Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25653892-20170613152036

The FANDOM staff have started rolling out features and updates that are made impossible to customize using CSS or JavaScript (JS). Many users and communities use these programming languages to create unique styles and add custom features to their wikis.

Removal of CSS/JS customizability is removal of basic low-level functionality for wiki users. It also breaks existing styles. Finally, it is an example of the staff needlessly controlling and branding wikis in places where admin decisions have sufficed. Regardless of what you think of the new features themselves, I hope we can agree that barring us from customizing them is a negative trend.

Sign below if you support CSS/JS customizability on FANDOM. More importantly, whether you support or oppose, please reply to this thread to add to the discussion.

~AgentMuffin :)

Rebuttal
A FANDOM staff member has provided the following statement as to why CSS/JS customizability is being disallowed.

"As part of the redesign we also announced that we will no longer be allowing most forms of CSS and JS customization to the headers. This includes adding fourth and fifth level sub-menus to Wiki Navigation. Some wikis out there have these customizations, and a point of feedback we heard when we showed these changes to the Community Council was that some admins felt that these fourth and fifth levels were essential to their navigational structure. We've opted to disallow this type of customization not only to ensure design consistency across Fandom but also because of the simple fact that it's a bad design practice and hinders the user experience."

- Brandon Rhea

However, the CSS/JS customization blocking does not only block out fourth and fifth levels from the navigation bar. It prevents any possible change to the wiki and article headers, which includes article names and edit buttons.

While I'm also sure FANDOM has put a lot of UX research into the new placements and styling of these elements, it should ultimately be up to the community of a particular wiki to decide how to present them in line with their individualized style. Indiscriminately blocking CSS/JS is a problem, and I worry this line of thinking won't be limited to this one navigational instance.

tl;dr:
We can't customize new features, and this is a problem. 