5 ms·
> GitHub, do better. Give us the dark mode experience we deserve. Does anyone else find this to be unnecessarily abrasive? It's a really harsh note to end the
by bihla 6y ago
> GitHub, do better. Give us the dark mode experience we deserve.
Does anyone else find this to be unnecessarily abrasive? It's a really harsh note to end the post on when describing a product that many people use for free. It seems to imply that Github has some sort of moral failing for their color choices and additionally that the author is entitled to command them to change their work.
Edit: I doubt the author intended it as such. The tone is just unfortunate.
- joecool1029 6y agoLove it, calling out moral posturing while doing the same thing yourself. It's Microsoft running a for-profit project on a freemium model not an act of charity. Criticizing how sloppy the choice of color palette was and suggesting one of the most valuable companies in the world should be able to do better has only become the natural thing to do. Time and time again we've been shown the only way to enact the most minor and least controversial changes is to make a bunch of noise in blog posts and call out the behemoths for their shortcomings. And hell, if we extrapolate from this (shitty) line of thinking, maybe Microsoft was saying "Haha plebs if you want a dark mode that functions better you should stop being poor and only buy OLED monitors."
- userbinator 6y agoNo. On the other hand, why is it that some people seem to have become overly sensitive? I wish most people were as direct about their thoughts as they used to be. Yes, GH is free, but being free does not mean they are above criticism.
- jevgeni 6y agoThis is not about criticism. This is about some moral grandstanding where none is appropriate. EDIT: The contrast ratio of the author's website (background vs. main copy font color) is ca. 12.29, i.e. almost exactly that of GH dark mode (12.26) and which they claim is too low. So go figure.
- ziftface 6y agoI don't know if this was the intention either, but when I see articles like this, I just think we as programmers are such divas sometimes.
- brodie 6y agoMaybe we should celebrate being divas! Now I'm imagining Lady Gaga's "Fashion" in my head but the lyrics are about coding.
- toper-centage 6y agoI was listening to Darknet Diaries yesterday and just found out Nerdcore music is a thing.
- redisman 6y agoThat style of writing is extremely popular online and on Twitter. People love snark and entitlement when they agree with it
- Quanttek 6y agoMaybe it's just my observation, but I find it quite interesting that only finds such tone-policing comments as yours when the author is a woman. Daily, I see much more abrasive blogs on HN: instead of lampooning them for asking GitHub to be better, they are not rarely lauded for their "brutal honesty" while often straight-up insulting the blog's target. This is not meant to criticize you, OP, personally. Rather, I just want to point out a structural double standard.
- eyko 6y agoI honestly didn't notice the author's gender until you pointed it out, which led me to check the name. I simply read the article and agreed with most of the points, then came here to see the comments. In fact, I never attach a gender identity to authors or commenters unless something they say nudges me to check their name or username, or unless it's an author I'm familiar with. Having said that, I think it's a safe bet to assume that one doesn't "only" find such tone policing comments when the author is a woman, because one almost always finds such tone-policing comments on hacker news whenever there's an opportunity to complain about tone.
- Quanttek 6y agoYes, you might not have seen her gender beforehand. But countless others have. I'm not saying GP went "oh a woman, better tone-police her". Rather, the gender of the author entered into our (mine as well) subconsciousness and combined there with implicit assumptions about gender roles and the 'proper' behavior of women. Any behavior that then doesn't fit the stereotype of diplomatic, kind, etc., elicits a stronger emotional reaction in us and makes us more like to write or upvote such a comment. It is not that HN doesn't already have a "baseline obsession" with tone or that male authors never fall victim to this. But rather, one can observe a trend where such tone-policing comments are more likely to occur and get upvoted if the author is a woman. And on the flip-side, comments commending a harsher, "more" honest or rant-y tone are more likely to occur when the post was written by a male author.
- senux 6y ago
- dkdk8283 6y agoI support the tone: freedom of expression. It could be harsh but certainly isn’t abusive.
- alecbz 6y agoWhat does freedom of expression have to do with anything? Freedom of expression != all opinions are correct and equally valid
- dkdk8283 6y agoDid I say something about the opinion being correct or valid?
- Gene_Parmesan 6y agoNo, but your reference to freedom of expression just scans a little oddly here because no one is claiming this person should be deplatformed or something.
- manigandham 6y agoOpinions can't be incorrect or invalid. That's why they're opinions.
- OrwellianChild 6y agoToo entitled, particularly when things like Dark Reader[1] exist... You can just customize your own palette. My entire internet is in dark mode... [1] https://darkreader.org/ https://darkreader.org/
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- devwastaken 6y ago"when describing a product that many people use for free." There are no free services. Github is a product, the free features are there to onboard paying customers for their commercial repos. However, yes, that kind of language over a dark theme is ridiculous and not persuading.
- easterncalculus 6y agoIt reads like a tweet.
- nautilus12 6y agoHave you ever been on hacker news before?
- syamilmj 6y agoMost people I know who uses GitHub daily are premium users. People who use GitHub for free are probably not going to be bothered by the dark mode.
- swiley 6y agoI thought browsers used to let users change the default CSS. If sites had respected that people wouldn't be asking them for themes.
- shmde 6y agoResponding to tone : Criticizes the tone of the writing without addressing the substance of the argument.
- lloydatkinson 6y agoLots of people now say “do better” as some kind of moral high ground grandstanding. It’s really pathetic.
- ksec 6y agoGiven this is the top voted comment, any other sentence that people find abrasive? I reread the article a few times and i dont see that at all. It isn't even ranting. She put out some criticism, with some evidence and possible theory. And "hope", Github could change its mind. I quote This is still a beta feature so I have hope. This isn't GitHub! Do Better! with double exclamation market. Simply a call to action for something ( hopefully ) better. The we deserve part is a figure of speech.