Dark themes and site accessibility.

kataclysm • 1 December 2022 at 9:32 AM

I mean, really, what more needs saying? I'm sure I'm not alone in that I use EggCave on my phone as well as my laptop, often at night or whilst the lights are low. The bright white skin, or even the brightly coloured skin, sometimes makes my eyes prickle. Sure, I can lower my device's brightness, and I do do that, but it would also be nice to have alternative and more accessible versions of the skin available for use. Dark skins with light text have been proven to be easier to read by individuals with dyslexia, for example. Parchment skins (a soft yellow) with diffused brown text has proven to be more legible for those with certain schemes of colour blindness.

It strikes me as odd that EggCave doesn't have any accessibility tooling. Being able to upscale/downscale font for the site overall, invert colours, utilise different versions of skins - not only would it be visually appetising, but it would be a nice step in the direction of making this site more accessible and enjoyable for every kind of user.

I struggle to see a reason to not work towards a goal like this, but if I've missed one that's glaringly obvious, or if this suggestion has been answered before, I'm all ears.

snowywinter • 1 December 2022 at 9:51 PM

@kataclysm The subject of themes and skins comes up so often (I think the latest thread was just last month) either by itself, wedged into posts with several ideas, or in the blog posts - that i'm surprised it's one of the features that hasn't been rolled out yet.
While not all, most of the websites i visit have some option for switching themes, or in the very least standard/dark mode toggling. it just seems standard nowadays.

I'll reiterate in short that my opinion is that so long as we have the option to either see a default we choose, or see others selections I don't mind how complex they get with options. All in all though I stand by them at least making the existing holiday themes available per user.

I'm the complete opposite of most people when it comes to the dark themes. They give me a headache, I tend to zone out, I can get dizzy, or even nauseous. It's quite disorienting.
When Chrome tried forcing it on people with no option to toggle off I had to stop using Chrome. (Obviously that experiment was short lived, I haven't seen it in months.)
Case in point, a bunch of people on another site recently chose all dark colors with light lettering for their chat fields. I was trying to read it a little bit ago, One of the worst cases ever. It was like I was going snowblind, then I started having flashing lights, and was having a hard time telling which way was up/down, etc. (almost fell over while sitting down. and that was after looking away and trying to get my bearings.)

While light themes may be my sanctuary I do feel for people needing the opposite. headaches due to lighting issues are never fun. (And I admire the people just trying to cut down on energy consumption.)

daisycat • 1 December 2022 at 10:00 PM

@kataclysm
I support this 100%. My laptop's brightness is always on its lowest setting, and it's still too bright at night lol (I think there are browser extensions to make it even dimmer, gotta look that up). Cluster headaches and migraines have plagued me for over a decade, and bright lights and screens definitely cause pain.

dragrawr • 2 December 2022 at 12:48 AM

@kataclysm I mentioned this idea in another topic. My eyes would be not so in pain, as I'm a college student and am constantly on the computer. Getting flashed by constant bright white screens while feeding huuurts!

I also have migraines @daisycat and sometimes I can easily get woozy from the site.

kataclysm • 14 December 2022 at 6:12 AM

I appreciate the feedback, folks! I'm glad this idea is landing on receptive ears.

If this suggestion goes nowhere - as many EggCave suggestions do ): - I know there are browser plug-ins to adopt dark themes 'automatically'. It's an imperfect system, particularly because these plug-ins do nothing for mobile browsing, but it's an option for PC browsing users to utilise in the meantime, I guess.

nut • 12 January 2023 at 10:52 PM

@kataclysm this would be super nice, every other site/app I use has darkmode so my eggcave time is limited to how long I want to squint :')

I think it might just be hard to implement customizable skins or something since the background changes for everyone, seasonally, but honestly I could do without all the light colors >w<

daisycat • 13 January 2023 at 1:13 AM

Following up with my earlier comment about screen brightness. 😸

To anyone who would like to control the brightness of their PC beyond what the OS provides, there is a site called CareUEyes that offers a free download where you can adjust brightness and warmth.

