “Use desktop site” link in the sidebar on the redesign.  That effectively disables the redesign altogether.

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I’m sorry to say this, but I’m not really a big fan of the look. I was never a fan of the mobile version’s look, but I never commented anything on that because it was mobile version; I use desktop version more often. But now, seeing the style from mobile transfer to desktop as well… eh. Oh well, I’ll get used to it. Besides, there are probably people that always have preferred the look to mobile anyway.

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Ok, side-note: I now know that only user pages and talk pages look weird.

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And we’re live! Nice spotting @Awesome-Aasim . 

Here are a couple more things to note (I might add them at the top too): 

  • If you’re not seeing changes, it may be caching. In some cases, it can take up to 24 hours to clear and see the updated version of everything :) 

  • If you have strange formatting happening on your user and/or talk pages, please first check your banners/templates/design. It is likely that these are causing issues like squished profile pictures. If you’re having issues, I would suggest you remove extra designs until there are updates for design templates. 

And remember, sometimes big changes take time to get used to. Take some time to get used to them. It might not be your favorite right now, but please trust that there are reasons for all design changes and updates. 

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@JayneG - For this round of “is this a bug”, I’m noticing realnames aren’t showing up on people’s User pages anymore. Is that deliberate? I don’t want to report it if that was intentionally removed:stuck_out_tongue:

(I don’t want to be part of the “this sucks” group, but I will say I hope that the Talk redesign in particular doesn’t encourage any thoughts that we’re a social media site. We get enough chatters as-is!)

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@Galatic-Radiance interesting! Yes I think that could potentially be a bug because I don’t recall it being changed. I will file it, though will likely be down the list a little :) 

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I like the new update, although you are right, the user and talk pages do look weird. Maybe I’ll remove my fancy stuff for now and just stick with a plain border xD

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@JayneG can you open up a form for reporting bugs related to the responsive design?

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Will this affect the desktop version?

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Never mind, I see the change. Will take a while to get used to… 2 bugs at the moment. First- squished profile pic for some reason on my profile page (not talk page). Next, barnstars not appearing correctly. 

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@Awesome-Aasim , yep there is one. Link is in the main message in #1 :)  https://forms.gle/9yR6Q3BiMKXJbDNj8

@FlowerPower555 Yes, this is the main desktop version that has now had the update. You’ll probably notice it most on the home page and talk pages because there are some design changes; they now look more like the new mobile version that was released :) 

Tools haven’t been made responsive at this stage, so hopefully nothing bug-wise there.

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Yay! Exciting!

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@FlowerPower555 although it may look like it, they are actually not bugs. Unfortunately, the code for banners and other designs now don’t work with the new code. I would suggest you remove banners and potentially other design elements for now to see if that fixes the issue :) 

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@JayneG it says “You need permission” on the form.  Can you please fix that?

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@Awesome-Aasim how about now?:smiley:

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Ok, glad to hear. I’ll keep an eye out for any other weirdness :).

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I have a question, are other parts of the site going to get updates as well, such as the community dashboard?

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@R2_d2000 at some point, yes they’ll all be made responsive, but not today :)