As I'm sure people have gotten notification of, Wikia is holding a contest where you redesign your Wiki for Halloween, and can win promotion on Wikia for a month. I'm sure of course our more edit-focused users will welcome increased publicity, while casual users can appreciate the fun of redecorating :).
Now, the logos are up, but we can do more. I've already gotten a new background working, to check it out (anyone) go to User:You/monobook.css (or wikia.css if you use Oasis) and copy this line: body { background: url(http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/2/20/Drake_Background.png); background-attachment: fixed} Enjoy, just remove it to go back. :) As for the rest of the Wiki, I've got a conceptional sandbox - ta-da!. Note that the orange and yellow would just be the main page and would be done manually, the rest of the wiki would keep class colors and such, it would just change to white text on a black background, and for ease of navigation we could also change the colors of links. Of course, this is all temporary for Halloween. I've got a conceptual image of what, ideally, things will look like. Scathe says he may know how to change things in the CSS, or whatever is needed, to implement this redesign. So the only question is, do we approve of this? | |||
Looks good to me, but how will it work for Oasis users? | |||
If the proper coding can be found, ideally all features will be made sure they work for both skins. I've been using my sandbox to experiment. (EDIT - the current CSS coding for the background doesn't work for Oasis, when I get it working I'll add it)
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Catuse says at 02:33, October 16, 2012 (UTC) "Somewhere a zealous god threads these strings between the clouds and the earth, preparing for a symphony it fears impossible to play. And so it threads on, and on, delaying the raise of the conductor's baton." | |||
Here is what the main page while look like in Oasis. | |||
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Changed it to black, yeah it looks better this way.
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8bit BlackMage - Beyond the Sky TALK - Why do chemists call helium, curium, and barium 'the medical elements'? Because, if you can't 'helium' or 'curium', you... um... ._.; - 05:29, October 16, 2012 (UTC) | |||
Yes, I think the text would be better in black. Where is the background from? It doesn't seem to feature anything in particular except orangeish sky. | |||
It's the Edge of Madness, 8-bit.
Anyway, looks good. I quite like it. -- Some Color Mage ~ (Talk) 07:52, October 16, 2012 (UTC)
The Oasis look is probably what will matter to the Wikia judges. I like it, you can see more of the Edge of Madness battlefield there too, but what is that white bar on the right in Catuse's screenshot?Keltainentoukokuu (talk) 11:48, October 16, 2012 (UTC)
- From the looks of it that screenshot is of my sandbox, so that white bar is proof of my half-assed-ness ;p. Doreiku Kuroofangu 11:57, October 16, 2012 (UTC)
Also, I'm unsure how the Search images work, but it's based on the category for them, yes? If so, then I could create a few Halloween-themed images for usage on it. Would also look nicer, if the sidebar goes black and the normal Search images are still white backgrounds
EDIT - first batch, note in this image they're slightly smaller than usual. | |||
It's glorious. But it clearly shows there's no reason to use backgrounds for the .png Search Images, and in particular, these don't match with the default skin. I don't endorse a removal of all search images' backgrounds, because we definitely don't need a grainy white border born from an half-assed job.
The above also applies to those icons for the forum and youtube and their horrible backgrounds. - Henryacores^ 16:59, October 16, 2012 (UTC)
- Now that I think about it, giving the "SEARCH" font a small white border effect could be very positive for all cases. Specially if we want to put a big dark image in the box. - Henryacores^ 17:01, October 16, 2012 (UTC)
Will this be just the front page or everything?Keltainentoukokuu (talk) 17:26, October 16, 2012 (UTC)
The black background and white font would be wiki-wide, the other recolorations would just be front page.
@Henry - no background? Easily fix. | |||
Trying to troubleshoot my way through CSS coding of other wikis with the effect I'm looking for. I got this, which is pretty much perfect, except it only works on my userspace and not mainspace. The struggle continues.
EDIT - Spoke too soon, large success now, the main wiki is black with orange text (easily troubleshot to make white) - the catch is, of course, it's only in Monobook. For now if you want to try it out, copy the content from User:Drake Clawfang/common.css into your CSS. | |||
It could be a strain to eyes to read large chunks of text with black background white text. Could try something with less contrast. I also feel the "Superhero Mog" that replaces the Ivalice moogle doesn't really fit. It'd fit better if the theme was like trick or treat ghosts and bats and full moons and pumpkins, but with the zombies and pits of inferno it looks out of place. I don't have a good suggestion on what to replace it with though.Keltainentoukokuu (talk) 15:50, October 17, 2012 (UTC)
I chose the masked moogle largely for the idea that our usual moogle is in costume. For alternatives, what springs to mind for me is Dorky Face. As for the text, as it stands now the text is actually orange and looks pretty good.
