[Commons-l] Monobook.css update?

[Monahon, Peter B.]

> Cary wrote: ... monobook is getting old
> ... and it's marginally relevant to 
> Wikimedia Commons ... so similar to 
> many of the projects that it's not ... 
> easy to tell that you've moved from one 
> wiki to another ... But not all of us are 
> good at designing skins ... how do we 
> change it while upsetting the least 
> amount of people?  I propose ... a 
> contest to come up with a new, more 
> exciting monobook.css ... -C

Peter Blaise responds:  I know this is a "commons" discussion list, so
my contribution in this thread is specious, but where else should we
discuss this ... and you started it!  So...

Although I agree with much of your observations, I disagree with your
conclusions.  

I suggest that we instead design a new MediaWiki front end to allow the
look and feel and function of any MediaWiki element to be customized
USING MediaWiki directly through the same interface everyone else uses.

... instead of having to search for and find and hand edit *.css, *.js,
*.ini, *.conf, *.php and so on files.  I say, do all that programming
ONCE, and do it INSIDE a new version of the MediaWiki distribution
program.  Then let sysops/admins tweak everything to their heart's
content from within the MediaWiki program without having to become
OS/MySQL/PHP/CSS/and-so-on programming nerds (with NO documentation
skills, apparently?!?).  You want the commons blue?  Make it blue from
WITHIN MediaWiki, rather than hand coding a new *.css!

I hope my 2 cents catches someone's imagination.  I'm not up to either
task - customizing MediaWiki using the current resources as a one-off
design, nor programming such a modern interface enhancement tool as an
upgrade included into MediaWiki.  I just want one.  And the people I'm
trying to get to adopt MediaWiki would really appreciate it.

That said, keeping everything as "Wikipedia" as possible makes training
and experience with one transferable to any other.  "Have you seen
Wikipedia?" "Yes."  "Well, then, THIS is the exactly same.  Dive in and
enjoy!"  Works for me.

In other words, I'm reframing the challenge: rather than adding yet
another one-off skin, why not design a "skin designer" and incorporate
it right into MediaWiki?

;-) -- Peter Blaise