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WARNING: Lostbook is no longer developed and is deprecated. Certain Wikia functionality will not work with the Lostbook skin. Please use Monaco instead. |
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Lostbook is a new Lostpedia skin. Screenshot taken in Firefox 2 for Windows
Lostbook is a new Mediawiki skin, created by the Sysops jabberwock and plkrtn for Lostpedia. The Lostbook skin is available to registered users.
Development History
Development of Lostbook began in October 2006, with the first closed beta tests beginning in November 2006. A blog post teased the future in November 2006 [1], By December 2006, Lostbook v1 was uploaded to the Lostpedia server, and was left unannounced for users to find themselves. Lostbook v2 development began. Improving code and adding Google Searching Lostpedia, as well as searching it with the internal search system. In January 2007, Lostbook was upgraded to work with v1.9.1 of Mediawiki, and uploaded to the live server. It is now undergoing live bug testing with users taking part and leaving us feedback. From July 2007 the skin was considered final, and whilst we always welcome feedback, it is believed the majority of bugs have now been removed. In March 2009, Lostpedia officially announced that due to Wikia functionality issues, Lostbook would no longer would be developed.
How to enable Lostbook
To enable Lostbook, login and goto My Preferences. Choose the skin tab, and from the dropdown list, select Lostbook.
FAQ
Why the new skin?
The Lostbook search options are now by default on the top right, making search more prominent. Registered users can switch this back to the left. We've also introduced searching Lostpedia via Google
There are thousands of wikis, and apart from a logo we mostly all look the same. Monobook is the default skin, and many wikis use this. With good reason too, as it's very functional at its job. However, EVERYONE uses it. Its one of the most used designs on the web, and we've found instantly associates you with Wikipedia, with people assuming you are part of that project, because you use their software. We wanted to give Lostpedia a face lift in order to bring our own look to the world of wikis and Lost, so we developed this skin, based upon the original Monobook to give it a look of its own. We also felt that the Search options were not as good as they could be, cramped and hard to use on the left hand side. They weren't place intuitively. We looked into ways to improve it, moving it to a more prominent position, and adding Google Search to extend the ability to search the resources on the site.
Will Lostbook be the default skin?
Lostbook will no longer be actively developed after the migration to Wikia hosting. The new default skin is Monaco, but the lostbook theme has been migrated to that skin.
Will I be forced to use the Lostbook skin?
You will not be forced to use Lostbook. The default Minibook skin will for the moment, be the default skin for registered users and non-registered users. Registered users will have the opportunity to select the Lostbook skin from My Preferences, but are under no compulsion to do so.
I prefer the search at the left again, can you move it back?
The customization page explains the different personalization that are available to those with Lostpedia accounts, and how to customize them for your own use.
There seems to be a lot of space at the top of the site.
UPDATED: April 15th 07 : This is an optical illusion, its only 40 pixels lower than it was previously. The reason is for the new customisable backgrounds we have installed, which will change on certain key dates of the year, both real world dates and occasions, and dates from the Lost calendar.
This shouldn't be the default design until all the bugs are fixed
<sarcasm> Really? We were thinking of launching a bug ridden default design that drove people away from using Lostpedia. We thought that it would make people visit more... </sarcasm>
I can design a better skin/background image than that
OK then, let us have a look at it. Contact plkrtn or jabberwock and they'll take a look at it, and if its good, multi-browser friendly (and we mean the lot, IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Konquerer etc) and doesn't violate any copyright, we might consider adding it to the collection for users to choose from.
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