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I like the orange. I like the dorky face too. Haha did it always have a little pink bow on its head, how silly.Keltainentoukokuu (talk) 16:06, October 17, 2012 (UTC)
Okay, awesome news guys! The redesign is 99.5% done - the only feature left is making the search box black, which Okayynote (eternal gratitude to him for fine-tuning my sloppiness) has implied he knows how to do, he just didn't due to the current search images. So, with Admin blessing, I can upload the Halloween search images and impliment the main page recolors, and we're done! I asked on the contest page and a Wikia staff has said all designs are welcome regardless of skin.
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As I stated on User talk:JBed, I forcibly added a line to keep it white, so that can be removed.
This line also needs to be included
.forumheader, #catlinks, #footer{background-color:#111111 !important}
Which I recently added after I came to this forum topic and saw that the forumheader, the footer, and the categories were a bad colour. Okayynot (talk) 21:47, October 17, 2012 (UTC)
I think that it is good except for the fact that headers and the labels of the little toolbars on the left (e.g. directory) are the angry "Firefox cannot load the correct color" green. Also, the pumpkin on the top sorta juts into my username, but that's more of a minor thing. | |||
Are you sure that's not just an "intentional 00FF00 green" green? Okayynot (talk) 00:32, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
The pumpkin is my doing, a shift of its position, I think, should be simple to do. Otherwise we can just lose it, easily done
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If you want to change the green on the headers (if they weren't intended to be green), this:
#column-one div.portlet h5{color:[color] !important}
Although I didn't test that so things are bound to be wrong. Although I don't know which colour would be best. You might want to bold the text maybe, or do other alterations. You know how styles work, right? Okayynot (talk) 00:36, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
Normally, yes I do, but I've learned my usual formatting methods don't work in CSS for the most part.
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Your usual formatting methods being HTML? Anything within a style attribute-thing is CSS.
Bold = "font-weight:bold". Italic = "font-style:italic". Font-type = "font-family:[font-name]". Text colour="color:[color]". These are the most common font/text attributes. Okayynot (talk) 00:46, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
Ah, okay then. I'm used to the three apostrophes or an exclamation point in tables.
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Oh, okay. MediaWiki formatting. MediaWiki taught me almost everything I know about HTML and CSS (because we used CSS on wikis in the style attribute (before I even knew what CSS was) and then I investigated further -- I also knew about HTML and then just checked the changes between MediaWiki and HTML).
Anyway. How do we plan on implementing the Halloween skin? I suggest we make MediaWiki:Halloween.css or [[MediaWiki:Halloween/monobook.css]] and then use import on [[MediaWiki:Monobook.css]]. I will verify whether this works in a minute. It means it'll be easier to handle. And if people prefer the Halloween skin they can just import it in their own CSS and use it forever. 79.69.205.174 18:17, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
Yep, got it working. As you can see here (and here). For some reason I can't import it from the CSS, but I can import it from the JS so all is fine. Since it is in JS we may also be able to add a system so we can have it automatically use the Halloween skin between a certain day range. JBed (talk) 18:46, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
Also, can I ask that you change File:Wiki.png back to the normal logo? Then upload the Halloween logo at its own image, and use CSS to change the logo?
div#p-logo > a{background-image:url([image url]) !important}
JBed (talk) 18:53, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
I confess I'm confused, but I do like to hear you've simplified it :p. So what just needs to be done now to impliment it? The admins generally approve it seems so it could be done today.
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Basically:
- Revert File:Wiki.png back to the default logo.
- Upload the Halloween monobook logo at a new image.
- Copy and paste all the Halloween CSS into [[MediaWiki:Halloween/monobook.css]].
- Add div#p-logo > a{background-image:url([the full url of the Halloween monobook logo]) !important} to the bottom of MediaWiki:Halloween/monobook.css.
- Go into [[MediaWiki:Monobook.js]] and add importStylesheetPage('MediaWiki:Halloween/monobook.css', 'finalfantasy'); to the top of it.
Then all should work. JBed (talk) 19:18, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
Why is the Searchbar white with no room for images? We have Halloween ones to use that will work on the black background, and CSS to impliment them - User:Drake_Clawfang/Sandbox2
EDIT - I copied your given CSS into my personal one and it still didn't work for Oasis. Is it just that it has to be the Wiki's CSS to affect Oasis? | |||
?? It's not meant to work for Oasis. JBed (talk) 20:02, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
Okay then, unfortunate for the anons but we can put up a site notice. What about the searchbar?
