User blog comment:Sannse/Your First Look at the New Wikia/@comment-1610819-20100826043052

As I have already stated, I find this a completely unnecessary "improvement." Just because you're capable of making a new skin doesn't mean you should. Wikis are, at their hearts, encyclopedias, and even if it did have "the best possible user experience" (which it doesn't), it would still undermine Wikia's BASIC PURPOSE.

So now that I and a few hundred other people have demonstrated their viewpoints, I think you get the idea that the vast majority of people here hates this. Of course, some of it is probably attributable to "initialreactionitis," judgments we make before it's time to properly do so, but I still stand squarely by my decision. Of course, that's not going to change the fact that a new skin is going to be released on this site this fall (which, whatever we may say about it, I am sure it had a great deal of effort put into it), so the most we can possibly aspire to is to keep it from being the default skin. And if that can't happen, then we should at least be allowed to keep Monaco.

My arguments are presented below.

Firstly, why? Why is it mandatory? As Najevi put it below, the answer "falls short of explaining why the goal of expanding the Wikia audience should require a mandatory change to the experience of Wikia's existing audience." I agree wholeheartedly with this; again, just because you're capable of making a new skin doesn't mean you automatically should. Just because you're capable of murdering someone doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Also, it seems a bit sudden. And forced. Why do we have to change our Wikia lifestyles when you say so? Can't individual wikis be allowed to choose whether they want the new skin or not? You may believe that a "common foundation" is what is best for the viewing experience, and I respect your reasoning on that, but this is, quite simply, wholly unfair to those that don't want the change (i.e., most of us).

Secondly, why does Monaco have to go almost immediately? People have worked very hard on skins for their individual wikis (and if you're reading this, Sannse, don't give me the "don't-worry-because-it-will-be-even-easier-to-create-the-look-you-love-on-your-wiki" answer; I want to know why) and have even been making threats to leave this site.

Again, just because you want all of Wikia to "share a common foundation," that doesn't mean that the "old foundation" is bad. (Well, of course it's bad; all old things are bad, aren't they? And all new things are automatically good.)

Even supposing that all the existing skins will work with the "new look," I still don't believe this is a good idea. What if people would like to keep Monaco? (I'm not even going to explain why people would want to keep the old skin; just look at the last 13,00 comments yourself.) Even if this does have to be mandatory, what exactly is your reasoning for not keeping Monaco as an option?