from Hacker News

Ask HN: Dark mode for HN please? (2021)

by joeblau on 1/9/21, 4:48 AM with 40 comments

Hey @dang, I read this[1] and I’m still wondering if there is a plan to implement this?

[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23197966

  • by nickysielicki on 1/9/21, 5:17 AM

    Nobody has suggested it directly, yet, but I want to take this opportunity to remind people that the "Stylish" extension for injecting custom CSS onto your favorite websites has a history of abuse. It's owned by an advertising company that consumes all your browsing data. [1]

    You should instead use "Stylus", which has none of those problems. In spite of all of that, Stylus has only 400,000 users according to the Chrome extension store, compared to 2M for Stylish. There's a lot of people out there accidentally using malware.

    For example, here is a nice-looking dark mode for HN which can be installed into Stylus. [2] (I can't personally vouch for it, as I don't use it.)

    [1]: https://robertheaton.com/2018/08/16/stylish-is-back-and-you-...

    [2]: https://userstyles.org/styles/157400/hacker-news-bluish-gray...

  • by newscracker on 1/9/21, 5:11 AM

    This seems like an “Ask dang”, and may be better served by an email to hn@ycombinator.com.

    I personally would rather see other usability improvements for touch devices on the size and positioning of the voting buttons and better spacing between the various links to a user’s profile, date and time of submission and others (like hide, past, favorite, discuss, etc.). HN has quite an unsatisfactory UX for touch devices (and arguably even on a mouse pointer interface). I also see these as accessibility issues.

  • by vishnumohandas on 1/9/21, 5:10 AM

    DarkReader[1] works pretty well.

    [1]: https://darkreader.org

  • by enw on 1/9/21, 5:15 AM

    I have to admit it's a shame there's no dark mode.

    Browsing HN in the bed at night feels like staring at the sun (yes I use Night Shift and lowest brightness).

  • by 0-_-0 on 1/9/21, 10:49 AM

    I have a suspicion that the plain interface itself filters the people the site attracts. Better looking interface would lead to a more reddit-like community. Make it uglier I say!

  • by dalrympm on 1/9/21, 5:14 AM

    I notice there's an API https://github.com/HackerNews/API but don't see any of the core site code. Is there any way people can contribute back?

  • by eyelidlessness on 1/9/21, 9:52 PM

    Hey everyone, as promised yesterday, I went and snuggled my pup and got some sleep. Here is a web extension implementing a dark mode stylesheet for HN: https://github.com/eyelidlessness/HNDarkMode

    I don't have a developer account for any of the web extension distribution sites/apps, but the source is available and everyone is welcome to use it (or just the CSS file if your browser/setup supports custom CSS).

  • by sawirricardo on 1/9/21, 5:19 AM

    Temporary alternative https://hn.algolia.com > Click settings > Style -> Experimental

  • by eyelidlessness on 1/9/21, 5:18 AM

    I’ve done a few good dark mode themes recently and it looks like the reference link was asking for contributions. I’m happy to give it a go and submit probably tomorrow. The only thing I require in return is anyone who’s motivated to see it happen comment telling me to put the phone down and go snuggle my pup for the night so I’m refreshed and ready to take a look in the morning.

  • by dunham on 1/9/21, 5:10 AM

    Maybe use a tampermonkey script to inject some css?

    I tend to prefer light mode, but I have tweaked the styling to extend the tan background to the entire screen (instead of having white surrounding the main table).

  • by latchkey on 1/9/21, 5:24 AM

  • by sdan on 1/9/21, 5:11 AM

    Try the Octal app(ios afaik), I love it

    You can also change colors by setting some uBlockOrigin filters, forgetting where exactly I got the filters from

  • by tpkahlon on 1/9/21, 5:25 AM

  • by neilpanchal on 1/9/21, 5:24 AM

    No.

    "Move slowly and preserve things." - @dang.

    Use Dark Reader. Don't mess with HN interface, it shall remain the same.

  • by mushufasa on 1/9/21, 5:06 AM

    you can change the colors yourself.

    you should have enough karma to see those options?