So you want a Dark Theme on AVEN?

[FaerieFate]

So, few may know (as it happened about a year ago) I was working on a dark theme for AVEN. I have pictures and everything! And then I kinda went radio silent on the subject for a while... so that's a thing.

 

So, here's the link you can download for the AVEN Dark Theme. Note, it works only with the stylish extension on the browser. Good news is Opera, Chrome, and FF all have this extension, so all should be well.

 

Well, since AVEN's host and chat have both changed, I've had to go around the site once more and take the new updates into consideration while making my beautiful dark theme. And I've done it! If you want a Dark Theme on AVEN, you may install Stylish on your browser, and search for AVEN- Dark. You can install that, and your AVEN is a beautiful black background with white font! hooray! (I'm aware some have voiced issue with this. Have no fear, I'll work on a medium theme at some point. It's just harder for me because the grey background hurts my delicate eyes.)

 

And I want to make this, official thread, to talk about some things

 

1. If I update my dark theme you'll have to install the new update. I've recently updated it (like today) to take into consideration the chat and the updates made by the host (it's a long story but basically the host AVEN uses completely changed the styles on me so there were new things that didn't exist before and new parts of the code that didn't exist before. Have no fear, I got you.) So if I end up having to make updates, you'll have to uninstall and reinstall it again. Again, no worries. I got you. It is really quick, and I shall not change the name of the theme.
2. Sometimes AVEN dark theme hates copy-pasta. So if someone copy's a block of text and pastes it, you will get weird formatting. Also, if you copy a block of text and paste it, the text will be white. when you submit your post. Find pity on your fellow users and be careful with this.
3. The text box to create new threads and posts is still white. I did this to eliminate confusion when writing posts and such. I apologize if this bothers you.
4. I have no idea what's visible to different staff members other than mods. So if you're a staff member that needs this, I'm just going to apologize for that now.
5. If you have a theme for chat, I'd kindly suggest turning it off for this site. Because I don't know how the two themes will interact, but I usually get wonky results when I have more than 1 theme on a site.

 

So I just want to make this thread for a few reasons.

1. I want to create a thread for criticisms so I can update my theme to better fit your suggestions.
2. I can't take pictures on what the theme looks like for me because things do look slightly different for a mod. So if you have this theme and want to gimme screenshots, please do.
3. I want to update the users readily when I update the theme. If AVEN changes anything that will require changes to the theme to keep it at it's dark theme, I need to be able to tell you when I've done my updates.

 

And I want suggestions for those that was a "Medium Theme" because I'm aware some people hate the black background and white text I've made. What do you want? Black background with grey text? Grey and white? grey and grey? I can do just about anything, I just need to know what is best for you (and if you know hex or RGB codes and would like to be specific in your suggestions, please do).

[Nanoic]

My eyes get hurt too so I too would like a dark theme. I use dark look and feel IDEs when I program. Netbeans has the Darcula plugin and Visual Studio has a dark theme. 

[FaerieFate]

1 hour ago, Whaley said:

My eyes get hurt too so I too would like a dark theme. I use dark look and feel IDEs when I program. Netbeans has the Darcula plugin and Visual Studio has a dark theme. 

I added a link in OP for the AVEN Dark Theme I created. Have fun with it!

[FaerieFate]

UPDATE: You will notice (in your url bar) that AVEN now is HTTPS now (Thanks Cole! You're the best!) And because of that I had to make a minor change so that the dark theme will work once more. For those that downloaded it, please click on the link in OP to install my updates!

[Ashe2]

On 2/1/2018 at 3:57 PM, FaerieFate said:

Sometimes AVEN dark theme hates copy-pasta. So if someone copy's a block of text and pastes it, you will get weird formatting. Also, if you copy a block of text and paste it, the text will be white. when you submit your post. Find pity on your fellow users and be careful with this.

can you use right click and say "paste as plain text" to avoid this issue

[Ashe2]

On 2/1/2018 at 3:57 PM, FaerieFate said:

 

And I want suggestions for those that was a "Medium Theme" because I'm aware some people hate the black background and white text I've made. What do you want? Black background with grey text? Grey and white? grey and grey? I can do just about anything, I just need to know what is best for you (and if you know hex or RGB codes and would like to be specific in your suggestions, please do).

honestly could you just copt the CSS in your theme and pm it to me? you already have the right things targeted, and I know what colors I need. I'll post it with "Aven mid contrast theme - red tint" probably, and share it with you/the mods so you/they can link people to it

 

I don't know css well enough to churn out something from scratch, but I can modify your css relatively easily. 

