8/14/2023 0 Comments Mediawiki skinThis lessens the number of links required on each page that are not directly related to the page's content, thereby allowing AboutUs to appear simpler than Wikipedia. Wikipedia may be happy to allow only the more seasoned wiki users to edit content, but as an emerging website, AboutUs actively encourages its visitors to contribute to it.Ī more careful look at AboutUs reveals the absence of the discussion pages seen on Wikipedia and other wikis. While Wikipedia's more subdued skin buries the edit link in the page, AboutUs uses color and the positioning of the edit feature on the top left to make it incredibly obvious that you can edit the content yourself. Its "make constructive edits anywhere you see fit" encourages short but constructive edits to be made to the articles. The conspicuous, brightly colored edit link is the focus of the page, drawing your attention to the content on the page. This means the search box is unlikely to be used unless you are a frequent visitor to Wikipedia, and only those "in the know" will be aware of the ability to edit pages. Because of this, no single element on the page really stands out. There is too much information on the screen, such as links to that versions of the page in different languages and log in and register links. But the amount of content on the screen makes it hard to read for a long period of time. The use of a small font allows a lot of content to be displayed on the screen, and is ideal for an encyclopedia with long articles. Wikipedia's saving grace is its content but the supposed focus of each page's primarily monochrome content is lost to the plethora of blue links surrounding the content. It is grey, dull, and unappealing to new visitors. A too bright design would hinder the visitors' focus not only from the web page content, but also the most important aspects of the website. This is because aesthetically, they are not very appealing.Īs an online encyclopedia, Wikipedia's skin is under-stated. Apart from the "MonoBook" skin, the other MediaWiki themes are not used very frequently. Another theme, "MySkin", allows you to specify the stylesheet to be used by creating a valid CSS file at User:YourUserName/myskin.css in your wiki's namespace. MediaWiki comes with a selection of six themes: "Chick", "Classic", "Cologne Blue", "MonoBook", "Nostalgia", and "Simple". Although a great change in the overall layout of components can cause visitors to the wiki to become disorientated, a reasonable amount of change can be made before this occurs, so this should not deter us too much. The problem with MonoBook is that Wikipedia has become so popular that the MonoBook theme is usually associated with Wikipedia rather than MediaWiki. The logo is often the only element that is changed in the design. It is surprising that only a few webmasters redesign their wiki- the 'MonoBook' theme supplied with MediaWiki's installation and used on Wikipedia, is a very common sight on wikis.
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