MediaWiki talk:Monobook.css

2008, Jan 24

Request: January 24, 2008 by Derik

Description: Cleanup, neutering much-hated features, MediaWiki UI string change
Status: Not Yet Completed

I am requesting several changes to the site CSS file, and one other (related) change that requires a Sysop.

There are 4 kinds of changes:

1. Code cleanup (removing obselete/unused css)
2. Organization (moving things around to be more consistent)
3. Changes designed to disables Wikia featurs
4. Changes to one of the MediaWiki UI text strings. (Not a CSS change, but still requires a Sysop)

Short description of the changes follow. Link to sandbox with 'what it should be' at the end.

Cleanup (removal of junk)

1. Removal of the obselete background-image styles for our page-header-messageboxes. (Note: not the Wiki 'messagebox' class, that's something different. I mean the ones prexised with 'tt1_')
2. Removal of the small-text styles used with {{reflist}}. (This template will probably be merged in with the much-more-useful {{collist}} in the near-future, so this removal is preemptive... but it's also cosmetic-- all it does it make the text 8% smaller.)
3. Removal of "macbre: fixes #1733" added to our css file in November. Macbre is/was a wikia sysop who added this definition to several wikias around this time. The fix was never documented, no one's been able to figure out what it's for and it's redundant- it literally does nothing. (I'm fairly sure he was debugging/testing a change which has since propagated to the main CSS file and just forgot to clean up his slop.)

Organizational

All the TT1-specific styles (styles not snagged verbatin from other sources) go at the end of the file. It's neater that way.

Disabling Features

Image Tagging

We hate the image tags. 80% of their traffic is bizarre broken spambots/vandalisation. We delete the other 20% of legitimate tags because the mechanism is so ugly, as well as being completely redundant to our fairly strict image description standards.

These styles hide all the tagging controls so a user can't tag the image. It's like removing the steering wheel from a car. They are ID-specific nested etc etc etc... which can't possibly screw up anything but their intended target.

Report a Problem

We're not big enough to need 'Report a Problem,' and the only people who use it ate IP users who think jokes are vandalism.

Fuck them.

This definition hides the 'report a problem' link at the top of the page. PROBLEM SOLVED, GO AMERICA!

MediaWiki UI

In conjunction with the neutering of the Image Tagging feature, I'm requesting that the UI Tagging_instructions string be changed from its default "Click on people or things in the image to tag them." to something explaining why tagging has been disabled. Suggestion: "Due to a consensus opinion that it currently sucks image tagging has been disabled on this wiki."

I'm also requesting that the Sysop performing this change not draw people's attention to our ability to customize these strings lest the Wiki User Interface become riddled with indecipherably clever 'transformerized' names for everything. :~(

Summary

Lotsa CSS changes. I've set up a Sandbox which has all these changes completed for your convenience- copy text from the full text from the Sandbox and replace the contents of the monobook.css file. Easy Peasey Japanesey.

I'm also requesting the Sysop make a change to one of the MediaWiki User Interface strings related to image tagging. -Derik 11:30, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

For future reference

Please try to not take out huge sections of the CSS when you're updating this. The last update took out a whole bunch of navboxes. --Suki Brits 00:15, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

...oh, I see. That means don't request them taken out, Derik, not until they're actually fixed. --Suki Brits 00:16, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

...seriously? *checks* ...wow, I'm sorry. I could have sworn all the first-generation messagebox templates had migrated to the new style. Egg on my face- sorry. :(

Unfortunately while testing additions to the master CSS file for conflicts like that is easy- testing removal is nigh-unto-impossible. I shall have to be more vidilant in the future.-Derik 04:07, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Image Border Bug Fix

Interrobang and TX55 complained that Wikia's last round of CSS changes had the unintende effect of rendering image thumbnail borders transparent. (discussed here.) The problem is only apparent is there's a messagebox or section-divider overlapping a thumbnail- it's like the borders are etched on transparent glass. The code below fixes this by opaquing the glass (as it used to be.) -Derik 04:07, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

/*Fix the 'see-through image borders' problem.*/
.thumb{ background-color:white;}

From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.