5 ms·

Would love to see this available natively here on HN. The last dark mode request thread I recall garnered 780 points: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23197

by miles 5y ago

Would love to see this available natively here on HN. The last dark mode request thread I recall garnered 780 points: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23197966 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23197966

sneak 5y ago
As cool as new features would be, I sort of love the HN approach to feature creep (or even just feature addition, as distinct from "creep"). It's such a welcome change compared to other websites and apps.
- miles 5y ago
  I, too, appreciate HN's reluctance to add new features, and have zealously followed the same approach in maintaining my own tiny corner of the web for two decades. But dark mode offers such immense retinal relief that a few lines of CSS¹ does not seem too unreasonable, especially since it means not having to trust third party extensions to do the job (though Firefox supports site-specific CSS rules natively: https://superuser.com/a/319322/38084 https://superuser.com/a/319322/38084 ). ¹ I arrived at these few lines for my simple site: @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) { body {background: #222b39;color: #e1dfdc} input,textarea {background: #333;color: #e1dfdc;border: 1px solid white}} though HN likely requires a far more skillful and circumspect approach, e.g., https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23199649 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23199649 .
  - gpm 5y ago
    > prefers-color-scheme: dark How do I convince my browser (firefox, typically) to set this? Is there a way to toggle it on and off?
    - ORioN63 5y ago
      > In Firefox you can add "ui.systemUsesDarkTheme" as an integer in about:config and set it to "0" for forced light or "1" for forced dark. This setting changes what is reported by the media query, you can still set your OS and/or browser theme independently. You will need to restart Firefox to apply the setting. [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21196903 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21196903
- beermonster 5y ago
  It’s also one of the things I value highly. The other is the better signal/noise ratio.
argvargc 5y ago
I find it offensive there's no dark mode. It's discrimination against people with a vision disability. It's a small and insignificant change on their part, could be made in 5 mins.
- LilBytes 5y ago
  Does dark mode help those with visual disabilities? I whole heartedly want dark mode HN but your comment seems insincere and hyperbolic.
  - argvargc 5y ago
    Yes. And as is often the case, those unaffected or unaware have difficulty empathising with sufferers. (And so on it goes with anyone disadvantaged for any reason in society.) Most major purveyors of UI have somehow recognised the importance of offering a dark mode - I guess they all just did it for a lark? At this point, HN's refusal is wilful. Sure, plenty of annoying ways around it for each affected person to figure out - or one tiny change to the God-like and permanently-infallible UI of HN. All hail!
  - Can_Not 5y ago
    This is why it's basically illegal for businesses to ask someone to prove they need their service animal. It's annoying as duck to 1.) have a disability in the first place and 2.) have every random person ever acuse you of lying about it for literally no reason.
- drusepth 5y ago
  I know "could be made in 5 mins" is an exaggeration, but there's a very real long-term cost to adding thematic options like dark mode that HN just might not want to take on. Any time you split your UI (for example, light mode and dark mode), it effectively doubles/multiplies all future UI testing you do from then on out (testing all new views/features on both light and dark mode). It can also add additional strain on bug reports / support, since you no longer know what UI configuration a particular user might've been using when they complained about something. Slightly less of an issue on a site like HN where the UI is somewhat simple and static and changes happen at alligator speed, but still a long-term commitment to make (as opposed to 5 min of dev time). (In case it isn't obvious, I'm a little salty about how much time I still spend testing/fixing my own site changes in dark mode over a year after adding it.)
alias_neo 5y ago
Interestingly, DarkHN breaks your link. I couldn't view it, just got a 403, had to come back to normal HN to make sure the link itself wasn't broken.
fragileone 5y ago
I'd like it natively since my RSS reader has an internal web browser that doesn't support browser extensions which I would otherwise use here.

by miles 5y ago

sneak 5y ago

As cool as new features would be, I sort of love the HN approach to feature creep (or even just feature addition, as distinct from "creep"). It's such a welcome change compared to other websites and apps.

miles 5y ago
I, too, appreciate HN's reluctance to add new features, and have zealously followed the same approach in maintaining my own tiny corner of the web for two decades. But dark mode offers such immense retinal relief that a few lines of CSS¹ does not seem too unreasonable, especially since it means not having to trust third party extensions to do the job (though Firefox supports site-specific CSS rules natively: https://superuser.com/a/319322/38084 https://superuser.com/a/319322/38084 ). ¹ I arrived at these few lines for my simple site: @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) { body {background: #222b39;color: #e1dfdc} input,textarea {background: #333;color: #e1dfdc;border: 1px solid white}} though HN likely requires a far more skillful and circumspect approach, e.g., https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23199649 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23199649 .
- gpm 5y ago
  > prefers-color-scheme: dark How do I convince my browser (firefox, typically) to set this? Is there a way to toggle it on and off?
  - ORioN63 5y ago
    > In Firefox you can add "ui.systemUsesDarkTheme" as an integer in about:config and set it to "0" for forced light or "1" for forced dark. This setting changes what is reported by the media query, you can still set your OS and/or browser theme independently. You will need to restart Firefox to apply the setting. [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21196903 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21196903
beermonster 5y ago
It’s also one of the things I value highly. The other is the better signal/noise ratio.

argvargc 5y ago

I find it offensive there's no dark mode. It's discrimination against people with a vision disability. It's a small and insignificant change on their part, could be made in 5 mins.

LilBytes 5y ago
Does dark mode help those with visual disabilities? I whole heartedly want dark mode HN but your comment seems insincere and hyperbolic.
- argvargc 5y ago
  Yes. And as is often the case, those unaffected or unaware have difficulty empathising with sufferers. (And so on it goes with anyone disadvantaged for any reason in society.) Most major purveyors of UI have somehow recognised the importance of offering a dark mode - I guess they all just did it for a lark? At this point, HN's refusal is wilful. Sure, plenty of annoying ways around it for each affected person to figure out - or one tiny change to the God-like and permanently-infallible UI of HN. All hail!
- Can_Not 5y ago
  This is why it's basically illegal for businesses to ask someone to prove they need their service animal. It's annoying as duck to 1.) have a disability in the first place and 2.) have every random person ever acuse you of lying about it for literally no reason.
drusepth 5y ago
I know "could be made in 5 mins" is an exaggeration, but there's a very real long-term cost to adding thematic options like dark mode that HN just might not want to take on. Any time you split your UI (for example, light mode and dark mode), it effectively doubles/multiplies all future UI testing you do from then on out (testing all new views/features on both light and dark mode). It can also add additional strain on bug reports / support, since you no longer know what UI configuration a particular user might've been using when they complained about something. Slightly less of an issue on a site like HN where the UI is somewhat simple and static and changes happen at alligator speed, but still a long-term commitment to make (as opposed to 5 min of dev time). (In case it isn't obvious, I'm a little salty about how much time I still spend testing/fixing my own site changes in dark mode over a year after adding it.)

alias_neo 5y ago

Interestingly, DarkHN breaks your link. I couldn't view it, just got a 403, had to come back to normal HN to make sure the link itself wasn't broken.

fragileone 5y ago

I'd like it natively since my RSS reader has an internal web browser that doesn't support browser extensions which I would otherwise use here.