Suggestion : Reskin the wiki / change the default skin for the wiki

notjarvis
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Post by notjarvis »

Partly prompted by this quote:
HSharp wrote:QUOTE (HSharp @ Jul 21 2010, 07:59 PM) I miss the academy, I quite liked that style of special manual to learn which the wiki is lacking. I never took cadet but just read up on the academy, the wiki does host the same material but the academy layout just seemed much more interesting.
But partly because I've been thinking of this for a while, as the wiki looks dull due to the way it is presented in it's default skin.

I'm aware there are other skins available, I'm not sure how I could write/update and test a new skin though if I wanted to.

Heres a sample of the current "Alleg" skin (that you can pick) being used
http://www.freeallegiance.org/FAW/index.ph...p;useskin=alleg

Which I think looks more visually interesting than the current default skin (although the Alleg skin would require more work to tidy etc. IMO)
http://www.freeallegiance.org/FAW/index.php/Academy

However this would require substantial work on both the skin and (potentially) on other pages effected by such a drastic change.

Could it use a spruce up? Would it be more interesting? Would it be worth it?
Last edited by notjarvis on Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Makida
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Post by Makida »

Personally, I disagree. The current wiki skin looks neat and crisp. A black background I find a bit too distracting, personally. I think the current skin is good -- it gets out of the way, and doesn't distract you. Finding ways to improve the layout is always good, but I don't think changing the background colour, etc., is really needed.
Shizoku
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Post by Shizoku »

It's nice and easy to read as is.
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FreeBeer
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Post by FreeBeer »

The most important thing we want from the wiki is usability - ie being able to find the information you're looking for in as easy a manner as possible. Eye candy is less relevant, but I do find the current skin to be rather disconnected from our forum skin. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing an improvement in that department provided that the usability is maintained or improved.
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Makida
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Post by Makida »

The wiki isn't the forum, though. They serve different functions and there's no reason they really need to look the same. The clean, plain, Wikipedia-like look of the Wiki serves it perfectly. The blue and cool-looking (default) forum theme serves it perfectly. They don't have to match, IMHO.
notjarvis
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Post by notjarvis »

Hmm. Was just a thought due to the commented post at the top of the thread.

To me anyway (and it's just a personal view) it looks a little sterile, and more like a technical/reference document than something to do with a game.

The information in it is incredibly useful, and it is currently easy to read, I totally agree.

But are we putting people off from getting into it due to the clean/sterile look?
HSharp
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Post by HSharp »

Would it not just be possible to put the Academy back up? I'm sure I saw BV say that he can put it up in a jiffy. I don't mean to slight the fine folks working on the wiki I just preferred the look of the Academy as the game manual which is just a personal opinion, tbh i'm a bit of a manual whore for those old games and loved reading them, mega dissapointed with the bare basics manuals of nowadays.

Wiki is good as source of information but it does seem boring as a manual. Perhaps having the academy up as well as the wiki cdt data simultaneously would be a solution? I like wiki's because they are very factual but the academy allows that breathing room to be a bit more fictional, biased and arty.

Don't think we need to re-skin the wiki, but if we did I would like FreeB's suggestion of keeping it in-line with the forum.
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Cadillac
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Post by Cadillac »

I must say, Academy information is very hard to find on the wiki if you don't know what you're looking for.

The Academy was a god send and was useful to me in more ways than I care to count, I didn't realise BV could put it back up, but it would be awesome if he can, I'd be willing to help with the upkeep.

And +1 to everything Hsharp said.
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juckto
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Post by juckto »

BV probably can put the acadamy back up, but wanting to is another matter.

I expect that what can be "put back up easily" is the original pages from when it was taken down. Since then everything has been put in the wiki with wiki-markup-code. Let alone all the extra lessons, expanded lessons, etc etc.

Speaking as the person who did about 80-90% of the work of shifting the material from the academy to the wiki, I respond to the proposal of putting it all back into html code with a great big $#@! THAT, and $#@! YOU.

Now, having the academy/cadet pages of the wiki use a different skin to the rest of the wiki, that's an idea I'd be willing to explore.
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notjarvis
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Post by notjarvis »

On the subject of the academy part of the wikiw, I would be deliriously happy if someone rewrote the front page of the academy part to be more interesting and reflect the content a bit more.

I have copied the contents of the current front page to an "About" page linked on the right, so if you want to do it, just jump in and don't worry about overwriting stuff. I just haven't had time/got around to doing it right.


Edit:
If someone wants a sandbox to play around with, try things for this page without editiing the main page - look at my user page
Last edited by notjarvis on Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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