Announcement New Style / Theme -- "Really Dark"

Kevin

Code Monkey 🐒
I know some of you guys like the darker styles/themes and have felt that the existing "Dark" style still wasn't dark enough. So with that in mind a new style has been added named "Really Dark". :D Click on the link below or click on the usual link in the bottom-left corner of your screen (the link with the little paintbrush to the left of it) to see the current list of available styles.

Cameraderie Really Dark Style

So far I'm liking the darker styles on my mobile devices and the lighter styles on my desktop. There'll likely be one more 'dark' style added coming up soon using a different color scheme then black/grey but that one isn't ready yet; that one is looking really good on my phone but some of the colors need tweaking yet.

You guys give feedback, I listen & put it on the To Do list. ;)
 
I'm NOT in love with the Really Dark Theme. Maybe it's just old-age or just a long-standing preference for lighter styles of websites. You might even think I contradict myself having a dark themed photography website (The Photography of Jim McClain), but on sites I spend more time reading and writing than looking at photos, I prefer lighter styles. But I'm glad we have choices, so I chose the Light Theme.

Unfortunately, that choice doesn't apply to email notifications. Looks like whatever the default theme is, that's the style you shall receive email from Cameraderie. I'm wondering just how much the theme designer was involved in editing the email template and CSS though. Even the Really Dark Theme doesn't look this bad:

cameraderie-email-notification190828.jpg


Those bright blue words are links, which makes me feel like I'm on a bad trip back to the early 70s, black light and all. And at first I thought the link to "View this thread" was missing, but hovering over where I thought it should be revealed the pointing finger cursor. Clicking the link will reveal the words as a visited link in a dark reddish color. Then there's those oddly colored, 3 or 4px wide left side borders used to quote my post and the reply. It's a hot mess.

I'm wondering if it's possible to style the email templates apart from using default theme colors? I don't think it's possible to port member chosen styles to email notifications, although I'm unfamiliar with this newer version of Xenforo than I use on my own forum. Anyway, I hope I haven't hurt anyone's feelings. Whoever designs such things should test them on a variety of email platforms. I use MS Office's Outlook on my Windows 10 desktop PC.

Jim
 
I'm NOT in love with the Really Dark Theme.
To be honest, I'm still torn on it. On my mobile devices (phone, tablet) the darker styles are really looking nice but on my high DPI desktop (really a laptop) machine I like the lighter styles.

An idea floating around the back of my mind is to check out if I can dynamically serve different default themes based on the type of device being used (mobile or desktop). Members who set their preferred theme of course wouldn't be affected so it'd be just those who haven't set a choice. At the moment it's only an idea on my To Do list.

Unfortunately, that choice doesn't apply to email notifications. Looks like whatever the default theme is, that's the style you shall receive email from Cameraderie.
Whoops! Thanks for pointing this out, I've changed the setting for the emails to the use the 'light' theme. I don't get too many emails from site outside of the weekly listing of activity and notices of conversations so I missed this one.

Those bright blue words are links, which makes me feel like I'm on a bad trip back to the early 70s, black light and all.
:D Just need a few lava lamp type effects now.

I'm wondering if it's possible to style the email templates apart from using default theme colors? I don't think it's possible to port member chosen styles to email notifications
No, though that isn't a bad idea. XF allows a "default email style" but it's universal setting. By default it'll use the XF default theme and since the Really Dark theme was set as the default it was picking up that theme; I've set it specifically use the old light theme.
 
I can't look at the dark screen on my monitor at all. Is there a way to block it when I just glance at the site without logging in?.
 
I can't look at the dark screen on my monitor at all. Is there a way to block it when I just glance at the site without logging in?.
Please try setting a default while not logged in, it should save the preference to your cookies.

 
Please try setting a default while not logged in, it should save the preference to your cookies.

I agree with ricks, for example there's no differentiation between the log in screen and the background with the really dark theme. I've tried setting a different scheme when not logged in but the next time I bring up the site the screen has reset itself to the really dark theme so it doesn't save to preferences in my cookies. I personally don't think it's a good advert for anyone just finding the site.

Barrie
 
I agree with ricks, for example there's no differentiation between the log in screen and the background with the really dark theme.
What browser & device are you using? With Chrome on my desktops & mobile devices the login input box show up pretty clear (white background for the input boxes).

1567188544986.png


I've tried setting a different scheme when not logged in but the next time I bring up the site the screen has reset itself to the really dark theme so it doesn't save to preferences in my cookies.
I just tried a few experiments and it looks like the style cookie gets cleared when logging out. What that means is if somebody logs in, sets a default, logs out, sets a default as guest (sets the cookie), logs back in again on the same device & browser (cookie is ignored, account setting is used), and then logs out again on the same device & browser then they'll end up seeing the default theme after logging out a second time. At the moment I'm not thinking of a good reason why that particular cookie would get cleared. 🤔 I'll take a look into it, in the interim anybody browsing from different devices/browsers (eg: logged in on personal device, logged out on work device) would be fine but anybody in the scenario of using a single device & single browser and logging in / out / in / out would run into this scenario.
 
What browser & device are you using?
A desktop PC running Linux Mint with Firefox as the web browser.

Kevin, I wouldn't spend time on the problem such as it is, it just means that rather than browsing the site without logging in as I often did I now log in every time in order to get rid of the very dark theme background which I find most unappealing, but that's just my feeling. Others seem to like it, swings and roundabouts.

Barrie
 
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Barrie, if it helps at all, you can just stop "logging out". I haven't logged out at all in 2019
Thanks Luke, that's a solution I can live with, pragmatic and simple.

Try logging out now and then viewing the 'login' pop up with the Really Dark theme; I'm still loading a few different browsers for testing but it should be better now.
Kevin, yes I can see the log-in box thank you, my thoughts about it as a default scheme are probably "coloured" (forgive the pun) by my general dislike of that particular scheme. I'm old and can be crusty, not in favour of changes for changes sake, but on reflection I've been out of step with my fellow man most of my life :)

Barrie
 
@grebeman If it helps any, dark themes don't just look good, they help to save your battery life. ;)

I don't have either a smart phone or a tablet so such technological innovations like that don't apply to me, using a PC is about as up to date as I get :D
 
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