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Ask HN: Dark mode for HN please?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: Dark mode for HN please?

#21

Post by _bxg1 »

andrewflnr wrote: post #19

For context (and also protip if you weren't aware), there's already precedent for user-defined CSS in HN. I don't remember if everyone has access to it, but there's a topcolor setting in your profile that sets the color of the top bar. Maybe that could be extended to include other CSS properties? I wouldn't mind having to write hex color codes...

An open entry field for custom CSS would be a clunky but still welcome solution to this problem. It would also be extremely low-risk and low-effort on the maintainers' parts.

Re: Ask HN: Dark mode for HN please?

#22

Post by krapp »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

> HN should be dark mode by default A less controversial solution would be to simply hook into the user's system-level light/dark setting: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/pref... That said, I've wanted this feature desperately for a long time. Browsing HN on my desktop monitor in the evening is blinding and gives me a headache. I find myself resizing the window to be phone-sized just so my eye…

>(speaking of which; is HN open-source?)

No, but also yes, but mostly no: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23191206

I added themes to the Anarki forum a while ago[0], along with a quick and dirty dark theme. Please ignore the garbage quality of my PR and code, but if the HN devs want to rip it off they're welcome to.

[0]https://github.com/arclanguage/anarki/pull/171/files

Re: Ask HN: Dark mode for HN please?

#23

Post by fao_ »

Zekio wrote: post #4

If you use Firefox you can use the addon Dark Reader, so you can get dark mode for every site if you want at night

Dark Reader adds a good 5 seconds of lag to interacting with the web (including: website loading, website interaction, tab switching) for me.

Re: Ask HN: Dark mode for HN please?

#24

Post by fao_ »

rmrfstar wrote: post #5

You could also just have your router mitm or redirect connections to hn and sed the result.

You're getting downvoted but there's probably a network hook you could add.

Maybe if we had plan9 machines or lisp machines, we would be able to do that very easily.

I wonder how different computing would look.

Re: Ask HN: Dark mode for HN please?

#26

Post by dang »

_bxg1 wrote: post #21
andrewflnr wrote: post #19

For context (and also protip if you weren't aware), there's already precedent for user-defined CSS in HN. I don't remember if everyone has access to it, but there's a topcolor setting in your profile that sets the color of the top bar. Maybe that could be extended to include other CSS properties? I wouldn't mind having to write hex color codes...

An open entry field for custom CSS would be a clunky but still welcome solution to this problem. It would also be extremely low-risk and low-effort on the maintainers' parts.

I wanted to do that but was told that Reddit encountered security issues with this, and so moved away from it in favor of a complex widget UI, which would not be a good fit for HN.

Re: Ask HN: Dark mode for HN please?

#27

Post by [deleted] »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

> HN should be dark mode by default A less controversial solution would be to simply hook into the user's system-level light/dark setting: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/pref... That said, I've wanted this feature desperately for a long time. Browsing HN on my desktop monitor in the evening is blinding and gives me a headache. I find myself resizing the window to be phone-sized just so my eye…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Dark mode for HN please?

#28

Post by dang »

_bxg1 wrote: post #8

> HN should be dark mode by default A less controversial solution would be to simply hook into the user's system-level light/dark setting: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/pref... That said, I've wanted this feature desperately for a long time. Browsing HN on my desktop monitor in the evening is blinding and gives me a headache. I find myself resizing the window to be phone-sized just so my eye…

Thanks, I'll look into that, and you're welcome to ping hn@ycombinator.com about it.

If it's simple to add and isn't going to break anything for anybody, we'd be happy to.

Edit: ok, as I understand it, it's simple enough to add except that you have to figure out what the color scheme for dark mode should actually be. Is that accurate?

Edit: see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23199062.

Re: Ask HN: Dark mode for HN please?

#29

Post by dang »

RyanGoosling wrote: post #6

Maybe spruce up the whole site too.

pg told me that he wanted HN to look like the output of `top`. The older it gets, the more we approach that goal.

I've never seen a proposed redesign that didn't either add too much whitespace or too little (well, always the former), which makes me think that the current design is in the ballpark of optimal, despite its being unfashionable. Also, HN is very much a text site and that goes deeper than look-and-feel. The first thing most "spruce-ups" do is toss this quality, which compromises the site at its essence and indicates a misunderstanding of what HN is. I'm reminded of Steve Jobs' famous line about how design is not how-it-looks but how-it-works.

If someone did a redesign of HN that preserved both its information density and its textiness, I'd be stoked to see it as an experiment. We probably wouldn't change the site much, because if there's one force stronger than user complaints about design, it's user complaints about design changes. Also, I think it's an advantage for HN to have an unfashionable design, and a huge advantage to have a stable design. Still, I'd be fascinated to see it, and there might be ideas we could use.

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