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- Edit conflict
Okay, so the CSS that is in User:Okayynot/monobook.css is not the final CSS we should use. I'll let you make the tweaks if you like. As you said, you want the background of the search portlet to be black-- I told you how to do it but I didn't change that CSS because you already had a copy of that CSS and I assumed you did what I told you. Which was removing this from the CSS:
#column-one .portlet div#searchBody{background:white !important}
Right? I also don't know what you were saying about the images. If you want to change them to your halloween ones, you'll have to be editing MediaWiki:Monobook.js. There's a long list of images? I'll assume that's how they are controlled on wiki.
Now get the Monobook skin up and running and then I'll help you with handling the Oasis skin. JBed (talk) 20:32, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
Okay, I'll have Jim implemented - I assume, based on what you just said, we're supposed to use the CSS in my sandbox, before I replaced it with yours. Okay.
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It's up, hope we did it right
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The Search images no longer load? Was that happening before?
Anyway, Drake and anyone interested, copy User:JBed/wikia.css into Special:MyPage/wikia.css. Then view the wiki in Oasis. Then tell me any changes you think should be made. JBed (talk) 21:55, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
Looks fine to me, though I need to make a transparent Oasis logo now, no problem.
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Okay, like with the monobook logo can we upload the halloween logo at a different location? I have the CSS to change it.
After that, we can update the Oasis skin. JBed (talk) 22:34, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
So like before, copy that into MediaWiki:wikia.css with the logo url changed appropriately?
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Well, make MedaWiki:Halloween/wikia.css, then import it in [[MediaWiki:Wikia.js]].
Also I just looked on the main page and I don't think that the green looks good on the orange. JBed (talk) 23:03, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
- I can easily change it, something darker perhaps? Doreiku Kuroofangu 23:05, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
- Either dark green or just-black I think.
- Right, so now we can copy all the content in User:JBed/wikia.css into MediaWiki:Halloween/wikia.css.
- Then we can add importStylesheetPage('MediaWiki:Halloween/wikia.css', 'finalfantasy'); to the top of [[MediaWiki:Wikia.js]]. JBed (talk) 23:08, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
- Already done. :) Thank you very, very much for your help man. We never could have done this so efficiently without you. Doreiku Kuroofangu 23:12, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
- One snag, in Oasis the site notice looks screwed up. Doreiku Kuroofangu 23:22, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
- I was attempting to fix this before I even read your comment.
#mw-dismissable-notice{background:#111111 !important}
JBed (talk) 23:44, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
Okay guys, small problem. Importing from JS is horrible.
So on Oasis can we go into MediaWiki:Wikia.css and add:
@import url("http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Halloween/wikia.css&usemsgcache=yes&ctype=text/css&smaxage=86400&action=raw&maxage=86400");
to the top?
And then go into [[MediaWiki:Monobook.css]] and add:
@import url("http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Halloween/monobook.css&usemsgcache=yes&ctype=text/css&smaxage=86400&action=raw&maxage=86400");
right at the top?
And then a day or two's time, remove the importScripts from the JS?
