Forum Backgrounds - Options Beyond the Stark White

[Natayah]

While I am very pro House Stark, the thing I have always loved about DC is the forums. They are the main reason I met so many people and can interact with them beyond random trades. I feel the forum is the real glue and what makes the community of this game. Always has been, likely always will be. I don't like to point out when I have areas that I feel make me struggle when other people don't. I don't like to share those. But with the way my brain is wired, the Stark White on most of the two Themes makes almost painful and very distracting and makes me unable to focus. In some ways it makes me feel a bit ill and wanting to turn away. I know people talked about more themes, but I don't really need a new total theme layout and I understand the reasons why they are not easy releases. Is there a way I can make the background color a softer hue, a different color, or something that is able to draw my focus and not have it distract me and hurt my eyes and brain as it does? It is really hard to even stare at the screen much less try to find places I want to post. That is really disheartening since I was once a person who scoured and combed the depths of the forums (including the graveyard threads and other places none dare tread - or hadn't tread in so long it might as well been a wasteland with no visible signs of life) to organize and highlight and group and gather various threads for various purposes, especially focused on making Player Activity and Fun easier to find and highlight and for others to not have to search so hard.

 

I don't want to do all that again, I am way too busy in real life but... I feel like a person who can barely stare or get involved much with the forums anymore. The entire reason I'm here. I want to talk to my friends and re-learn to do stuff again. I have had to choose to hunt the caves for CB dragons for the past multiple weeks vs "avoiding" breeding requests. Not because I didn't want to do them, but this place is like staring into a very uncomfortable foreign object that is purposely trying to make me want to "look away".

 

It makes me feel dumb and stupid. I wish my brain didn't need bright colors or certain things at times to hold its attention. I wish I didn't get migraines from various CGI as well as having horrible hand eye coordination and depth perception so that I will never be able to experience the joy of various "video games" that has defined so much of people my age and younger. That is something I will never experience, and to be fair, probably for the better as I probably get a lot more "time" in life to allocate to other activities and don't have to worry about that sort of thing as an addiction. But this just really kinda stings because this is a hobby that allows me to pick it up and put it down when I want as I want and not really "miss out" so I can enjoy it no matter how much time I do or don't have in my various stages of life.

 

I read ebooks on a white screen. Black letters white screen. I don't know why this is different. I just know I cannot fix me. I am hoping that there could be some consideration to the background color for others to adjust, or .... if someone can lead me to a web browser add on that is simple and allows for that, I would be forever grateful.

 

I love the forums. I want to be here. I am a social game player and really love to interact and be part and build up and support the community in any way I can. I don't know why this stark white hurts so much. I feel there has got to be an answer as I know I do not do this alone, and I'm not even a person who is super impacted to the degree that others are.

 

I know people brought it up before, but I couldn't find a recent article. I don't need a change or even demand one, I just wish that if there is an easy work around, that we could post it somewhere more easy to find. The main site color scheme is SO drastically different than the forums these days. I could deal with just about any other background color (although I would prefer to avoid neon and black, the old winter theme with its soft blues and whites made things very easy on my eyeballs).

 

So if we aren't going to build a new forum background or a way to "soften/lighten/change" the stark white I see - can someone share with me the cheat that is obviously out there and can we post that for others like me so we can all be just as involved in the community as we used to be and not miss out?

 

Also PS, My computer, monitor and all have *NOT* changed one bit in the past several years. So ....not my computer. I can look at other sites that have white backgrounds, although they don't tend to be ..... as stark (that is the only word I can come back to again and again) as I find it here, even with both layouts. The DC layout is a LOT better, and I changed to it, but still hard. The other layout just leaves me adrift in an endless sea of open white oceans.

 

Thanks for consideration. If this is a duplicate because I couldn't really do a thorough search to find prior suggestions on this due to the starkness I just cannot sift thru that kinda stuff right now - I was hoping this was the best place. Mods, I'm sorry if it wasn't, I mean no disrespect. If you feel Help would have been better, please feel free to close and repost and if you feel a need to chastise me, that is ok. But I meant no harm in it. I don't like being public about these things. This was a really hard post to make. But I really really want to be involved.

[DragonLady86]

When the forum was updated, a lot of people complained about the "whiteness", myself included.  Unfortunately, it just kind of died out.  Have you tried both themes?  I personally think the blue is slightly better than the red.  You can change it by scrolling all the way to the bottom of a page to get to the "Theme" dropdown. 

