User blog comment:Susanolivia/Fixed Width, Sidebar, and the Removal of Monaco/@comment-839288-20101005162342

So, as I promised earlier, here are my thoughts, which are independent and haven't been influenced by other's opinion. Sannse was so kind, that she tried to prove me, that our old Wiki designs can be totally adapted in the new look. But she achieved a completly opposing result. She didn't make me calm, in fact I became worried. Look at my Wiki's current design:  And how it can be "adapted" in the new look:  Where's the feeling? The feeling, that you're in Narnia. The colours, the patterns… I know, and Sannse told me as well, that this is just a quick sketch, but I think my Wiki will never look the same, the same Narnian in this "new thing". Except if I work another 1-2 months on its design… At this point I want to state, that I'm not a member of this AWA or whatever, although I really liked their declaration of independence, but only as a poet and writer. :) But I totally disagree with them, because I think that's the worst way to solve the problem. In fact they don't want to solve this problem, they're just running away. Susan Taylor: "We all have the same goals -- we want your wiki to be amazing. We want to show off the work you've done, point people towards the freshest and most exciting content, and encourage new contributors to share their knowledge." But you won't show off the work we've done, if you simply erase Monaco, the skin most of our Wiki's design is built on. And you don't only erase the Monaco, but all the work we had with it. It's very nice that you want to attract more new users to Wikia, but you don't see that while you're working on that, you lose many veteran users, who's fulltime hobby was working on their Wiki. You have to understand that you do not have to make a compromise among members of the Staff, but you do have to make a compromise between the Staff and the users, who are the consumers of the product Wikia! Because Wikia is for them, for the users, who spend many hours working on a project, on an article, on a design! I don't say, that the work and the devotion of the Staff isn't important. I think Wikia is a coin. A coin, that has two sides: the Staff and the users. And if that coin falls on one of its sides, it will be bad for the other side. So the best solution is when the coin falls on its edge, when both side is visible and equal! I don't want the Staff to throw all their work, time, energy and devotion spent on the new look out of the window. I just want you to let us to tell our opinion, and to count that opinion in your decisions, because they affect the users work as well! We also spend many time on our Wikis, and I think you can imagine what it feels like to work on a workplace where you don't feel yourself whole. Just imagine how bad it can be to work for example as a secretary, when all your childhood you've dreamed about becoming a balletdancer. Or whatever… :) Please, listen to us, before it's too late. Maybe you think, that if some Wikis leave the Wikia-network it's not a significant loss. But it is! Every leaving Wiki is a loss, like every man who dies, or every leaf that falls from a tree. I'm sure that there could be an agreement, which is beneficial and satisfying for both the Staff and the users. For example: we would accept the new skin, but you would fulfill some of our requests, that have been asked already by many users. So it means you would make changes, that would make us satisfied. Or another option is that we again accept the new skin, but you'd promise to create a sister/brother-skin (as Monaco and Monobook) in the next months, which reflects the layout of our beloved Monaco (the left-sided navigation menu and the article are in separate "boxes", just like the Wikia strip, and so on…), but already is modernized. Or any other option both accepted by the Staff and the users. The most important is to make an agreement, to make peace and to declare that in the future we'll work on the Wiki all together. Thanks for reading my opinion, I hope it will be useful.
 * This stupid Wikia strip on the top of the page is still meaningless. It looks like it's part of the wiki, but in fact it has nothing to do with Narnia, so I could already place a "Non-Narnian-Article" template in this strip… if it'd be possible of course… :P
 * The small icons thrown disorderly in the page create a real chaos feeling. I don't really think this would attract more new editors to the Wikis. Do you?
 * The main navigation menu (what's task is to be always easily visible and available, to help the contributor's navigation on the site) is nearly disappearing in this new skin, as it is put between the very-very important and great Wikia strip + the white Google-ad and the main content.
 * The whole site is in one great box, the feeling of chaos grows even bigger.
 * I couldn't really find the special menu, which in Monaco was beneath the main menu. Where it is?!
 * And many-many other disadvantages of this new look… which could be the subject of complaint from other users…

Alquen, a Wikia user