Websleuths is changing our colors

[Gemmie]

I have macular degeneration, andl also found the blue and white hard to see

Did you try Dark mode? Because Black-Orange will be going away.

 

[Izzylizzy]

I have macular degeneration, andl also found the blue and white hard to see, so I switched back to the orange/black. I hope it will continue to be available in the future.

I hope so too, especially for you!

 

[Curious Me]

This is going to give snarling faced emoji results. I'm going to use words that may be censored, or some maybe not. Here we go--
sex

Told ya. lol

Which words are the "bad" words?

 

[Curious Me]

I have macular degeneration, andl also found the blue and white hard to see, so I switched back to the orange/black. I hope it will continue to be available in the future.

Did you try Dark mode? Because Black-Orange will be going away.

View attachment 574017

@lisette, understandably you need it easy on your eyes. Is the Dark theme any better for your eyesight? The Orange-Black was easier on the eyes as compared to the Light with blue theme. What about the Dark mode? I switch themes, but think I could settle on the Dark one once the Orange-Black goes away. ​

 

[Reneemaree88]

The white withthe blue def instantly hurt my vision. I am now fine as I switched to black orange again. NO problems.

I had no idea you could do this, thank you! I can now see and don’t have to leave leave websluths

 

[Gemmie]

I had no idea you could do this, thank you! I can now see and don’t have to leave leave websluths

Keep in mind we've been told that Black-Orange will be going away at some point. You might want to figure out which mode (Dark/Light) works best for you with the Websleuths 2025 color scheme.

But I'm with you. I'm going to be real sad when Black-Orange goes away. I find it easiest to view/use. Oh well, such is life.

 

[lisette]

@lisette, understandably you need it easy on your eyes. Is the Dark theme any better for your eyesight? The Orange-Black was easier on the eyes as compared to the Light with blue theme. What about the Dark mode? I switch themes, but think I could settle on the Dark one once the Orange-Black goes away. ​

View attachment 574092

How do I switch from light to dark mode?

 

[Fraize]

Hi all!
I want to thank you all for your insights, and for voicing your concerns about Websleuths' color-schemes, and usability -- especially for folks with vision trouble. I want you all to know that I hear you and that I want to find something that works for the most people.
The challenge for me is to do it in a way that satisfies the following requirements:

1. Bring websleuths.com's overall look-and-feel forward using more modern-design standards. What Websleuths brings to the world is its incredibly talented armchair detectives. The content you generate brings eyeballs to the site, which generates even more interest and growth. If the site looks outdated, users may feel like the content is outdated as well.
2. Simplify maintenance of the code. Part of the reason for moving to our new web hosts is that they'll automatically apply updates to the server. When they do, simpler code will mean our content is less likely to break the site. If I have to maintain the old look-and-feel, every time there's a site update (about every 2 weeks), I have to put in a huge amount of time testing. Before the move, we would just hold off on pushing out updates until we were ready, and we were about 4 revisions behind.
3. Promotes a unified Websleuths brand. Maintaining more than one major color-scheme is confusing. Imagine if Pepsi decided they were going to adopt a red-version of their color-scheme? I'd imagine Pepsi-fans, used to their trademark-blue, would be confused (not to mention Coca-Cola would probably sue them)!

It's impossible to please everybody, so I try to please as many as I can without breaking those 3 requirements outlined above.
As I've said before, the Black-Orange theme will go away sometime soon. No specific timeline yet, because I think I can still make a theme that will make you Black-Orange stans happier (if not completely happy).
To that end, I've created a new theme called "Accessibility" with both a light and dark variant. They're essentially the same as the default Websleuths_2025 theme with the following changes that brings it closer to what Black-Orange did:

1. Changed the default font From Segoe to Trebuchet
2. Changed the line-height from 1.4 to 1.6
3. Changed the Header font from 'chandler-42-regular' (the typewriter font) back to default
4. Widened the content-area from 1200 pixels to 1400 pixels for those on desktop browsers.

While it's not a return to the warm tones that Black-Orange provided, these changes should improve readability for those having trouble with the relatively dense default theme.
For those who are choosing Black-Orange right now, please give 'Accessible' a try, and try toggling between light and dark modes. Give me feedback. If you're not comfortable giving feedback publicly, my DMs are open.
SERIOUSLY, thanks again for your dedication to making Websleuths the perfect site for you. I am so grateful for your support!

