I have some important news. Wikia is making some changes to the way
that our wikis look, and we'll see these changes rolling out site-wide
over the next few weeks.
Wikia has grown tremendously over the last few years. Since our launch
in 2004, Wikia has grown from one shared server to more than 6,000
communities supported by 84 servers and a nine member community team
offering help from around the world 24. Wikia is home to the most
passionate communities on the internet and I'm always excited to see the
amazing and beautiful sites that you're creating. Our goal is to enable
you, our most important customers, to build the world's best resource on
every topic.
Wikia provides more than free hosting and bandwidth. We offer technical
support, great new features and extensions, promotional opportunities
and community support. Those services are provided free for all users,
with costs paid by advertisers.
However, the internet ad market is changing and we have to change to
keep up. Our challenge is to offer an attractive package to our
advertisers, while maintaining the best user experience possible for our
readers and editors:
* We have to standardize the way our site looks across all wikis, using
the Monaco skin for anonymous users. In the past, communities have used
various skins -- Monaco, Quartz or Monobook. That's a luxury that we
can't afford to offer any more, as advertisers strongly prefer a
consistent look-and-feel.
* Based on your feedback, we're making some changes to Monaco that
return it to more of a Monobook look and feel and moves the content
higher on the page.
* We're going to roll out a more flexible ad server that will let us
vary the size, location and placement of ads.
The changes will be rolled out site-wide over the next few weeks.
There's a lot of information about what's coming up on this page:
http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia's_New_Style<http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia%27s_New_Style>.
I'll hit the highlights
here, and then you can read more about it on that page.
The big changes will be:
* Every wiki will use Monaco as the default skin but we will continue to
offer choice for registered users who want to set their preferences
* The edit bar and the content area will move up, replacing the area
where the banner ad was.
* Article pages will have ads in the content area. Logged-in users
will only see one ad unit on article pages -- a 300x250 ad unit at the
top right. (On pages where a 300x250 ad would disrupt a table, the ad
will render as a banner ad)
* The logo will return to the Monobook 135x155px Wiki.png image.
* Main pages will be redesigned to accommodate a 300x250px ad unit.
* Ads will be removed from many pages used by our most active users and
will only appear on article pages, image pages, preview pages and
category pages.
Obviously, this will be a period of adjustment, especially for wikis
that have been using Monobook. The community and content teams will be
working with many communities over the next few weeks to help make the
transition. I know that many people are attached to the Monobook skin,
and I hope the new Monaco gives people more of the Monobook feel, with a
number of advantages that make the wiki experience better. For example:
* The Monaco skin is easier to customize to fit a particular community's
look and feel. There are more opportunities to add color and images to
the skin.
* The page is now optimized, so the content loads faster.
* Monaco is easier for new wiki users to understand. The majority of
internet users still don't realize that there's an "edit" button on
Wikipedia. That's because on Monobook, all the important links and
buttons are written in 8.5-point type. Monaco is designed to make the
important stuff stand out, like the edit button and the search box and
we've seen increased usage of both.
* When wikis have switched from Monobook to Monaco, they've seen huge
jumps in the number of readers, contributors and user logins. As an
example, Teletraan-I: The Transformers Wiki switched to Monaco in April.
Comparing January (in Monobook) to May (in Monaco), the wiki's traffic
jumped up 46%. Anonymous logins went up 223%, and use of the search box
went up an amazing 541%. People clicked on items in the navigation
flyout menus 38,000 times in May, and the number of active editors went
up 51%, from 78 in January to 118 in May.
Overall, we feel that the changes will improve the health and growth of
the entire Wikia community by converting more viewers into contributors
to make our communities more vibrant. At the same time, the changes will
give us the resources to ensure that every wiki will be able to continue
to count on Wikia for support and great service for years to come.
Thank you for your continued support and for the amazing work that you
do every day to build a great resource on every topic.
User:Gil
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