User blog:Dopp/New Profile Design Now Live Across All Wikis

The big day is here! We’ve been talking for weeks (well, months, actually) about redesigning profiles on Wikia, and you can see the new version live on your wiki today. These changes will make it easier for members of your wiki to introduce themselves to one another &mdash; hopefully resulting in fewer blank profiles and a better sense of who your fellow editors are.

Getting to know your new profile
There is a new section added to the top of your profile that looks like this:



That’s just how you see it. When others look at the top of your profile (before you fill it out), they see this:



But let’s say you don’t want to leave it blank. How do you fill it out? Hover over the new speech bubble area, click the “edit” link that appears and you’ll be presented with this:



You might see a few fields filled out with information we already have about you. (We won’t display those details without you saying “yes,” though). You can decide to keep that information, or you can change it up. Keep these points in mind:


 * Anything you enter into the new top section of your profile will appear on every wiki you’ve edited. So, introduce yourself in a way that works for all of your wiki communities.


 * Make clear, conscious decisions about what information you want to share about yourself.


 * Read our recent post about being safe online for a refresher on what to consider. It’s okay to be creative, to experiment, and to have fun. You don’t have to fill these questions out the way you would on a government form &mdash; be unique!



If you need some inspiration, take a look at some of our staff profiles. Check out mine, Danny's, and Trevor's.

Other important details
We know that some of you will have questions about these changes, so we’ll try to answer the big ones here:

Everywhere? This change is happening across all of Wikia. It’s part of our global skin, so it’s not an optional feature.

Avatar sizes? The new avatar size is 150 x 150 pixels. Previously, we’ve had two other standard sizes: 100 x 100 and 200 x 200. If your avatar is currently 200 pixels, it will shrink to 150 pixels. If it’s currently 100 pixels, it will stay 100 pixels. But you may want to consider uploading a larger size. (Check it out &mdash; we’ve improved the upload process, too!)

Subpages? We’ve also updated the layout for subpages that you create under your profile. These now look more like regular wiki pages than user pages, and they include a link back to your profile.

'''Wikis you haven’t edited? '''Your profile will only show your information if you have edited on a wiki. If you have zero edits on that wiki, your personal information will not display.

'''Founder & admin labels? '''You may notice that we’re displaying “founder” and “admin” labels on these profiles, but not “bureaucrat” (or some other titles). This is because the difference between an admin and a bureaucrat generally only matters to admins and bureaucrats. For most users, all they need to know is that you have admin rights. We also want to experiment with giving more visibility to the founders of the wiki. And aside from these details, we mostly just want to keep the labels as simple and clear as possible. (There’s also a label for “blocked”.)

'''Monobook? Monobook users will not''' see these changes. (Although they may want to consider switching to the Wikia skin temporarily when they want to use the improved Avatar upload feature.)

Custom CSS? The profile redesign is compatible with all customizations made through Theme Designer. If your wiki is using extensive custom CSS, you may need to make some adjustments for this feature, particularly on your H1 and H2 tags. If you come up with adjustment tips that other wikis might appreciate, please share them below. (And remember: on your Wiki’s CSS and JS, you’re welcome to decorate, but you can’t change or remove functionality.)

'''Recent Changes? '''Since changes to the top of your profile are global across all of Wikia, we’ve gone back and forth about whether edits to this area should appear in Recent Changes. As a result of some of the feedback we received from early tester, we’ve chosen to not display edits in Recent Changes for now. We’d love to hear your feedback on whether this seems like the best choice.

'''Questions? Bugs?''' If you need help with anything or if you think you found a bug, you can get support by reaching out to us through Special:Contact.

We’re excited about these improvements, and we think they’ll make it easier for people to get to know each other on Wikia. We want to know what you think, too! If you have feedback, opinions, or ideas for how we can keep improving profiles, comment below.

Update (Known Issues)
8/18/11
 * If you're both a chatmod and an admin, it will display you as chatmod. This is a bug, but it's also something you can fix quickly by removing your chatmod status. You don't need that if you're an admin. Fixed!
 * It's bigger than you expected. We appreciate that feedback and will consider it, thanks.
 * Search fields are missing from blog posts and blog listings. We're working on it! Fixed!