[Wikimedia-l] Apparently, Wikipedia is ugly

[Magnus Manske]

Well, you asked for volunteers... ;-)

I started a tool that would let you change the CSS easily. Edit your
common.js user page and add (pardon the "Leif Ericsson" pun...) :

importScript('MediaWiki:Live EriCSSon.js');

Once that is done, you can use a URL parameter to use any Wikipedia
page with a CSS stylesheet.

I also created a demo stylesheet called "explosion" (as in "exploded
view"), which, when used on top of vector on a wide (>1600px) screen,
uses a 900px central text column, with "floating" infoboxes,
thumbnails, and TOC on the side. With "Live EriCSSon", you can
test-drive the stylesheet, like so:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology?useCSS=User:Magnus_Manske/explosion.css

And this is what it will look like:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSS_Stylesheet_explosion_demo_Biology.png

All links to other wiki pages will automatically be extended with the
URL parameter, so you can browse Wikipedia with the stylesheet without
having to re-enter it on every page. Note that the original (vector)
stylesheet will initially show briefly on every page :-(

If this is something people think useful, I'll add a way to select
from pre-defined stylesheet catalogs etc.

Cheers,
Magnus