Thread:BertH/@comment-9154802-20170614150344

Having been around a lot of wikis, the only place where a positive response the changes have been located are here on Community Central. Everyone else I've spoken with greatly dislike the changes, and would love it if they were either reverted or at least made optional rather than being forced upon the community.

I have even shown the new layout to non-wikia users, and they have told me it just doesn't look very appealing. Also from reading the blogs on the subject, it seems a very crucial aspect of wikia has been disregarded. One of its biggest draws was the endless amounts of customization users could do to make their wiki their own. It would have its own identity. I believe wikia was even marketed on that fact before but it's been a while so I don't remember.

This new design also does not work with a lot of wikis. Most wikis aren't the database discussion wikis like Marvel Comics and such. Most of them are fan wikis that often involve fan-made content. There's also quite a few wikis that feature completely original content and are designed for a community involved with that original content. The designs of the wiki was to match the content and draw in more users. We aren't something professional like Wikipedia or some other website. Most of the users are young adults and teens as well as children. They want to make their sites extravagant and showy. When did each site having its own identity end up being a bad thing? Why does everything have to look the same? This site isn't the creative place it used to be because of these changes. No one I talk to likes them. They've always said things along the lines of "It's just a cringey attempt at being cool and modern." It's actually more modern to allow even more creativity now that I think about it. With a society so hell bent on being individual and unique, making everything seem the same is counter intuitive to today's world.

Please talk with the rest of staff and rethink the decision to go this route. If things don't change soon, I'm afraid you'll end up alienating a massive chunk of the userbase, which isn't a good thing. Every change since 2014 has been met with great backlash, and it's frustrating to never see anyone EVER take that into account. Even today the Visual Editor is still hated by the dedicated users like myself. What makes it bearable though is that it is an option and not forced upon us like these unfair, unreasonable, disrespectful changes and limitations being implemented what seems to be every so often. Please, fix this. Try to find a way to make all users happy. Like making all aesthetic changes an option, and allowing more creative freedom than ever before. It would attract more users to support individual identity than it would be to go this route. 