Introducing: Dark Mode (March 26, 2017)

Sometimes you just need to give in to the dark side.

Today I'm rolling out a new feature for supporters that will enable a brand new "dark mode" theme for the forums. This is a rethinking of the entire color scheme and is customized at all levels to bring a darker palette to your browsing experience. Maybe it's late at night and you don't want the bright lights messing up your thread viewing, maybe it helps your eyes, or maybe you're just drawn to the darkness, either way we've got you covered. The dark theme is available for supporters to select via their preferences and will look great on desktop, phones, and tablets.

Of course, it's not something anyone has to use, but I think it's pretty damn awesome to flip over late at night when I'm reading through threads or am on the iPhone right before I finally fall asleep. Mostly, I think it's a pretty cool extra perk and after seeing some of my favorite apps do something similar over the past few years I felt like it was the perfect idea to borrow.

Thank you, once again, to all of the supporters on this site — you're the reason it exists and your amazing support already (before we've even officially launched) is exactly what let me dedicate some time to building out dark mode. I've been loving all the conversations and ideas we've been having around here over the past couple of weeks and I'm extremely excited about the future. Thank you, everyone!

Update: Dark Mode is coming to the main website! Here's some screen shots of this in action. And here's some new screen shots of the forum theme.

Update #2: Here's the main website announcement about Dark Mode for the main website.

Here's some screenshots of the new theme:

 

That looks amazing

 

that's pretty

 

Welp, guess I'm becoming a supporter.

edit: maybe not, didn't realize it was a monthly subscription. not sure I can swing it right now. but still, that looks gorgeous.

 

I'm still working on thinking up the best way to handle this sort of stuff and seeing how it all works out. There's a chance in the future I will make things more "ala carte" or something, but, at the moment, I'm going with this yearly membership program thing because I really like how it's been working at few other websites I follow. I'm still playing with ideas and learning and trying to make this work, so hopefully the perfect happy medium can be found!

Thanks for checking it out at least and the compliment!

 

That'd be cool, and that's not to say it's not worth it as it is (considering I see plenty of supporters around, which is awesome), but I'm reluctant to take on additional monthly payments unless absolutely necessary, since money's tight and all that. If I could pay a one-time fee of $10 for dark mode or something like that, I'd be all about it.

 

Totally, 1000%, understand! Maybe one day you'll be able to and could swing for the yearly package, but if not that's totally understandable. It's also why I don't want to ever incapacitate or worsen the experience or the website for anyone that's not a supporter or anything like that at all (and why we run ads, hah). I see the supporter options as more of additions, perks, and little things like that. I hope that maybe one day we'll have enough supporters that will let that be the only way we need to run the site, but it's all a work in progress. I'm always gonna be experimenting to find the right fit and all that. Definitely the hardest part of this being my job again — trying to find the right way to make it all work and align everyone's goals and happiness!

 

You're too kind! Thanks guys.

 

Excited to try this out.

 

Can't wait for the 10th Anniversary of this site where you unveil the throwback AP.net dark red.

 

#DEATHTOAP.NETDARKRED

 

Haha, not a bad idea actually. May make a note about that.

 

There's also a good idea for an April fools prank somewhere in there.

 

Yes dark mode is amazing!

 

Always looking out for your eyes!

 

Using dark mode and never going back. So much easier on the eyeballs.

 

I haven't not used dark mode since I got it. much better.

 

Oooh, think I might just stick with this. This is nice.

Edit: I can already tell I'm not going to switch back. First night shift, and now this. My eyes are grateful.

 

I'm not saying I paid $5 just for this but damn it looks good.

 

Awww! Thank you!

And thank you for being a member, I really appreciate that!

 

gonna give this a little bump to mention if you are a supporter you really should get on this and try dark mode. if you're not, you should probably sign up for a month and try dark mode. it's really really really good and makes using this site even easier than it is under light mode.

 

Yes, join the dark side...

 

Wish this was the default! I'll try and scrounge up some $$ and upgrade