RuneScape:Wiki Post/Other stuff/Interview - Cook Me Plox On the Oasis Skin

Earlier this year, Wikia replaced the well-loved Monaco skin with "Wikia" skin (often refered to as "Oasis"). This new skin was designed to be easy to use and to appeal to new users. However has it succeeded and is the loss of some of Monoco's features worth it?

Here to answer these and many more questions is Cook Me Plox (otherwise known as "Ray0xide", or simply "Ray"), an admin on our fair wiki.

Me: So, Ray0xide, what effects has the new skin had on the wiki? Ray: The main thing I noticed immediately when the skin was set to default for anons was an enormous jump in new users. We went from 24 the Thursday before to 106 the day the skin came out. Unfortunately the trend hasn't continued and we’re actually getting fewer new users than we used to with Monaco. It’s also somewhat crippled our ability to communicate with the rest of the wiki because of the removal of the site notice; however, we fixed that recently. Ray: The final big thing is the ads. While Wikia claims that there are no more ads than there were for Monaco, we think that’s not true. The "takeover ad", where ads will be the entire background were a big problem and made a lot of people quite mad. There are a bunch of small functionality changes though a lot of that just takes getting used to. People always hate change, and I was one of them, but I must admit I'm sort of getting used to the skin. I long for Monaco, but it's time that we realize that whining about Monaco won't bring it back.

Me: What would you say if someone found a way of bringing the Monaco skin back? Ray: My First thing would be "it's probably a bug of some sort." Me: If some users had the CSS code and remade the skin by hand? Ray: I would certainly use it. However, I would be quite cautious as Wikia has problems with people altering the skin like that. I've used Monaco since I started on the wiki, so it's something I’d love to keep, but it's not worth it to try and get it back.

Me: Are there any things you like about the new skin? Ray: Hmm... I hate to say this, but no, There are a lot of things that I'm okay with, but there's nothing that changed that I'm a fan of. It's sort of been Wikia's encroachment on to us, and I think that's a bit of a problem. No longer do we just have "random page", we have "random wiki." We’re a subsidiary of Wikia now, instead of a partner. Me: One thing I used to like about Wikia was its user-friendliness. Ray: As a company? Yeah. Some of the staff members like Sannse are at least hearing out concerns, and that's great. Unfortunately, I don't think that will change anything. I didn't have as much of a problem with the new skin as I did with the terms of use changes. Right now we really can't customize the wiki beyond the theme designer. We can't use global CSS or JS to alter what Wikia calls "core features", which pretty much means "everything".

Me: You have any thoughts on why they did these changes? Ray: I think a lot of it was about money, to be honest. They are certainly going to get more ad revenue, if not from the extra ads then from the inter-connectivity of all the wikis. There may have been some good will involved, but I can't say for sure. I have no doubt that money was a big part of their reasoning. lots of people made a big fuss over the skin, with the Anti-Wikia-Alliance and stuff. Me: Money makes Glienor go round eh? Ray: Indeed it does.

Me: You think Wikia will make any other changes like this? Ray: Not in the near future. I think they said they want to "improve" on this skin. People will certainly get used to this skin regardless of how they may treat it now. We had considered moving off of Wikia and we looked into it a lot. However, we decided it was much too risky. Wowwiki decided to move, and they've only got about... 15% of their traffic back. Me: Wow, no pun intended, that’s a huge drop! Ray: Mhm.

Me: Thank you for the interview, this was Jack Spiral interviewing Cook me Plox on the New Wikia Skin. Ray: Yey!

-

Interviewee: Cook Me Plox (Ray0xide)''
 * ''Interviewer: Jack Spiral1

Did you agree with Cook/Ray on the New Wikia Skin? Yes, I'm not a fan. I'm not sure. No, I like the new look.