Forum:Wikia's New Style/Archive 5

Main Page for Non logged in users
Hello Wikia, the main page is the mostly entered page, and you destroyed the "keep it simple" principle. I can live with Monaco, also with "tandem" ads on main page. But I have a list what is wrong on this style.
 * 1) Please disable random messages for not logged in users in top of every page.
 * 2) The top banner and a message for non logged in users is shown some seconds (2 ore more) after loads the rest of page. A user is reading the first lines on main page, wand to click the entry and just in the moment the Google ads is under the mouse cursor you have clicked. That is very odd. The server should calculate the reserved space for ads before sending datas to users browser. It's an html tag "height=... width=...". Please not move or reformat the content area after loading.
 * 3) We have two buttons "Create an account". Ones left and an other on top line. You can not force users to login, if an user is just anonymous browsing for informations (see also 1.).
 * 4) The Font and the menu bars are to big. The content is the most important, not the edit line and not the menu and not the additional informations on left side.
 * 5) The left menu should be half of the size. - The width of the logo (135pix).
 * 6) Frame around the top banner ads, that stick inside the content. But it would be better to have the ads not inside the content!
 * 7) Disable the box "Community"

It's some of this changeable by Monaco.css‎?

It is perhaps a definition question: What are short pages? Can a Main Page also be a short page without ads? Our main page is viewed with 60-75% non content relevant add ons (Wikia, Google and menus) in a screen resolution 1024x786, 25-40% is our content that includes the logo and an other picture (40% only in F11 full screen mode). On a bigger or smaller screen resolution the added space are many more. On a screen 800x600 with IE in full screen mode (key F11) we have 100% ads, 0% content! Only the logo and the site title is seen, not more. All the viewed are from Wikia and Google. User must scroll to see any fuzz of article content.

The "tandem" ads are not on all Wikia Main Page. Some pages have only a top banner. Why we have it?

I ask your, why the page http://www.google.com is mostly set as Start- or Search-page in browsers, in comparisons against other search sites, for example http://www.yahoo.com? Check it self. -- HenryNe 20:34, 25 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Mainly some main pages have a Banner Ad only. But they need to find another solution. --Taylor Karras talk contributions 02:43, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * With regards for the disable the "community" box idea, that would be a bad idea. It is quite useful for checking recent changes from users without having to go to Special:Recentchanges. MarioGalaxy2433g5  { talk /contribs/Logs} 23:34, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

My intension was more to delete the top half of Community box with button "Create an account", total pages and so. All this messages stays also on Main Page. Loged in users have the same menu ("My page | My talk | Widgets") in top right user menu ("More"). And the last changes are in the widget "Recent Changes". For me, the "Community box" has all this texts in double. Without this box nothing would be missing. By the while I have hacked deep in css to have a lightway Monaco with more content space. ;-) -- HenryNe 00:11, 27 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The total pages count on there updates faster than Template:NUMBEROFARTICLES . MarioGalaxy2433g5  { talk /contribs/Logs} 23:44, 30 June 2008 (UTC)


 * HenryNe your lightway Monaco is very cool and the closest approximation to Monobook I have seen emulated within the constraints of the Monaco skin. Thank you! najevi 12:36, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Yeha, but today Wikia has changed the skin to releases_200807.1 and the layout around the Logo is broken now. -- HenryNe 20:14, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Nice, Wikia has corrected the Logo size quirks. Thanks. :-) Removed my workarounds got it ok again. -- HenryNe 22:48, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Wikia pointed me into Terms of Use, and to remove it. That't not welcome. Here is a screen shot, how it was. -- HenryNe 23:31, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Nonciclopedia can't change skin
I'm putting here the opinions of Nonciclopedia users. Let me be straight: we need our skin to remain as it is, because we're a satirical copy of Wikipedia, so we have to stick to their style; I guess that other wikia-hosted uncyclopedias have the same concern. Plus, we've worked hard to customize our Monobook and other single-page css's - we just can't waste all our efforts.

