I have the site set to use dark mode. When it is first loaded, it loads the default bright mode, and then applies the dark mode theme a fraction of a second later. I use the site a lot at night, and if I forget to close my eyes while the site loads, I get blinded. Interestingly, Wikipedia has the same problem, but I’ve never experienced it on any other site that has a dark mode option.
What’s your phone model and OS?
Desktop Chromium on PC.
The fact that Wikipedia has the same problems would point to this being a system settings issue. But it sounds like most websites work fine so that complicates things. Can you go to ‘Settings → Personalization → Colors’ and see what mode is selected?
It was set to “device” so I changed it to “dark” just to be sure, and the problem is still there. I also installed regular Google Chrome to test it, and it does the same thing.
Are you on Windows 10? This might be an issue with the forum software that etymonline is using.
For what it’s worth, it started doing the same for me, too. But technology is forever deciding to do things for its convenience, not mine, so I just accept all that nowadays.
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Fedora KDE. Etymonline uses forum software for the main page?
That’s a good point. I would assume the main page is not the forum software. But I don’t have a high confidence with that. I know the web developer for this site used to show up in the forums but I haven’t seem him for awhile.
This is hacky, but it looks like using the dark reader extension might solve the problem.
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Dark Reader actually does help here. When etymonline.com loads its default light mode theme, Dark Reader handles that with no delay. Then Etymonline’s own dark mode kicks in and overrides whatever Dark Reader is doing. I suspect that this is all CSS stuff, which I know nothing about. It’s a good band-aid, though. Interestingly, Dark Reader does nothing for Wikipedia, but that’s not Etymonline’s concern. Thanks for your help. My eyes owe you!
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Glad that helped! Hopefully the root cause is fixed eventually, the web developer may see this discussion at a later point.
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