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Gregory

The interesting thing about copying old VK layout is that there are some parts available as actual HTML+CSS you can poke into with devtools, like web.archive.org/web/2011112807, but the most interesting pages are only accessible with an account. So I have to rely on screenshots for those. Sometimes on very compressed (jpug af? is this a word?) screenshots.

Anyway, here's a mostly pixel-perfect copy. I need to check the layout inside posts still, and the form is certainly incorrect.

11 comments
Gregory

The form. I don't remember what it was like in the before-microblog era, but after-microblog it was right below that block header, like this. There was also an intermediate form where it said "X posts" next to "Wall" in the header itself.

And it's also supposed to be collapsible. This is a neat feature.

Gregory

I'm not quite right referring to it collectively as "old VK design", because it evolved quite a lot between 2010, when the wall gained its microblogging abilities, and 2016, when mail.ru group rolled out the terrible redesign (since redesigned once more and even uglier now). I'm probably going for what it was around 2011.

Gregory

Just in case you're curious, this is what the current 🤮🤮🤮 layout looks like (had to take this in another browser because I use some user styles in my main one). Mostly like the already-terrible 2016 one, but now the header is white instead of blue, some buttons are even larger, and some icons are not aligned with the pixel grid (I asked the designer, he said that's intentional "but they are 3px thick on retina").

Gregory

Why THE FUCK are there "money transfers" right under the profile picture? What exactly is the logic behind this?

Probably project manager KPIs. It's always project manager KPIs.

Sean Tilley
@grishka for a second, I legitimately thought this was Facebook. They have a very similar horrible design currently.
Gregory

@sean I know, but comparing the two, Facebook is much much worse. The controls are even larger, actually useful features are buried as deep as possible, and there are dark patterns delightfully sprinkled throughout.

The worst things VK currently does are "clips" (tiktok copycat) prominently mentioned everywhere, and engagement-driving notifications. You can disable both. I have no idea what they're doing in mobile apps because I'm using an ancient Android app I built myself from sources I have.

Groosha

@grishka как же это мерзко выглядит сейчас

Gregory

@groosha я себе вот так сделал. 11й шрифт, белый фон и некоторые отступы поменьше. Реклама вся заблокирована, рекомендации тоже.

Groosha

@grishka если честно – Эскобар :)

Но я предвзят к мейловскому ВК

Blue

@grishka@mastodon.social maaan! That really looks alike now! Do you think #smithereen is already ready for some daily fediverse activities?

Gregory

@blue it's almost ready, I'm thinking about announcing the first beta release in the coming days.

By the way, there's already more than one instance — @mkljczk set one up. Helped me a lot to debug federation 😏

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