I read somewhere that it is possibile for Wikians themselves to buy the advertisement space on their own site. So, I'm asking you: if we do buy our ad space, will you let us If both (and I mean both) of our requests cannot be accomplished, I'm afraid that we'll have to move to our own server: everyone of us agree with that. I would be sorry to do that - I think Wikia offers a great service, even with more ads; but it's not what we need for our purpose. -- 17:22, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * 1) keep Monobook for all users, including anonymous
 * 2) have no banners inside the articles (or at least let us hide them with css)?


 * Yes, Nonciclopedia (and all the Uncyclopedia sister languages) have special requirements around parodying Wikipedia. We know of this, and so they won't be included in the changes at the moment. That's not to say that there won't be changes in the future, but we need to give this individual thought and attention. So for the moment, these changes won't happen for you. -- sannse (talk) 17:59, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * All right, I'm glad to hear that (in your face, non-Uncy Wikias!) -- 18:45, 26 June 2008 (UTC)


 * It's comments like this that cause me strongly question why certain Wikias get special treatment. --LordTBT Talk! 03:45, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

"Short" page determination fundamentally flawed.
Reference Fixer Bug for an example of what I at least think would qualify as a "short" article, made longer vertically by its box ad pushing its image down. This would, of course, be avoided by a banner ad, but the ad logic has deemed that this is a "long" article instead and thus merits a box.--RosicrucianTalk 21:33, 27 June 2008 (UTC)


 * The article length is measured without the box ad. Looks as though this article is right on the threshold of short article cuttoff. This Cybertron Questshort article does not have an ad  angies (talk) 16:40, 28 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Angies, "Cybertron_Questshort" article doesn't exist. I see a system message: "Oops! Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki does not have a page with this exact name. ..." - This is without any ads. But does no matter here, because we talk about real articles.


 * Sorry, my cut/paste messed up. The article name is Cybertron Quest. angies (talk) 05:37, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Old Monaco Look
How does FFXIclopedia still have the top bar Old Monaco look? -- LordTBT Talk! 06:44, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Wikia has perhaps not switched. This wiki use an older "stylepath". -- HenryNe 12:28, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * FFXIclopedia is on a different code trunk b/c they were testing the social tools. FFXI being migrated back and changed to New Monaco this week. angies (talk) 05:40, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Google ads - ESRB Mature 17+ rating?
Check the screen above - google advert - "Enlarge Your Penis Today Got a small penis? Want it bigger? These guys really helped me out!" - lol... doesn't it make wikia ESRB rating Mature 17+? Erm... I think it does - this category above allows "sexual references" s. Ok, maybe ESRB norms are for computer games only, but that's just to show the problem - Imagine that some girl, 6yo comes on Barbie Wiki or any other kids-related (eg. Teletubbies, Alvin and the Chipmunks, whatever) and sees such advert... lol. SkywalkerPL 10:09, 30 June 2008 (UTC)


 * (Moved up to help people see the new info below)
 * Eep! not what should be showing. I'll get Jae to look into that urgently!  He may be in touch to get more info from you -- sannse (talk) 11:37, 30 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Got something similar on Sega Wiki's main page. Quote: "Penis Enlargement: Want a bigger penis? Increase your penis size naturally in 2 weeks!" Eeks... Wikada - Talk Contributions 11:59, 30 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Please can someone get us the URL of the advert? That is, of the ad itself, not the page it's on.  We can't track this down without it.  Thanks -- sannse (talk) 19:02, 30 June 2008 (UTC)


 * http://www.enlargeyourpenistoday.com was the link on my website. EDIT: The advert itself seems to link to http://www.penisadvantage.com though. Both of them probably shouldn't be advertised. Wikada - Talk Contributions 19:13, 30 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the links, these'll come in handy. There is no way to misconstrue that.  —ǥrɩɳsɧƴ ɖɩđđɭɘş  [[Image:Grinshpon blinky cake.gif|19px]] 14:25, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


