Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I will withhold my opinion 'till the end.

Light. It's easier on the eyes.

Hard to say, but I'll go with Light too. They are both less extreme than they were, so they're both doable.

Dark is hard on my eyes.

The light blue text on a light grey background is hard to read, and so is white text on a dark background. So either option is bad for me.

White is hard on my eyes and sensibilities

Wherever you end up, the contrast between background and text really needs to be stronger. It really shouldn't be a strain to read anything.

And the blue text on the light textured background of the Top Sifts area literally shimmers for me. I do hope that at least is fixed.

My personal preference is the light background. I physically feel pushed away with the dark.

But this is not about my personal preference -- it is about the casual visitor. As a constant user, I can choose my preference of light over dark (once you fix the contrast, oh please, oh please No gray letters!!!). I

I would go with the industry standard for the casual user, and most websites have a lighter background. What is the message you want to send to a casual user? The dark has a specific message, the light has a specific message. Which do you want to convey?

Colour??? COLOUR????!!!!

Who has been in Australia too long?

I really dislike dark themes in general, makes me think of my early days of creating crap web pages on the web in 1996 (man, was it that long ago?).

The light theme overall is really nice, but I agree that blue on grey, especially the top video list on the right, is really hard to read. Possibly just needs to be a heavier font, as the bolded words are easy to read.

To me, dark themes feel really, really old, or amateur for the most part. Also, white text on black backgrounds burns an image into my eyes... I'm left with a ghost image for a while after looking at a site like that.

So... LIGHT... LIGHT! LIIIIIIGHT.

And fix the blue.

Let there be Light!

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I try to mix it up and use both to show bi-nationality. I'm like Obama that way.

Dark because - CHANGE!

I actually like having the option the fact is that when I am on the laptop whilst the bf is asleep it disturbs him less abd is easier on my eyes similarly the day one works better in a lit room.

Id like to suggest magenta and neon green

Let's make the comment text a nice, strong black and the links/buttons a darker shade of blue with the snazzy grey textured background on the light version, and I think all will be well.

What's wrong with learning to spell?

same,same for me, light-sensitive-Option seems best since so many folks dig both ways-Every time you log on it is set to how you left it anyhooo

He's just writing it correctly now. He probably also pronounces the last letter of the alphabet correctly as well: "Zed."

Dark. Because I have pants with the same texture as the background. I like those pants.

I would like to have something in between these options, but I find light slightly easier to read at the moment.

It seems like folks are commenting on what they like, rather than putting themselves into the shoes of the casual visitor. As ching noted, once you choose for yourself, it stays that way.

I love that there is a choice. Fascinated that so many choose the dark background. That choice alone seems to be a hit with Sift 5.

Black is my favorite colour so I like the new dark background.

But with that said, the default should be the lighter theme. If your goal is to invite passers-by in for a cup o' joe with the hopes that they'll stick around, your website should be warm and inviting, not dark. And anyone who sticks around will always have the option of turning down the lights.

And yes, something has to be done about the contrast. Blue text on a grey background is the first thing they teach you *not* to do in HTML class. I feel like I'm looking at one of those Magic Eye posters, trying to find the focal point when I look at blue text on a grey background

Light text on dark backgrounds causes eye strain, so I vote light. Can we get rid of the background texture too? I think the simple look of a single color background looks better.

I prefer light, but I presume you're going to make the font size larger and the text darker so that we don't all end up needing laser eye surgery.

Voting for this poll ended with the majority of users voting Dark.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I feel the same way. I actually can't decide which one I like better, personally. At the moment I'm giving light the edge. But dark feels more homey or something.

So the poll is over - thanks for all the input - I'm a little surprised dark won, but that's great. We won't necessarily make dark the default - but it's definitely good input.

@dag @lucky760
hello gentlemen. I like to use both schemes, day during the day and night during the night. Both themes look great on my PC, but on my Macbook Air they're a real struggle due to the weak contrast. Night is worse, but day is still painful. Any chance of bumping up the contrast between text/background?

Anyway enough moaning. Huge congratulations on vs 5.0!

oh, and sorry if this has been talked about repeatedly already. just adding my voice.

We're definitely happy to improve the readability of the Sift.

Because there is so much content on any given page, it would help if you might point out specific bodies of text that are particularly troublesome.

Ah, I have not looked around all the various areas on the site, but so far I notice it in comments (on vids and in sift talk), and moreso from people who are charter and therefore don't have the default background colour to their comments.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you must be talking only about the dark theme, methinks.

I've made a few tweaks to it so text isn't so darned flush with the background. Thanks!

The comment and other icons under a video are still basically invisible in dark. Also the comment reply/history ones.