[rerdavies]

Not getting it. They increased readability, by limiting maximum line length! That is a colossally good thing. Surely, that's like a graphic design 101 kind of decision. (It's a design rule that significantly predates "UX").

The issue at hand is that overly long lines reduce reading speed and comprehension of the content[1]. The optimum length for a digital line of text is somewhere between 66 characters per line and 100 characters per line. I personally use the 100cpl rule. For reference, this HN page has ~185 characters per line on my 1920x1080 display at default scaling.

I do actually remember un-minimizing my browser in order to improve the rate at which I could read the text of ur-Wiki pages.

And then they provided an escape for old men shaking their fists at the sky. Given a choice, I would, without hesitation, choose the new design.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_length#:~:text=characters...