 * We need the actual URL of the ad. There are instructions on how to find this at w:c:help:Help:Bad advertisements.  I've tried repeatedly loading pages on the wikis where this has been seen, but haven't found one yet... it may be they are only being shown to people in one area.  So the URL will help a lot -- sannse (talk) 16:24, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Here is list of very long links -- HenryNe 00:50, 2 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I've clicked your link to an image page where you put the text of the bad add link in the description of the image and that bad add has show up for me in the 300px ad space but the URL for the add was not the same so i though it might help if i post my version : http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/iclk?sa=l&ai=B0PIipOdqSM4zophpiar80wbQrcBBsMbK1gXAjbcBwLgCEAIYAiDBjPUCKAM4AFD_vqPTBWD9qKOB8AOgAbqkuPsDsgENd3d3Lndpa2lhLmNvbboBCjMwMHgyNTBfYXPIAQHaATJodHRwOi8vd3d3Lndpa2lhLmNvbS93aWtpL0ltYWdlOjIwMDgwNzAyLTItYWRzLnBuZ4ACAagDAcgDB4gEAZAEAZgEAA&num=2&adurl=http://larnholt.penisadv.hop.clickbank.net/%3Ftid%3DMENHANCE&client=ca-pub-4086838842346968&nm=9
 * — TulipVorlax 02:37, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I have seen that stupid penis ad today! it was on NS wiki and on this wiki  12:14, 2 July 2008 (UTC)


 * So how does one report ads that make the page not load? I don't know how to get the URL from a page that won't load.  GuildWiki has had some problems with such ads last night and today.  Or rather, pages there often haven't been loading, and someone blamed it on ads, and blocking the ads fixed the problem for me.  Quizzical 20:24, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Probably last notice about boycott...
See Forum:Boycott Wikia's New Style. --Fandyllic 16:29, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

How to test Mainpage ads?
Is there a way to 'force' the ads Mainpage to display on wikias they haven't been rolled out for yet in order to test them? Is there a schedule for when wikias are going to be transitioned? (We're getting banner ads on our main page now, and rather than try to redesign the entire page blind in preparation for the new content- I'd like to force it to display so it can be part of the design. But I have no idea if the ads are actually 'there' already and are just being "bumped" to banners by our table structure, or aren't displaying because they're not implemented yet.)

This makes it kinda hard to initiate any sort of page redesign without being able to tell if it works, and I'd rather not sink a lot of hours and community discussion over something that's goignto have to change because we can't tell if it works. Tangentally- it'd be better for the community (which is probably decamping-- I think this is a bad idea) if they could see what the new design was going to look like with the adblock as it's developed, rather than build up an expectation of th new design without the in-column ad that then gets shattered when they're rolled out, pissing people off about the whole thing all over again. Can't Wikia just piss us off once, rather than doing it in a series of small insults? (This is part of why I want to redesign now, to ease our community into the new ugliness rather than having it thrust upon us all at once.)

So basically-- "How do I test the mainpage ads?" Can I make a sub-page of communitytest 'behave' like the main page? (I'm guessing you don't want me to overwrite the existing one for development purposes.)

(Ah, there's a discussion about maybe nuking ads for logged in users! I shall see if I can cool TT1's wikia rage with it...) -Derik 17:58, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


 * We can help you redesign the main page... We can set up a test page for you on the wiki that uses the column tags. We've been leaving Transformers alone for a minute, on account of the rage. Let me know if you want someone to come help you with a main page sandbox. -- Danny (talk ) 18:00, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
 * That's probably wise. Could you set up Main_Page/test, Main_Page/test2 and Main_Page/test3 to use the mainpage adblocks?  (In case there's some debate about the best approach, so we can have multiple concepts up and working to look at simultaneously.)  I'm assuming by 'test page' you mean 'page that will actually display the ads,' though it's not clear from your context.
 * You're probably right about the rage BTW- I dont' plan to push it right away either- but once the test pages are set up it means they'll be ready to be used when people are ready. Our main page needs a redesign regardless of whether we stay with Wikia or not, and there's one or two other users interested in a (long-overdue) redesign of many of our basic templates that might be coaxed into fiddling with layouts... which could (hopefully) turn it into a creative positive thing for the community instead of a something being forced on us.
 * (I'm a bit disappointed by the quick reply. My backup plan was to just start editing the Muppet Wiki's main page until I got a transformers layout I liked... ^_^ ) -Derik 18:15, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


