Talk:Paddington skin

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First impression: I don't like it, if the Title and Text 'frame' are mixed with language links, etc. I prefere to have them at the sidebars. --Smurf 08:53 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

The problem with that is that some people like a fixed sidebar. The list of languages can become very long, which causes problems if it is put there. I've put the language links below the title so it is clear they relate this specific article. I do see your point that the area around the article title is still very busy. But language links clearly visible is one of my design goals. However one option might be to float the language links to the right of the article title. then again, we could simply decide that this skin doesn't have a fixed sidebar option, and put the languges in the sidebar. Thanks for your input! :-) -- Tarquin

Good work! As for the footer, I think that at least the bottom links "Main Page | Recent changes | Help" should be there, a left-aligned search box, and the FDL/last modified stuff. Also, could you add an example "You have new messages" line to the layout?

I think the sidebar font could be somewhat smaller, same size as the interlanguage links. And how about some color? Perhaps light blue for the "English" at the top? Or maybe have the entire "Wikipedia - English" line at the top on some background color, like it is done in the Cologne Blue skin. --Eloquence


I have not made the footer yet. It will be there. AS for a cologne-style bar, yes, I'm thinking of moving more towards that look. thanks for your input :) -- Tarquin 09:10 20 Jul 2003 (UTC)
various things (many of which are inherited from current layout)
I think there are too many duplicate links. EG, "main page" is at the top, and in the sidebar. What's the benefit of these?
The sidebar contains both article links (edit this page) and general links (main page, bug reports). I think it would be good to keep these seperated, possibly by use of colour, possibly by having entry-specific stuff on the right and general stuff on the left. Either of these would probably mean that you'd have to disable the sidebar options, but such folks can always use another skin.
Ideally I'd like a skin that displayed near-identically for logged-in and non-logged-in users, so that logged in folks could get a caching speed boost. I don't know if that's in your remit, though.
What's the point of "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." when we have "Wikipedia <br> The free encyclopedia" at the top of the page? It's also duplicated with the logo.
alt text for logo should probably be "Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia" with title="[Main Page]".
One of the things I dislike about the current page is the text you get when redirected. Were you were going to change that at all? --mrd


What is the redirect text to be changed to? -- Tarquin

Something less obtrusive. Perhaps just a little circular arrow icon next to the title? Or "(from redirecting page)" in brackets and small text next to the title? --mrd

I think I like this. Two remarks:

  1. In nl:, we have chosen to do away with the "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" text. Could you check that using your skin this is really gone, and not causing an empty line?
  2. Maybe it would be a good idea to have the 'below the title' text in a box, to make it clearer they are about the article rather than part of the article? 141.26.64.2 10:58 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Re-use[edit]

  • How to get and use this skin in a MediaWiki?