User blog comment:Sannse/Your First Look at the New Wikia/@comment-2056465-20100818150036

Pikipedia (pikmin.wikia.com) has a neat and orderly style, skin, and community. The content areas are organized and although it doesn't have a large number of templates, it has all it needs. The skin is simple, but has lots of minor details that the head admin added on that most people wouldn't notice. I really hope this new style is optional, because if it isn't:

1. Pikipedia and many other wikis will drastically change and fall while larger communities that match the style thrive.

2. All of Greenpickle's hard work on both the Pikipedia's skin and the Kirby wiki skin (which he is just finishing up right now) is now down the toilet. Admins on other wikis will also watch their hard work disintegrate.

3. Though in the eyes of the staff, all wikis should be shared and brought together in one big community, this is not true. The smaller wikis will lose many a user and viewer from this feature. Ask around on people's talk pages, you'll find that 99% of users oppose inter-wiki "transport", as, though the staff belong to all wikis, and it would certainly help them, most users go to one or two wikis and stay there. Again, ask around, this one I'm certain will be opposed.

4. This new style has an extremely similar style to blogs or social networking sites. It has a news post box, has quick connection between wikis that users belong to that are like "groups" and it has a date display. Plus the bottom "tool" menu milks out items that only new users use. While this would be great on wikis with between 75 and 150 users, it would act a lot like facebook for some of the larger wikis and would be utterly pointless on smaller wikis where all of the active users know each other. A facebook-like style would most certainly thrive at community central, where the staff all have facebook style avatars (the icons, not the movies), but on other wikis it may not work out so well.

5. Several users dislike the new skin, more dislike it than like it (see the full history of the new style's blog.

6. Users who wanted to implement the new style on wikis would be fine with waiting while you implemented plans to make this style optional. If you don't wait, and you force it up right now and add the option later, many good, helpful users will leave wikia forever or for a long period of time, while other user who are not interested in contributing, but rather, just in the social networking "community" will join and post only on pages like user talk, and, if there are achievements on that wiki, will make hollow edits to boost their "social status".

7. If the staff wants to really get what wikia is all about to most people (the actual users), then, instead of checking input blogs, go and join a large wiki (like wookiepedia-starwars.wikia.com), a small wiki (like pikipedia-pikmin.wikia.com), and a new wiki (like the Spectrobes Fanon Wiki-spectrobesfanon.wikia.com). Contribute and add to the pages as best as you can, even minor edits help! And once you have been part of each type of community you will realize that each has separate needs and that the new style will work for medium/larger wikis, but not other wikis.

8. In my opinion there should not be "updates" which change things, like this new skin, but "features" which give the users of each wiki the option to go with it. The true key to success with the users of the wikia community is to allow them to customize, even with small things. Rather than bringing all wikis together, this will help keep them individual, unique, special, it will help them focus and match the subject. Maybe the best thing you could do is make several new styles and make them all optional, and maybe bring back old styles, like Monobook, as an option. Either way, most certainly keep Monaco, this style has worked great for the majority of wiki communities. Look at other wiki sites, like Wikipedia and wikispaces. They allow customization even for individual users! If one doesn't like the new style on Wikipedia, they don't have to complain! They just go to their preferences and change the style back to Monobook! If all new features were optional, angry comments would drop down to an all-time low. Only compliments from users who will use on their wikis will appear, as users who disliked the style would just not implement it on their wiki. This blog would be several pages shorter. Everyone would love the staff.

This is a comment posted by Volatile Dweevil (Respond, Please!)