Board Thread:New Features/@comment-24739709-20150518230347/@comment-24473195-20150605093420

Imamadmad wrote:

False. You can go look at other people's personal CSS. For example, to use a random other user, you can see User:CzechOut/wikia.css just fine and can copy any you like. You can't edit it, but you don't need to edit it to copy and use it.. Well, that's a conditional statement. Look AND change, so it is true. It might have been false if I wrote, look OR change. The reason I bring that up, is because small differences like that affect programming, and even css changes. One fact that people always seem to forget is that the more you know the harder it is for you to do things in a simple manner. The arithmetic 8/2* 3 is a hard concept, but once one has learnt it, one can perceive it to be easy.

The majority of wikia users are not programmers, nor are they knowledgeable of all the hacks and functionality and permissions you can use to get something "simple" working. To illustrate this point, a complete beginner can come to wikia look at a template see its syntax and instructions on how to change the color of text, simply change something from "yellow" to "green" in the source, preview it and post it with  0 knowledge of css.

I consider myself a very advanced user of wikia, yet I didn't know the community test wikia users were all admins, nor would I expect a novice or the vast majority to know how to do all the things you describe. One core principle of software design that developers sometimes seem to forget, is that you create software taking people's backgrounds and expertise into account. So despite supporting the core principle of this potBox design, I still believe that catering to the elite few is a basic violation of that principle.