What I'd* like to do is let people upload their own CSS and have HN serve it back to them. Then you can make your own darkmode (or anymode), and people can share them so you can reuse someone else's.<p>One question this is contingent on: does there exist a well-defined secure subset of CSS such that we don't have to worry about weird vulnerabilities?<p>* actually I think this was originally kogir's idea
Whenever this topic came up about a decade ago, the argument against dark mode/theming was that it added complexity to Hacker News which has the explicit goal of being super simple.<p>Now, with dark mode able to being controlled by CSS media queries and also able to be done automatically according to system preferences, the complexity argument doesn't hold. It's less complex than the later-added comment collapsing behavior and navigation.
The HN theme violates WCAG accessibility standards for text contrast[1] (which you can verify with your browser's dev tools), has paragraphs that are almost twice as wide as recommended for readability[2], uses font sizes that are unreadable for people with even slight impairments of visual acuity, and is near-unusable on small mobile devices.<p>I'm all for improvements to the theme, which have been overdue for a decade, but adding a dark variant is not the most pressing issue, to put it mildly.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/contrast-minimum.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/contrast-minimum...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234578707_Optimal_Line_Length_in_Reading--A_Literature_Review" rel="nofollow">https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234578707_Optimal_L...</a>
I think it's important to understand that supporting dark mode by default makes websites work properly also in situations where you are not logged in, or you aren't using your regular web browser with all its customizations and extensions installed.<p>It's very little work and has lots of benefits.
Dark mode, chronological, no click Hacker News: <a href="https://excuse-seven.vercel.app" rel="nofollow">https://excuse-seven.vercel.app</a><p>View the most recent 500 Hacker News articles in chronological order with all their first-order comments in view. Do not click to flip the page, do not click to see the comments.
What I’d like is a prioritization of fixing the long neglected UI and UX. Start with fixing accessibility (vision, motor, etc.) first.<p>Dark mode can come after that (some may want dark mode all the time, some may want it to obey system settings, some may want a simple toggle on every screen).
It would be really appreciated for you guys to consider adding a dark theme for HackerNews.<p>The reasons, well, could be added as comments here in the thread. Though, as you may imagine, it's mostly because of my eyes when I visit you guys without daylight.