Forum:Wikia's new skin

In case you don't know, Wikia has created a new skin for all wikis, called Wikia, which changes dramatically the viewing experience. For now, it can be activated in each users's preferences page, but from November it will be mandatory for every wiki in Wikia.

This new skin has some nice changes, and some very controversial changes (such as defining a fixed width for every article, which can really mess up the flow). The changes are so significant that several wikis, including the Dragon Ball Wiki and the World of Warcraft Wiki are seriously considering moving out of Wikia and into new web hosts (in fact, there is already an Anti-Wikia (skin) Alliance).

Given these facts, I encourage you to turn on the skin and try to find out if it does affect our wiki as much as it affects others (a lot of pages in the Dragon Ball Wiki are seriously messed up by this skin, for example). So far, even though I do not like several of the most prominent features of the skin, I haven't noticed a significant impact in the contents of the Editable Codex, though some articles do look a little worse.

So, if everyone could start checking this out, it would be a great way to prepare for when the change comes, and to see if we have to rework the articles in order to fit the new skin (or maybe even leave Wikia if we see the need to, in the worst case).--Sega381 04:10, October 7, 2010 (UTC)

How we feel about this
Sign your name under the appropriate heading.

I would prefer to continue our wiki elsewhere, but I will yield to the community's decision

 * Sega381
 * Tribun 17:47, October 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Dungy 17:20, October 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Sergorn 17:42, October 7, 2010 (UTC)

Discussion

 * Well, my initial reaction is "Bleh". I'll try it for awhile and see if it grows on me. -- Fenyx4 05:07, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * Wow, it's certainly going to take some getting used to. It looks "nice," if a little cramped. It appears they want to get away from resembling Wikipedia as much as possible. I guess like any big change I'll eventually acclimatise to it, and as long as it doesn't seriously mess up our content, I think it would be going a little overboard to shift locations because of a cosmetic change. --Terilem 05:36, October 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh my, that is indeed terrible. It completely destroys our sidebars, and jams them horizontally onto the top. That means we'll completely have to get rid of out nav bar. Also, now they're putting big blank spaces on each side that serve no other purpose than to reduce viewing space. Worst of all, on the right I'm stuck with all my stuff like "Pages you're currently working on" and "contributions" that takes up half the space. All of the information is now jammed into a horizontal area less than half the width of my screen. Geesh, and if you accidently mouse over one of their advertisements on the top of the screen, the advertisement that pops up is a third of the screen. Ech. Dungy 11:25, October 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Yep, it certainly is cramped. After being used to the current layout spread luxuriously over the width of a widescreen monitor, it's a hell of a space constraint. --Terilem 11:30, October 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * I find changes like this by a web-host are always a slippery slope. I remember Geocities. Their advertisements got larger and more offensive until the point where nobody could deal with it any longer, and then the company went out of business. Dungy 12:01, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * I tested it, and it looks horrible. I wonder who the moron is who hatched this POS. I'm seriously think of retiring from working on the Codex, since this new skin makes it next to impossible for me to work and it's a püain to read things.--Tribun 11:03, October 7, 2010 (UTC)

Just a preview of what to expect: Dungy 12:01, October 7, 2010 (UTC)

This does it. The two biggest fuck-ups are the fat sidebar, and putting it on the wrong side of the screen. If they enforce it, I take my leave since it then would be a chore for me to read anything here.--Tribun 12:05, October 7, 2010 (UTC)

Hrm I see what you mean, Dungy. The left-right reversal I could certainly live with since it's rather inconsequential, but the fixed page width and enlarged sidebar combined are really doing a number on that article layout. I fear this skin is a result of what's currently fashionable in website design at large. It's more suited for blogs than it is for a wiki. --Terilem 12:24, October 7, 2010 (UTC)

We should ask Fenyx4 to make a mirror at ShoutWiki. If this really happens, it would save us the hassle of having our content being bombed to kingdom come.--Tribun 12:30, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree with the fact that the narrow fixed area and the fat sidebar are the worst changes. Almost all the other changes are just that, changes, and we could eventually find them useful, or at least live with them (although I said ALMOST all the other changes). But the waste of space purpotedly to allow Wikia be seen the same way in all screen sizes... it's a major mistake.
 * And btw, the worst part is that, even with dozens of wikis considering leaving, and hundreds of users protesting, the staff has insisted that they will not change their minds, ever.--Sega381 13:00, October 7, 2010 (UTC)

I've got to agree with Tribun here. Now, I don't know or understand the intricacies of moving a wiki, but if it is possible without substantial work, then I'd think about it. This new change shrinks the useable space to less than 50% the width of the page, from the current maybe 80%. Even if we could get rid of the giant sidebar, I'd be willing to think about it, since that sidebar uses up nearly half of the available room and supplies absolutely nothing useful. Who cares what was most recently added to our page? Surely our users don't need to know that I added a new image 23 seconds ago. Why would they care? This is a wiki, an information source, it is NOT a social site. Dungy 13:02, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * Moving it seems to be not much of a problem, according to this:


 * Q: How do I move my Wiki to a new host?


