Forum:Your First Look at the New Wikia (discussion)

Reminder: the team is only watching the blog for comments and feedback. If you want your comments read by staff, leave them there. 16:34, 17 August 2010

Related Pages

 * User blog:Sannse/Your First Look at the New Wikia


 * File:LoggedOUT for blogpost.jpg (talk)
 * Sarah Manley has a three bullet comment
 * Wikia’s new look - FAQ
 * Wikia’s new look - User Qs
 * Forum:Wikia’s new look - User questions
 * User talk:Randomtime, includes a post by sannse

Interesting Blog Comments

 * [1] &rarr; [2] Sannse: Yes, we tried a right hand navigation with Quartz. That version just didn't work well. We think this horizontal navigation, above the article, is much more comfortable to use.
 * [3]: A few (important) pages on my Wiki have several categories (up to twenty). They won't all appear at the top of the page, will they? &rarr; [4] Sannse: No, on the prototype it's just the top three categories that show.
 * "The FAQ is pretty weak." &rarr; [5] Sannse: We'll be adding to that over time... we just wanted to get the obvious first questions in there to start with.
 * [6] Sannse: You'll still be able to customize the colors to suit your wiki.

Discussion
Make sure to read: User blog:Sannse/Your First Look at the New Wikia and Wikia’s new look - FAQ

If comments to this blog entry are the way Wikia gets feedback, that sucks. However, I like the clean look of the new design. It is hard to tell much from a screenshot, though.

I'm hoping they have a good transition plan from Monaco long before the roll out. We'll see.

Comments? Speculation? Any beta testers out there? -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 9:37 AM PST 17 Aug 2010
 * I hope monobook's still going to be available -- Random Time  17:25, August 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * What's the fixed width of the article space? Duskey ( talk ) 17:36, August 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * That question can only be answered by Wikia Staff or maybe beta testers. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 2:54 PM PST 17 Aug 2010


 * The "clean" look is the "look, ma, no ads" look. Get your 300x400 flash ad on the sidebar and a fixed banner across the bottom, attached to the toolbar (this is mere speculation on my part), and it it's going to look a lot less enticing.
 * This skin wins if it validates with less xhtml errors than Monaco does.
 * I'll not be applying for the beta. I've left detailed feedback on new features for Wikia in the past, and I found the rewards to not be worth it. -- ◄mendel► 22:38, August 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * I guess mendel's last sentence is a word to the wise. We'll see if Wikia has learned any lessons from the Monaco experience. I suspect their tactic will be "the less information, the better" so we can't complain, having been left mostly in the dark. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 11:10 PM PST 17 Aug 2010
 * Just to clarify, I wasn't referring to my feedback re: Monaco. -- ◄mendel► 20:07, August 18, 2010 (UTC)
 * Regardless, the Monaco experience was just as bad. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 1:25 PM PST 18 Aug 2010


 * Also, mendel please don't remove content without making a copy elsewhere or saying something in the forum post. An edit summary is not sufficient. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 1:29 PM PST 18 Aug 2010

Astroturf or audience partcipation?
The people who posted comments to the blog today between 6:30 and 9:00 were SawBucks, JohnnyLightning, Chicken7, Thebrains222, Gebezis, Richmond2010, Pip25, Gourleyo, Gluetube365, Ldude893, Technobliterator, timmah911. Of these 12, Special:Editcount counts at least 7 with no more than max. 3 contributions, all of them on this wiki, all of them in User blog Comment:. If these are bona fide readers and not sockpuppets, getting them to voice their opinion is quite an achievement. --80.228.212.39 13:44, August 18, 2010 (UTC)


 * For the record, a global talk page message went out yesterday linking to the blog. Everyone had the opportunity to see it and post a comment without actually having to be on Central to find out about it. - Brandon Rhea (talk) 18:37, August 18, 2010 (UTC)


 * Now, if Wikia has the tech, why can't I send out a wiki-global talk page message on my wiki? That'd be neat. -- ◄mendel► 19:39, August 18, 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't think they were sock puppets, but it would be nice to know the wiki where people have the most contributions. However, sifting through the blog comments for actual replies from staff is painful and annoying. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 1:24 PM PST 18 Aug 2010

Staff responses at blog

 * User blog comment:Sannse/Your First Look at the New Wikia/Peteparker-20100817170309/Sannse-20100818003612
 * Yes, we tried a right hand navigation with Quartz. That version just didn't work well. We think this horizontal navigation, above the article, is much more comfortable to use.
 * In response to this.
 * User blog comment:Sannse/Your First Look at the New Wikia/Bentendo-20100817195623/Sannse-20100818005220
 * No, on the prototype it's just the top three categories that show.
 * -- In response to this: A few (important) pages on my Wiki have several categories (up to twenty). They won't all appear at the top of the page, will they?
 * User blog comment:Sannse/Your First Look at the New Wikia/Fandyllic-20100817225651/Sannse-20100818005728
 * We'll be adding to that over time... we just wanted to get the obvious first questions in there to start with.
 * -- In response to: "The FAQ is pretty weak."
 * User blog comment:Sannse/Your First Look at the New Wikia/Bobofango-20100817235426/Sannse-20100818010057
 * You'll still be able to customize the colors to suit your wiki.
 * User_blog_comment:Sannse/Your_First_Look_at_the_New_Wikia/Sarah_Manley-20100818012916