The info in the link misses the most important reason for switching from 4:3 to 16:9: The human field of vision.

Human FOV is around 180° horizontal but only about 130° vertical, and widescreen therefore accomodates human vision by more efficiently and naturally filling the visual field. So barring financial or technological hold-ups we were always going to end up with 16:9 for anything bigger than a handheld device.

Are we talking Male or Female FOV as there is a fairly large difference between M/F peripheral vision.

Apparently I am the only person to agree with you.

By default, part of the text goes over the right border even when the browser window is maximized. So either I have to zoom out so that the text becomes smaller, or I have to move the text so that the avatar picture and name go hidden on the left side.

Neither is a real solution, zooming out makes the text a bit too small to my liking (especially on smaller laptop screens, tablets etc.), and moving the avatar out of view makes it hard to see who has written what.

If the text wrapped around automatically whenever it reaches the window border, that would be great. Or then a lower line length. I realize though automatic wrapping would make it tricky or impossible to make tables, charts and such, so maybe not...

Peripheral vision is not the same as FOV.

FOV is 180° (give or take a few degrees) for both men and women because it is only determined by the position of the eyes in the skull which is essentially the same for all humans. However there are differences in the ability to process information in the peripheral vision which is the area at the edge of the FOV.