New Theme Option: Modern Dark

July 9, 2015 10:07 AM

If you use the Modern theme in Dark Mode and would like to have Dark Mode on permanently, you can choose the Modern Dark theme in your site preferences to make that happen.

Last week we discussed a permanent Dark Mode option (The Light! It Burns!) and we're adding that option today. In the Modern theme, Dark Mode has been a switch on the front pages that you could toggle on and off. That's not going away. The switch will still be there so you can go from light to dark if you need to. We're adding the option to have Dark Mode on when you log in so you don't have to click the switch.

As with any display preference, once you set Modern Dark as your theme you'll need to re-save your preferences in any browser you use. Let us know here or via the Contact Form if you run into any trouble.

posted by pb (staff) to Feature Requests at 10:07 AM (41 comments total)

I switched from Modern to Modern Dark, and then from Modern Dark back to Modern, and it seems stuck in Modern Dark.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 10:12 AM on July 9, 2015

ah ok, I'll take a look at that. In the meantime, just click the dark mode switch on the front page and you'll be set.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:13 AM on July 9, 2015

Hooray, this makes me think of good chocolate bars.
posted by Mizu at 10:15 AM on July 9, 2015

The switching themes problem should be fixed.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:22 AM on July 9, 2015

Great, love it, prefer it, now when are you getting to the all emoji theme, automagically converting all text into unicode icons for the full rebus experience?
posted by sammyo at 10:26 AM on July 9, 2015

When I click to enable this mode I want to see a flash of lightning and hear a crack of thunder and some wolves howling in the distance please.

a vincent price laugh is also acceptable.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:28 AM on July 9, 2015 [18 favorites]

The switching themes problem should be fixed.

Looks good, thanks!
posted by a lungful of dragon at 10:37 AM on July 9, 2015

Hooray! Much appreciated.
posted by immlass at 10:39 AM on July 9, 2015

Mefite's Reaction.
posted by pjern at 10:40 AM on July 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yay! Thank you.
posted by rtha at 10:46 AM on July 9, 2015

Mefite's Reaction.
posted by carsonb at 10:58 AM on July 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Thank you! I ♥ pb!
posted by Lynsey at 11:06 AM on July 9, 2015

Attention John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. pb is a computer genius who is also genial about rounding up all the little ponies requested by MeFites.
posted by Cranberry at 11:10 AM on July 9, 2015 [5 favorites]

When I click to enable this mode

And when I enable it I want to see Jonathan Frid twirling a wolfhead cane in a Danish modern apartment.
posted by maxsparber at 11:16 AM on July 9, 2015

Thank you so much for this!
posted by yasaman at 11:17 AM on July 9, 2015

I think Modern Dark should be a coffee you can order at the indie local coffee house, too.
posted by notyou at 11:18 AM on July 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

"I am the very model of a Modern Dark computer theme...."
posted by gingerbeer at 11:48 AM on July 9, 2015 [6 favorites]

Aw yeah. That's the stuff. Thanks pb!
posted by cashman at 11:57 AM on July 9, 2015

"I am the very model of a Modern Dark computer theme...."
I now can be made permanent thanks to pb's grand coding scheme
The blinding default background though Anil may find professional
Burns out my tender retinas like a sinner in confessional
posted by SpiffyRob at 12:02 PM on July 9, 2015 [15 favorites]

Yay! Thank you!
posted by SarahElizaP at 1:01 PM on July 9, 2015

Modern Dark

Too late to name it TechNoir?
posted by Celsius1414 at 1:09 PM on July 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

I completely missed last week's thread, add one more "Yay!" to the choir. Thanks!
posted by Bangaioh at 1:24 PM on July 9, 2015

This is a dark day in the history of MetaFIlter.
posted by Kabanos at 1:41 PM on July 9, 2015 [5 favorites]

I like the full page colors! Which reminds me, can I tack on a tiny pony for us classic theme users? In classic view, FanFare, Jobs and IRL are missing their associated colors and they're basically eye-searing fields of massive white space.

Can they be brought inline with the rest of the subsites on classic theme so that they're full color pages? It's jarring to go from blue/grey/green to bright white, especially when I'm reading in a dark room. (Also, I had no idea FanFare's color was purple because there's no purple anywhere on the page in classic view.)
posted by i feel possessed at 2:04 PM on July 9, 2015

In classic view, FanFare, Jobs and IRL are missing their associated colors...

Those sites have always been white in the classic themes. We created new color schemes specifically for dark mode in the Modern theme. So they aren't exactly missing color in classic—they were designed from the start to have a white background. We're very hesitant to make big changes like this to the classic themes at this point but we'll give it some thought.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:10 PM on July 9, 2015

Thanks very much for this PB! You might recall I mailed you about a "missing hamburger" in my classic theme a month or so ago - It was dark mode in modern I had been using but a reset of my cookies put it back to white, that's why I was confused! So this is great.
posted by smoke at 3:05 PM on July 9, 2015

oh ok! Glad that mystery is solved.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:08 PM on July 9, 2015

Soemone post a screenshot for those of us too lazy to change our preferences.
posted by ryanrs at 3:23 PM on July 9, 2015

Looks streamlined and efficient. If there's any spare RAM now, any chance of a reboot?
posted by Wordshore at 3:30 PM on July 9, 2015

there is a greasemonkey thing to change the color of fanfare, which was posted in one of the original "hey we made fanfare" metas
posted by poffin boffin at 3:50 PM on July 9, 2015

Yay! May my eyes never be blinded again!
posted by Aranquis at 5:08 PM on July 9, 2015

Thank you!
posted by Songdog at 5:28 PM on July 9, 2015

Bah, so unprofessional looking.
posted by octothorpe at 5:35 PM on July 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

L.O.V.E.
posted by Sophie1 at 9:02 PM on July 9, 2015

The dark is nice, but I prefer the light.
posted by Fizz at 5:44 AM on July 10, 2015

Thanks! This is a feature I didn't even know I wanted.
posted by bluefly at 6:11 AM on July 10, 2015

Not really a dark theme, just a darker theme.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:35 PM on July 10, 2015

Thank you! This was great!
posted by jillithd at 1:30 PM on July 10, 2015

Now, what about Steampunk Dark ? Batcave Gothic ? Primordial Ooze ? Nebbish Nebular ?
posted by y2karl at 11:38 AM on July 12, 2015

Are there any statistics on what % of logged in users have chosen to retain the plain theme after the introduction of the modern theme? Or whether that number differs substantially by browser?

(I ask as someone who uses modern on mobile, but plain on my laptop because it lets me see so much on the screen at a time, making it much easier to scan MeFi or AskMe for interesting stuff).
posted by modernnomad at 12:55 AM on July 13, 2015

cortex recently shared some theme numbers in this comment. We don't track browsers per user, and we also don't track when users have different settings for different browsers. So the numbers are based on what people last set as their theme in their site preferences.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:07 AM on July 13, 2015