4 ms·

What's special about the `en.m.wikipedia` subdomain compared to the usual `en.wikipedia`?

by D4ckard 3y ago

cinntaile 3y ago
Mobile
angrais 3y ago
I assume it's the mobile version of the website so probably has slightly different stylesheets.
- appplication 3y ago
  Perhaps someone can explain to me why this concept needs to exist. When I visit regular Wikipedia on mobile, I get mobile style sheets. What’s the need for the separate url? Maybe Wikipedia is ok with this but I’ve found Confluence basically completely breaks if you try to give someone on desktop a mobile link. Seems like the whole system is just not quite right.
  - Two4 3y ago
    It's a holdover from before reactive styling was really a thing - there was a stage, if you recall, where people were maintaining two versions of their websites, one being for mobile. It was awful, and mobile user agents were bombarded with banners asking to switch to the mobile version, which would invariably break the flow and bounce them back to a landing page. They then had to claw their way back to where they were in the website, if they could. On the upside, it was mobile first, and had more intuitive layouts for mobile devices. I suspect that Wikipedia still maintains this split so as to not break those old web clients, or any other client built on top of the mobile web interface. I bet that if I broke out my old Nokia E63, I'd still be able to boot up that Symbian browser and read a Wikipedia article.
RetroTechie 3y ago
Wikipedia switches between mobile & non-mobile site automagically. I'm assuming the mobile flavour is a resource-lighter version that should load quicker. If you are using a mobile device (and/or on cellular data), it's nice to not take any detours - however small. And I'd expect a good % of users to be on a mobile device. From a desktop/PC/whatever, it's probably a don't care. TLDR; an attempt to feed WP link followers a 'lite' version first.
LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago
Annoying desktop users.
schleck8 3y ago
They for some reason encode the viewport into the URL, it's pretty annoying because there is no automatic redirects either. I assume there is some good reason for this like accessibility for low-bandwidth regions but surely there must be a similary efficient solution.

What's special about the `en.m.wikipedia` subdomain compared to the usual `en.wikipedia`?

cinntaile 3y ago

Mobile

angrais 3y ago

I assume it's the mobile version of the website so probably has slightly different stylesheets.

appplication 3y ago
Perhaps someone can explain to me why this concept needs to exist. When I visit regular Wikipedia on mobile, I get mobile style sheets. What’s the need for the separate url? Maybe Wikipedia is ok with this but I’ve found Confluence basically completely breaks if you try to give someone on desktop a mobile link. Seems like the whole system is just not quite right.
- Two4 3y ago
  It's a holdover from before reactive styling was really a thing - there was a stage, if you recall, where people were maintaining two versions of their websites, one being for mobile. It was awful, and mobile user agents were bombarded with banners asking to switch to the mobile version, which would invariably break the flow and bounce them back to a landing page. They then had to claw their way back to where they were in the website, if they could. On the upside, it was mobile first, and had more intuitive layouts for mobile devices. I suspect that Wikipedia still maintains this split so as to not break those old web clients, or any other client built on top of the mobile web interface. I bet that if I broke out my old Nokia E63, I'd still be able to boot up that Symbian browser and read a Wikipedia article.

RetroTechie 3y ago

Wikipedia switches between mobile & non-mobile site automagically. I'm assuming the mobile flavour is a resource-lighter version that should load quicker. If you are using a mobile device (and/or on cellular data), it's nice to not take any detours - however small. And I'd expect a good % of users to be on a mobile device. From a desktop/PC/whatever, it's probably a don't care. TLDR; an attempt to feed WP link followers a 'lite' version first.

LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago

Annoying desktop users.

schleck8 3y ago

They for some reason encode the viewport into the URL, it's pretty annoying because there is no automatic redirects either. I assume there is some good reason for this like accessibility for low-bandwidth regions but surely there must be a similary efficient solution.