60 replies

1. Wolfr 2 min later

   @zachleat I prefer to use light mode when ambient light = light and dark mode when ambient light = dark

   1. Zach Leatherman 5 min later

      @wolfr I also prefer Auto! Mastodon allows 4 poll choices 😭

   2. Cory Birdsong 35 min later

      @wolfr @zachleat I wish my devices would automatically switch the system theme contextually based on hardware sensors detecting the light level of the environment instead of just bluntly using sunset/sunrise.

      1. Zach Leatherman 39 min later

         @cbirdsong @wolfr https://caniuse.com/ambient-light 👀👀👀👀👀

         1. Cory Birdsong 1 hr later

            @zachleat @wolfr I wonder if Webkit and Firefox will ever get on board with that. It seems like it would be too useful as a vector for tracking, and I don't know how a user could be expected to reasonably respond to a permissions request about an "ambient light sensor”.

            1. Zach Leatherman 1 hr later

               @cbirdsong @wolfr yeah I like the idea but would be unlikely to agree to a permission prompt for it

               1. meduz' 2 hr later

                  @zachleat @cbirdsong @wolfr The Telegram Android app do it, and it’s very useful when I open Telegram in the toilets during daylight.

                  (There’s no way I’d turn on the light in the toilets until I’m done.)

               2. Matthew Mone 5 hr later

                  @zachleat @cbirdsong @wolfr
                  This is seems like a good case for not prompting unless the users asks for it.
                  make the "based on my surroundings" settings option and warn the user that it requires the permission, then only prompt them when they select the setting.
                  honestly, a lot of these permissions prompts should require user interaction to make them come up.
                  having to say "no" to a permissions prompt for notifications on page load is super annoying

               3. sayrer 1 day later

                  @zachleat @cbirdsong @wolfr You can write your own to change the OS theme, and the browsers will react to that. https://github.com/oxidecomputer/design-site/commit/ab1c861a9a35e551af31b02f366a99e96bb0de9c

      2. Richy 46 min later

         @cbirdsong @wolfr @zachleat That would be nice! There's https://github.com/insidegui/DarkModeBuddy for macOS but it doesn't work with external displays.

   3. blemmie 39 min later

      @wolfr @zachleat +1

   4. Anton Palmqvist 2 hr later

      @wolfr @zachleat +1

2. Rik Schennink 2 min later

   @zachleat I unfortunately have a bunch of muscae volitantes aka eye floaters in both my eyes.

   Reading in light mode is a bit like Karaoke sing along where the floaters bounce below the words I'm reading. Not great.

   1. Neave Interactive 27 min later

      @rikschennink @zachleat Same!

   2. Tyler Martin 45 min later

      @rikschennink @zachleat Same issue here. In light mode they can obstruct entire words. Dark mode helps immensely.

3. Matt Stein 7 min later

   @zachleat I’d pick option 5: I follow system settings based on time of day, except sometimes when I’m in a very dark room and boldly force dark mode.

   1. Matt Stein 9 min later

      @zachleat But then I should probably just stop replying to toots and change my middle name to “it depends,” if we’re being honest.

      1. Zach Leatherman 11 min later

         @mattrambles this is my petition to allow Mastodon polls with 5 choices 😭

         1. Matt Stein 57 min later

            @zachleat I think that fifth option is where the engineering gets really complicated.

            1. Zach Leatherman 1 hr later

               @mattrambles
               🏆 2 bits
               🤢 3 bits

4. Private reply 8 min later
5. Egor Kloos 9 min later

   @zachleat I lean towards dark mode as I have an aversion to bright light/glare (luckily, I don't get Summer SAD any more). But best for me, as I'm getting older, is a good contrast in the appropriate ambient light. Daytime with light mode and dark mode is great during the evenings.

6. Juhis 15 min later

   @zachleat I'm lazy and 99% of the time just use whatever a site or app starts with.

7. Braw ☕🏳️‍🌈 16 min later

   @zachleat I prefer the theme match time of the day, because it's much easier to have light mode when it's bright, and dark mode when it's dark (obvs)

   sites that don't have automatic mode make me sad, but so do sites that don't have any theme picker at all and only use system pref

8. Christopher Neugebauer 21 min later

   @zachleat Option that's not listed: I prefer dark mode on my phone, which has an OLED screen (i.e. true black, maximum possible contrast ratio), but light mode on backlit screens.

9. Cory Birdsong 34 min later

   @zachleat Voted light mode since that's generally my preference, especially on traditional desktop OSes. However, I do let my phone automatically switch to dark mode at night so that I'm less likely to get my eyes blasted if I need to use it in a dark room.

   It's also not always purely a preference – when dealing with a migraine I am _very_ thankful to be able to manually force everything into dark mode.

   tldr: It's complicated!

10. Eric A. Meyer 36 min later

    @zachleat I voted “prefer” because I *can* read in the mode I dislike, it’s just a fair bit more difficult. But it’s not a requirement, the way some people have in order to avoid migraines and the like.

11. ૮༼⚆︿⚆༽つ / Wildan 37 min later

    @zachleat can we just switch back to win98 grayscale with their super snappy skeuomorphism? (but with bigger font)

12. Thomas Broyer 38 min later

    @zachleat I don't really care, and use the site's default (my OS also being on its default light mode, which makes sites in "auto" mode use their light mode)

13. Johannes Baiter 40 min later

    @zachleat
    ❎ Light during daytime, dark at nighttime ("system" setting)

14. Trevor Stinson 46 min later

    @zachleat This is extremely situational for me on both preference and requirement.

