---
title: "Monkeying with Scifipedia"
date: 2006-04-28T10:35:04-04:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2006/04/28/redesigning-scifipedia/
author: Les Orchard
tags: [asides]
---

# Monkeying with Scifipedia

 <p>The <a href="http://www.scifi.com">SciFi Channel</a> webmasters have launched <a href="http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/Main_Page">Scifipedia</a>, based on <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki">MediaWiki</a>.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, they've destroyed much of the usability offered by the out-of-box template.  Just try finding the "Recent Changes" page.</p>
 <p>So, I was annoyed enough to crack open a text editor and give it the Greasemonkey treatment:</p>
     <ul>
     <li>
     <span><a href="http://decafbad.com/2006/04/scifipediatweaks.user.js">scifipediatweaks.user.js</a></span>
     </li>
     </ul>
 <p>I mean, I can understand wanting to brand things - and this is a free site after all - but try not to muck with the essentials.</p>

<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
        <ul class="comments">
            
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221082718">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://people.opera.com/rijk/opera/"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=13b3457866acb33e384fabc0d8073b19&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://people.opera.com/rijk/opera/">Rijk</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221082718" class="permalink"><time datetime="2006-04-29T12:05:04">2006-04-29T12:05:04</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>This userscript also works well in Opera 9.</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221082720">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href=""><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=518fd9b72611b8628f499eac180042ed&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="">gK</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221082720" class="permalink"><time datetime="2006-07-18T19:45:13">2006-07-18T19:45:13</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content"><p>Worse yet is their antediluvial copyright policy. See their Terms of Use: http://scifipedia.scifi.com/index.php/SCIFIPEDIA:Terms<em>of</em>Use</p>

<p>I may edit there for some things that I want to publicize, but I won't do any major editing there. It's either got to give the authors a byline, or have a copyleft license such as the GFDL or Creative Commons.</p></div>
            
        </li>
    
        </ul>
    
        </div>