User blog comment:Susanolivia/Fixed Width, Sidebar, and the Removal of Monaco/@comment-1610819-20101003024423/@comment-4713673-20101004195649

Wow, great (and long!) post. I won't be able to hit every point - but here are some answers to your questions.

Universally, the feedback that we got from user testing on Monaco is that people didn't understand who created the pages. The MediaWiki Foundation saw exactly the same thing when they did user testing on Wikipedia -- the vast majority of people on the internet think that Wikipedia is written by a small group of people, and they can't or shouldn't participate. This why attribution has been added at the top of the page as well as on photos -- it helps make potential contributors feel more comfortable and gives them the feeling that they have permission to edit when they might otherwise not have felt they could do so.

If the floating toolbar doesn't work for you and you'd rather have it stay stationary you can allow that via your personal CSS.

Popular blog posts will only appear on a wiki with blog posts enabled. While blogs can be used for other aspects they are by nature social and adding this module is a way to help people find the most interesting blogs. Blogs are not a compulsory feature and can be removed.

The edit button icon is actually in the process of changing, based in part on feedback we've heard here and during the beta. The word edit will be returned to section links and the icon will be noticeably changed to be more recognizable. (It's a pencil on a line right now, not a stapler, but we get that it's hard to tell. :))

Article comments are not mandatory - the article discussion page still exists. If you have a discussion page rather than comments the icon will take you there instead.

The usefulness of wiki activity is a difference of opinion. If you prefer Recent Changes that's a good way to go for you. You can access Recent Changes from the Wiki Activity, among other places. We're also adding in your Followed Pages to Wiki Activity which may make this more useful for you or others.