 * If you look at this page you'll see a draft I did for Doctor Who where I forced a blank box in the ad spot. It does help people get a feel for the design I think..  The code that puts that box in is the first thing on the page...  -- Wendy  (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 18:11, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Ah thankee, i shall look into it! -Derik 18:15, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Hrm, so it looks like the adblocks render as the first item after "mainpage-rightcolumn-start." Do they render imemdiate after the tag ends, or do they wait for the first newline?  (Can we put something above it like a header?)  Not saying we'd want to- just want to know what's possible.  Will tables-within-columns break the adblock like tables at the head of pages to, or do they just brazenly push stuff down since they don't have to worry about being floated anymore? -Derik 18:49, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Wendy's been doing lots of the main page designs... She's the person I was going to recommend you talk to. So if you want, she can help you figure out how to use the column tags. -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 18:24, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


 * By the way, if you have some ideas for redesigning the Muppet main page, that would be great... I've been thinking that it needs some freshening up for a while. Feel free to post a draft. -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 18:26, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Heh, I meant using it as a testbed for the Transformers page Danny. ;) -Derik 18:34, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, maybe they have a lot in common... -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 19:20, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


 * The ability to force the tandem ad (right aligned banner and adbox) would be nice for drafting new main page layouts without having a full beta site set up. -- 21:18, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


 * The adblock I put in is just a dummy "spaceholder" if you will. You would take it out in the final "live" page.  In real life the ad renders last, and will simply slide the whole column down.  You can have tables or divs in that column under it as long as they close properly :).
 * I just made a test. Anything written before the start of the column tags will be re-positioned into the left column (below the banner) when the ads render.  Anything written after the right-column tag, but before the newline, simply gets moved down the page under the ad.  So I'd have to say that there's no good way to put anything above the ad.  The only other thing I can think of is a site-notice, which I think goes up above the banner ad, although I'm not sure.


 * Gahoo, you will see the banner ad display on sandbox pages, and you can put in the dummy placeholder for the adbox to help you draft a new page layout. -- <font color="Blue">Wendy  (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 01:09, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Wikia
Wikia, please go back to the advertisers and say that ads in the content area destroy pages. Until that is done you must use the old ad placement system

Separating two issues - article flow around the ad box vs. advertising content within the ad box
I may be misreading some of the feedback on this "preview as anon" idea but it seems that some people feel a need to preview an actual advertisement to fully appreciate the effect of the ad on their article. I think that is a futile exercise and I would like to explain why.

Article flow around the ad box When creating or editing an article you need to see how that article flows around a box in the top RH corner that will contain an ad. This point deals solely with article layout and for this a white or gray rectangle or a site admin specified 300x250 placeholder image is all that is necessary. This preview of article layout around the ad box should be the only thing the edit preview should have to deal with when it comes to ads placed in the article content area.

Ad content The actual advertising content displayed in that ad box is impossible to know or even to reasonably sample because these ads are randomly sourced and we can expect the content to change from day to day. If you have concerns about advertising content that might be shown at your wiki site then I suggest to you that burdening the edit preview page with live ads is not the place to assess such potential conflict.

If the distraction factor of the ad content or suitability for your wiki community is what you want to preview or check for then an ad gallery that allows you to rapidly cycle through all the currently possible ads is what you should be asking Wikia for. Along with that ad gallery you might consider requesting a button to tag inappropriate ads that should not be displayed at your community's wiki.


 * Personally, I would not use such a tool because as a practical matter, I don't come to a wiki to sit and censor advertising content. Therefore I am not asking for this feature. I only describe it to illustrate my point about separating "layout" issues from "ad content" issues and to strongly recommend that the edit preview focus only on the layout issue.

What to do about inappropriate ad content If a visitor finds inappropriate ad content at a wiki then the responsibility for reporting this to Wikia staff (User:JSharp sounds like the "go-to guy" for this) should not fall to a site admin. Instead, every visitor should be empowered to easily report an inappropriate, unsuitable or unreasonably animated or audio-enabled ad directly to Wikia's go-to guy for this type of issue. A link in one corner of the ad box might tag the ad to not be shown at that particular wiki. This might remain in effect until the go-to guy has inspected the list of tagged ads to confirm or overturn this visitor's vote.

