The div for the new talk message notification (newtalk) is always rendered, even when empty. This makes it difficult to style.
461 ?> 462 <div id="new-talk"> 463 <?php $this->html( 'newtalk' ) ?> 464 </div>
Wrap it in a conditional, as suggested in MediaWiki's skinning docs or as implemented in this skin for site notices, to avoid displaying it if the message is empty.
461 if ( $this->data['newtalk'] ) { 462 ?> 463 <div id="new-talk"> 464 <?php $this->html( 'newtalk' ) ?> 465 </div> 466 <?php 467 } 468 ?>