Reviewing the Pivot MediaWiki Skin

Pivot is one of my top mobile and responsive skins for MediaWiki.

The Pivot skin to MediaWiki is a less popular mobile and responsive skin for MediaWiki. Still, it should be considered as a viable option to choose from. Pivot comes like Medik with a layout resembling that of the well-known classic Vector and Monobook skins with the sidebar on the left of the screen. The user menu is toggled in and out on the right side of the screen, which makes it unique in the MediaWiki world. The menu for actions is located on the top right of the content area.

Tom Hutchison developed the Pivot skin in 2016, and it was first released in March 2017. He has continued to maintain it since. Like the Foreground skin, it also uses the Foundation framework developed by Zurb. Similarly, it has utilized version 5 of the framework since February 2018. The most current version 6 of the framework is not supported.

By default, the Pivot skin comes with several components like accordions, grid views, tabs or an image slider, and it supports Font Awesome (v4.7.0). The general layout of the skin is set, but a couple of changes via configuration are possible including the integration with share and follow buttons serviced by AddThis. When it comes to the general look and feel, you will most probably want to change the default colour scheme, which otherwise is in need of getting used to.

A demo wiki together with documentation is available at pivot.wikiproject.net.

If you are looking for a mobile and responsive layout that resembles the layout of the Vector or the MonoBook skin and you more or less just want to do a couple of changes to the CSS, then this skin is your pick.

Example sites using the Pivot skin

• International Society of Genetic Genealogy Wiki
• Louisville Punk/Hardcore History
• HüPedia

Check out my other favourite mobile and responsive MediaWiki skins.

Note that all of Professional Wiki’s hosting plans offer the Pivot skin for MediaWiki covered by this blog post. Also professional support is available to help you get the most out of your wiki. We will be very happy to assist you and make a difference for you!