Websleuths is changing our colors

[Lilibet]

Sadly, the Black-Orange theme will eventually have to go away. The problem with maintaining the Black-Orange theme alongside the Websleuths_2025 theme is that it's written with a lot of legacy code which is difficult to maintain. I will be looking into making variations of the Websleuths_2025 theme that will be easier on the eyes for those with difficulties, but Black-Orange's days are numbered.

I will commit, however, to make a higher-contrast theme before shutting Black-Orange down.

Lastly, regarding the laughing-emoji, I'm dropping the hammer on this one. While I really do appreciate your enthusiasm on the matter, we are not planning to bring back the Laughing Emoji.

Hi Fraize,
Thanks so much for all your hard work! I’m one who went back to orange and black for the contrast (79 year old eyes). So I appreciate that you will do a higher contrast theme in addition to the faded blue theme. I vote for purple, but don’t mind me. Again, thanks!

 

[Lilibet]

Thank you for your efforts. Since the original color scheme is ending, would you please offer an option in which the TEXT ITSELF would be dark black (not some light variation like blue of some shade or gray or almost-black or some such, and and not thin faint lines) on a white background? Simple black on white. Easy to read. Easy on the eyes at the same time.

I have played with them to try to see what works, but these two new options that seem to be in the works are really hard on the eyes of a senior, and way more of a challenge to read than my eyes can take. From what I am reading in this thread, I may not be the only one, and I wouldn't think the intent is to drive people away from the site.

I second this! I cannot read faint text at all. So many blogs seem to be using gray text, so I just pass them by. Simple black on white for old eyes please!

 

[Curious Me]

....Posted again and two of the names went back to white text! What?!! It reverts. The bolded worked eventually. Am I doing something wrong for Dark Mode, or is it a glitch?

@fraize, when I was in dark mode the names showed up, but now in orange-black mode the names I tried to color don't show up at all. See what I mean? Can't figure out why some show, and why the others don't show.

 

[Curious Me]

Testing it here. I'm in orange-black mode now.
Used to be able to type a different color
for each letter. HAPPY BIRTHDAY
or bold copy it & bold it HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
Will it show in both modes?
No, it changed how it looks in the dark mode.

 

[Fraize]

Testing it here. I'm in orange-black mode now.
Used to be able to type a different color
for each letter. HAPPY BIRTHDAY
or bold copy it & bold it HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
Will it show in both modes?
No, it changed how it looks in the dark mode.

View attachment 569663 View attachment 569665

I've tried to modify the code so that it only fixes the most egregious failures of color, like black-on-slightly-lighter-black or almost-white-on-white. The usual colors, though still contrasting lightly, will now render out as expected.

But there is an issue in the way the message-editor handles those colors. If any of you are familiar with HTML, you may know that colors can be assigned to text via the "style" attribute within an HTML element. Our forum software treats it as "<span>" tags. So, red-text would look like

<span style='color: red'>This text would be red.</style>

in HTML. This is fine, but if you've ever selected text, changed the color, typed something, then changed the color again, those <span> tags can get nested, and things get messy.

<span style='color: white'>
<span style='color: red'>
This color should be red, but the auto-contrasting code thinks it's white!
</span>
</span>

So, if any of you see weirdness in the way colors are displaying in your posts, try deleting what you wrote and type it out again. Then apply the style afterwards.

But keep sending me your bug reports!

 

[Quiet Time]

Question...
How come Curious Me's font size is bigger than SteveS's?

And, how do I make it bigger like Curious Me?
Thx

 

[Curious Me]

Question...
How come Curious Me's font size is bigger than SteveS's?
And, how do I make it bigger like Curious Me?
Thx

When you're in the reply box typing your post you will see four sets of three dots. The first set of three dots will give you choices of fonts and sizes.​

 

[Gemmie]

What I'd love is the ability to permanently change our font size, color, family, etc. Or, do we already have a way of doing that and I just haven't figured it out? I think it would be nice for us to be able to personalize our look without having to do it for each and every post.

Doable? Already done and it's hiding from me? lol

Thanks!

