Dark Mode in Forum?

Discussions about the forum and contents
Post Reply
Topic Author
Bogglehaed1
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2022 9:36 am

Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by Bogglehaed1 »

I thoroughly enjoy browsing this forum but often do so at night and my screen is blindingly bright with the light color scheme of this forum.

Does a dark mode exist? And if not, would the admins be willing to add it?

Thank you
Lurker.
User avatar
Cheez-It Guy
Posts: 4004
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2019 3:20 pm

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by Cheez-It Guy »

Turn on Night Shift and minimize your brightness. Quite tolerable. I challenge you to honestly call it blinding under those settings.
Nummerkins
Posts: 673
Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2010 4:41 pm

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by Nummerkins »

This has been requested many times. It will not be added.

Use the Dark Reader browser extension (I'm using it now). Now any site can have a dark mode.

Image
Last edited by Nummerkins on Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Today's high is tomorrow's low.
User avatar
whodidntante
Posts: 13090
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2016 10:11 pm
Location: outside the echo chamber

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by whodidntante »

Nothing can stop the smurfy madness of fifty shades of blue. It's like being a customer of Vanguard when an off-script situation arises. You are on your own.
User avatar
celia
Posts: 16763
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 6:32 am
Location: SoCal

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by celia »

I can change my contrast and background lighting in my iphone’s settings. You can probably do it too. This also helps you conserve your battery charge if you turn down the “lights”.

One thing to keep in mind on the internet is that we each observe “nighttime” at different times depending on what time zone we live in around the world. I can also define this “night shift” in my iphone’s settings.
Topic Author
Bogglehaed1
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2022 9:36 am

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by Bogglehaed1 »

Cheez-It Guy wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:13 pm Turn on Night Shift and minimize your brightness. Quite tolerable. I challenge you to honestly call it blinding under those settings.
Challenge accepted… still blindingly bright!
Last edited by Bogglehaed1 on Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Topic Author
Bogglehaed1
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2022 9:36 am

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by Bogglehaed1 »

Nummerkins wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:15 pm This has been requested many times. It will not be added.

Use the Dark Reader browser extension (I'm using it now). Now any site can have a dark mode.

Image
I added a free extension from the App Store, thanks for the tip.

Dark mode should still be a feature for consideration IMO
User avatar
WOMoney
Posts: 59
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2023 11:14 am
Location: NC

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by WOMoney »

I agree, it is pretty bright. But I love dark mode
Topic Author
Bogglehaed1
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2022 9:36 am

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by Bogglehaed1 »

whodidntante wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:18 pm Nothing can stop the smurfy madness of fifty shades of blue. It's like being a customer of Vanguard when an off-script situation arises. You are on your own.
LOL. Ok my expectations are set, thanks.
User avatar
Cheez-It Guy
Posts: 4004
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2019 3:20 pm

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by Cheez-It Guy »

Bogglehaed1 wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:27 pm
Cheez-It Guy wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:13 pm Turn on Night Shift and minimize your brightness. Quite tolerable. I challenge you to honestly call it blinding under those settings.
Challenge accepted… still blindingly bright!
Ha! I don't believe you. I said HONESTLY!
quadog
Posts: 100
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 3:25 pm

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by quadog »

I know, right. The 1990s called and wanted their web design back.

Here’s how to force a “dark mode” on iOS for this wonderful retro site…
  • Settings >
    Accessibility >
    Display and Text Size >
    Smart Invert = on
This action can be added as a shortcut to the right device button. Three clicks will bring up an accessibility menu so you don’t have to go rooting around in Settings.
RubyTuesday
Posts: 2236
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:24 am

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by RubyTuesday »

quadog wrote: Sat Apr 01, 2023 12:50 am I know, right. The 1990s called and wanted their web design back.

Here’s how to force a “dark mode” on iOS for this wonderful retro site…
  • Settings >
    Accessibility >
    Display and Text Size >
    Smart Invert = on
This action can be added as a shortcut to the right device button. Three clicks will bring up an accessibility menu so you don’t have to go rooting around in Settings.
Brilliant! Thank you
“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” – Lao Tzu
User avatar
nisiprius
Advisory Board
Posts: 52105
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:33 am
Location: The terrestrial, globular, planetary hunk of matter, flattened at the poles, is my abode.--O. Henry

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by nisiprius »

To explain...

This forum runs on phpBB software. It's a well-known, well-regarded open source system that's used by over 12,000 websites. The vast majority of them all look about the same, and you can spot it a mile off. (For example, http://www.bikeforums.net ).

The technical operations of the forum are managed by volunteers. They have made the decision, which I think is absolutely right, that they are not going to make any custom modifications of phpBB, not even adding server-side third-party extensions. No matter how easy a customization seems, it would need to be maintained in perpetuity and reinstalled and even reimplemented on every release of phpBB. They perform only customizations that are configuration choices built into the standard release of phpBB. (For example, they disabled phpBB's built-in image hosting out of fear of being responsible if anyone posted inappropriate images).

I'm not directly involved in this, nor in the phpBB world, so I don't know where you'd go to ask phpBB to implement a dark mode.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
rich126
Posts: 4453
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:56 pm

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by rich126 »

Cheez-It Guy wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:13 pm Turn on Night Shift and minimize your brightness. Quite tolerable. I challenge you to honestly call it blinding under those settings.
I agree. Personally I detest night mode and usually the main reason for brightness is the setting on the phone/device. I have Apple devices and while I set everything to manual the devices still at times increase the brightness way too high at night. Once I manually adjust the brightness things are back to being pretty dim.
----------------------------- | If you think something is important and it doesn't involve the health of someone, think again. Life goes too fast, enjoy it and be nice.
Jags4186
Posts: 8198
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2014 7:12 pm

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by Jags4186 »

If you’re reading on iPhone or iPad you can via accessibility settings add “smart invert” to the power button shortcut (basically click your power button 3 times quickly) and it will give you dark mode instantly.
User avatar
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95466
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by LadyGeek »

nisiprius wrote: Sat Apr 01, 2023 7:38 am To explain...

