Forum:Wiki Skin Colour

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I've just signed up to wikia (in general) and memory alpha specifically (because I find the articles very interesting). I'd like to participate in forums, etc but cannot because the wikia is so dark that, if I'm on here for more than two minutes, I want to vomit (not exaggerating, it's that bad). I thought that signing up would allow me to choose a different skin but no such luck.

Please tell me how to fix it so I can start reading through the FAQ's and following the procedures so I don't make a complete doofus of myself.

Thanks,

Tr!ff!d

I think the only people who can change the skin are the admins, and it would be a universal change. I guess you could ask them to change it. Cybermat47 (talk) 08:53, January 14, 2014 (UTC)Cybermat47

That would be too much of an imposition for the rest of the people in the group. Thanks for the information though.

Tr!ff!d (talk) 10:30, January 14, 2014 (UTC)

I too signed up thinking I would be able to change the color scheme, and am disappointed/distraught that I can't. Does anyone have custom CSS for dark-text-on-light-background that I could copy & paste? Surely I'm not the only one looking for this...

(And yes, I tried googling already, but have yet to find anything helpful.) Kristanlh (talk) 00:33, February 4, 2014 (UTC)

.WikiaMainContentContainer {
  background-color:#FFF;
}

.mw-content-ltr {
  color:#000;
}

Add this to "User:USERNAME/wikia.css" (where USERNAME is your user name). For real customization I suggest using something like the Firebug extension for Firefox. - Archduk3 21:19, February 5, 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, I did figure out that I could customize the CSS, and I'm actually quite capable at web design, but there are a LOT of classes to dig through in each theme. For example, the code you supplied doesn't work for MonoBook -- and even if it did, it wouldn't account for all the links, section headings, image captions, navigation boxes, etc. :( But I do appreciate your response.

As for an extension, I've considered it, and that's probably a great solution for some people, but personally I'm just not willing to install a plug-in that I'll only use for one site. I prefer to keep my programs (in this case, Chrome) "clean." So I guess I just have to suffer through the white-on-dark design. But it'd be nice if the powers-that-be would consider adding a dark-on-light theme. Kristanlh (talk) 21:55, February 5, 2014 (UTC)

For what it's worth, "TPTB" in that case is Wikia, our host. If I remember correctly, there was a user setting to override the page default skin with a dark-on-white one (plus other accessibility options like a high-contrast variant) in the past. Those settings have been removed when Wikia replaced Monobook with one horrible skin after the other. Except for a customized CSS (on- or off-site, as suggested), your best option would probably be to ask Wikia directly for some accessibility setting. -- Cid Highwind (talk) 22:16, February 5, 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. I may contact them and see how they respond. Will update here if I learn anything useful. KristanLH (talk) 00:28, February 6, 2014 (UTC)

I'm engaged in dialogue with support at Wikia. So far nothing concretely helpful, but I'll update again if that changes.

In the meantime, does anyone know why the custom CSS I've added to my wikia.css page isn't having an impact, even after refreshing and emptying the cache? Thanks. KristanLH (talk) 20:00, February 6, 2014 (UTC)

If you're using monobook, the CSS has to be located at User:USERNAME/monobook.css. You may also need to add some !important tags to things. - Archduk3 05:13, February 7, 2014 (UTC)

Ah, that worked! And after MUCH tweaking, I've finally rigged up a CSS color scheme that I'm happy with, and seems to work pretty well across the site. (At least, I tested it by clicking on "Random Page" a billion times.) There are of course a few quirks here and there, but I consider them very minor. (Like a File History table that refuses to change colors, for some reason.)

If anyone else would like to use my dark-on-light CSS scheme, I'm happy to share. (And if you don't like my particular scheme, you can use my CSS sheet but change the values.) Is it possible for people to view it directly -- User:Kristanlh/monobook.css -- or do I need to copy and paste the code somewhere public? KristanLH (talk) 17:34, February 7, 2014 (UTC)

The link is enough, though always use internal [[wikitext]] links instead of external web address for links to MA pages. - Archduk3