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I occasionally get requests from readers to add a dark mode to my blog - https://simonwillison.net/ - and I'm never sure how much priority I should give those, as someone who almost never chooses to use dark mode.

Dark mode fans: does it really bother you to read white web pages?



Yes. I have Dark Reader[1] on by default for all websites and only disable it when it activly breaks a site, or a site has a suitibly dark theme and Dark Reader thus flips things the wrong way.

If a site is borked to the point that Dark Reader can't fix it, I'll use reader mode or just go somewhere else.

Your site looks just fine to me.

[1] https://darkreader.org/


I'd guess so, yes. I think dark mode users leave the screen brighter than it should be, because in dark mode, it doesn't matter as much as it does in light mode. Then, after looking at dark things for a while, the eye gets used to the light level, and then opening a white page is like a supernova happening in front of the user's face. In short, with dark mode, the lightness baseline is much lower, and a light page disrupts this.

I'd say it's more of a courtesy thing. If you like a bit of a web design challenge, you can experiment with the prefers-color-scheme CSS feature. With this, the browser will automatically apply the dark mode for users that have it set, making the experience seamless (and state of the art).


Yeah, it does. It's not the worst in the world but dark mode my eyes relax and I can better enter flow-states. Too much non-dark mode and I get eye floaters.

Probably has something to do with having an all black background on desktop / IRC, terminals, steam since 1996/1997->now

Even MSN Gaming Zone where I started was 'dark moded'


I also use Dark Reader and read your articles often. Some sites look terrible with any Dark Reader settings, but yours looks fine.

I'm sure there are still plenty of people who would appreciate a site toggle for dark mode with a theme of your choosing.


Not me -- I can fire a Reader mode that will give me the dark appearance.


Yes. Although something in-between works as well.


Yes. There's a reason that https://darkreader.org/ has 10 million+ installs while no inverse extensions even exist to my knowledge.

The entire web is already light-mode first and much of it, including your site (no offense) offers zero built-in support for the provably massive demand that exists for dark-mode color schemes.


I have a friend who uses a dark mode extension, but has it configured to make everything light mode.


That's awesome. I'm glad your friend is able to benefit from community-provided solutions to a real problem that many people have, even in ways perhaps not originally envisioned by the authors of Dark Reader.

Your friend's preferences are valid and there's no reason for anyone to be vindictively espousing vitriol at those preferences, just like the preferences of the majority of users of this extension who prefer dark mode.


YES




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