On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 12:36 PM, Tim Starling tstarling@wikimedia.org wrote:
Editor communities do not have any fundamental rights to choose how MediaWiki is configured. However, the Foundation's goals are closely aligned with those of the communities, and the Foundation respects the central role communities play in the success of the projects, and so the Foundation has usually honoured such configuration requests.
In this case, I would recommend a process of negotiation. Detail your concerns in Bugzilla, and give the developers time to respond to them. A premature vote on the issue would make compromise difficult. The Foundation has spent a lot of time and money on the Vector skin, and it would be a pity to see it thrown away.
-- Tim Starling
Thanks for your reply, Tim. No worries, in no case would Vector be 'thrown away'. We are happy that Wikipedia offers not just one skin, the default, but multiple skins, and Vector is certainly appreciated as a new option in the list. Variety and choice in the look and feel of the user interface is one of our great assets. I trust the Foundation sees that the same way. We allow individual users to select and customize their skin, and it might be in the same spirit to allow individual wikis to choose and customize their default skin.
Everyone is aware that a lot of time and money has gone into the development of Vector. But none of that would be lost because a) there are many Wikimedia projects in many language versions and Vector seems to enjoy good support elsewhere (correct me if I'm wrong), b) Vector remains a selectable skin in the preferences and many users use it even when it's not the default skin. And surely we will get enough feedback from all over the world to fix reported issues with Vector even when single wiki communities reverted to (or decided to continue to use) Monobook as the default skin for unregistered and newly registered users. And at any time (say in a few months) it would be easy to poll the community again to see which skin they prefer as default now.
In no scenario would it mean an end to Vector. It might even help Vector being improved more quickly and extensively than it otherwise would. And it would make a good impression if the Foundation granted communities that choice, I think.
Martin