The mechanics are not so important as the principle that it is not reasonable to expect that:
 * 1) site admins funnel complaints about specific ads to Wikia staff
 * 2) casual visitors post a complaint at some forum thread like this one

I hope that this separation of the issues makes good sense to some readers.

najevi 15:45, 2 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Some notes in my edit conflicted comment above.
 * As for reporting, Wikia has a nice "Report a Problem" feature, perhaps a tweak to the message telling someone that if they are reporting a bad advertisement, they need to give certain bits of information. Though, do note that having the system do this itself is not really feasible, the url and other needed info is dynamically generated and can sometimes even be inside of an iframe that cannot be accessed even by JavaScript so it's nearly impossible to create an automatic report, not to mention that with varying services it's nearly impossible to find one way that just works, the actual things that need to be traversed will vary greatly and likely periodically fail, and also need redesigning by the techs every time that Wikia finds another ad provider to try out. ~ NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) (tricks) (current topic) Jul 2, 2008 @ 17:07 (UTC)


 * Ads are generated using JavaScript, so the urls could be retrieved by JavaScript and posted inside the problem report. About iframes, the JavaScript object of the DOMInspector has no problem on showing all the properties of the iframe and the entire sub-document, at least in Firefox. --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -WikiDex 20:03, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Petition anti dirty ads
Please See http://help.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Bad_advertisements

Epic fail
If ads appear inside articles and it ruins the format, it's obvious people will want to block the ads with Adblock or other way, so it would be better if only the "banner" ads appear, and remove the "ad boxes" that appears in the right and left of any part of the page to avoid this. Until it's not solved, here is something useful to add to the top of the pages: <br style="clear: both;"/> --201.36.157.61 13:16, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
 * It also seems that it's making my browser crash, many operation aborted and blank pages around... --<font color="#306ac1">Taylor Karras <font color="#e13f5d">talk <font color="#51b732">contributions 15:35, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
 * The operations being aborted is happening to me too. I have IE 7. MarioGalaxy2433g5  { talk /contribs/Logs} 22:20, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Infoboxes pushed down...
Is there a tutorial anywhere for how to create infoboxes that aren't pushed down by ads (instead having banner ads)?

I noticed that on multiple wikias (such as Star Wars) that all of a sudden infoboxes are being pushed down when this wasn't happening just a couple of days ago.

(Also, has anything significant changed when it came to ads to explain this?)

Kimera 757 (talk) 00:30, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Ads obscuring article content
This is something new. It happens randomly, ctrl-refresh sometimes gives top banners, sometimes this. If it doesn't go away in an hour, I will temporarily have to disable ads on Rappelz Wiki as it renders some pages unusable. Drennan 06:20, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I added a "close ad" button instead, which is in keeping with the terms of service but still allows people to use the wiki. Please notify me if this is unacceptable. Drennan 08:01, 4 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Have also seen many times on all wikies. -- anonymous 09:08, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Not always a banner in pages using infoboxes
I don't know what happened, but as of today there seems to be problem regarding the banner ads on pages using an infobox. Where previously all pages using an infobox where forced to have a banner in stead of the square box ad, now it seems to be a random choice. I get banner ads in half of them, and square boxes in the other half. After refreshing a page, the type of ad will sometimes change from banner to box or the other way around.

It is really annoying to have those big square boxes in the pages using infoboxes. As you can see in the picture included here, the ad doesn't force the infobox to move downwards, but rather it moves to the left, creating a very narrow column of text on the left of the infobox and a "nice" blank space on the right of it (when the infobox is longer than the ad).

Anyone else had this problem? It seems to me this might be some kind of error, since I haven't seen it before today. Any help/explanation here would be nice. --Wild Whiphid 10:42, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes (I mentioned having the same problem just a little further up this page). Kimera 757 (talk) 12:20, 4 July 2008 (UTC)


 * This should be OK again now... an accidental missetting. sorry about that - sannse (talk) 17:01, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

It is very simple
Can not wikia just...

1. Remove the adds from the content. There are many places they can place them instead (remember the first version of Monaco?)

