I think it would be a good idea to think about the standard layout style of ikiwiki, the current layout used in a standard setup and on ikiwiki.info as well looks a bit old-fashioned to me. I guess that a nice modern layout would attract more new ikiwiki users and boost the ikwiki community... 

> FWIW, I agree.  The actiontabs [[theme|themes]] would be a better default, but something which showed what ikiwiki was capable of (or more precicely: that ikiwiki is as capable as other popular wiki softwares) would be better still. — [[Jon]]

>> As an author of plugins that interact with the UI, I think it's good that
>> a *minimal* ikiwiki has a minimal anti-theme, and that plugins are
>> developed against the anti-theme - it's a "blank slate" for themes.
>> [[plugins/contrib/trail]] was much easier to get working in
>> the default anti-theme than in actiontabs and blueview.
>>
>> Technical detail: all the standard themes are done by appending to the
>> anti-theme's CSS (albeit in ikiwiki's build system rather than during
>> the wiki build), rather than by replacing it - so themes that haven't
>> been updated for a new UI element end up using the version of it from
>> the anti-theme. [[plugins/Comments]] and [[plugins/contrib/trail]]
>> both need some tweaks per-theme to make them integrate nicely,
>> but most of the design comes from the anti-theme.
>>
>> That doesn't necessarily mean the anti-theme should be the one used
>> on ikiwiki.info, or used by default in new wikis - from my
>> point of view, it'd be fine for either of those to be actiontabs
>> or something The important thing is to *have* a "blank slate" anti-theme
>> that looks simple but sufficient, as a basis for new styles (either
>> [[themes]], or wikis that want their own unique stylesheet), and derive
>> the other themes from it. --[[smcv]]

> Ikiwiki's minimal theme is not modern. It's postmodern. I like it for the
> reasons described here. <http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/web_minimalism/>
> " The minimalism sucked you in, it made the web feel like one coherent,
> unified thing, unlike the constellation of corporate edifices occupying
> much of it today."
> 
> I see an increasing trend back toward these principles, driven partly
> by limits of eg, smartphone UI. So I certianly won't be changing the
> look of any of my ikiwiki sites, including this one.
> 
> `auto.setup` and `auto-blog.setup` could have different defaults,
> or allow a theme to be picked as [Branchable](http://branchable.com/)
> does. Perhaps actiontabs for auto-blog and default for wikis? --[[Joey]]
