Forum:Christmas theme 2018

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I've mentioned on the Discord server a few times that I'd like to bring back special wiki themes for the holidays. We discussed rolling out a Halloween theme, with the intent to put out the theme right about now and run it through Halloween and into the first couple days of November. For various reasons, however, this has not come to pass. I think part of the problem is that, while Discord does enable easy communication between people, it doesn't necessarily offer much in the way of long-term stable planning. The topic of conversation, especially in a more general-use channel, tends to move to other things too quickly so it's hard to plan out large complicated things like a theme change.

With all this in mind, I'd like to discuss the idea of implementing a special Wiki theme for Christmas. Right off the bat, I'd like to specify what needs to be changed, when it would be changed, etc... so there's no confusion, and all are clear on the timeline we'd be working under.

When?

• Ideally, we'd be able to implement the Christmas theme sometime in early December. My goal would be to have everything set to go on December 1.

What needs to be done?

• The wiki's theme is a collection of many different things, which all have to be changed in order to bring about a full theme change. These things are:
  • The Wiki wordmark (the "logo")
  • The wiki background image (which is currently the static "abstract green plumbbob" design)
  • The wiki navigation background image (currently a collage of a few TS4 renders of Sims)
  • Wiki bottom-bar and wiki button color
  • Main page "pagecover" image
  • Main page header bar and background colors

We already have existing examples of some of these elements, while others might need to be created (specifically the wiki background image and the navigation background image).

So... who wants to help with this? -- LostInRiverview ^{talk · blog · contribs} 04:48, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

Discussion

Old Christmas background.

I would obviously like to help with the theme, and I have actually already created a very basic edit of the wiki header in my sandbox. The Christmas logo of the wiki we already have, but should we use the old background image of 2014? I would most likely say no, but it does look Christmas-like and does have nice colors.

On the wiki navigation image, should we go for a single render, or a custom complication of The Sims Christmas renders? I quickly looked for some Seasons renders, but wouldn't find any good that would fit. So we probably have to go for a normal image. Also, should we change any of the images in the contents section of the main page, or should we just change the color of the blue header and the background. We would also probably have to change the color of the blue bars in the {{Hover button}} template, since it would most likely look out of place with the rest of the theme. - SimDestroyer (talk) 08:05, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

With regards to the wiki navigation image, it is probably better to tweak our existing background image to make it more Christmas-like. Our existing background is pretty basic and it probably won't be too difficult to add some Christmas red to it (by someone who knows how to edit images, of course). —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 11:53, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

K6, I think you're talking about the wiki background (the file you linked to), not the navigation header image. This one is pretty generic and probably could be Christmas-ified too. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk · blog · contribs} 20:24, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

Oh, I must've misread that... I saw "background" and thought it meant the wiki background. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 20:47, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

Well, SimDestroyer did mention the wiki background as well, so some confusion is understandable.

Anyways, on-topic... I'd prefer to not the use the background that SD posted above, as it is a recolor of the old wiki background from about 5 years ago. The easiest solution would probably be to just recolor the current background, but I'm not sure how to do that. Alternatively, we could use an image (or a collage of images) as the background. I recall that we did this before for, I want to say, the release of The Sims 3: Island Paradise... the background was several in-game images put into frames and displayed together. The biggest hurdle to doing something like this is the 300kb file size limit that Wikia has in place for background images. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk · blog · contribs} 21:03, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

This is the background I was referring to for the TS3:IP theme. Keep in mind that the image would be displayed such that the middle of the image would be obscured by the content space of the wiki, so really only the contents of the image on the left and right sides are typically visible. It's also worth mentioning that that image was set at 1920x1080, whereas we may want to make a larger image to accommodate wider monitors. If not, we should make sure that the edges of the background can be seamlessly blended into either a static background color, or else tiled together to cover a full display. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk · blog · contribs} 21:12, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

I was thinking of having the background image as a red recolor of the current one, with some white and gray snow flake textures on the sides. But I don't fully know how that would be created. - SimDestroyer (talk) 21:21, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

I think some of the images under Contents could be changed, but not all of them. For example, the Locations image could be changed to this, and the Objects image could be changed to a screenshot of various holiday items. - ✨AireDaleDogz✨ (talk) 09:38, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

Call it a hunch, but I'm wondering if at least some readers would prefer seeing TS4 images rather than ones from previous games, given how TS4 is the latest iteration in the series. Perhaps The Sims 4: Seasons can finally see some use here? —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 11:53, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

