Hacker News

points by jordand 4 days ago | 0 comments

I was looking through 'Dark Mode' browser plugins for viewing websites last week, and the options aren't great. The 'Dark Reader' plugin that's everywhere sends a lot of silent web requests in the background that seems strange given its mostly just CSS tweaks.

[–] figmert 4 days ago

I'd be curious to know more about this. Dark Reader, at least on Firefox, is a recommended addon, which means it gets additional scrutiny by Mozilla. I do agree though that if it does additional web requests, it seems fishy. Do you have any details on where these requests go to or how you found them?

[–] pamcake 4 days ago

You can inspect requests yourself by either:

- Checking "Enable remote debugging" and "Enable chrome and add-on debugging toolboxes" in devtools settings, opening Browser Toolbox (Ctrl+Shift+I), and looking at the "Network" tab

- Enable add-on debugging and inspect the addon from `about:debugging`

[–] pamcake 4 days ago

Correction: C+A+S+I

[–] pxoe 3 days ago

I wish Firefox would step it up and come up with a built-in browser feature for making websites dark. (though they have forced "high contrast" colors, but that's not the same and they do look crunchy.) People love to say "just get an addon" for this or that, but they just don't work that well, and it's not that great having to rely on some random addon developers for something that'd be adjusting every website that you visit.

[–] DuncanCoffee 4 days ago

I use stylus on firefox, you can search for styles or write them yourself. I often write dark mode for websites, I'm using a dark mode for hn right now. Also "large mode", it's ridiculous having websites on a 32" limited to 900 px

[–] cluckindan 4 days ago

Bad: it’s tracking you

Worse: it’s attacking you

Worst: it’s attacking someone else as you