 

 

 

if you just want the fun of creating a theme - then aim for low-contrast, black text is fine, cut out all white if you can. if you want it to have color, that's cool - avoid bright or vibrant colors tho. the purple of normal aven theme is fine, it isn't really bright or vibrant IMO. I tend to be more tolerant of purples, reds, and browns, tho, so that could be a biased opinion. 

 

 

but I think it looks like stylish uses one text entry for css, so if you can copy me your code I'd love to play around with a theme on my own - it's a good opportunity for me, both to have control over the screen's display for once in my life, but also as practice for this skill I should have lol. 

[FaerieFate]

On 2/22/2018 at 7:59 PM, float on said:

can you use right click and say "paste as plain text" to avoid this issue

Yes, that avoids the issue. Alternatively you can click ctrl+shift+v instead of ctrl+v to the same effect. I just have to tell people otherwise you end up with a lot of copy-pasta posts that normal users can't read. Also, similar issues can appear if the other user copy's text with black font or white background. So that's just something that you'll have to deal with when using CSS.

 

On 2/22/2018 at 8:08 PM, float on said:

honestly could you just copt the CSS in your theme and pm it to me? you already have the right things targeted, and I know what colors I need. I'll post it with "Aven mid contrast theme - red tint" probably, and share it with you/the mods so you/they can link people to it

 

I don't know css well enough to churn out something from scratch, but I can modify your css relatively easily. 

 

 

 

if you just want the fun of creating a theme - then aim for low-contrast, black text is fine, cut out all white if you can. if you want it to have color, that's cool - avoid bright or vibrant colors tho. the purple of normal aven theme is fine, it isn't really bright or vibrant IMO. I tend to be more tolerant of purples, reds, and browns, tho, so that could be a biased opinion. 

 

 

but I think it looks like stylish uses one text entry for css, so if you can copy me your code I'd love to play around with a theme on my own - it's a good opportunity for me, both to have control over the screen's display for once in my life, but also as practice for this skill I should have lol. 

I have a low-contrast style I've been working on. I just have another user testing it out for me as it's hard on my eyes. It's actually complex to fi if you don't know how to write the code because of ask the purple areas with white font. But it's okay I've got you. I just need to make sure it works alright before sending it out into the world.

[FaerieFate]

On 2/22/2018 at 8:08 PM, float on said:

honestly could you just copt the CSS in your theme and pm it to me? you already have the right things targeted, and I know what colors I need. I'll post it with "Aven mid contrast theme - red tint" probably, and share it with you/the mods so you/they can link people to it

 

I don't know css well enough to churn out something from scratch, but I can modify your css relatively easily. 

 

 

 

if you just want the fun of creating a theme - then aim for low-contrast, black text is fine, cut out all white if you can. if you want it to have color, that's cool - avoid bright or vibrant colors tho. the purple of normal aven theme is fine, it isn't really bright or vibrant IMO. I tend to be more tolerant of purples, reds, and browns, tho, so that could be a biased opinion. 

 

 

but I think it looks like stylish uses one text entry for css, so if you can copy me your code I'd love to play around with a theme on my own - it's a good opportunity for me, both to have control over the screen's display for once in my life, but also as practice for this skill I should have lol. 

Just realized you're the person that I promised to give the CSS to and never got around to it. I'm sorry, and I'm a horrible person. I forgot, then remembered, then never got back to you on it. Have no fear, though.

 

My low-contrast is purple on black (black background and purple font) at the request of another user who is my test subject. It's a dark purple font. Want me to give you the link so you can see how you like it? It's incomplete, and there's already been an edit requested, but it's nearly done.

[Ashe2]

@FaerieFate yeah send me the link

 

[fiѕh]

I'm doing a grey one rn. in case any of you wants another one to pick apart.

[FaerieFate]

On 2/24/2018 at 5:50 PM, fiѕh said:

I'm doing a grey one rn. in case any of you wants another one to pick apart.

If you finish gimme the link. I'll post it in OP and credit you. 

[fiѕh]

9 hours ago, FaerieFate said:

If you finish gimme the link. I'll post it in OP and credit you. 

good idea, will do.

[fiѕh]

ok, posted it on userstyles.org

 

for everyone who downloads it:

 

1. it's not 100% done, I'll update it now and then

 

2. it's likely I missed half of the things and fucked up a bunch of times on others, and missed that too. if you see something that looks out of place, is unreadable, or hurts your head for any other reason - let me know. 

[fiѕh]

honestly I have no idea how to do those stupid settings, I was gonna paste in the link now but it's gonna take some longer >:(

 

got it. fucking hell. 