I will say, when I was picking out the images to use on the main page buttons, I deliberately used TS4 images, even if suitable images from earlier games existed. I think if we update those buttons, we should try to use TS4 images wherever possible. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk · blog · contribs} 20:24, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

How's this for the background? DeSims ^(talk) 22:15, October 14, 2018 (UTC)

Looks pretty good. Would you be able to upload that in a size of at least 1920x1080? -- LostInRiverview ^{talk · blog · contribs} 01:51, October 15, 2018 (UTC)

It's the same size as the original wiki background, it might just be showing smaller on that weird website. I didn't wanna upload it to the wiki if it wasn't going to be used. The size of the image is 1920x1700 DeSims ^(talk) 02:20, October 15, 2018 (UTC)

Bump. I do like that background for the christmas theme. And per LiR, I would prefer the use of TS4 images to keep with the current generation. Ѧüя◎ґ (talk) 03:33, November 19, 2018 (UTC)

Revival

Our Christmas logo for 2014. Still works, I suppose?

It's December now, so the clock is ticking if we want to create a TS4-themed Christmas theme for the wiki this year. I've just gone ahead and pulled up the Christmas logo we used in 2014, and I think we used it last year too. On LiR's list, here's what we still need to get done and/or decide upon:

• The Wiki wordmark (the "logo") - Done
• The wiki background image (which is currently the static "abstract green plumbbob" design) - I'd say Done
• The wiki navigation background image (currently a collage of a few TS4 renders of Sims) -  Not done yet
• Wiki bottom-bar and wiki button color -  Not done yet
• Main page "pagecover" image -  Not done yet
• Main page header bar and background colors -  Not done yet

If anybody could help out by uploading suitable pictures to the wiki and linking to them in here, that'd be greatly appreciated! —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 21:03, December 2, 2018 (UTC)

I'd go with the same old logo and DeSims' red background. Now, what about stuff like The Sims Wiki/Contents? I assume the blue bars and the hover button colors need to be changed. I suggest green, to make diversity amongst the red and white. Oh, and I have the "main page pagecover" (I think at least) in my sandbox. - SimDestroyer (talk) 21:02, December 2, 2018 (UTC)

Where could one find a large version of the Wiki's original wordmark? Also if it's prefered I could try and make some festive screenshots in The Sims 4 for the pagecover. I agree with SimDestroyer that DeSims's background with green buttons would look great! - KailynnKat(talk/fanon) 21:18, December 2, 2018 (UTC)

With one week to go until Christmas we should start acting to get the wiki theme in. I've uploaded the background DeSims made to the wiki so we have it on hand at least. I've put together what we have and previewed it in the theme designer. This is what it looks like:

I know LostInRiverview has his test wiki completely decked out with the wiki's CSS and templates so he can test the changes more reasonably on his end. What colour should the wiki buttons and the wiki bottom bar be? I'd look at previous Christmas theme designs, but the theme designer only goes back about ten revisions, and a good portion of them were eaten up by FANDOMbot making undetectable, unnoticeable, and unauthorized changes to the wiki theme :/. Send me an HTML colour code if possible. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 15:09, December 18, 2018 (UTC)

(For future reference) Default theme designer buttons and toolbar colours: 2E70B7
Xmas buttons and toolbar colours: 0CA241

Pages to edit: MediaWiki:Wikia.css, The Sims Wiki/Contents, The Sims Wiki/Sidebar, The Sims Wiki/Header. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 23:31, December 18, 2018 (UTC)

(Additional future reference) the page diff for MediaWiki:Wikia.css wherein the changes to wiki header colors was made

Also, #80BF26 is the default "main" and "middle" color in Theme Designer (it was replaced with #A22523) -- LostInRiverview ^{talk · blog · contribs} 23:41, December 18, 2018 (UTC)

Christmas theme rollout

As you can see right now, the Christmas theme is now out!

See for yourselves the Main Page!

Feel free to report any issues below. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 23:26, December 18, 2018 (UTC)

I am not sure that the Chirstmas theme cause this or not because I didn't notice this problem before. Currently, the Popular Blog Post has blue Post Title text with green background. Both color are quite dark makes it hard to read the titles. I suggest making the tittle text White.Xyclone010 (talk) 01:49, December 24, 2018 (UTC)

Noted. I'm trying to think of a time where this may have happened even with the default wiki theme. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 02:36, December 24, 2018 (UTC)

Conclusion

The Christmas theme was taken down today, and as such, this thread is now being closed and archived. New developments should go in a new thread. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 21:05, January 1, 2019 (UTC)