Elon Musk's Twitter / X “will soon only have dark mode” (light mode removed)

Chesterton's Fence

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“In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense. The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable. It is extremely probable that we have overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if something set up by human beings like ourselves seems to be entirely meaningless and mysterious. There are reformers who get over this difficulty by assuming that all their fathers were fools; but if that be so, we can only say that folly appears to be a hereditary disease. But the truth is that nobody has any business to destroy a social institution until he has really seen it as an historical institution. If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, that they have since become bad purposes, or that they are purposes which are no longer served. But if he simply stares at the thing as a senseless monstrosity that has somehow sprung up in his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is suffering from an illusion.”

― G.K. Chesterton

... My decision to stop using this back in November continues to be validated; I read light-on-dark maybe two or three times slower than dark-on-light. AIUI this isn't that unusual; studies tend to show that some portion of people find dark-on-light sufficiently more legible, some light-on-dark. Thus, the obvious correct answer is to provide _both_.

Very odd. Like, they already _have_ a light mode; you'd imagine that maintaining it would be relatively cheap, especially given that the Twitter UI hasn't changed significantly in years.

That X logo would look a lot better if they took out the colors and circles from the rest of the design. Like if it looked like a cross between “plan 9 from bell labs” and “optimized for e-ink readers”.

The blue check with the circle doesn’t belong to the universe, it has to become a black check with a square, or I guess a white check if it is going to be dark mode. (Is that dark mode an attempt to rip off Mastodon?)

If this were Discord, the reception would have been very different

Now Twitter^WX will literally become a dark corner of the internet.

Everything this idiot does makes me worried for the future of the human race. When people this stupid and irresponsible have as much money, and so much support from sycophantic dweebs, we are in a bad, worsening place.

Elon Musk is an X-risk.