Hi I wish to point-out what I believe is a significant layout problem with the new Quartz template. I only joined Wikia a couple of weeks ago, so apologies if this issue has already been raised.
As you'll know, unregistered users (or registered users who are not logged-in) now see the wikis with the Quartz template instead of MonoBook. As you'll also know, the new template has optional widgets which logged-in users can add to the sidebar on the right. However, when viewing a wiki while not logged-in, the 'top content' widget (which lists the most active pages on the wiki), is present in the sidebar, even though it disappears when you log-in (unless of course you have selected in your preferences for it to show). The problem, as I see it, is that this widget is located directly below the ad box, which is (I think) always a relatively large square-shaped box for users not logged-in, which means that the navigation box in the sidebar is so far down the screen that it is actually off the screen - at least, it is with me whether I view the wikis on my laptop screen or my 19" desktop monitor. While I appreciate that the 'top content' box is useful, and think it is probably a good idea to have it showing for users not logged-in, it is surely much less important than the navigation box, and even the toolbox, and so surely should be placed below them. I appreciate that it is possible to add a further four links at the top of the page, to the right of the logo, but, given the number of links in the sidebar, I'd prefer to keep to just the four most important links at the top (although I'd prefer to be able to customize those four links, which is not possible, and which is another problem I have with Quartz). I've spoken to sannse about this and she told me that it is not possible to customise this for users who are not logged-in, although there are plans to make the sidebar 'more flexible and customisable in the future', but I think that this a problem that needs to addressed in the short term - obviously, ease of navigation is one of the golden rules of web design, and I'm very concerned that new visitors to Wikia will not be able to see the main set of navigational links when a wiki page loads, and will only see the default four links at the top, which we have no control over. Does anyone else agree with me on this? If there does seem to be general agreement that this is a problem which needs to be sorted in the short term, could Wikia consider doing so? I should say that, other than the above, I think Quartz is a significant improvement over MonoBook. Best wishes Derrick Chains of Reason http://chainsofreason.wikia.com/wiki/Home
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