ばか！バカ！　馬鹿ー月！

I think I should say "Hi all" first... oh, ok, Hi all, Im Elratauru, I'm 17 years old and I frecuently read J-novels, I must say that I admire the work of everybody here, I've read some novels here and the Wiki was very useful. Thanks n-n

...Mmm I know, I know, Im not a native english writer so, sorry about my english, but lets talk about the proposal I want to make... Like I was saying, I've read translations here since ...I dont remember but however, I loved the use of the mediawiki system, but as a graphic designer (Well, Im studying web design and some things right now) the "all-mighty white" background of the wiki seems to hurts my eyes after a while...and doesnt seems to be "stylish" and unique (you know, its the same style that uses like 99% of the wikis out there). Well, the point is, that I will be gladly to help enhancing the style of the CSS at least a little. Im used to work with them, and I even got a personal wiki hosted here (yeah...I practice about editing the CSS, design and so...)

I was thinking in something like...


Well, That was a little test I did with the monobook default style =P... and I included a full screenshot to show that "Localhost" (my own computer), so I know what Im doing =P... Also, I'd like to help with the design of banners, logos, themes etc of the forum... I love the community and I would love the see it grow.

And, sorry about creating a topic for this, but as too much people were involucred in editing, creating, translating, administrating etc, I would like the opinion of all...

This is the perfect place to put that. First off let me say, welcome to Baka-Tsuki Elratauru.

A change to the Wiki would be a great thing in my opinion. Though, with the example you gave, the only difference I really noticed was changing the white background to blue. Would you be able to put up some more examples of ideas that you had for it possibly? I'd really love to see what we could do with it.

I believe that is what he pointed out, as the background for B-T is entirely white, and so after prolonged reading, your eyes grow weary. So he is suggesting to change the colour and perhaps the layout as well.

And in reply to Elratauru's post, after you mentioned it, i took a look, and i agree with what you have said.The colour and theme are rather plain, however we do not have the required expertise to look into the issue. Furthermore, i believe for such a effect to last, we would require constant maintainance(as new projects and chapters are updated, more pages are required to have these backgrounds?)?

So besides just an example and suggestion, would it be okay to share some knowledge about upkeeping this? As if it is too difficult, we would have to consider about it more, rather than have an inconsistent page where some projects have white backgrounds and others do not.

TheGiftedMonkey wrote:This is the perfect place to put that. First off let me say, welcome to Baka-Tsuki Elratauru.

A change to the Wiki would be a great thing in my opinion. Though, with the example you gave, the only difference I really noticed was changing the white background to blue. Would you be able to put up some more examples of ideas that you had for it possibly? I'd really love to see what we could do with it.

Mmm thanks, yeah I know that example was a little basic... (I only changed the CSS style of the default monobook theme), but as I said before, the changes doesnt need to be like changing to another theme... Although I got some other awesome themes for mediawiki like this one:



(nevermind the content =P, again its only practice on my server n-n)

But we can always put some themes in and let people select one. That style of the wiki for example gives the community a more professional look, but as the same time its nice to the eyes...

But we can always change the default monobook theme, colors, images, borders, and fonts I think we could change of the default theme...

ShadowZeroHeart wrote:I believe that is what he pointed out, as the background for B-T is entirely white, and so after prolonged reading, your eyes grow weary. So he is suggesting to change the colour and perhaps the layout as well.

And in reply to Elratauru's post, after you mentioned it, i took a look, and i agree with what you have said.The colour and theme are rather plain, however we do not have the required expertise to look into the issue. Furthermore, i believe for such a effect to last, we would require constant maintainance(as new projects and chapters are updated, more pages are required to have these backgrounds?)?

So besides just an example and suggestion, would it be okay to share some knowledge about upkeeping this? As if it is too difficult, we would have to consider about it more, rather than have an inconsistent page where some projects have white backgrounds and others do not.

Mmm no, when you edit a theme in mediawiki is the same for all projects, chapters and every new page created right now, so it would not requiere maintainance, but I was saying, we could put some themes and let people choose the theme they want to use in the control panel of each user.

Mmm, it isnt too dificult ...editing css styles is very easy and changing themes too, and like I was saying the theme aplies to all pages, so nothing will be inconsistent...

Ah, a new layout would freshen the place right up. I'm going to contact Big Boss (thelastguardian, he runs the server/wiki/forum behind the scenes) and see what he thinks.

Elratauru wrote:

wow.

that theme is.... the dogs bollocks. i mean really. that's bloody cool. love the gradient blue background that really makes the simple bold type of the title stand out clearly, with the faint reflection.

the Minimalistic top bar with the contrasting font/background is nice.

Have to say, i was indifferent to this, but you happened to pick a nice example there. sure it was pretty simple, but it certainly reflects the nature of Baka-Tsuki. Which is pretty much a no-frill, soviet-like block that puts content a head of all others.

I guess I'am now slightly curious to what the Big Boss would say about it.

But whatever the outcome, well done.

TheGiftedMonkey wrote:Ah, a new layout would freshen the place right up. I'm going to contact Big Boss (thelastguardian, he runs the server/wiki/forum behind the scenes) and see what he thinks.

Oh, thanks n-n

onizuka-gto wrote:

Elratauru wrote:

wow.

that theme is.... the dogs bollocks. i mean really. that's bloody cool. love the gradient blue background that really makes the simple bold type of the title stand out clearly, with the faint reflection.

the Minimalistic top bar with the contrasting font/background is nice.

Have to say, i was indifferent to this, but you happened to pick a nice example there. sure it was pretty simple, but it certainly reflects the nature of Baka-Tsuki. Which is pretty much a no-frill, soviet-like block that puts content a head of all others.