[Joe the Stoic]

I can't make the dark theme work.  Fish's grey theme works just fine.

[FaerieFate]

3 minutes ago, Joe Parrish said:

I can't make the dark theme work.  Fish's grey theme works just fine.

If they're both downloaded make sure only one is active at a time. 

[Joe the Stoic]

Just now, FaerieFate said:

If they're both downloaded make sure only one is active at a time. 

Been doing that.  Before I even had fish's installed, the dark theme did not work.

[FaerieFate]

12 minutes ago, Joe Parrish said:

Been doing that.  Before I even had fish's installed, the dark theme did not work.

I'll look into it

[Joe the Stoic]

Just now, FaerieFate said:

I'll look into it

Cool.

 

I use Firefox.

[FaerieFate]

On 3/1/2018 at 6:24 AM, fiѕh said:

ok, posted it on userstyles.org

 

for everyone who downloads it:

 

1. it's not 100% done, I'll update it now and then

 

2. it's likely I missed half of the things and fucked up a bunch of times on others, and missed that too. if you see something that looks out of place, is unreadable, or hurts your head for any other reason - let me know. 

Shuddup, I know your code is 20 times better than mine (JK, I'm not mad. Your code is so organized and pretty!)

[FaerieFate]

1 hour ago, Joe Parrish said:

Cool.

 

I use Firefox.

I know what went wrong, but I don't know HOW it went wrong since I coulda sworn I updated it once AVEN switched to https. Regardless, it's not a Chrome vs Firefox issue, it's just that when I originally made the code I made it for the http site and not https. Once we switched to https, I saw the issue and coulda sworn I fixed it. Regardless, it's fixed now.

[Joe the Stoic]

Works now, thanks.

[fiѕh]

5 hours ago, FaerieFate said:

Shuddup, I know your code is 20 times better than mine (JK, I'm not mad. Your code is so organized and pretty!)

I had a look at how much there actually is to style on aven and thought I'll NEVER understand what I did there later if I don't label and check and double check everything... and I was right, took 2 days of not opening it and I'm like "the fuck is all of this" and have to go to aven and Ctrl-F every other thing

 

7 hours ago, Joe Parrish said:

I can't make the dark theme work.  Fish's grey theme works just fine.

you've just installed a theme for the page you were soon gonna leave again 

[FaerieFate]

I know I haven't been keeping you all updated with this, but you'll notice there is yet another new AVEN update. So, I'd like to let everyone know to keep their eyes open for updates to my theme so accommodate the new changes.

 

Also I'd like to alert @fiѕh of these same updates so they may update their theme to accommodate these changes as well.

 

And hopefully I'll finally get the courage to completely revamp my dark theme so that the code is better organized for customization to be made my those that download the theme and to make updates in the future happen more quickly. Personally I'm the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." camp, so since my thing worked fine I didn't fix it (actually I tried to fix it and broke it worse). But now the broken part seems to be the fact that how I code my theme is a hindrance on me accommodating the updates, so I'll HAVE to fix that. That way, you know, if I ever leave AVEN then someone has a good baseline to use to build their own theme rather than starting from scratch... again.

 

Also if I DO revamp my theme that'll also hopefully give me a chance to update the medium theme I built to make it work half-decent rather than this hot mess I made.

[Nanoic]

Thanks for making this. It's really helpful. 

When I use IDEs I Visual Studio 2017 Community Dark theme and the Darcula plugin for Netbeans, that is more like a dark grey background. 

[fiѕh]

Ugh, already seen it... oh well. 

[FaerieFate]

10 hours ago, Whaley said:

Thanks for making this. It's really helpful. 

When I use IDEs I Visual Studio 2017 Community Dark theme and the Darcula plugin for Netbeans, that is more like a dark grey background. 

I like that too. I might do that when I rework mine to accommodate both dark and medium theme users because the dark background is dark enough fir light sensitivity and light enough for contrast sensitivity. 

[FaerieFate]

I know it's been a little over a week since the last update, but I just want everyone to know that I will start working on the updates to my theme, I've just been feeling under the weather so I'll come back full force when I feel better.

[Guest Deus Ex Infinity]

That's great news! Thanks! I'd definitedly like to see a dark AVEN theme here! However, no rush. Health conditions first.

[FaerieFate]

54 minutes ago, Deus Ex Infinity said:

That's great news! Thanks! I'd definitedly like to see a dark AVEN theme here! However, no rush. Health conditions first.

Well the one I currently have up is mostly functioning, I just need to update mine based on AVEN updates.