Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-22224-20180521161500/@comment-1333424-20180521193907

Honestly, this wasn't that unexpected. I've heard rumors about this since a few months ago and if the numbers I've heard floating around are correct, then it's indeed no surprise that the skin is being removed. However, like always, Wikia somehow manages to screw up the announcement, upsetting the max amount of people. As I see it, there are two scenarios here:

1. Monobook is actually in violation of GDPR. Fixing it up to speed would be an undue burden on the technical team. I'll give it a 10% probability. For one, Monobook is only used by logged-in users so they're not served advertisements at all. One would think this would reduce the complexity of any tracking. I'm also pretty sure that fixing this wouldn't be rocket science, no matter how complicated you portray it to be. Then again, considering bugs that appear simple take quite literally years to fix, I wouldn't be surprised if the technical team consists of one person whose job is to create the maximum amount of new buzzy features before abandoning them. Even if this was the case, GDPR didn't strike like lightning from the sky - 5 days heads-up is absolutely unacceptable. Disgraceful. Almost like you wanted to avoid flak.

2. Monobook isn't in violation of GDPR. Wikia has probably been looking for an excuse to get rid of Monobook for ages, and GDPR happened to come around just perfectly. I'm honestly not sure if this is the better of the two options, but considering Wikia's track record, it sounds more likely than option number 1. In either case, you're lying to us.

This probably reads very salty and bitter. But that's exactly what I am. This is yet another move in unintentedly disenfranchising veteran power users. But then again, as a monopoly in the niche, there are zero repercussions. However, all good things must come to an end and when the time comes for Wikia to be replaced by a competitor, I'll be there and say "I told you so." Cheers and have a great day.