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Forums: Index > The Wizengamot archive > Wikia's New Skin



Wikia is making some changes to the Monaco skin (which is what the HPW uses by default now). The changes are outlined here and there is a discussion occuring here. The Community Test Wiki is currently using the style if you would like to preview it. What it does pretty much is move the content panel (including from like the edit button all the way down) up to the top bar. Then the ad that is there is pushed into the content as either a banner of a box of the top right of the page. The main page will also have this ad on the top right. There are no changes being made to Monobook/Quartz if you use those.

I would suggest using Firefox (if you don't already) with the AdBlock Plus add-on and then subscribing (its free, don't worry) to EasyList, EasyElement and ABP Tracking Filter. That should insure you do not see the ads.

It seems there is a similar extension for Internet Explorer here. (Note: I have never used this so cannot vouch for it in any way.)

These changes go live June 17, so hopefully Wikia will reconsider some of its changes by then, but for now this is the situation. If you have any questions we'll try to answer them as best as we can, or you can ask directly on Wikia's forum (linked above). -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 15:34, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Alright, I was over at the community test wiki, and I decided to see what the infoboxes looked like with the new ad box. It isn't pretty. The ad pushes everything down; take a look: w:c:communitytest:Harry Potter.-Matoro183 (Talk) 19:57, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
I agree it looks pretty terrible, although it doesn't break the page as badly as I was expecting. You know, since that's a long page it actually doesn't look that terrible. I'd like to see what a stub looks on there. On a side note I just realized the intro the Harry Potter is pretty terrible. -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 20:07, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
Here's what a stub looks like: w:c:communitytest:Crabbe.-Matoro183 (Talk) 20:28, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
You know what, wikia did mention that in smaller articles, there would be no ad box.-Matoro183 (Talk) 20:30, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
True, but I could've sworn I had seen it on some. I guess either I'm mistaken or they got it worked out. Well I guess stubs aren't something to worry about then. -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 20:33, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

So if you view w:c:communitytest:Harry Potter I think I added some code that will always force it to be a banner ad, instead of a block ad. Now this isn't ideal, but I think its better. Tell me what you see (and if a block ad shows up -- I reloaded ~10 times with all banner ads, but I could just be "lucky"). -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 15:22, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Nice job! I wonder if we can add that to every page with javascript, like the forum headers.-Matoro183 (Talk) 23:04, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, it could be done relatively easily. I'd need a few days to work on it though. -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 04:47, 14 June 2008 (UTC)
im so glad that i have the ad block plus now so i dont have to see those terrible ads. Me_Potter_Fan 09:08, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
I also reloaded the page several times and only got the banner ad, which would be acceptable. Is there anyway to insert the coding using your bot DJ? - Cavalier One(Wizarding Wireless Network) 09:27, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
I could do it with a bot and run it across the Wiki, and then every day or whatever across Special:Newpages probably. Ideally we'd insert it in JavaScript, but...the problem with that is that I don't know the order the JavaScript loads in -- I'd have to do more research. I'll try some things out tomorrow. (Does anyone know if we have a "Common.js" for each of us individually?) -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 15:28, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
It appears we do-Matoro183 (Talk) 20:38, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
Now that I look at the ads on the actual wiki, it doesn't look that bad on long articles like Harry Potter. The boxes actually look better than the banner ad.-Matoro183 (Talk) 18:06, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

It still pushes down the infobox which I don't like it. -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 14:53, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Well, at any rate, they have made the changes, and we can't do anything about it except adapt the wiki to the new style. We need to implement the new main page tags soon as well.--Matoro183 (Talk) 14:29, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
They're already implemented on what will be the new main page. -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 03:12, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
I dont understand the point of these tags can someone please explain. Me Potter Fan 05:40, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
The tags basically separate the page into columns, one on the left, and one on the right, below the ad box.--Matoro183 (Talk) 13:21, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

Removing Blank Space on Main Page[]

Go into your Adblock Plus preferences and add the following two rules (by click "Add filter..."):

wikia.com#DIV(id=adSpace0)

wikia.com#DIV(id=adSpace1)

That should remove the big empty spaces. -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 20:17, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Logged-in users[]

The ads have now been disabled for users that are logged in. To view an article with the ads, as anons do, add ?showads=1 to the end of the url. See here.--Matoro183 (Talk) 23:18, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Interestingly enough it seems that if you add ?showads=0 (even as an anon), it removes the ads. -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 00:12, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
Well, it is easier for wikia to do that.--Matoro183 (Talk) 01:22, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
Excellent! I think we should put some kind of notice to anons telling them to sign up to avoid ads. Me_Potter_Fan (Talk) 01:27, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, some users mentioned that on the central forum.--Matoro183 (Talk) 01:29, 11 July 2008 (UTC)
Additionally, a checkbox has been added under the monaco skin choices in My Preferences. Checking it enables ads.--Matoro183 (Talk) 23:24, 14 July 2008 (UTC)
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