15. Vadim Makeev 48 min later

    @zachleat My vision prefers light during the day and dark in the evening. But not requires, fortunately.

16. postmodern 50 min later

    @zachleat as computer monitors increase in size everywhere, light mode websites and apps blast out even more lumens.

17. Derk-Jan 💙💛🇺🇦 51 min later

    @zachleat no preference, i change what i use all the time

18. Christmas Tree 51 min later

    @zachleat I voted “prefer light mode” but I’m not certain that it’s NOT because of my vision. I think I’ve heard that astigmatism makes dark mode difficult to read, and I do have a mild astigmatism, but I don’t know much beyond that

19. mhoye 51 min later

    @zachleat I think a lot of sites need a fifth "I would prefer not to see your website under any conditions, but I am unfortunately obligated."

20. Gokul Das 52 min later

    @zachleat I use darkman to automatically switch between light and dark modes. After so many years fiddling with them, my answer is that there is no silver bullet. The preferred mode changes with ambient light.

21. Brantley Harris 52 min later

    @zachleat I just don’t like switching between modes.

22. Philip Zastrow 55 min later

    @zachleat 100% depends on time of day or my current lighting environment. I like light mode when it is bright around me and dark mode when it is dimmer or dark.

23. Private reply 55 min later
24. mandy brown 55 min later

    @zachleat I prefer to use auto but I have trouble with a lot of dark modes and often have to switch back (or put down my device); I have a strong astigmatism which means high-contrast light-on-dark causes a halation effect which is very unpleasant. I can only handle dark mode if it’s sufficiently moderate in contrast.

    1. Zach Leatherman 1 hr later

       @aworkinglibrary I’m hearing that you *need* a UI toggle to have the best reading experience

       1. Sara Joy 1 hr later

          @zachleat @aworkinglibrary and not just light/dark, also high/low contrast...

       2. mandy brown 1 hr later

          @zachleat i am agnostic as to the solution!

       3. Tyler Gaw 2 hr later

          @zachleat @aworkinglibrary I was griping about this a while back. Mentioned there, but Arc Boosts have been great for it https://mastodon.social/@tylergaw/110577379518200562

    2. Matt Lehrer 2 hr later

       @aworkinglibrary @zachleat just in case you use iOS and don’t know about it… you can add a dark mode toggle to control center so that it’s only one swipe and one tap to switch

    3. Kristof Zerbe 2 hr later

       @aworkinglibrary @zachleat Ah, "astigmatism". I didn't even know there was a word for how I feel when reading pure or poorly done dark mode pages

25. mrblank 58 min later

    @zachleat I need a “IDGAF make it legible” option

26. Amelia Bellamy-Royds 1 hr later

    @zachleat I'm very much "It depends" based on the website. I really wish browsers had an easy toggle & would remember preference per site (similar to zoom settings), so that sites don't have to try to implement their own toggles.

    (To be specific: I like UI-heavy sites in dark mode, but text-heavy sites in light mode. If there's a dim dark mode, I can usually read in that, but high contrast dark is bad. And I use OS night mode filter in dark rooms. Where's the darn media query for all that?!?)

    1. Sara Joy 1 hr later

       @AmeliaBR @zachleat big agreeeeee wish the browsers would add a toggle button light/dark next to the "desktop mode" button!

27. Chris Coleman 1 hr later

    @zachleat I prefer light web sites, but I want the interface of my browser and other apps to be dark. It was a brilliant move by OS vendors to tie these things together for some reason.

28. Gabor Lenard 1 hr later

    @zachleat I prefer dark mode during the night, and light mode during the day. I miss this option in the poll

29. Sue Dominous 1 hr later

    @zachleat When the sun’s up: light—otherwise: dark

30. Paul Armstrong 1 hr later

    @zachleat Where's the "it depends on the site's color choices" option?

31. Garrett LeSage 1 hr later

    @zachleat It's very situational for me.

    I have astigmatism, migraines, and some other issues that cause me to need light mode sometimes and dark other times. Some days, I can be fine with light when it's bright and dark when it's dark, but other days, I need it dark or light regardless of outside lighting.

    (So I would probably check all the boxes if possible. Or at least both of the "I need" ones.)

    I keep my browser (+ Dark Reader extension) and apps on auto and switch at the desktop level.

    1. David O'Brien 3 hr later

       This is a great example of how #accessibility is seldom a binary choice.

       People are complex, and their needs are contextual and often intersectional.

       The best experience you can give your user is the one they choose.

       @garrett @zachleat

32. D is tired but trying 1 hr later

    @zachleat dark mode for visual, migraine and preference reasons, to be fair I don’t know what I would prefer if I didn’t have the visual and migraine reasons, because I’ve always had them I have no experience of what it would be like to not. One of those do I prefer this purely because I do or because I’ve associated light mode with difficulty and pain things.

33. Lewis Dorigo 2 hr later

    @zachleat I’d vote for the secret 5th option of “I prefer it to match the OS”: I switch to dark mode in the evening, and prefer when websites match that.

34. Matthias Ott 2 hr later

    @zachleat

35. Mark Lenahan 2 hr later

    @zachleat this is a tricky one for me because of two retinal detachments+surgeries, then cataract surgery, and finally laser for PCO - I have been at all points on this list at one time or another in the last 3 years. I'm so lucky that the option to switch exists.