In case anyone isn't aware, Wikia have decided to make some unilateral changes to how "their" wikis look. Basically, they're going to shove ads in the top right corner of the article's rectangle (yes, right where the infoboxes and images go), and another bar on top of it. Also, the main page is going to go all slim and squished, so users with wide screens will see lots of blank to either side of the content. They're also apparently going to phase out monobook, though they've denied this. All of this is for an increase in revenue (not for us, obviously).

This will probably hit our wiki worse than most, because a lot of our articles are very small. It'll also push the main image down a fair bit, so that it'll be several inches below where the text starts (which in turn will mean we'll need to adjust any images adjacent to infoboxes). We'll also need to redesign the main page (and probably most of the site, really). To see what this will look vaguely like, see w:c:communitytest and make sure you're on monaco. Wikia have said they're planning to make some positive changes, but they haven't made anything resembling a promise, and frankly, nobody trusts them.

What can you do about it? Well, not that much. Wikia haven't informed any individual wikis about it, and plan to implement this plan tomorrow (they only announced it two days ago, I think). By all means, tell us and wikia about what you think of it, though it's unlikely to mean all that much, I think. For further reading see here, on Wookieepedia. You can block these ugly ads by getting Adblock Plus, but I think that's only available on Mozilla Firefox.

So there you go. Melodrama included. AdmirableAckbar 15:36, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

• See also the Firefox-related agenda item for the next CoB. If Wookieepedia is successful in negotiating some kind of slight adjustment to the new scheme, I hope we may be able to borrow that adjustment, if it should prove to resolve anything for us. Gonk ^(Gonk!) 16:07, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Hey all, I'm here with my hard-hat firmly on, and some more info:

• The top ad will be a banner or a box, not both. For logged in users, that will be the only ad on article pages. Logged out, there will be other ads, but not both top ads at the same time
• Monobook hasn't been a site-default option for new wikis for a long time, and we have been moving wikis off it. But it's not being phased out as a personal option. Just set it in your preferences as usual
• Two things in the plan have changed with the first load of feedback... ads won't show on short pages, if it's a stub it will be automatically skipped, and the squished main page idea is on its way out. There will still be the need for a 300px column as part of the right hand side of the page, but the overall width will remain dynamic.

I know this is all a big change, and I know that people are worried and angry. But I also know that change is necessary, and that we will come though it. -- sannse (talk) 19:05, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

• Thank you for this additional information sannse, we really appreciate it. And it seems it's not going to be as bad as some of us thought. :) --Jedimca0^{(Do or Do Not, There is No Try)} 20:52, 9 June 2008 (UTC)