Dark mode for Stack Overflow | Hacker News Reader

Dark mode for Stack Overflow

stackoverflow.blog

90 pointsXCSme56 comments

Open articleView on HN

This seems redundant. What could be darker than the way they treat their volunteer moderators?

I've been waiting 10 years for this feature. Now that it's here, I can finally start using that website.

https://darkreader.org/ works great for sites that dont have one.

Interesting, Why is it only the Safari Option is not free while Chrome and Firefox are?

Does it cost money to post a Safari Extension to the store? Google and Firefox submissions are free?

If that were really the only thin preventing you from using the website, you could have just written your own CSS or leveraged the dozen or so already available through Stylish

https://userstyles.org/styles/164922/stackoverflow-neon

But I'd have to use Stackoverflow to get my questions on how to do all that answered.

Seems nice, but it’d be better if “system” ended up being the default even when not logged in.

And I don't want dark mode as the default, as I can't read such pages.

Then you should indicate as such and let the browser advertise it for websites to pick it up via prefers-color-scheme.

It's still in beta

Fair enough; hopefully they'll change it once it rolls out generally.

When it's hidden behind login, 90% of population most likely will never see it.

90% of the population also probably don't care about dark mode as much as some people in the tech bubble.

> some people in the tech bubble

Wouldn't that be SO's target market?

I don't think so, the sophomore in COMP 101 isn't that valuable to SO because they add no knowledge to the ecosystem, they'll come from Google, read the answer and leave. But the expert Java dev with 15 years of experience who posts on Usenet forums is someone who may have very specific preferences and will entrench themselves in a platform.

I'd assume these news also apply to the properties on stackexchange that have a lot of non-tech content. As for the rest they probably want them to create accounts, that'd be one way to do it.

It's beta, the average user isn't supposed to see it yet:

"We want to share it with our community, especially our power users, and gather feedback so we can improve, iterate, and expand Dark Mode in the future."

One of the beta is "System setting" which pulls the default from the browsers "prefers-color-scheme" value (which by default pulls it's value from the system scheme). When it's ready to roll out fully this seems to be the likely path they are planning.

... but it doesn’t work on mobile, where dark mode was first popularized and whose screens tend to look best in dark mode due to the prevalence of smaller OLED panels which make white on dark truly pop... kind of disappointing then.

The Chrome Extension "Dark Reader" has given me months of dark mode for hundreds of websites to include Stack Overflow. Given the long hours and late nights, it has been invaluable to both my productivity and eyesight.

You may want to look into the science of this if you are doing it for your eyesight. I think dark mode looks great but it’s not definitely better for you. https://tidbits.com/2019/05/31/the-dark-side-of-dark-mode/

It's interesting how the author argues that eyes can perceive dark-on-light more, but intuitively one would assume that light-on-dark is easier to discern (like bright lights in the night)

Ultimately the best option is probably a progressive change in colors through out the day.

I've been using Dark Reader for about a month or so now and though it's anecdotal it has really helped with my dry/irritated eyes.

I realize it could be other factors as well, but I notice that I can go longer without my dry eyes bugging we with it on then with normal bright pages.

The link is: https://darkreader.org/ . The extension exists for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge.

That extension is amazing! I tried 4 different alternatives and they all had either terrible performance or just didn't work well for 1 in 4 websites.

Chrome has this built-in as a flag: chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark

It will render all web pages with dark mode

Cool, didn't know that. The extension allows for whitelisting, dynamic toggling, etc. FYI.

Ditto Firefox

There has been userstyle scripts for this for years as well.

Is the dark mode supported in Windows + some browser combo so that the web site gets that info automatically?

Windows and Firefox and Chrome support dark mode. You can see for example on twitter_com.

How it works: OS setting is propagated to the browser, which propagates it to the websites via CSS `@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark)`.

For now StackOverflow is in beta, so it's only opt-in for logged in users.

It's in beta still, but apparently one of the opt-in choices is "system" which presumably picks up what best fits your OS / browser choices.

Speaking for myself, it correctly chose "Dark" and I'm using Windows 10 and Firefox with a dark theme

Working fine on both macOS and Linux here.

Why do developers prefer dark mode for pretty much everything from IDE to OS to iOS?

Edit: added missing 'much'

I cannot comment on developers' preferences as a whole, but I personally have several large floaters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater) and using a display with a bright background makes them very noticeable and distracting. Which is why I use Dark Reader (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eimadpbcbfnmbkopoo...) for websites and dark themes in my OS/terminal/IDEs. It's not just an aesthetic choice.

For me, eye strain, and being more of a night owl (where it gets dark outside during winter).

I favor Solarized, which has both a light and dark theme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarized_(color_scheme)

I prefer consistency. The system setting, is the best here. If my system is dark, go dark, if light, go light. At night, dark is great, in a bright room, light wins. Shifting between the extremes is horrid.

AKA Both at the same time.

I feel like light mode is way way easier on my eyes, but I generally work in well lit rooms and avoid computers at night.

Plus I think it's important for your circadian rhythm. Bright blue-ish white makes you feel like it's daytime

I find it easier on the eyes if I stare at a screen the whole day.

I don't mind light-on-dark in isolation, but so much stuff doesn't have dark mode, and I find it very difficult to switch.

I agree with you. Plus, as a light mode user I always have hard time when someone is doing code-walkthrough in dark mode.

It had for years with the "dark mode and light text" extension. But, glad to see more sites supporting the css mode.

It's funny, the text of the blog post makes it sound like it was really difficult. Non-trivial, sure, but difficult?

So, when can we expect to see a dark mode here in our beloved HN? (currently reading on an iPad, late at night, with night shift on to cut blue light and with minimum brightness to reduce eye strain)

The title should be "StackOverflow now has a dark mode" instead of "StackOverflow has now a dark mode".

No, it really should be "Introducing Dark Mode (beta) for Stack Overflow"

Also, Stack Overflow is two words.

Both are grammatically correct. "has now" gives emphasis to "now" while "now has" emphasizes "has".

While adverbs can come after an action verb (in this case, 'has' functions as an act of a possession), as a native English speaker and a former ESL instructor I have NEVER heard the phrase "has now" or any similar phrases such as, "he has finally a car". They both sound extremely awkward.

Interesting, what is the difference?

"has now" is ungrammatical.

The former uses the right word order.

Just what the world needed!

Sounds pretty disruptive to me :) At least they put energy into something useful instead of wasting millions on a logo...

Thanks, Yoda.

Well this is new

Reply on news.ycombinator.com