 

[Nate_Bro]

Is there any way to revert to the old theme? I'm having a funny reaction on Chrome. When I have Chrome on light mode, the forum is all black and makes it difficult to see the distinctions between posts etc. I have to turn it to dark mode to get a grey background which is better, but then it makes all my tabs and pages go black.

 

[Nate_Bro]

Testing it here. I'm in orange-black mode now.
Used to be able to type a different color
for each letter. HAPPY BIRTHDAY
or bold copy it & bold it HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
Will it show in both modes?
No, it changed how it looks in the dark mode.

View attachment 569663 View attachment 569665

@fraize, when I was in dark mode the names showed up, but now in orange-black mode the names I tried to color don't show up at all. See what I mean? Can't figure out why some show, and why the others don't show.


View attachment 569657
View attachment 569655

hi where is the option to change modes ?

 

[Gemmie]

hi where is the option to change modes ?

At the bottom of the page. See this post for more info:

Post in thread 'Websleuths is changing our colors'

Mar 4, 2025

It required clicking on a link near the bottom of the page that says “Websleuths 2025.”

It's a toggle. It will say whatever style you're currently on.

Or

Also, that little thingiemabob at the very right of "Websleuths 2025" allows you to switch between Light and Dark modes by clicking on it.

• Gemmie

• 

 

[Fraize]

There's a little sneaky treat in the theme-list for some of you to find.

 

[Gemmie]

There's a little sneaky treat in the theme-list for some of you to find.

 

[JennieM]

There's a little sneaky treat in the theme-list for some of you to find.

THANK YOU!

 

[Gemmie]

There's a little sneaky treat in the theme-list for some of you to find.

OMG!!! I LOVE IT!

Only 1 problem (thus far. Wait'll @Curious Me sees your post. I'm sure she'll come up with more. lol).

I had to take a pic cuz it wouldn't even let me SS it. Must be shy... Anyway, I can't see several things in Orange is the New Blue mode...

While the 1st doesn't matter since I know what's behind the black is "Quote":

This one does matter. You can't see whose name your cursor is on when @Ing someone:

It took me several times to find her name due to that. I didn't know if she used a space before the Me, or if her name ran together, or used an underscore. Sure, I could have scrolled to see how it was spelled but what if the person you're @Ing isn't on the page you're @Ing them on?

Love this option! I think I'll stick with it to see if I an find more issues to fix before it formally gets rolled out. I disliked the other 2 options so much I kept running back to Orange-Black so I wasn't much use helping find issues to fix.

Great work, @fraize!

 

[Gemmie]

Another problem with Orange is the New Blue. I'm using System/Light mode.

The post HERE shows this in Orange is the New Blue:

But looks like this in the current Black-Orange:

 

[JDG]

How does one increase font size permanently? Thank you.

 

[Gemmie]

Another issue in Orange is the New Blue, System/Light mode. I can't see what number page I might want to click on (or where the ... tab is so I can enter what page I want to go to).

Thanks, fraize!

 

[Gemmie]

How does one increase font size permanently? Thank you.

That's a Q I asked when I asked if we could permanently change various parts of our font (size, color, font family, etc.). Glad someone else wants it. Maybe it's an easy thing for @fraize to give us.

 

[Gemmie]

OMG!!! I LOVE IT!

Only 1 problem (thus far. Wait'll @Curious Me sees your post. I'm sure she'll come up with more. lol).

I had to take a pic cuz it wouldn't even let me SS it. Must be shy... Anyway, I can't see several things in Orange is the New Blue mode...

While the 1st doesn't matter since I know what's behind the black is "Quote":

View attachment 569777

This one does matter. You can't see whose name your cursor is on when @Ing someone:

View attachment 569778

It took me several times to find her name due to that. I didn't know if she used a space before the Me, or if her name ran together, or used an underscore. Sure, I could have scrolled to see how it was spelled but what if the person you're @Ing isn't on the page you're @Ing them on?

Love this option! I think I'll stick with it to see if I an find more issues to fix before it formally gets rolled out. I disliked the other 2 options so much I kept running back to Orange-Black so I wasn't much use helping find issues to fix.

Great work, @fraize!

Looks like @fraize fixed this. If you didn't, then the system is hiccupping.

Thank you!