2. Remove the ads in the Main Pages (i insist... The first impression is the very important one)

3. Limit the ads overloading: I.e: May be users receive ads each three pages they visit instead every single second

Apollo of Parnassus 20:53, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

*sigh*
/me pats Apollo of Parnassus in the head with a brick rock. You know, if I wasn't banned from the #wikia IRC channel right now. I would get a staff member, make him/her post in this thread that "Wikia needs to suit it's advertisers and that advertisers." How many times would the Wikia staff and everyone have to repeat this to you. Maybe if I made the text bigger, bolder, italicer and blinkier. Then you would notice it more. I think I just lost a few brain cells talking to you. --<font color="#306ac1">Taylor Karras <font color="#e13f5d">talk <font color="#51b732">contributions 01:16, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
 * ...or possibly wikia needs to suit those who actually draw any ad-views, i.e., us? Yes, they need to be able to pay for bandwidth, but there's also the important consideration that most of the way they've been handling this situation is a slap in the face to the people who actually make their sites worth the advertiser's money (and who are doing it for free, unlike many other service-client situations). I can say that, unless it was completely ridiculous like a genital supplement ad, I would generally click on the ads. You don't get people to buy things by hitting them for not doing so.KrytenKoro 03:54, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Hi KrytenKoro, please see above where we are proposing removing ads (except on the main page) for all logged in users -- sannse (talk) 15:31, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

<br style="clear:both" />

At 800x600 desktop resolution leaderboard style ad covers Login window
1024x768 display resolution may be the lowest common denominator nowadays so this may be a relatively low priority. I was checking our wiki pages at an 800x600 desktop resolution today and noticed that an anon visitor is not able to easily log in due to the leaderboard style ad covering the input boxes for the Login window.

This was observed using both FF3 RC3 and IE7.

At a separate PC also at 800x600 resolution but running FF1.5 and IE6 the leaderboard ad does not cover the Login window.

Sorry I can't be any more specific as I no longer have access. najevi 02:28, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
 * It was discussed already - and looks like there won't be any change in that matter. Wikia isn't now for anyone using 800x600 screen (so about 10% ppl in my country...) SkywalkerPL 13:33, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Banner overlaps Login also on bigger screen resolution 1265x811, just here in the forum. -- HenryNe 16:21, 5 July 2008 (UTC)


 * For some reason I can't reproduce this, but I've reported it anyway, and it's marked as high priority... hopefully the tech guys will be able to fix it quickly. -- sannse (talk) 16:52, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Flash animations are the problem! You can see it, if a Flash doesn't go into gray after clicking the big green button "Log in to Wikia" in top line. Here is the screen and the URL to the flash -- HenryNe 20:15, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

<br style="clear:both" />

Good or badly adversing?
If Wikia has no control about the ads, then it can go into wrong direction. Should we following the Link? ;-) -- HenryNe 03:05, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Bug causing Operations to be aborted
On pages with banner ads, occasionally I receive a message saying that the operation was aborted and it sends me to a page saying that there is a problem with the site. It was mentioned above, but nobody answered. MarioGalaxy2433g5 { talk /contribs/Logs} 20:42, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
 * JSharp is looking into this, it seems to be related to a known bug on IE. It's with the tech team now, hopefully they will find a way around this soon -- sannse (talk) 07:33, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, this has been attacking myself and several other IE users for several days now. But the existence of the ads triggered it; on other occasions, the page would load but not the ads, usually with a "Done but with errors" note at the bottom. Given the message, and that it happened on every page including the main page, I don't think it was an ad blocker issue. In general, something about either the ads themselves or how Wikia has coded to include them is wreaking havoc on IE. -- <font color="Blue">Andrew Leal (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 05:30, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * A while ago, the ads loaded, but with the "Done but with errors" note at the bottom. The details about it said that "Strcreative is not defined" or something like that. Maybe that bit of info will help. MarioGalaxy2433g5  10+ { talk /contribs/Logs} 20:34, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * We've made a change that might have fixed this... please let us know if you see the "operation aborted" notice. Thanks -- sannse (talk) 21:05, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Snap Keylinks
Is it me, or do the Snap Keylinks ads essentially consist of 2 regular size banner ads stacked on top of one another? Isn't that a bit large? -- <font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 22:16, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it is. Snap Keylinks and Ads by Google are 728x90, some older animated gif are 468x60. Newer gif`s are bigger, for example 728x90. Wikia has not written how big the "Leaderboard" would be go. That's, why I shocked on a 1024x768 screen resolution about the 40% size for content and 60% non content. -- HenryNe 23:04, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Special treatment
Tell me Wikia, why are parodies of Wikipedia, especially uncylopedia, so much more important then other wikis with real non humor content?

