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Comment by TylerE | Hacker News Reader

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. @dang Can we please ditch this very hard to read light grey OP text.

#828282 on #f6f6ef is only a 3.54:1 contrast ratio, well below the WCAG's 4.5:1 minimum for body text. Even on a pure white background it's only 3.84:1.

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100% behind this change as well.

I get the reluctance to change HN and appreciate the consistency. But, in good faith, this one is a clear accessibility issue that needs to be addressed. I think a change to just get the contrast to minimal best-practices/standards would't compromise the platform.

Devil's advocate against myself for a sec: HN is a site largely used by engineers/technical professionals. We can be an insufferable bunch, especially in regards to change. Maybe the social fallout isn't worth the change and I just would't have the data/context to understand that...? Just throwing it out there. I may just not understand.

Increment it a couple hex at a time, no one will notice til it’s too late

Chaotic good, the best kind of good.

I always think OP's been banned or downvoted. It makes me sad and confused.

Whenever this is mentioned, it is usually the top comment (like this one I mentioned recently [0]), which shows that many reader agree. Yet, nothing's been done on this easy change for 10+ years. @dang, can you at least give a reason, like "too lazy", "we don't agree", "we don't like changes".

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36460399

There's a part of me that suspects that the arc compiler has bitrot to the point HN can no longer be rebuilt. Has pg even touched arc in a decade, or more? I don't think it was ever much more than a prototype in the first place.

I allways assumed it was put on heavily downvoted posts to kind of "hide" low quality content. TIL I suppose.

Even if it is, it is not an accessible solution.

Edit: except it can’t be, since HN doesn’t actually allow downvotes on posts, only comments.

It's very ableist and dang doesn't suffer from old people eyes, yet.

It's on all text posts. Look at the "Ask HN: Who's Hiring/ Who wants to be Hired" posts.

Heavily downvoted comments will be lighter grey. But text posts are always that same light gray.

I don't know why. It's awful.

I've always been under the impression that the poor contrast is to discourage text posts. Can't remember whether I've read that somewhere or it's just my own assumption.

That’s… evil, frankly. If you don’t want them, don’t allow them. Don’t cause discomfort for thousands.

Also get rid of near-invisible text for dead comments since you have to opt-in for seeing them

I think a good solution might be a way to highlight dead comments with the mouse and have the highlighting make the text readable.

I believe when I highlight a comment, the highlighting makes the background be a lightish blue. pick a highlight/text color that contrasts better with that?

Do what spoilers on Reddit are… black in black until click.

I do highlight them when I'm on desktop... But it's an extra step

Since we are suggesting changes: I often find myself deep in a thread and realize it is not interesting for me anymore. Moving "up" to the next "level 1" is difficult, I have to scroll and scroll and scroll, ah crap, I missed the right indentation.

Adding a way to get to the next root comment would be awesome.

I click “parent” and then collapse the thread to achieve what you want.

The nice part is the HN “remembers“ collapsed threads next time you load the thread so you can continue to ignore them.

Oh thank you thank you thank you - so many years with HN and I never knew that trick!

If someone jumped on an implementation - no more needed :)

Yes please, this is the first thing I could think of trying to read OP’s post (which I couldn’t finish reading because it’s too straining)

As heavy AskHN user I consider this fact as invitatio to put maximum effort in headline and to make the secondary text as short as possible. You put your comment here because this is a rare example when post with big intro gets so much attention. Please know that I love this choice.

Also get rid of near invisible text for dead comments since you have to opt in in seeing them

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