Forum:The Needs of the Many

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Note: This topic has been unedited for 2321 days. It is considered archived - the discussion is over.

Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding. But there seems to be a lot of work going on to improve how this site looks--for the half dozen or so people who install something. To quote a classic, "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn." As long as I can navigate and use this site, I don't much care how it looks. What I care about is whether or not it attracts visitors and encourages them to stay here and read articles.

Otherwise, this seems to a rose-colored-glasses thing; everything looks rosy here to me because I'm wearing the special glasses nobody else coming here will be wearing.

Could we focus on what this site will look like to visitors?  Father ALDEN LOVESHADE??? (confessions)  19:53, August 11, 2018 (UTC)

Aha, you missed all the drama in May. Actually, what can be done for visitors has probably been maxed out. What visitors see now, called the Compromise Skin, is probably at the limit of what overlord Wikia/FANDOOM permits in their vaguely stated terms of use. In short, Uncyclopedia could be returned today to its old Wikipedia-like look, but it is not permitted to do so. It will most assuredly just get ripped out and replaced. Even in its present state, there are elements at FANDOOM that have posted at least one takedown notice to try to make Uncyclopedia conform to what other FANDOOM sites look like. That has been fended off but more are to be expected.

When FANDOOM ripped out the supporting architecture of Uncyclopedia and its sistas due to its lack of compliance with GDPR internet rules, it left us with scads of broken things, template-based things mostly, that existing writers took for granted. Therefore, fixes there are only possible via personal CSS pages. And this is only due to Llwy-ar-lawr stepping out of the wilderness and creating the code making the Fake Vector personal CSS and the Compromise Skin possible. Otherwise, we would still be floundering without ANY programmer help. And FANDOOM continues altering their code, which continues to break things on Uncyclopedia. So, if you know any volunteer coders, send them over.

Me, I consider Fake Vector to be for writers, putting them in the appropriate environment and putting their tools on that left-hand bar like Wikipedia. Obviously, if one is not familiar with the old Uncyclopedia look, it hardly matters, but we are a Wikipedia parody site. It would be appropriate to format articles to look like Wikipedia pages. Not everyone is completely mobile-based, and I still argue people generally do not read articles on mobile, they are picture and short message swipers.

If you don't like any personal skin, don't use it. I apologize for suggesting it to you. But you do perceive that the front door to visitors needs something other than what FANDOOM is willing to give or concede. Then go tilt at the FANDOOM windmill, because that is where the problem lies. -- (talk) 21:39, August 11, 2018 (UTC)

My post probably sounded nastier than I intended. I just went through helping somebody very close to me with an adverse reaction to a prescription drug, a storm that killed my internet and warped my cell phone connection making it a pain finding where their pharmacy had moved to (asking for directions was a wild goose chase), and am dealing with problems in a collaborative project that I shouldn't discuss details of online. So sorry about that.

My basic point, though, remains. I've seen Wikia sites that have done nice work on their skins using what's available to them that visitors will see. I'm of the "work with what you have rather than wish for what you don't have" school. If you don't count my "I'm GOD" fantasies.  King of the Internet Alden Loveshade??? (royal court)  22:13, August 11, 2018 (UTC)

Have you got a couple of examples handy? And those would have to be some you viewed from after the end of May. The foreign language sista sites might be out of the reach of FANDOOM with many having a different face before and after that time, but many suffered the loss of their look also when the plug was pulled on the old architecture/skin foundation and are now stuck with Oasis. -- (talk) 00:59, August 13, 2018 (UTC)

The Disney Wiki looks quite sophisticated. I like the look of Community Central and, frankly, I like Uncyclopedia even though they aren't as fancy. I'd prefer Uncyclopedia have a patterned background; I (ahem) do subtle backgrounds for some websites and some more extreme backgrouds for quotes boxes for a literary magazine.

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/The_Disney_Wiki

https://community.wikia.com/wiki/Community_Central

 King of the Internet Alden Loveshade??? (royal court)  05:31, August 13, 2018 (UTC)

Addition: Wikipedia has the bar at the left of the page like Uncyclopedia used to have. Wikipedia has to follow the same legal regulations, and was founded by virtually the same people as Wikia. Maybe that could be adopted here. And yes I know about the Monaco/Monobook/Oasis thing--Uncyclopedia was one of the very few Wikias that was allowed to use Monobook for a long time. But still, if Wikipedia figured out a way to keep the sidebar and be compliant, there may be a way to do that here. And no, I don't know how to do that.  King of the Internet Alden Loveshade??? (royal court)  05:43, August 13, 2018 (UTC)

Uncyclopedias weren't the only wikis that used monobook, many wikis preferred monobook but most of them preferred oasis. I don't like oasis for nothing due to the no fullwitd desktop, editing and no free and easy costumizations. But if Wikia didn't decided to removed Monaco, Monobook and the others skins that made the easy and free costumizatins of the wikis, Uncyclopedias and others wikis that preferred Monobook still had more than 1.000.00 visitators for day.--ΠλVƋX ^{disc} 11:26, August 13, 2018 (UTC)

Not exactly. Monobook was no longer available as the default skin -- the Monobook wikis were grandfathered in. Wikis created after that point did not necessarily "prefer" Oasis. ❦ Llwy-ar-lawr • talk • contribs • 20:04 13 August 2018

No, we're not allowed to have a left sidebar. It's a Wikia thing, not a legal thing. You've read the customization policy, right? I believe that would fall under "Changes to the local navigation, page header and article header". PseudoMonobook creates a left sidebar, and it's disallowed for sitewide use. I've already done my best to mimic Vector sitewide.

The link above is invalid, so I don't know which article you mean.  King of the Internet Alden Loveshade??? (royal court)  03:03, August 14, 2018 (UTC)

Oops, sorry. I meant w:c:community:Help:Customization policy. Interwiki prefixes are hard. ❦ Llwy-ar-lawr • talk • contribs • 23:12 14 August 2018

There used to be a tiled puzzle-potato background, but I removed it because it looked less like Wikipedia. I could put it back if you want. I don't like Community Central. Boring shades of gray and white mixed with a few bits of obnoxious blue-green. But that's me.

I think I'm beginning to understand what you're getting at. Actually, I like you making it look more like Wikipedia; thanks.  King of the Internet Alden Loveshade??? (royal court)  03:05, August 14, 2018 (UTC)

Nigel, yes, some (most?) foreign-language Uncyclopedias aren't hosted on Wikia. I'm not sure if you got my email where I said that. ❦ Llwy-ar-lawr • talk • contribs • 20:00 13 August 2018

I don't know code so don't know what most of you are even talking about. But I talk to Wikia staff pretty often, so if you can word something as a question about how to do what you want I could ask for you. :) DAP Dame Pleb Com. Miley Spears (talk) 20:35, August 13, 2018 (UTC)

I think it would be this: "We want a sidebar to the left like Wikipedia has, and a full page spread like Wikipedia has. Is there a way we can have this/" Have I got that right everybody?  King of the Internet Alden Loveshade??? (royal court)  03:07, August 14, 2018 (UTC)

Was waiting for others to chime in, but I would say that's certainly what we want. The cynic here remains doubtful if we'll get assent, based on previous encounters and rumors from above. -- (talk) 21:38, August 14, 2018 (UTC)

I'll wait to see what others say. If that's what everybody wants, I'll check. :) DAP Dame Pleb Com. Miley Spears (talk) 03:53, August 15, 2018 (UTC)