Forum:Overriding Admin Skin Choice

Just curious, is overriding the admins' skin choices not a thing we can do anymore? The option seems to be mysteriously absent today.  Yamstis  ♪ / ♫ 11:57, September 22, 2010 (UTC)
 * I still see the tickbox, but it doesn't seem to do anything, along with other options that don't seem to be working. Is this related to adding the new layout skin option? --Tlosk 12:52, September 22, 2010 (UTC)
 * It has disappeared, and for those who had it active before, it is no longer on. This annoys me because I strongly dislike the Monaco skin, which I find slow, unwieldy, ugly and impractical. (In particular, I dislike its overreliance on AJAX and other JavaScript stuff. And I really don't like how the column menus jump around like frantic ibices when the mouse cursor goes nearby, as if the item I was trying to click on was fleeing desperately for dear life.) The way Monaco is crammed down people's throat, whether they want it or not, is really annoying. Did you know the admin no longer have the possibility to choose a skin other than Monaco, either? Instead of "skin choice", there's just "theme choice". MonoBook is still around for the moment, but you have to paste "&useskin=monobook" at the end of each URL if you still want to use it. No doubt it'll be removed soon. --Gez 12:56, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

It's getting better and better :-( 15:55, September 22, 2010 (UTC)


 * Pages are so slow to load, more than twice as long. It feels like trying to write cursive with a paddle in molasses. Sure, I'd like to spend 20 hours to do 10 hours of edits for no discernible benefit. Ugh. --Tlosk 17:34, September 22, 2010 (UTC)


 * Problem appears to maybe be solved?  Yamstis  ♪ / ♫ 18:12, September 22, 2010 (UTC)


 * No, this is a new "feature" of Wikia. Got a wiki with a dark skin, and you don't like dark skin, good luck changing it without having to go into your own custom CSS (which is much harder than selecting a premade one).


 * They even took the liberty of deleting the premade alt skins from answers wikis, meaning that the sysop's choice is the only one, and there's no way of importing another that you previously used. -- Random Time  18:34, September 22, 2010 (UTC)


 * Working for me also now, thank you Wikia. --Tlosk 18:43, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

Well, my MonoBook is back, so I guess this wheel squeaked enough to get some grease. Thanks to whoever restored the ability to override the default skin. --Gez 18:44, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

Update
Sorry for the confusion there. The bug with Monobook was caused by the changes to the “skin” tab in preferences. That bug is fixed now. There is still a problem with the mobile skin, and we are looking into issues with switching skins for answers wikis.

The reason for the change to preferences is that the option to choose a personal Monaco theme caused a lot of confusion. One mis-click from a confused user, and all your careful customization would be invisible to them. So instead, all users will see the theme chosen by the wiki admins (unless they select to see Monobook). For advanced users who actually do want to see all wikis in the same scheme, you can change your view of Wikia with your personal custom CSS. -- sannse (help forum | blog) 22:32, September 22, 2010 (UTC)