 

[Fraize]

How do I switch from light to dark mode?

Hi @lisette! You can do this by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking the Sun (or Moon) icons next to the theme name.

 

[Quiet Time]

im still in black and orange... the share button is there.

Me too!
No change needed for me...fine the way it is.

 

[Bounceycat]

Not sure if there's a better place to post this, but when I got on Websleuths on my phone (Android, Chrome browser) just a bit ago, I had the popup shown in pic #1. I clicked the X to make it go away and now it appears as a white bar that stays in position while I scroll, as seen in pic #2. How do I get rid of it? Thanks

 

[Fraize]

Not sure if there's a better place to post this, but when I got on Websleuths on my phone (Android, Chrome browser) just a bit ago, I had the popup shown in pic #1. I clicked the X to make it go away and now it appears as a white bar that stays in position while I scroll, as seen in pic #2. How do I get rid of it? Thanks

This is absolutely the place to do that, thank you! That little white pill is supposed to offer a second-chance to join the inner-circle just in case folks quickly hit the big X. It was incorrectly implemented with white text on a white background, which was 100% my fault.

We really want people to join the newsletter. The Websleuths audience is an enormous force for good in the civilian crime-fighting space, and we're looking for ways to reach you all.

But if you really don't wanna, we will stop bugging you about it.

 

[Gemmie]

Question.... I haven't signed up for the newsletter because the email I signed up on WS with I can no longer access (forgot password and gave up trying to figure it out). I went to see if I could change it and it says:

If you change your email, you may need to reconfirm your account.

What exactly does that mean/entail?

Thanks!

 

[Fraize]

Question.... I haven't signed up for the newsletter because the email I signed up on WS with I can no longer access (forgot password and gave up trying to figure it out). I went to see if I could change it and it says:

If you change your email, you may need to reconfirm your account.

What exactly does that mean/entail?

Thanks!

I'll reach out via DM to take care of you, @Gemmie!

 

[I am not Sherlock H.]

Thank you @fraize …. I did just toggle to the Orange is the new blue….. and while some perhaps advantage…… the orange background is a bit too dark IMO against the black text. With my no longer young eyes it is a strain. (And I have become quite accustomed to the Orange Black features here on WS.)

Might the newer variant orange background be lightened a tad?

If so that might help.

It is a strain IMO to discern. And I am not on a small screen of a phone. Typically safari on an iPad. And in a lit room.

And for full disclosure….. I’ve had ophthalmologist full time prescription glasses made year before last. To accommodate my aging and deteriorating vision. So trying to move forward…… but not easy. Some bright backgrounds are not friendly to my eyes…… which are well north of age 50.

Thank you for any consideration!

 

[SteveS]

Hi all!
I want to thank you all for your insights, and for voicing your concerns about Websleuths' color-schemes, and usability -- especially for folks with vision trouble. I want you all to know that I hear you and that I want to find something that works for the most people.
The challenge for me is to do it in a way that satisfies the following requirements:

1. Bring websleuths.com's overall look-and-feel forward using more modern-design standards. What Websleuths brings to the world is its incredibly talented armchair detectives. The content you generate brings eyeballs to the site, which generates even more interest and growth. If the site looks outdated, users may feel like the content is outdated as well.
2. Simplify maintenance of the code. Part of the reason for moving to our new web hosts is that they'll automatically apply updates to the server. When they do, simpler code will mean our content is less likely to break the site. If I have to maintain the old look-and-feel, every time there's a site update (about every 2 weeks), I have to put in a huge amount of time testing. Before the move, we would just hold off on pushing out updates until we were ready, and we were about 4 revisions behind.
3. Promotes a unified Websleuths brand. Maintaining more than one major color-scheme is confusing. Imagine if Pepsi decided they were going to adopt a red-version of their color-scheme? I'd imagine Pepsi-fans, used to their trademark-blue, would be confused (not to mention Coca-Cola would probably sue them)!

It's impossible to please everybody, so I try to please as many as I can without breaking those 3 requirements outlined above.
As I've said before, the Black-Orange theme will go away sometime soon. No specific timeline yet, because I think I can still make a theme that will make you Black-Orange stans happier (if not completely happy).
To that end, I've created a new theme called "Accessibility" with both a light and dark variant. They're essentially the same as the default Websleuths_2025 theme with the following changes that brings it closer to what Black-Orange did:

1. Changed the default font From Segoe to Trebuchet
2. Changed the line-height from 1.4 to 1.6
3. Changed the Header font from 'chandler-42-regular' (the typewriter font) back to default
4. Widened the content-area from 1200 pixels to 1400 pixels for those on desktop browsers.

