Miss Ars being blacked out? Here's how to get back in black

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Aurich

Director of Many Things
40,904
Ars Staff
chiklersux":7zig6drj said:
I must be getting old, the black layout hurt my eyes and had to abort reading articles.
Yeah, I can't personally read for too long with it myself. I'm pretty sure there are improvements to be made in that department, as far as contrast and color use goes, it's something I've got on my list to explore.
 
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pokrface

Senior Technology Editor
21,512
Ars Staff
Glad to see the black site option is being kept alive :) I'm apparently one of the hardest of the hardcore, as I've used the black site option for as long as it's been available. Black text on a white background strains the eyes; white text on black is much easier to read, especially in a dark computer room.
 
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jahg

Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
184
Pokrface":1rv7ft60 said:
Glad to see the black site option is being kept alive :) I'm apparently one of the hardest of the hardcore, as I've used the black site option for as long as it's been available. Black text on a white background strains the eyes; white text on black is much easier to read, especially in a dark computer room.

Same as above - I've been using the black theme for a while now (I didn't even realize it was different yesterday...)
 
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signal11

Ars Scholae Palatinae
667
Pokrface":2qwbih0z said:
Glad to see the black site option is being kept alive :) I'm apparently one of the hardest of the hardcore, as I've used the black site option for as long as it's been available. Black text on a white background strains the eyes; white text on black is much easier to read, especially in a dark computer room.

I feel exactly the opposite.

I notice more distracting afterimage ghosting much more so on white text on dark backgrounds than black text on white backgrounds.

What's the current ste of thinking on this? Specifically, for LCDs.
 
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nickf

Ars Tribunus Militum
2,627
Subscriptor
Pokrface":3po3qz84 said:
Black text on a white background strains the eyes; white text on black is much easier to read, especially in a dark computer room.

It's the opposite for me. White-on-black is murder for my eyes; I find the ghosting mightily unpleasant.

Glad that the option is there for those that prefer it though.
 
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MoonShark

Ars Praefectus
4,885
Subscriptor
We've always believed in keeping a connection to our roots with a black theme option,
Uh, then why do I remember a big outcry when you guys tried to ditch it? That may have been pre-Aurich...

Black site lovers should be happy to hear that we're committed to keeping the theme alive too, even if it's only used by the hardest of the hardcore.
Heh, sometimes I forget Ars even exists in the normal white theme ;) But of course only a tiny minority is going to pick the black theme when it's pushed away into a menu, instead of seeing what people pick from a true binary choice. By making one the default, you're asking a loaded question. Which, practically speaking, that's fine to do -- just don't pretend it's some scientific result.

Whenever we launch our next redesign, the black option will remain. We'll also consider how to make it easier to discover next time. We should also note that we've heard the requests for the black theme as an option on the mobile site and will keep that in mind.
Woohoo :D (emphasis mine)
 
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Just want to add my praise for the awesome graphics and design you put together for yesterday Aurich. The WoB style was a blast from the past (even though, personally, I prefer the modern white background), and quite appropriate to the material.

For some reason I can't get the body text to go to Helvetica, though - it's Arial no matter what I choose. Maybe I have something set wrong in my Firefox options, though 'allow pages to choose their own fonts' is checked.
 
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xeoph

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,172
Am I the only one that after selecting the black theme the "bubble" indicator is selecting the wrong theme?

If I'm currently on black, the white bubble is checked while if I'm currently on white the black bubble is checked. If I click on the already selected bubble it does toggle.... but, its more like there should just be a link for black or white not a toggle bubble since that's pretty much how it's working.
 
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Aurich

Director of Many Things
40,904
Ars Staff
MoonShark":3w0jg6pe said:
We've always believed in keeping a connection to our roots with a black theme option,
Uh, then why do I remember a big outcry when you guys tried to ditch it? That may have been pre-Aurich...
There was a time when didn't support it briefly during one of the designs, that's true. It was just not getting used and a bit of a pain to maintain. We decided we didn't care, we missed it, and added it back. :)

We'll work on some updated stats for black site use, last time I looked it was something like 0.4% of our readership though. Maybe with some awareness that stat will rise a bit.
 
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FoO

Ars Legatus Legionis
13,077
Subscriptor++
Pokrface":ey0fb092 said:
Glad to see the black site option is being kept alive :) I'm apparently one of the hardest of the hardcore, as I've used the black site option for as long as it's been available. Black text on a white background strains the eyes; white text on black is much easier to read, especially in a dark computer room.

Same. I was hugely upset when it changed and immensely grateful when the option returned... for all of the like three days it was absent xD

(then I moved to the subscriber full RSS feed and haven't really gotten to enjoy it since :p)
 
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TheFerenc

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,337
Yeah, I didn't realize there was any difference yesterday either. I get so upset whenever I use someone else's computer, and Ars is in white. I immediately switch it, and they are often quite appreciative, not realizing they could do that.

I always sort of assumed most of the regulars used the black theme, but apparently not, if it's only about 0.4%.
 
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BlueRocks

Seniorius Lurkius
44
Aurich":1iez2xyh said:
Can anyone who's not seeing the customize menu post your browser with version #? I know there are some issues with IE 7 which we don't really support anymore for instance.

Nail, meet Head.
IE7. Work mandated (large government department).
On my personal * shhhhhhhh * laptop, the customize button is available.

Thanks.
 
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