Automatic Light/Dark theme add on

[Cedric]

Ozzy has released a new add on for Xenforo where it allows an admin to set a time where a theme automatically changes from light to dark and vice versa. No more allowing members to choose for themselves but having the system automatically change for them.

What do you think of such feature?

 

[Matt C.]

No more allowing members to choose for themselves but having the system automatically change for them.

I don't like it. If I didn't have a choice, I would probably stop using the forum. I don't mind there being a option to have it change, but I would always keep it dark.

 

[Strawberry]

I’m sure I’ve used a website in the past that changed depending on the time of day it was. It’s quite a cool feature, but I also think it’s important to give users a choice.

 

[Arantor]

It smells a bit of a gimmick to me.

That said there is certainly evidence to support the validity of having some tonal shift as the day goes on - adjusting the light balance of a laptop as the time moves, but I think if an individual site did it, it would annoy me. I'm already in the camp of 'if my system is set specifically to either light or dark, do you think you could respect that by default and let me choose if your site, specifically, doesn't work for me in that particular mode' - there are more and more reasons to try to accommodate a user's preferences these days.

 

[fords8]

I would rather keep it dark as well.

 

[Cory]

Could be interesting and useful for some users, but there definitely should be an option to turn it off.

 

[Oblivion Knight]

The add-on was originally developed by CMTV. Ozzy just updated it for newer versions of XF under the permitted licensing.

I've ran it in the past, and had generally positive feedback. However, our Light style was taken down for the best part of a year due to needing updates, which got continually delayed. I've only very recently re-added it as an option, but decided not to re-install this automated functionality.

 

[Shortie]

This is not something I would like if I am honest. I much prefer to use a dark theme all day round and not just at night and I find the light modes are just too much for my eyes wit how much time I spend on the computer. Would rather have an option than not.

 

[Ravenfreak]

This would be a great feature for a time based roleplay. Have the light theme display during the daytime events on your community and then during the night time the theme can switch over to a dark theme. I don't really see this working out on other niches though.

 

[Reverie]

I agree that would be cool with a roleplay forum - perhaps "light" just has a sun in the background, but the "dark" has a moon... if people preferred a dark theme overall. I personally would rather be able to pick!

 

[Oblivion Knight]

but there definitely should be an option to turn it off.

Would rather have an option than not.

I just remembered, the add-on does have such an option to enable/disable it via account preferences.

--EDIT--

I don't really see this working out on other niches though.

It worked quite well for us. The game 'Dead Rising' has such a day/night feature where the zombies become twice as powerful at night, and their eyes glow red.. 🧟‍♂️

..talking about it, I think I may re-install it.

 

[Arantor]

Fun fact, I used to have a Harry Potter roleplay site and we had six themes: light, dark, plus one for each of the four houses. It was interesting to me to note that people inevitably gravitiated towards either light or dark as per their immediate preferences, rather than anything else - and once they'd had the *choice*, they wouldn't want it taken away from them.

I think the auto support is only really meaningful, in hindsight, for the first landing (to pick up the user's base preference as a starting point).

The time-based thing has two angles - if you're doing it in line with the sun's journey where you're doing some colour shift based on time of day, the people who care about that probably already have things like the nightlight settings in their operating system set up or they're using tools like Redshift to shift the colours of their laptop in general - and wouldn't appreciate the website trying to do its own thing. Meanwhile in my experience in RP, doing it for flavour doesn't really fly in terms of how people create content and when unless you're leaving it on for a period for an event (e.g. 2-3 days for light/day, then 2-3 days for dark/night)

 

[Shortie]

I just remembered, the add-on does have such an option to enable/disable it via account preferences.

--EDIT--
View attachment 718

That's a good thing, in which case it may be something I would use on my forum or wouldn't mind seeing on other forums if I know there is an option to disable it