Here's a screenshot of the interface from my desktop: https://ibb.co/bW695bx

"CareUEyes is provided under a freeware license on Windows from desktop enhancement software with no restrictions on usage. Download and installation of this PC software is free and 2.2.3.0 is the latest version last time we checked. care-eyes accepts donations for the continued development of this free software.
Software Version: 2.1.11.0
Category: Desktop Enhancement Software
Size: 4.9 MB"

jirachiwishmaker • 13 January 2023 at 2:16 AM

Your eyes are fragile so make sure you're having an easier time reading and browsing online by choosing a dark mode. To anyone who is using Chrome Browser you can get the extensions from the Chrome Store and download something called "Dark Reader" which works on every site so that you won't strain your eyes. Right now as I'm writing this I'm on the Dark Reader mode so it really works well, but when you go to the Chrome Store you can pick many other styles of a Dark Mode for your browser. Also if you use Youtube there is a Dark mode when you click on your profile it will be under Appearance and then you can click on Dark theme, that way if you're watching videos, listening to music, or stories the Youtube won't look so bright on your screen either.

kataclysm • 13 January 2023 at 5:01 AM

Precisely! Our eyes are fragile, and though there are efforts we can go to in order to make life easier for ourselves - extensions, for example - there are many issues with this that would be resolved by EggCave making these amendments themselves. Many extensions don't carry mobile capability, so even if our monitors can be darkened, our phone screens are likely to remain very white.

I know there's an argument here for 'Just don't visit EggCave from your phone!' but... That's... Not going to happen, LOL.

I don't think it's such a big ask to request the EC staff team to consider this. It's not hard to do (I've used the inspect tool and mooched around in EC's code, it's standard html!) and it's not hard to introduce a skin selector for members to utilise from their main profile. @ian, do you have any insight on this?

vivian • 3 June 2023 at 5:08 PM

@kataclysm

100% agree! I have sensitive eyes and use a browser that forces dark mode, plus lowest brightness possible ^^;
Even if there were only two themes, light and dark mode, like most sites Ive seen. OvO

kataclysm • 9 August 2023 at 6:12 AM

Just tromping back in here to keep this topic relevant, and hope that staff eyes find it and consider it. ❤️ @Ian

provo7demons • 11 August 2023 at 10:33 PM

I absolutely support this! I know that I'm very sensitive to light and brightness (and I know I'm certainly not the only one!), and it would definitely be nice to have the option for a dark mode, or at least a mode that doesn't have so much bright white.

dibabeebees • 12 August 2023 at 3:33 AM

As someone who has her everything on dark mode - YES PLEASE

musical_slytherclaw • 16 August 2023 at 12:52 PM

I'm all for this! I like the site the way it is during the day, but I swear when I open it in the middle of the night my eyes die a little.

valorieviolet • 16 August 2023 at 2:45 PM

A dark theme would be great! I do spend a lot of time at night, in my dark room, on EggCave and I'm sure it's taking a toll on my eyes cx

I can see one little problem arising from this. Nothing major, but more of a visual and readability thing...

Imagine if someone made a post/comment and used the eCode colors like Midnight Blue and Dark Red for their text. It would be hard for some users, maybe those who are visually impaired, to read that text on a dark background. However, it seems like a majority of users don't color their text at all, so this might not even matter too much. Plus, I'm not sure if switching over to a dark theme would change the color of modified text, too! & I guess a user could just simply not use those eCode colors or use the dark theme if it came down to a readability issue like that (though they shouldn't have to be denied that option).

Just my thoughts as someone who took graphic design classes 😋 But like I said, a dark theme would be great!

bunnyshadow • 16 August 2023 at 3:23 PM

Dark mode is something I've wanted to for a long time now, and I feel like maybe with enough support, EC could commission a new art for the background of the site, or simply just have a version that is toggleable where instead of green & white it's just black & green like the old site 10+ years ago.

jlya • 25 August 2023 at 1:21 PM

I always have the "night shade" on when I'm playing Eggcave on my browser, otherwise I can feel my eyes melting xD I would appreciate a dark mode so much ❤️

ahgirltc • 25 August 2023 at 4:23 PM

Yes! I use dark mode on most of my apps. As long as people can toggle between light and dark, it would be good 😊

dragrawr • 27 September 2023 at 6:10 PM

@kataclysm bringing this back up since October is starting and ill be online a lot. Need need NEED! a dark mode. ⭐

werewire • 27 September 2023 at 7:36 PM

agree! light modes are hard on my eyes. i actually wrote my own dark mode css using an extension because i enjoy doing css, though its very buggy because eggcave has several style sheets and i didn't want to dig through them all. i would love if there was an official dark mode so that i could ditch my buggy css though :-). but dark reader is very nice on eggcave on the few times i've been on it on mobile too!

i do feel like the ecode colors that are darker could be fixed by somehow making them assignable with a span with an id or class rather than a span with a inline style but i'm not sure how feasible that is internally but if that was feasible then you could make it an accessible color on darker backgrounds while keeping it the same color on the lightmode.

though another reason why we might not be getting one soon is that it reveals how many images on eggcave aren't transparent and just have white bgs (even the newest added items are like this)