So, I think we have at least some preference for people’s first experience of it to be on lightmode so that you at least for-a-bit get a sense of what the aesthetic is meant to be.
This makes sense in a vacuum, but…
…if someone’s first visit to Less Wrong is in the evening after the sun goes down, then his first impression of the site will be colored by an unpleasantly bright website that doesn’t work properly in dark mode. Is that really what you want?
I’ve designed sites where the light mode has a nice background flourish, but I never figured out how to make it work nicely in dark mode.
So I just had a solid dark color in dark mode (instead of the background image) and left the image as a light-mode-only thing, which makes it something like an easter egg if one usually browses the site with a dark-mode preference being forwarded on to the site.
This kind of thing happens to me, as well — I have wallpaper that changes with the time of day, and I generally don’t see the sunrise versions of the wallpaper unless I’m at my computer crazy early or crazy late.
I definitely do not stand by this as either explicit Lightcone policy or my own considered opinion, but, I feel like a bunch of forces on the internet nudge everyone towards the same generic site designs (mobile-first, darkmode ready, etc), and while I agree there is a cost, I do feel actively sad about the tradeoff in the other direction.
(like, there are a lot of websites that don’t have a proper darkmode. And I… just… turn down the brightness if it’s a big deal, which it usually isn’t? I don’t really like most websites turning dark at night. And again, if you set the setting once on LessWrong it mostly should be stable, I don’t really buy that there are that many people who get the setting lost?)
I feel like a bunch of forces on the internet nudge everyone towards the same generic site designs […], and while I agree there is a cost, I do feel actively sad about the tradeoff in the other direction.
Mobile-first cuts out a lot of room for self-expression, agreed.
Dark mode, meanwhile, I like too much. Heck, I have a site where one might reasonably ask “where’s the light mode?”.
And again, if you set the setting once on LessWrong it mostly should be stable, I don’t really buy that there are that many people who get the setting lost?
Safari is set to throw out a site’s cookies if it isn’t visited in seven days. I don’t know about other browsers.
This makes sense in a vacuum, but…
…if someone’s first visit to Less Wrong is in the evening after the sun goes down, then his first impression of the site will be colored by an unpleasantly bright website that doesn’t work properly in dark mode. Is that really what you want?
I’ve designed sites where the light mode has a nice background flourish, but I never figured out how to make it work nicely in dark mode.
So I just had a solid dark color in dark mode (instead of the background image) and left the image as a light-mode-only thing, which makes it something like an easter egg if one usually browses the site with a dark-mode preference being forwarded on to the site.
This kind of thing happens to me, as well — I have wallpaper that changes with the time of day, and I generally don’t see the sunrise versions of the wallpaper unless I’m at my computer crazy early or crazy late.
I definitely do not stand by this as either explicit Lightcone policy or my own considered opinion, but, I feel like a bunch of forces on the internet nudge everyone towards the same generic site designs (mobile-first, darkmode ready, etc), and while I agree there is a cost, I do feel actively sad about the tradeoff in the other direction.
(like, there are a lot of websites that don’t have a proper darkmode. And I… just… turn down the brightness if it’s a big deal, which it usually isn’t? I don’t really like most websites turning dark at night. And again, if you set the setting once on LessWrong it mostly should be stable, I don’t really buy that there are that many people who get the setting lost?)
Mobile-first cuts out a lot of room for self-expression, agreed.
Dark mode, meanwhile, I like too much. Heck, I have a site where one might reasonably ask “where’s the light mode?”.
Safari is set to throw out a site’s cookies if it isn’t visited in seven days. I don’t know about other browsers.