Last modified: 2014-11-17 10:36:36 UTC
Created attachment 7683 [details] CSS With the switch to Vector, some changes in the design have been made and some have been copied from Monobook. One thing that was however already got critique in Monobook was the layout of .usermessage ("You have new messages"), which is called the "Kackbalken" in the German Wikipedia. Some years already ago, the German user "BlueFiSH.as" has made an improvement for this in his /monobook.css that many users copied there, but the MediaWiki default has remained like that. I feel his design would perfectly fit into the new Vector skin. You can check out the color choice on his user page http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:BLueFiSH.as (first box at the top). Thus, I'd propose using this within the Vector skin of MediaWiki. For your convenience, I've tried to produce a patch with the "diff -u" command line, please let me know if that's wrong. What do you think of this idea?
Personally, I disagree with the usage of rounded corners. They're inconsistent between browsers, many don't support them, and, IMO, they're pretty ugly unless done right.
The design of Vector doesn't employ any rounded corners, except for buttons (see the dialogs in the editor for instance), and furthermore tries not to use boxes in general. The banners used to help people learn more about the switch over to vector, after the switch took place (http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NoticeTemplate/view&template=VectorNewLook) are a more vector-like design. That said, the whole messaging system is crap and should be rethought as well.
Two people have commented on said patch, I'm now assuming its been reviewed.
(In reply to comment #3) > Two people have commented on said patch, I'm now assuming its been reviewed. The patch does not do anything but change the colors, which I support.
I applied this in r76017. Thanks for the patch!
Not sure I agree with this. The new messages notification was never intended to blend in with the skin; indeed quite the opposite, it should be eye-catching. A blue-grey box on a page with many more blue-grey boxes doesn't really have the required impact.
I'm not sure it "blends" as much as doesn't make your eyes bleed.
I agree that the new color seems to blend and can easily be missed. I question whether IPs take notice.
Probably a better solution would to come up with a common color for notifications, and use it throughout the UI. Brown is probably not a good choice, this blue isn't bad aesthetically but something more noticable (like pale yellow or orange) might work.
(In reply to comment #9) > Probably a better solution would to come up with a common color for > notifications, and use it throughout the UI. The problem is that people should notice the notification for the _first_ time, preferrably before it upgrades to "You've been blocked for vandalism". > Brown is probably not a good > choice, this blue isn't bad aesthetically but something more noticable (like > pale yellow or orange) might work. It was absolutely disgusting, I shivered every time I saw it, that's why it was so easy to notice:P We could probably try a popup notification (must be shown only once, even if the user chose not to see the new message).
I am very opposed to using a pop-up. If we are talking about changing how the feature works rather than just what color the box is, I think we really need to do away with the box and add styling to the "my talk" link in the user tools. If liquid threads is enabled this link shows how many unread messages exist - we can follow along those lines by at least using that area of the screen to indicate there are some unread messages.
(In reply to comment #11) > I am very opposed to using a pop-up. If we are talking about changing how the > feature works rather than just what color the box is, I think we really need to > do away with the box and add styling to the "my talk" link in the user tools. > If liquid threads is enabled this link shows how many unread messages exist - > we can follow along those lines by at least using that area of the screen to > indicate there are some unread messages. The CologneBlue skin had the you have new messages kind of as a line by the my talk link. It was much prettier than the monobook way, but I almost never noticed it (and I'm an experienced user, I assume newbies would notice it less then me).
FYI, this took en.wiki by surprise, especially given that there was no notice or consensus discussion. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29#Blue_new_message_bars.3F.21 (perm: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29&oldid=414305904#Blue_new_message_bars.3F.21) It will probably be changed back to orange in Vector.css. In future, it would probably be a good idea to solicit opinion from en.wiki users prior to making changes to interface components that have been static for years.
Where would en.wikipedia be notified of all 100.000 changes per release ?
(In reply to comment #14) > Where would en.wikipedia be notified of all 100.000 changes per release ? ...and why should en.wikipedia be singled out of all of our other 700+ projects? The entire interface was static for years and was recently changed, this is just a continuation of that.
(In reply to comment #15) > (In reply to comment #14) > > Where would en.wikipedia be notified of all 100.000 changes per release ? > > ...and why should en.wikipedia be singled out of all of our other 700+ > projects? The entire interface was static for years and was recently changed, > this is just a continuation of that. Well - to be honest - I'm actually also pretty surprised that this went through to the other projects as well, given the reasonable objections raised above and apparent lack of consultation with the end users.
There is a reason why the talk page notification is commonly called the orange bar of death. You want to be able to notice it immediately.
I can agree that this change in color can have a negative impact on usability of MW. It should probably be reverted.
While I don't believe that the English Wikipedia (or any project) is owed special treatment, I agree that this should not have been implemented based upon the above discussion alone. As Xeno noted, reasonable objections were raised, and I certainly see nothing resembling consensus for the change. I agree that this modification contradicts the feature's intended purpose (which is to stand out and attract attention, *not* look pretty and match the skin). Please revert until consensus to recolor the bar has been established. (This already has been done locally at the English Wikipedia, so I'm referring to the global level.) Thank you.
Reverted in r82315. There was no consensus for the change, and the whole point of the bar is to stand out.
To respond to the claim that enwikipedia got no notice, it did make the signpost back in November - [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2010-11-08/Technology_report#In_brief]] so I wouldn't exactly say no notice.
(In reply to comment #21) > To respond to the claim that enwikipedia got no notice, it did make the > signpost back in November - > [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2010-11-08/Technology_report#In_brief]] so I > wouldn't exactly say no notice. Thank you for the link. So not 'no' notice, though perhaps 'insufficient' notice. A post to WP:VPT would have greater visibility. The link does confirm that there is little appetite and no apparent consensus for the change.
Since usability people like user feedback, I can say that I missed new messages bar at least five times today.
Even on dewiki, where this comes from, it's not the default.