I guess I'am now slightly curious to what the Big Boss would say about it.

But whatever the outcome, well done.

Like I said before, Im a novice professional graphic designer and thats my job n-n...Im glad you like it, simple but at the same time, useful and stylish.

(surface briefly from the dark abyss known as the real world)

I think the top bar is way too huge. I prefer something that has many features (KDE), yet each applet does not take up much space(gnome) . I like to keep my screen relatively clean- except for the content, of course. The menu bar is exactly what I am talking about.

(In fact the design reminds me of WordPress std template)

As for font color, anything easy on the eyes is fine. Here are some ideas.

One thing to note for the template is the access control scripts. I seemed to recall that I added 2 permission extensions to the wiki for the ZnT project. Since MediaWiki was not designed with access-control in mind, these 2 extensions had to be pretty invasive in terms of modifications. If I recall correctly, major modifications to the template files were done to accommodate the changes.

Are you guys still using the access control settings?

thelastguardian wrote: Are you guys still using the access control settings?

not sure what you mean by that Big Boss, But if you mean do we need restricted read-only access as was asked for the ZNT project, then no, we don't need that any more.

Reading on the wiki is open to all.

But for Editing access, it would be nice if i can get some sort of selective access where i can give members editing when the page has been "locked" to regular member access and banning rights on the wiki but not have the option of access to the user right page, where they can themselves grant the rights to others.

Basically the same selective rights we have for Moderators on the Forum,

instead of the current where anybody i upgrade on the wiki is like granting them Admin rights.

which is why there is so few "Staff Editors" on the wiki with any real power against the spambots....

onizuka-gto wrote:

thelastguardian wrote: Are you guys still using the access control settings?

not sure what you mean by that Big Boss, But if you mean do we need restricted read-only access as was asked for the ZNT project, then no, we don't need that any more.

Reading on the wiki is open to all.

But for Editing access, it would be nice if i can get some sort of selective access where i can give members editing when the page has been "locked" to regular member access and banning rights on the wiki but not have the option of access to the user right page, where they can themselves grant the rights to others.

Basically the same selective rights we have for Moderators on the Forum,

instead of the current where anybody i upgrade on the wiki is like granting them Admin rights.

which is why there is so few "Staff Editors" on the wiki with any real power against the spambots....

The original purpose of the scripts were to limit access to the pages. But since you don't know about them, I suppose I can get rid of them now.

Perfect, I have been meaning to get rid them.

As for the permissions, they are linked to the access controls. What you said can be done, but I have to coordinate with the removal of the access control settings.

thelastguardian wrote:
The original purpose of the scripts were to limit access to the pages. But since you don't know about them, I suppose I can get rid of them now.

Perfect, I have been meaning to get rid them.

As for the permissions, they are linked to the access controls. What you said can be done, but I have to coordinate with the removal of the access control settings.

great.

two birds with one stone.

always nice being efficient. helps the environment and your wallet you know.

thelastguardian wrote:(surface briefly from the dark abyss known as the real world)

I think the top bar is way too huge. I prefer something that has many features (KDE), yet each applet does not take up much space(gnome) . I like to keep my screen relatively clean- except for the content, of course. The menu bar is exactly what I am talking about.

(In fact the design reminds me of WordPress std template)

As for font color, anything easy on the eyes is fine. Here are some ideas.

One thing to note for the template is the access control scripts. I seemed to recall that I added 2 permission extensions to the wiki for the ZnT project. Since MediaWiki was not designed with access-control in mind, these 2 extensions had to be pretty invasive in terms of modifications. If I recall correctly, major modifications to the template files were done to accommodate the changes.

Are you guys still using the access control settings?

Ah Yes, the top bar is huge, I didnt notice... but the top bar can be always edited so it can be like...200 px height?. The design is really dynamic, the menu bar is really clean, I love that minimalistic and clean style of it. About the design, it should make BT diferent, nice-looking and stylish.

As for fonts, we should try always something easy on the eyes...

Would someone be able to help Elratauru come up with some designs? I really want to see this come into fruition, but with my trip only a few days away I wont have time to help.

Personal opinions:

I would say widen the page slightly? I think black fonts and white backgrounds are quite fine, since most novels are published that way. There is no real reason to go all flashy with colors. Maybe tone down the white background slightly so it would not be glaring to the eye? Aim for comfortable reading =X

Menu bar is quite clean, and B-T only requires a few options. Should LOL-tan be included? I mean, shes our mascot. But I guess for a make-over like that, we may need to look at some other pages, like our projects page or so before we can comment further.

TheGiftedMonkey wrote:Would someone be able to help Elratauru come up with some designs? I really want to see this come into fruition, but with my trip only a few days away I wont have time to help.

Very thx for your support n-n...lets make BT a better looking wiki n-n

ShadowZeroHeart wrote:Personal opinions:

I would say widen the page slightly? I think black fonts and white backgrounds are quite fine, since most novels are published that way. There is no real reason to go all flashy with colors. Maybe tone down the white background slightly so it would not be glaring to the eye? Aim for comfortable reading =X

Menu bar is quite clean, and B-T only requires a few options. Should LOL-tan be included? I mean, shes our mascot. But I guess for a make-over like that, we may need to look at some other pages, like our projects page or so before we can comment further.

Mmm maybe, when drawing, people suggest to use a white-gray background for example, cause it doesnt hurt the eyes so much when looking at black things...but I think white is fine already...About the wide, that is easy to pull off, I need only to change some things in the layout...I think its fine though... also, down the page in the template at the end... there is another menu bar with the edit things that only members see (you know, discussion, edit, etc) so Is clean but really useful...