# Two features that DON'T go great together.



## DragonTalon (May 14, 2012)

I don't generally advocate removing features, but would make an exception for this one.

The ability to pick from a dark or light stylesheet causes some SERIOUS issues here on FA when combined with the ability to use colors on profiles and all other user submitted text.  

No matter which stylesheet you use, half the colorized profile pages are unreadable, as well as any time anyone uses color in a journal or comment.  It creates a situation where one person picks the background color and another picks the text color and the result is often eye-shatteringly awful at best, and unreadable at worst.  

I can't count how many times I had to use the mouse to select text because I was unable to read it due to the color combination.  Yellow text on the default stylesheet is the most common offender.  

It also prevents the vast majority of colors being used.  There are not many colors that are readable on both a bright and dark background, so it makes the feature of being able to choose colors nearly useless.  As an example, I wanted to make the text of my stories black instead of grey to improve readability, but I can't because it would make the text invisible for anyone with the dark layout.

So two options I can think of...

1. Remove one of the stylesheets.  I don't care which.

2. Add a new tag BGCOLOR to pick the background color.  That way the author has control over both.


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## LizardKing (May 14, 2012)

Well generally those who feel they need to use colours are awful people so I find this helps to filter them out. Especially yellow text. Who does that? Awful. Awful.


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## DragonTalon (May 14, 2012)

I like to use colors for headings or to highlight important information.  Not a lot of formatting options available (font size, tables, ect) so color is pretty much the only way to break up a wall of text.  Yellow looks just fine on a dark background so it's only blindingly awful for the default stylesheet.

Don't worry, even if this change was made you can still avoid people based on what colors they like.


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## Arshes Nei (May 14, 2012)

I like having a light color scheme, even though others like having the dark.

There's always bold italics and underline to break things up.


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## Stratelier (May 14, 2012)

Then there are a few colors that show up equally well on both dark and light backgrounds.

Of course, colors like those are really only useful for spot emphasis, not as a way to colorize an entire post.


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## Grimfang (May 17, 2012)

I always forget that there's the option to change the color scheme. Personally, I love my internet with darker backgrounds. It's easier on my old eyes.


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## Devious Bane (May 17, 2012)

Grimfang said:


> It's easier on my old eyes.


Definitely why I prefer it over the lighter colored one. Much easier on the eyes, and things pop out.


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## SirRob (May 17, 2012)

LizardKing said:


> Well generally those who feel they need to use colours are awful people so I find this helps to filter them out. Especially yellow text. Who does that? Awful. Awful.


Yeah screw personalization!


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## Kihari (May 17, 2012)

DragonTalon said:


> 2. Add a new tag BGCOLOR to pick the background color.  That way the author has control over both.



I dare not imagine the horrible, _horrible_ color choices some people would make.


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## Smelge (May 17, 2012)

Kihari said:


> I dare not imagine the horrible, _horrible_ color choices some people would make.



You just have to look at some of the neon atrocities people pick as their fursonas. And some want to let these people customise their page colours?

Jesus fuck.


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## Arshes Nei (May 17, 2012)

This thread reminds me of the good old days of tripod, geocities, fortunecity and angelfire


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## CannonFodder (May 17, 2012)

Smelge said:


> You just have to look at some of the neon atrocities people pick as their fursonas. And some want to let these people customise their page colours?
> 
> Jesus fuck.


Fa would probably end up looking like a 14 year old's myspace page if they allowed that.


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## Grimfang (May 17, 2012)

Yeaah.. as opposed to what one might hope, the problem of horribly mismatched colors would probably be much more common and painful, if people were given free rein over profile appearances.

But animatedstarbg.gif would be super awesome! c:


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## Arshes Nei (May 17, 2012)

Yeah, we lived that years ago when we were allowed to customize our pages. Not only did you get vomit inducing pages, you had a nice exploit that captured a lot of user's passwords.


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## Devious Bane (May 17, 2012)

CannonFodder said:


> myspace



Oh god, I still remember that.


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## Armaetus (May 17, 2012)

What about limited customization in the vein of Sofurry allows?


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## Smelge (May 17, 2012)

How about user customisation, so the user can choose a colourscheme for their page. But they're the only ones that can see it. To everyone else, it looks like the regular FA pages.

That should keep people happy without destroying anyone elses retinas.


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## Gryphoneer (May 17, 2012)

CannonFodder said:


> Fa would probably end up looking like a 14 year old's myspace page if they allowed that.


Now that you say...


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## Devious Bane (May 17, 2012)

Jesus, I thought my browser crashed.


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## DragonTalon (May 17, 2012)

There are arguments for and against both allowing people to switch stylesheets for viewing, as well as for letting users add color to their text and pages.

But... I can't imagine how anyone thinks the current situation were we have BOTH is optimal.  Using pretty much any color at all is pointless because nothing looks good under both schemes.

Either let users pick background colors or remove one of the light/dark styles.  How would either of those be worse than what we have now?  

I just want to use black text, does that make me a horrible person? (Ok, a MORE horrible person)


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