At times like this I wish I had admin powers. I soooo want to make everything on the wiki CSS [for this very reason actually, changing the skin would be so easy-- no editing of any pages other than CSS pages would be required] JBed (talk) 23:57, October 18, 2012 (UTC)
- Am I changing the url that Wikia.css is already importing, or am I adding a second url to what it's importing? <_<; Monobook has no such issues so no worries there. Jimcloud 00:12, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- Wikia.css needs to import Common.css (because it doesn't already) and it needs to import the Halloween css. It needs both. 79.69.207.10 12:56, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- You can't just ask the admins to add CSS and JS imports from your userspace to the MediaWiki stuff? Then you could fix stuff to your heart's content C A T U S E 01:27, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
Maybe this is a problem unique to Monobook, I don't know, but there's some issue with redlinks being hard to tell from a working link. BLUER一番 09:25, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- Yes, I'm having the same problem with colours in Monobook. However, I've been shown how to alter colours in css to make this easier. Also, the black background is causing a problem for any articles that have images with non-transparent backgrounds, which is a shame. Tia-Lewise 13:14, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
[1] I think the background would be better if it was the same colour as the "Hot Spots" box. It is similar colour as the background pics and the text looks nicer on it imo. I think both images could be from Ultimecia Castle because "haunted castle" is a pretty good Halloween theme, and I think it would look more coherent; don't really need to show the whole breadth of the FF world for a novelty theme, in fact, probably better not to. The yellow tab at the top is a bit ... bright.Keltainentoukokuu (talk) 14:49, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- "Also, the black background is causing a problem for any articles that have images with non-transparent backgrounds, which is a shame." - Agreed, particularly with Garnet on the main page. On the plus side it's easy to find which images need transparency now. Anyone feel like looking over the enemy lists and doing some busywork? ;p Doreiku Kuroofangu 14:57, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
If you are having a black background, the text should be yellow, not red. Red-on-black is difficult to read for some people. The orange links are fine. Jeppo (Talk | contribs) 15:26, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- And FFFF00 on a black background is obnoxiously bright. JBed (talk) 15:37, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- How about this? Tia-Lewise 15:43, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- "couldn't we stick the non-transparent images into a category like 'Images needing transparent backgrounds?" - why we have Template:Bad image. I'll also note that if you wanna download Gimp for free (not you specifically Tia, just anyone reading this), then I can show people how to quickly grab an image from the wiki, add transparency and upload it over the old filename, it only takes a few seconds unless you're working with non-pngs converting to png, and it takes about the time amount of time and effort as it would to slap that template on the file instead. Doreiku Kuroofangu 15:48, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- How about this? Tia-Lewise 15:43, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- Honestly, the yellow on black is worse because the contrast is so much higher. - +DeadlySlashSword+ 16:14, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
Colourblind people cannot see red on black. At all. Support changing to less red colour. The Shinra News banner does not work with black background, we just have a crystal with no text right now.Keltainentoukokuu (talk) 17:19, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- As a quick fix, I've uploaded the title with no transparency. Obviously it will need to be reverted back when this madness ends.
Also, with the yellow-on-black, yes it is high contrast, but isn't that kinda the point? It needs to be readable. Use white for all I care. Just not red. Jeppo (Talk | contribs) 17:42, October 19, 2012 (UTC) - Readable yes, eye-searingly obnoxious, no. - +DeadlySlashSword+ 20:47, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- You can't really use yellow/white because you still need to be able to read it on white background too in image captions, galleries and tables.Keltainentoukokuu (talk) 21:06, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- I've got a good idea. Revert the whole shabang back to the way it was before! No free advertising on wikia is worth this much grief. Jeppo (Talk | contribs) 21:12, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- We can handle image captions, galleries, and tables separately. 79.69.207.10 21:18, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
Is there a way to change back to the plain wiki skin? Odin89 (talk) 23:07, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
- If you use Chrome you can install the Ad Block extension, or Firefox you can use Adblock Plus add-on -- then you can re-enable adverts if you want, but you can filter out selected URLs. Add these URLs to your custom filters:
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Halloween/monobook.css&usemsgcache=yes&ctype=text/css&smaxage=86400&action=raw&maxage=86400 http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Halloween/wikia.css&usemsgcache=yes&ctype=text/css&smaxage=86400&action=raw&maxage=86400 http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Halloween/wikia.css&action=raw&ctype=text/css http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Halloween/monobook.css&action=raw&ctype=text/css
- If you don't want to install add-ons then you don't get your wiki back unless you want to understand how HTML+CSS works.
- Also if you use IE, Safari, Opera, or anything else then I don't know what you can do. 79.69.204.251 23:12, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
RE: colors - how about the orange color used by the top of the page in Oasis? That works on black, and should be readable by colorblind people without burning everyone else's eyes open with ebul contrast. Also it allows for distinguishing of redlinks.
I also like how everyone ignored my suggestion about importation of userspace. C A T U S E 23:31, October 19, 2012 (UTC)
A suggestion was made to make the color of links now the color of text in general. Does the color of links work better? Doreiku Kuroofangu 01:04, October 20, 2012 (UTC)
Since no one answered I asked Yuan to change the color, it's slightly lighter than the color of links. Hopefully this is easier for people to read
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It is now yellow, but now you can't easily read image captions because the galleries and image thumbs are still white.Keltainentoukokuu (talk) 13:31, October 20, 2012 (UTC)
- When JBed tells us how to change it, would the color scheme of the main page boxes be acceptable - orange background with dark green text - ? Doreiku Kuroofangu 15:48, October 20, 2012 (UTC)
.WikiaArticle .thumbcaption{color:black !important} table.table{color:black} .gallery-caption{color:black}
If gallery captions don't update its because the wiki hasn't updated itself. If you were to edit a page with a gallery and preview you would see that it works. JBed (talk) 16:55, October 20, 2012 (UTC)
It's amazing how messed up infoboxes look with this new color scheme, and AFAIK there isn't a CSS class that applies to infobox tables. :/ C A T U S E 01:52, October 21, 2012 (UTC)
.WikiaArticle table {background:white;color:black;}
- That should fix the messed up tables. Don't worry, it doesn't override the coloration of tables that have specifically been colored. At least it shouldn't. *goes to check more pages* C A T U S E 03:57, October 21, 2012 (UTC)
- ... That sounds dangerous. We should be classing every table we want to function in a specific way.