While it's not a return to the warm tones that Black-Orange provided, these changes should improve readability for those having trouble with the relatively dense default theme.
For those who are choosing Black-Orange right now, please give 'Accessible' a try, and try toggling between light and dark modes. Give me feedback. If you're not comfortable giving feedback publicly, my DMs are open.
SERIOUSLY, thanks again for your dedication to making Websleuths the perfect site for you. I am so grateful for your support!

Thank you for your efforts.

For me (and I think for most of us with aging eyes), the preference for the Orange-Black over all the other formats is not about the Orange at all. It's about the readability of the text (going to all this effort with all these choices of ways to make it harder to read) when reading is what we are here to do. The evaluation is really simple for me: Ease of reading is good, and making me work to try to make out the words is bad (and makes for an unenjoyable website).

Pure-black text on pure-white background provides the most legible readable text to read. Making the background some shade of light blue, or light gray (which appears to be where we continue to be), makes the text itself look gray (because the contrast is lessened) and thus creates a product harder to read, and that causes eye strain if we try.

I know the higher ups want EVERYTHING to change, and it sounds like they are insisting that ANY format using the most readable black-on-white just won't do because it's too boring or somesuch, but to me they've decided to create new Coke. Just my 2c fwiw.

 

[Bounceycat]

This is absolutely the place to do that, thank you! That little white pill is supposed to offer a second-chance to join the inner-circle just in case folks quickly hit the big X. It was incorrectly implemented with white text on a white background, which was 100% my fault.

We really want people to join the newsletter. The Websleuths audience is an enormous force for good in the civilian crime-fighting space, and we're looking for ways to reach you all.

But if you really don't wanna, we will stop bugging you about it.

Thank you! It's all fixed now, AND you talked me into signing up lol

 

[Curious Me]

...To that end, I've created a new theme called "Accessibility" with both a light and dark variant. They're essentially the same as the default Websleuths_2025 theme with the following changes that brings it closer to what Black-Orange did:

1. Changed the default font From Segoe to Trebuchet
2. Changed the line-height from 1.4 to 1.6
3. Changed the Header font from 'chandler-42-regular' (the typewriter font) back to default
4. Widened the content-area from 1200 pixels to 1400 pixels for those on desktop browsers.

BBM above. Thank You @fraize for the changes & adjustments.
Members that have expressed having problems with the new themes being hard to read, those members especially need to check out the Accessible themes Dark & Light and give you their feedback. Some people notice every little detail and I hope they will provide you with some useful feedback.

I can't claim to be very astute when it comes to all the differences of fonts, spacing, etc., The changes I think I notice of (2) I do think I see an improvement from the increase in line height making it much easier reading to have space above & below the sentences. (4) I do use my all in one desktop most, and have a nice big screen. Love it. The box I'm now typing in seems wider than it was before. Not sure, how that affects reading posts, more words across page? ​

 

[Curious Me]

Members that have expressed having problems with the new themes being hard to read, those members especially need to check out the Accessible themes Dark & Light and give you their feedback.

Trying to be helpful for those just joining in. By now, you may have read @fraize's posts saying the Orange-Black theme will eventually be going away for good. There's the Accessible theme Light & Dark you can try out now too.

How to change the theme: Scroll down to the bottom left paintbrush. This gives you a choice of themes. The wheel setting symbol is to set light and dark modes. ​

..

 

[Gemmie]

OK, you talked me into checking out Accessible when I was going to be the one kicking and screaming when forced to move off of Black-Orange.

Here is a nit that's really not a nit. Yahoo mail also recently made changes with I hate so I'm learning to deal with their new look and feel at the same time. Woe is me.

Unfortunately the reason I'm bringing Yahoo's change up is because they have changed the color of Read emails to gray (which I still haven't gotten used to, but I digress). My issue with Accessible in Dark mode is UNread Messages are gray. It's going to be difficult for me to tell my brain "OK, you're on WS now, so gray means UNread, and when I'm back checking email (I go back and forth VERY often), it means Read". That's not good. lol

Sure, you could say it's good to challenge your brain, and I agree... but when it's more like work, and not enjoyable, that's not good.