[Wikipedia-l] Re: [Wikitech-l] Suggestion to promote readability of hyperlinked documents.

[The Cunctator]

On 12/31/02 3:27 AM, "Derek Moore" <jizzbug at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Because of the nature of Wikipedia, articles tend to get rather congested
> with links.  All these super-bright reds and blues and gaudy underlines can
> sometimes get the better of an article.  I was working on [[w:LAMP]] just
> now when my eyes just couldn't take anymore.
> 
> It might be nice to find some softer colors for links, visited links, and
> non-existent links.  And to also, via CSS, get rid of the underlines on
> links within the body of an article (the underlines are kinda helpful for
> the menus to left, above, and below articles, though [but maybe for style
> these underlines could be done away with, too, and instead go with bolding
> the font faces]).  I do like red for non-existent articles, and blue for
> existent articles; they're just way too bright as it is.
> 
> Anyways, I really think something ought to be done about this, as too many
> link-filled articles just look terrible, and their readability is quite
> degraded.  It's just too distracting on the eyes, especially when you're
> tryin' to study the text.
> 
One, this isn't a matter for wikitech. Two, I think it's fine for there to
be a non-default skin that satisfies your desires. Three: in no way should
non-underlined links be the default. It's bad practice in terms of usability
to violate standards.