- Which I want to do but I'm not willing to go through the hassle. 79.69.193.175 12:23, October 21, 2012 (UTC)
I appreciate that you're trying to do something in the spirit of Halloween, but this makes the wiki really difficult to read - I have dyslexia and the current scheme is nearly impossible for me to read :/
It'd be more legible if the background were a light to mid grey, rather then jet black. If not, is there a way to bypass this theme? Thanks, Millionsknives (talk) 17:17, October 21, 2012 (UTC)
- Well, this if you use Chrome or Firefox. JBed (talk) 17:37, October 21, 2012 (UTC)
- I also think grey would work better. I prefer to have my monitor brightness set rather dim, so might have something to do with that. If you browse the wiki on a mobile device you can also bypass the theme.Keltainentoukokuu (talk) 23:54, October 21, 2012 (UTC)
How long are we going to have the Hallowe'en skin on for? Jeppo (Talk | contribs) 22:12, November 1, 2012 (UTC)
- Wikia is supposed to announce the contest winners sometime today. Once it's announced we can take it down, as they may be viewing the site design and whatnot to come to a decision. Doreiku Kuroofangu 22:32, November 1, 2012 (UTC)
- If we win I'll eat my hat. Jeppo (Talk | contribs) 22:35, November 1, 2012 (UTC)
- I find your lack of faith disturbing. Doreiku Kuroofangu 22:40, November 1, 2012 (UTC)
- If we win I'll eat my hat. Jeppo (Talk | contribs) 22:35, November 1, 2012 (UTC)
Results are in, of the winner and two honorable mentions, we are no shows. Have a look at the three winners, but be warned - they are, with no bitterness and all sincerity, profoundly underwhelming.
http://halloween.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Ericmoro/And_the_Wikia_Halloween_Costume_Contest_Winner_Is | |||
The three designs listed there utilised minimal changes to still "be in the spirit of Halloween" while not being in-your-face. These are wikis after all.
The LoL wiki design, to me, looks like something designed by someone who knows something about design, probably website designing in particular. I like it, other than the text at the top, which I would probably have given a black semi-transparent background. Though most of the wiki has the same problem. Eh. 79.69.192.46 23:51, November 1, 2012 (UTC)
- Jimcloud has removed the import notices from the css pages, is that all that needs to be done to put things back? Doreiku Kuroofangu 23:57, November 1, 2012 (UTC)
- My hat is saved. I knew we wouldn't win. The skin was terrible and amateurish, even for hallowe'en standards. Now can we go back to normal? Jeppo (Talk | contribs) 00:12, November 2, 2012 (UTC)
- The wiki is indeed back to normal. And on behalf of the several people including myself who worked hard on the skin - eat me. Doreiku Kuroofangu 00:16, November 2, 2012 (UTC)
- no offense to anyone here, but im so glad thats over. orange on black is just not reader friendly text color.--Arciel Spira (talk) 05:05, November 4, 2012 (UTC)
- None taken - simply not liking the design is fine. We changed it to yellow to make it easier to read, but this wasn't enough, and my apologies to users who were inconvenienced by it. Doreiku Kuroofangu 05:34, November 4, 2012 (UTC)
- no offense to anyone here, but im so glad thats over. orange on black is just not reader friendly text color.--Arciel Spira (talk) 05:05, November 4, 2012 (UTC)
- The wiki is indeed back to normal. And on behalf of the several people including myself who worked hard on the skin - eat me. Doreiku Kuroofangu 00:16, November 2, 2012 (UTC)
- My hat is saved. I knew we wouldn't win. The skin was terrible and amateurish, even for hallowe'en standards. Now can we go back to normal? Jeppo (Talk | contribs) 00:12, November 2, 2012 (UTC)
I thought the halloween skin looked good, but the winners were better. They had such pretty big backgrounds, I'm not sure we could cook something like that from Final Fantasy.Keltainentoukokuu (talk) 00:40, November 2, 2012 (UTC)