User blog comment:Rupert Giles/Global Navigation January Update/@comment-4738639-20150201123847

Something which might be nice also is an option to have the middle search bar turn off so the gray box doesn't appear.

This can be in the drop down along with "Search this wikia" and "all of Wikia".

This way the options are still easily accessible, the Wikia name is still being seen to its left and right with with "Start a wikia", and when scrolling the big gray box won't distract from the content on the page.

It is a nice direction on user requests to have the bar start to dim on darker wikis when scrolling down, but in the images above the actual search box stands out even more and is a huge distraction in those images.

I'd even say more of a distraction than if the bar remained all bright white because of the difference in contrast.

With white it is similar in the lighter shades, but with the dark it is dark and light so the light "pops" out more against the dark.