As much as the white/grey color theme is identified with Realmeye, having an optional dark theme that focuses on blacks or darker grays (similar to the Kabam forums) would be nice, or even a theme that tones down the white (Closer to Wildshadow forums) a bit for late-night browsing or browsing in dark areas, or just users that prefer them.
Would a dark theme be possible?
Demcreeper
#2
I do use an app on Chrome called Dark Reader which works well on SOME sites, can set an option to toggle it on and off, On realmeye it’s not the worst on the forums.
IVVhackU
#3
I was thinking the same thing, the whiteness gets pretty bright in later hours.
I wonder if we’d be able to bring back more things from the Kabam Forums, like Friends and the ability to customize your page.
Lilyk
#4
While yes, third party applications for this exist, as you said, it’s not perfect and only works sometimes. An official dark theme would be better if possible, instead of relying on third parties.
Unfocused
#6
Agreed, a dark theme would be awesome. Most of the forums I’ve been on have been dark, and idk why, but it just feels smoother now to see a black or grey background, though that might just be an acquired preference.
Further down the road, there could even be multiple themes offered by default, so basic realmeye theme, WS-esque for people who want the nostalgia, Kabam-esque for people who’ve gotten used to that, a dark theme, etc-- though I’d expect that to be way down the line, if it ever happens. I’m probably asking for a bit much with that suggestion, heh.
BMJ
#7
I worked on a few customization tweaks while we were getting everything ready.
Whilst reskinning the site for alternative themes wouldn’t be a tough one there’s a few caveats:
###A lot of styles are inlined by the system
This brings a fair few issues in smooth and reliable style overrides. Many of the transition colours are animated using JavaScript which is generally fine (albeit not a great approach) for a single theme but overriding that for multiple themes wouldn’t be possible.
Against a dark background you’d notice quite a few sudden bright colours that would normally be very subtle (e.g. the pale blue highlight on the last clicked post or latest reply).
###Custom assets and colours
When creating alternative themes for any site you need to consider the static assets and colours. These include opaque images with white backgrounds, avatars, icons loaded as images instead of glyphs, logos and colours that represent categories/subcategories.
There’s a limit to what we can replace or style.
###Implementation
As far as I’m aware, there’s no working theme switcher available for Discourse. That’s not to say it can’t be implemented but we have to get a little grimy with the way it’s applied. There’s still plenty of options (e.g. browser extensions) so this is less of an issue and more of a decision.
Rest assured I’ll definitely add this to my list of things to look into but that list is currently sky high. Nevertheless, I’d love to implement this even if we have to resort to tweaking it outside Discourse itself.
Do ob and doc have access to the site's code?
Opinions on the forums here?
Puhnees
#8
F.lux has always screwed with my custom monitor settings and reset it to factory for some reason.
Scylla
#9
It took forever and a day for me to get used to the dark Kabam page from WS; I’m definitely having readjusting.
I’ll get there though, I’m sure most of us will (Nice to hear BMJ looking into it though).
Trevor
#10
+1 So much white is very hard on the eyes and it all blends together and is hard to navigate
Ploppel
#11
Yeah, a dark forum skin would be ideal. Not sure what software these forums are running on (doesn’t look like VBulletin), but I’m guessing it probably wouldn’t be that hard to implement. I’m assuming it’s not the first priority, but it would be neat to get at some point.
BMJ
#13
##Just a quick update on this
Hey guys. I finally got around to making a reliable way of converting the current and future styles into a night-mode skin that’s loaded on top of the existing styles. I didn’t want to keep you in the dark[1] so here’s an update.
####What’s completed:
- A reliable CSS parser that inverts brightness levels and outputs only the relevant rules. This will help speed up future fixes for any default theme updates that are made.
- Sorted a new logo version that works in the night-mode skin.
- Processed night-mode styles for:
- Desktop view
- Mobile view [2]
- Admin
- Custom styles
- Browser based saving of style preferences.
####What’s left to do:
- Figure out a way to inject a toggle switch directly into user preferences.
- Decide how the assets will be hosted (inline in the javascript or loaded from a file).
- Stop getting distracted by the Battlefield 1 open beta [3].
####Shut up and show me already:
- Pun intended.
- May need a separate loading method.
- Seriously, send help. Please.
Unicorn
#14
My eyes give their most sincere thanks! Quick question, do you have the most ‘power’ out of the mods when it comes to changing the forums?
It seemed like @Doc couldn’t even hit the toggle for the ‘suppress replies directly above’ option; MrEyeBall had to.
Unicorn
#16
Then how come BMJ can do all this fancy theme stuff with custom coding but Doc had to ask just to checkmark a built in option?
BMJ
#17
Permissions-wise I think we have the same level. As moderators we can’t modify forum settings, that’s down the forum admin level. As for file based changes that’s left to MrEyeball.
Once everything is sorted I’ll talk to him about possible implementation and if not then I’ll release it as a Chrome extension.
My tinkering is purely front-end changes I make within my own browser. I’ve been injecting these styles as I need for testing.
BMJ
#21
The reskinned styles are built but we just need a reliable injection method. Discourse is a little weird about that and the RealmEye team have that in their very large pile of things to do.
At the moment it’s in a testing phase.
I’ll let you know as things progress but if it can’t be reliably injected I’ll just release a Chrome Extension to just dump it in.