Wikia, you are benefiting the few (or maybe just one) at the expense of the many, and that is something I do not support. --Whachsul733 03:05, 7 July 2008 (UTC)


 * It's certainly not a about importance. And it's likely there will be changes for Uncyclopedia in the future.  But we are putting that aside for now, because we understand that Uncyclopedia has particular needs for parodying Wikipedia.  I personally believe that can be done with Monaco, but that's a discussion for another day -- sannse (talk) 10:47, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

New Monaco features decrease quality!
The new Monaco features are decreasing the quality of articles at the SpongeBob Wiki.



Well, there's my opinions. I would like it if we went back to the original Monaco skin. If that can't be done, I'm going to brign it back to Wikipedia-style skin. I really like the sidebar thing on the Monaco skin. However, I prefer to reduce ad problems over easier navigation through the site. - AMK152 (talk • contribs) 15:51, 7 July 2008 (UTC)


 * "How is the the ads more important than the content now?"
 * Maybe because the add are paying the hosting of the wiki and without it you would need to "buy" a domain name and get a "commercial" hosting like i have for my personnal web site (synaptique.ca). My hosting doesn't cost much. 50$ can per year. But it could not host a wiki with thousan of image files, a big data base and an always increasing bandwidh usage.
 * That said, Wikia already said they plan on reducing add for loggin users. Is that enough to solve your problem ? — TulipVorlax 16:13, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Meanwhile, the anons who view the content are going to have to put up with those ads! I'm not with the SpongeBob Wiki, but that only sloves the issue with 1% of wikia users. What about the 99% who are going to put up with these terribly intrusive ads?! WHAT ABOUT THEM WIKIA?! --Whachsul733 17:06, 7 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I would recommend you read the archives of this forum, you're about 1 month late. --<font color="Green">LordTBT <font color="Green" size="2">Talk! 21:40, 7 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I wasn't criticizing the advertisements' existence. I understand why they are there. I just don't like it that the new placement of the ads is worse than the original. - AMK152 (talk • contribs) 22:19, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

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Costs and benefits
Okay, I just have to get this out. Wikia claims that the ads will benefit the wikis more than it costs. I have to ask you, how? The ads are intrusive, they're interfering with loading the pages, and a number of adds range from offensive to detrimental to the Wikis purposes. Not to mention the fact that the majority of the community sees red when they think about it. I really have to ask you, is this really worth all of it? Just for the increased revenue? Any business knows that costs cannot outweigh benefits. I'm beginning to wonder if Wikia understands that concept. -- SFH 17:58, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

They are just going to tell the same bullshit that they have since this whole thing about the new style begain! They treat consumers like THINGS, those adverstisers! --Whachsul733 18:33, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Turn back, turn back! We want the original Monaco back!

I am serious when I am saying the number of new contributors of my wikis (specially creative sci-fi) have plumbed down with this new ad-inside-content approach. People (when still anonymous) look at the wiki and thing it is a sort of blog, not a serious project.

In conmyth, lots of articles have lost their original format "thanks" to those new ad boxes... and I am not going to repair over 500 articles just because someone had the terrible idea of creating those buggy boxes.

The only thing Wikia will get is to kill minor and new wikis that still have no defined community, breaking out their growth with this new model.

I do not matter where you want to put the ads, but... please... kick them out from the article body, it is confussing and bloaty, and it is killing the format. Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please!

At least place them above (and not beneath) the title of the page, that is really confusing for new users, I tell you.

By the way.. I do not know why so many logged users want the removal of the ads for themselves... We do not matter compared to the 99% of anonymous that are being affected by those ads. There must be alternatives, I guess. I really do not know what was wrong with the original Monaco.Golden Eagle 22:45, 8 July 2008 (UTC)