[Fuzzbucket]

I am more concerned about natayah than the forum itself - and I think an add-on for your browser might sort this for you - try stylish or stylebot ?  It  would also work for any other sites where you come across the same issue.

[Jazeki]

I've also found that installing the flux add-on works for tackling this sort of thing too. It tints the screen according to the time of day (for the whole compy, not just the browser) and you can adjust the settings and colors. The white hurts my eyes too. I agree that the blue is slightly better, but I miss things like the spring skin that aren't just shades of white with color accents.

[Fuzzbucket]

Oh yes - flux is REALLY good. Also for not having bluelight in the brain at bedtime !

[Natayah]

I greatly greatly appreciate your kind responses. I did prefer the general blue and white, however, its a bit too white, however - I am going to try flux and the other addons and see what I can do from there, thank you kindly for responding. I will go play with some of those! The white in general is my preference, but it is so faded that it is literally like an ocean of whiteness and my eyes start darting all over the place trying to find boundaries and layouts and they are so faint (no offense meant, I know a lot of people like that and it really draws attention to some of the Sigs in some really great ways), but I def need to get something to warm up the coldness. I need more sun lamps at work these days, and it just may be getting older. I just thought I'd be really really bluntly honest about it not being about me trying to throw a fit and demand the world revolve around me (I get that themes can be a nightmare with various coding stuffs to make sure all "works"), but I just needed suggestions so I could fix my issues. And - I just wanted to be clear that while others may have issues, my issues were taking away my favorite part of the game. I'll go play with some warm up and various color changing thingies for this site and that is good enough for me.

 

I just thought it might be another helpful addition to say - Hey I don't expect you to change it, but maybe make a list of some of the tools that help people who are having a hard time with the color as a suggestion, or even a thread out there that lists them. Again, my apologies if this is a repeat, but I'll wrap this up before I go all brain foggy and lost and a bit sick again by saying thank you for taking the time to post and share I appreciate it. I was spending like a month collecting eggs and couldn't put my finger on why I was avoiding the forums. And then I saw it clearly!?!?!?!? Anyways, much thanks and cheers!

[Natayah]

Update on this: Did download the F.LUX thingie and I have it set a LOT warmer (and the fact that it is also night time and before bed and such often when I am popping around) make this soooo much easier to work with. I am still going to play around and get some themes or add-ons to my browsers so I can get some color splashes vs just a warmer light and turning my screen tea-stained, but this works for now and I don't feel quite so lost. Thanks much!

 

(Also: still think about some of those themes, I don't think you need to do an entirely different outlay. Just some different colors on backgrounds and screen bar dividers is more than enough to make me a happy duck.)

[Sextonator]

I think a night theme would be absolutely wonderful. Something kind of dark, but not overly dark.

[Malcorium]

Hey y'all, with TJ's permission (well, he said a shrug emoji) I've hacked together a reddish darkmode style for the Stylus extension (the non-spyware fork of Stylish, pls don't use stylish itself it's real bad). It's a bit hacky and unfinished in places, notably the hovercards/profile previews cuz I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to change those, what with the constant disappearing of them when i moved my cursor away. If anyone knows how to fix that, feel free to tell me. And if anyone notices a very unfinished part hidden somewhere where i haven't thought of looking, also tell me so i can fix it. ‹3

 

Anyway, here's a preview, spoilered for size:

 

Spoiler

 

To use, get Stylus for the browser of your choice (offhand links for a few: Firefox | Chrome | Opera), once installed click on the icon, go to "Write style for: forums.dragcave.net", paste this code in, and save.

 

Do keep in mind that it's not officially maintained by TJ but by me, the css of dcforums is always subject to unexpected changes from both TJ and Invision themselves, and TJ specifically said he's not going to go out of his way to not break it, so if this style breaks, direct all hate and fixing requests at me and not the aforementioned parties. Thanks for understanding. ‹3

[TCA]

Ohhhhh my goodness Niramin I love you this is very good.

 

I'd still like to see an OFFICIAL dark theme but this will certainly suffice in the meantime!

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

I agree that an official one would be appreciated - a night theme would be awesome, and so many sites are doing it. Twitter, Reddit, even Discord, amongst many others, can all switch between night and day modes, and I way prefer the night modes lmao