Socialtext is currently not very easy to skin. In developing three skins for Socialtext, Amy Hoy compiled a list of criticisms that should be addressed by Socialtext in order to make the skinning process easier.

• inability to edit the HTML for the templates is very weird, but could be excusable...
• ... if the HTML structure wasn't so terrible.

• the default CSS file is over 1300 lines long. this is unfathomably complex for a theme.
• it took me more than 2 hours to get a handle on the structure of the page and CSS—and I'm no slouch
• and that was only with the help of FireBug (which begs for mercy because the HTML/CSS is so overly complex) and CSSEdit, which is a Mac-only program that costs $30
• with many elements nested 20-40+ elements deep in the HTML structure, it's very difficult to untangle the CSS cascade hierarchy and locate all the applied rules for a given element (impossible without software, I'd say)
• the CSS files are not broken out into sections which deal specifically with colors and type, and then positioning, etc., to make it simple to find what you need to change
• there is a lot of duplication in the CSS files for things such as color, typeface, etc., so to change these requires a hunt and peck methodology

• tables are a big no-no, and the level of nesting with DIVs to achieve rounded corners, gradient backgrounds, etc., is pretty obnoxious (because a person can't clean it up since we can't edit the HTML)
• due to the page structure, it's difficult to do much more than slight visual changes with CSS; anything else would require JavaScript manipulation, or hours of CSS trial and error
• treating on-load JavaScript DOM manipulation as a work-around for bad HTML structure is not what would be considered a healthy practice in the web development industry
• many of the IDs and classes for DOM elements are not self- explanatory (and there are many excessive ones cluttering up the namespace, for rounded corners, etc.)
• the IE-specific stylesheets that come with the theme I was given to clone use the asterisk (star) hack which is no longer accepted as of IE7, and aren't complete in terms of solving the IE problems with that theme

• there should be a default theme which is very simple and offers a tutorial-like treatment of the HTML and CSS and as few images as possible
• themes are buried in the source distribution and hard to find
• the packaging structure is annoying—a theme should be able to have its images, css and javascript (if any) in a single directory (e.g. my-theme/css and my-theme/images) rather than in separate top-level folders under the themes directory
• the process of having to use a command-line tool to change a workspace's theme is cumbersome and prohibitive

• people who theme their wikis are going to want to be able to edit the HTML
• and they're going to want to be able to reposition things like the home link, buttons, etc., to places that make sense to them (currently there are many stumbling blocks in the way of this—and absolute positioning is not really a defensible solution)

• the installation procedure for the software is prohibitively difficult compared to (for example) PHP-based competitors