Forum:Background

High there - can you get rid of the awful backgrounds like those that appear on this [[Faction Paradox]] and bleed into the text, making pages very hard to read - in particular that massive quote. Thanks. 87.194.194.250 18:28, April 26, 2011 (UTC)

Background images
There has been some discussion about the background image. When we should chnage, what to etc. This needs to been discussed in a wider audience and collect the good ideas together and try and implement them the best way we can. Currently, the background stands as a colour background, with a image associated with the next upcoming episode. Alongside this is the name and date of the next episode. This is good, but we need to decide if we want to keep this, and what we do between series if we keep it and what to change it to if we decide not to keep it. my ideas are:

1. Keep the currenty background template, changing the image, episode name and date as we go. 2. Between series, have something that changes every few days; maybe a quote? 3. Have a filler background which is used during period of time when a new background is not yet ready to be put up.

Any other ideas? Mini-mitch\talk 15:43, April 27, 2011 (UTC)


 * I've already been talking with Skittles the hog about this, and we need to settle on a few basic things. Colour, especially dark or light is good.
 * Between series I think we should settle on something we can use for a month or two, something recognisable/interesting, maybe across the top of the wiki. Something like a location or landscape that can work with having the editing space between it. Wookipedia's is fairly understated, Game of Thrones wiki has another landscape which sort of works.
 * If we went with something like landscape there's plenty of 'wide' landscapes to go with stuff I'm thinking of like the image of the Dark Tower in the Death Zone in The Five Doctors, or the Daleks' city in The Daleks (or the mountain range, or the forest or anything) or really anything landscape from the Hartnell or Troughton eras as it's easy to match a background to black & white. Colour images would of course also work, they'd just need to be matched carefully with the background colour.
 * Also we need to keep in mind the 100kb size restriction on the image.
 * Text / quote I'm not keen on, as it means choosing a background, image and quote and throw all of that together into an editing program and upload it, I think it's just a level of complexity that we don't need. We've already got the quote of the week and article of the month, for the background image people need to know when they get here that 'yes, this is the world of Doctor Who'. --Tangerineduel / talk 16:06, April 27, 2011 (UTC)
 * Colour isn't really the issue for me - if you look at the Factor Paradox page, you simply can't read the text because the background text interfers with the main text. It makes it unreadable. 87.194.194.250 18:07, April 27, 2011 (UTC)
 * Colour isn't really the issue for me - if you look at the Factor Paradox page, you simply can't read the text because the background text interfers with the main text. It makes it unreadable. 87.194.194.250 18:07, April 27, 2011 (UTC)

What quote, and what text? If your referencing the quote image uploaded by User:Mini-mitch, then you must be seeing an old version (something about the special straw). If this is the case, try clearing your cache. The current version is a moon with Day of the Moon written below it.

This doesn't come anywhere near the main body of text and so it can't possibly be interfering. I was aware there are some variants in placement but its always on the far right.

In reference to Mini-Mitch's suggestions, I think we should keep this switching every week. After the series is finished, I'm sure we can find something to fill it in. For example: the current image still works without the wording. As for quotes, I think that's a big no. The text shouldn't run behind the main body. I don't see a problem with returning to the blotches if it comes to that.Skittles the hog-- Talk 19:15, April 27, 2011 (UTC)

Just moving some suggestions here from talk pages. TARDIS interior backgrounds: classic (done), gothic, coral, steampunk. We could also have a police box theme, with as Skittles suggested on my talk page with variations e.g. door open, closed, sticker, no sticker. --Revan\Talk 20:12, April 30, 2011 (UTC)


 * We should do what we do at the moment, a gray scale image that is associated with the upcoming episode with the episode name next to it. During time there are no episodes to air, we could try the TARDIS, like what has been suggested. My only concern with this is it may make pages much harder to read, but i'm willing to see what it looks like and test it before we come to a decision. Mini-mitch\talk 20:16, April 30, 2011 (UTC)

I'm not that keen on anything going behind the text. I noticed that Mini-mitch tried to use a quote as a background and It didn't really work. I've made an image for the next story, I've actually made some variants to allow for the differing views experienced with the current image.Skittles the hog-- Talk 21:19, April 30, 2011 (UTC)

The cream-coloured overlay that appears over the background allows us (or at least me on Firefox) to see any text that is displayed, so hopefully a TARDIS themed background will not be a problem. --Revan\Talk 15:05, May 1, 2011 (UTC)

As I'm sure you've noticed, the background is working again. It appears it was an issue of time.Skittles the hog-- Talk 19:01, May 4, 2011 (UTC)

Moving forward: deciding on frequency
The background was an aspect of the new design ethos that was heavily and obviously impacted by my untimely absence. I have mostly finished writing Help:Background images to explain how backgrounds are best created for the wiki's new paradigm. These notes address many of the technical suggestions and questions you've raised, above. There are several things which are largely impractical because of the 100mb limit. Colour for instance, is highly tricky, because you can't use a .jpg with good effect. You have to use .png files which you can then make semi-transparent. Monochromatic images on transparent backgrounds simply work better. Another thing that makes background images tricky here is our unique use of out-of-margin messages like wikipediainfo. This means that the design can't be too busy on the left side of the page. It must be either a very neutral pattern, or a right-dominant design. And there are a whole host of other points raised at help:background images that will shape our approach to background design.

However, those issues should be kept in abeyance for the moment. The important thing for us to decide right now is how often we'd like to change it. I strongly oppose weekly changes, because we're just not going to come up with very good designs on a weekly basis. Moreover, it's kind of pain to precisely place a transparent background. You do have to check it on several different pages to make sure it looks good in a variety of contexts. I'd recommend not killing ourselves. We should go with no more than 5 designs a year. One for the month of December, one for Jan-March/April/series launch. One for Spring. One for Summer (likely Torchwood-themed) and one for Fall (this fall, likely SJA/SJS themed).

Does that sound reasonable? 00:52:19 Sat 14 May 2011


 * I agree on not having weekly changes. We need to have a somewhat consistent design for the wiki. While the previous background of an image to do with each story was interesting, by the seventh story it would have become crowded along the right hand side of the background.
 * The only thing I think we should mandate is that one of the designs has to be of a "classic series" origin. --Tangerineduel / talk 14:20, May 14, 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps we should have one, over the 2-3 month series period, that changes for every major plot development, for example the one at the moment is the little girl regenerating. For example, [spoiler about future episode removed by admin], but seeing as no major developments happens until the mid-series finale, then we don't really need to change it. We could always do something like a TARDIS with the words "sexy?" underneath seeing as the doctor's wife has just aired. Or, we could simply do a quote from the episode... -- 19:00, May 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * Interesting suggestions, but again, we can't be changing it every week, because it's just not enough time to turn out good backgrounds. Plus, someone would have to commit to changing the background on a weekly basis, which isn't necessarily a fair burden to put on any particular admin.  And how would we decide when to make the change so that it doesn't spoil people?  No, vague and not-terribly-time-sensitive is the way to go.   14:23:16 Sun 15 May 2011


 * As someone who mostly changes (and often forgets to change) the quote of the week I want to second the not changing it weekly, as CzechOut has pointed out getting the background right is a somewhat complicated process, which while users can get a fair bit of the way there, admins still need to test and tweak it and it's something admins have to do as it's part of the guts of the wiki. --Tangerineduel / talk 17:05, May 15, 2011 (UTC)