 * A: You will have to download a database dump from Special:Statistics on your wiki (towards the bottom.) Then, contact the new host and they will tell you what way they want you to upload to them (you can usually use Special:Import). If moving to ShoutWiki, you will have to either email them at technical@shoutwiki.com with the link to your wiki and the link to the new wiki or file a bug report at BugZilla.shoutwiki under imports with the same links.


 * --Tribun 13:08, October 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, but what about all the templates and everything. If they all needed to be revamped, that could be a lot of work, and I'm not the one who could do it. Dungy 13:09, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * Ug, totally agree with everything people are saying. The fixed width is just terrible by itself. Then they cram nigh useless information on the right taking up a large portion of that space. But even worse if you do shrink the window below the fixed width you don't get a scroll bar.
 * The above I doubt if we could manually fix. Other issues we might be able to fix are the pencil edit images the have on the sections which are on the left now. Images in an article having editor's names under them for some strange reason... Ug.
 * If this goes through we could certainly look into moving to another wiki host. I've glanced at Shoutwiki and it seems to have all the extensions we'd need. Another option would be just getting a domain name and running a wiki server of our own or asking if, say, Ultima Aiera would like to host it. -- Fenyx4 13:44, October 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Exactly, WHO CARES who uploaded that individual image? I KNOW the casual visitor doesn't care if Dungy, or Tribun, or Fenyx, or whoever else uploaded that particular image, heck, the only person who SHOULD care are the editors, and I don't care a lick who it was as long as it's good. Dungy 15:16, October 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * I briefly looked at shoutwiki. It's clean, neat, and its advertisement space is inoffensive. Just one bar on the right hand side, and that's no more than 100 pixels wide. I would be happy to move there. As for talking to Ultima Aiera, I would be interested in that option too. As it currently stands, if the proposed changes get pushed through, I'm 100% behind moving. Dungy 13:58, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree as well. We however should first try to keep it in the fandom by asking Aiera. If they can't help, we should go to ShoutWiki. I think this maybe could also give us the freedom to make the page look more Codex-like.--Tribun 14:06, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * I'll drop Ultima Aiera a note telling him of our consideration and seeing what he thinks.
 * With ShoutWiki we would have the same problems we have now of me constantly saying "Sorry, I can't do that with Wikia." for things like adding new extensions or modifying "$wg-" variables.
 * Referata and Wikkii have advanced hosting features which would appear to provide just as much freedom as self-hosting or using Ultima Aiera would.
 * It won't be all peaches and cream though. I still won't be able to fix the ifexists redlink concerns. And facing me saying "I don't have time" instead of "Wikia won't let me." :) -- Fenyx4 14:31, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * BTW, I encourage everyone to look at the Anti-Wikia alliance (link above) and to browse discussions on moving on other wikis. Some interesting ideas, possible new web hosts, or moving wiki-buddies may be found.--Sega381 16:17, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * The cool part about Aiera would be we could link to direct downloads of fan patches and stuff. Still, that would be a big commitment for WTF, and I could certainly see why he would not be interested in that. Dungy 16:21, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * Knowing WTF_Dragon, I'm pretty sure he would actually be very excited to host the Wiki at Aiera. I do feel this is a great idea actually and could help really create a central place for the fan community --77.192.70.3 17:30, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * I have added a section at the beginning of the forum in order to use a voting scheme that other wikis have been using so far in order to decide what to do. I think we should decide as a whole what to do, and though the discussion goes in that way, the best way to see the final decisions is the voting section above. So, if you agree with that, I think it would be best if each of us signed in the section according to our positions. We may end up all signing in the same section (according to how the discussion has been going), but at least we will let other users, who may have not joined the discussion yet, clearly state their position.--Sega381 16:31, October 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * If anyone wants to see it, there is a [|http://community.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Susan_Taylor/Fixed_Width,_Sidebar,_and_the_Removal_of_Monaco blog post] here trying to explain the rationale behind the most dramatic changes. It does explain some of the reasons of why they are doing these changes, but it's not very convincing, and it does not address the problems, it only points out the benefits. It also ignores the subtler motives, such as better ad placement, and more inter-wiki traffic. But I guess that is the best response we'll have.--Sega381 18:44, October 7, 2010 (UTC)