[Foundation-l] Change default skins? (WAS: Wikimedia BrandSurvey Analysis)

[GerardM]

Hoi,
When a projects wants to gain a more distinct personality from the dominant
project, he project that is not dominant needs to change. There is no reason
for the English Wikipedia to change when the English Wikinews wants to get a
distinct branding.

Likewise when a Wikipedia wants to underline the differences between it and
the dominant Wikipedia, it is the less dominant Wikipedia that needs to
change. When the English Wikipedia decides to change its look and feel, it
is a good idea to either change with it or change to a completely different
skin. Staying with the old skin will be seen as "old" and is, from a
marketing point of view, not that great an idea.

As the purpose is to underline the difference, it should be part of some
marketing for the changed project. Changing the skin is not a silver bullet,
it needs to go with promotion that makes the difference more clear.

Thanks,
      GerardM

On 7/9/07, Maria Fanucchi <marialadouce at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> My last sentence is a bit messy, I'll admit. ^^ I meant to ask if the
> Wikipedias with non-default skins would have to switch to whatever skin is
> chosen for Wikipedias as a whole.
> --Maria
> User:Arria Belli
> (Mental note: Reread self before pressing "send".)
>
> On 7/9/07, Maria Fanucchi <marialadouce at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > What about the few Wikipedias which already have different skins?
> > For example, vi: (Vietnamese) has a yellow background on all pages
> except
> > the main one (for example:
> >
> http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%E1%BB%83_lo%E1%BA%A1i:%C4%90%E1%BB%8Ba_l%C3%BD_h%E1%BB%8Dc),
> and ar: (Arabic) has a light blue and white background, very different
> > from the default skin (on the main page as well:
> >
> http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%81%D8%AD%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9
> ).
> > If we do change the skins according to projects (wp, wn, ws, and so on),
> > would these projects keep their individual skins or have to switch to a
> > Wikipedia skin?
> > --Maria
> > User:Arria Belli
> >
> > On 7/9/07, Stephen Bain <stephen.bain at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On 7/9/07, Titoxd at Wikimedia <titoxd.wikimedia at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Nice to know some bright minds are thinking about this. :)
> > > >
> > > > Just curious, for those who can't go to Taipei: would it be better
> to
> > > pursue
> > > > a unified visual theme (to underscore coherency within the
> > > organization) or
> > > > would it be better to pursue different themes (to underscore each
> > > project's
> > > > independence)? I guess a lot of this boils down to the response
> > > individual
> > > > communities will have...
> > >
> > > There should certainly be unifying visual elements, but different
> > > projects have different needs from their interface. For example, I'm
> > > working on a new skin at the moment that draws on ideas from various
> > > image sharing websites which hopefully will be useful for Commons
> > > which deals primarily with media.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Stephen Bain
> > > stephen.bain at gmail.com
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > foundation-l mailing list
> > > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> > >
> >
> >
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