Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-13301-20140129213327

Since yesterday, apparently, it's no longer possible to use the CSS style "position:   fixed" on any page, since it's blocked by Wikia's spam filter:

I reported it on the vstf wiki, but I found there were another users complaining there also: http://vstf.wikia.com/wiki/Report:Spam_filter_problems?oldid=31466#Repetition

I was appalled at Rappy's response: Wikia Staff is not going to remove that filter, because they added it with the specific purpose of blocking it. It's not a filter against spam, but a filter to enforce Wikia's Terms of Use. On the previous link I think it's pretty much well explained.

The reason provided by Staff is:
 * It obscures/blocks takeover ads.
 * It's causing issues with users viewing Wikia on tablet devices.

While I can agree thet it may obscure ads, I really think staff overreacted here. Let me try to rebate those points:

First of all, this kind of CSS is only being used in user and user talk pages[Citation: See all the reports on the provided link: all are from user and user talk pages!!]. I agree some users may be using it in an annoying way, but please don't generalize this with all of us that don't. It's like those that use background colors to give a page a more eye-candy look and those that use it to cause retinal detachment.

It obscures/blocks takeover ads. While this may be true (it'd only obscure a portion, btw), from what I though, takeover ads only happen very few times according to previous wikia blog posts about them, so what's the matter here? It's being used only in user and user talk pages, very few people will get a takeover ad on such page, and unregistered users (who see ad normally) do not navigate through such pages.

It's causing issues with users viewing Wikia on tablet devices.. As Joeytje50 said, mobile skin strips all CSS so it isn't affected. And again, such users usually navigate through content pages and not user and user talk pages. If they do, they're probably the same user than the user page and will change that CSS if it finds it uncomfortable.

And another concern is that some custom scripts are being used to open part of the wiki page on a fixed box in the middle of the screen, using that CSS to place the box there. That CSS is now being blocked also.

This is quite an important change that should at least be advertised, as it's being used by several users (according to the quantity of reports on that page). Since Staff hasn't advertised it, and the vstf channel is not the right place for it, I've decided to create this forum post so other people are informed about what just happened and that this spam filter isn't going to be removed by staff.

I could send the report through Special:Contact, but Rappy is very aware of this, so I think sending the report from there to be replied by the same person that implemented the spam rule won't make any difference 