This forum runs on phpBB software. It's a well-known, well-regarded open source system that's used by over 12,000 websites. The vast majority of them all look about the same, and you can spot it a mile off. (For example, http://www.bikeforums.net ).

The technical operations of the forum are managed by volunteers. They have made the decision, which I think is absolutely right, that they are not going to make any custom modifications of phpBB, not even adding server-side third-party extensions. No matter how easy a customization seems, it would need to be maintained in perpetuity and reinstalled and even reimplemented on every release of phpBB. They perform only customizations that are configuration choices built into the standard release of phpBB. (For example, they disabled phpBB's built-in image hosting out of fear of being responsible if anyone posted inappropriate images).

I'm not directly involved in this, nor in the phpBB world, so I don't know where you'd go to ask phpBB to implement a dark mode.
^^^ This. We simply don't have the resources to support the many, many issues members have with displays. So, we stay with the 'stock' software because it's been battle-tested by the developers. It just works.

Here's what happened when I tried with the 'stock' software - along with a few suggestions. From: Subject: Forum software upgrade bug reports and change requests
KarenC wrote: Sun Nov 13, 2022 7:06 am
LadyGeek wrote: Sun Nov 13, 2022 6:49 am
starboi wrote: Sun Nov 13, 2022 2:05 am Request: Dark mode
Nice idea, but it's not implemented correctly. The best approach is to let your browser take care of it. From an earlier post:
LadyGeek wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 8:59 pm ^^^ Thanks for the help! The Dark Reader extension displays the post editor's Font color palette correctly (Post a reply --> "Ink drop" icon in the editing toolbar). A few extensions I've tried don't display the palette correctly. I also see a dark mode for the forum software, but it's crude and messes up the logo and post editor's Font color palette.

For Firefox: Dark Reader - Firefox

For Chrome: Dark Reader - Chrome Web Store
Also, for Safari: Noir - Dark Mode for Safari
quadog wrote: Sat Apr 01, 2023 12:50 am I know, right. The 1990s called and wanted their web design back.
:D
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
invest0
Posts: 82
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 6:54 pm
Contact:

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by invest0 »

Just a developer piling on... dark mode was a bit of a gimmick when CSS3 became mainstream in the late 2000s and styling variables became so easy that you could re-style a whole site by just flipping a few global colors. Devs loved showing off how simple it was. That's no longer a super new way to make a site nowadays but safe to say that those methods are from a different era as bolgeheads.org. And forums are some of the most tedious sites to style. No way it would be simple to do here.

I recommend just appreciating the retro charm.
User avatar
zaplunken
Posts: 1368
Joined: Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:07 am

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by zaplunken »

Dark Mode is great! I set my email background to be dark. On another website I used a theme that is dark but I lost certain functions that were displayed using the default theme. I never heard of Dark Mode and had no idea how to get Dark Mode when reading this thread but managed to figure it out and added it. What a difference. Nice thing is I can turn it on or off on any site! Thanks for the tip, WAY to bright on this site at night.
AlohaBill
Posts: 759
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:20 pm
Location: California

Re: Dark Mode in Forum

Post by AlohaBill »

Hi quadog,
Thank you so much for showing me dark mode. I am using a 12.9 " iPad. I have cataracts and dry eyes and find the screen is very bright. With dark mode it seems much more tolerable. I will see how it goes over the next few days. There are a rainbow of colors to get used to. Thanks again. :beer
quadog
Posts: 100
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 3:25 pm

Re: Dark Mode in Forum

Post by quadog »

AlohaBill wrote: Thu Apr 13, 2023 4:30 pm Hi quadog,
Thank you so much for showing me dark mode.
You are welcome, AlohaBill. It certainly improves the site.
User avatar
zaplunken
Posts: 1368
Joined: Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:07 am

Re: Dark Mode in Forum

Post by zaplunken »

quadog wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 10:37 am
AlohaBill wrote: Thu Apr 13, 2023 4:30 pm Hi quadog,
Thank you so much for showing me dark mode.
You are welcome, AlohaBill. It certainly improves the site.
All sites!
User avatar
Ricchan
Posts: 303
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2016 11:26 pm
Location: Firestone D Floor

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by Ricchan »

FYI, I made a dark mode theme based on gruvbox colors (a popular color scheme for certain text editors). I shared how to use it here:
viewtopic.php?t=347557

It requires using a browser extension that allows modification of a site's CSS (I use Stylus). The actual CSS is included in the above thread, so you can simply copy/paste. I personally find this solution easier on the eyes than the generic dark mode browser solutions, but YMMV.

I use this as my default experience on desktop. I haven't looked into whether it works on mobile/tablet, though my guess is it just depends on whether you can find a CSS extension that works with your browser/device.
User avatar
unclescrooge
Posts: 6264
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:00 pm

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by unclescrooge »

I was able to figure out dark mode on Android phone using a Chrome browser.

Type out Chrome://flags in the URL bar. This will bring up the developer flags.
Search for dark mode and enable it.
Dregob
Posts: 852
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 9:45 pm

Re: Dark Mode in Forum?

Post by Dregob »

Bogglehaed1 wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:27 pm
Cheez-It Guy wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 10:13 pm Turn on Night Shift and minimize your brightness. Quite tolerable. I challenge you to honestly call it blinding under those settings.
Challenge accepted… still blindingly bright!
Change the settings and wear sunglasses. I challenge you to call that blinding.
Post Reply