the tidelord left because of me

🌌﹕day 173﹕XYZ

I read the house post. it's condescending and misses the point a lot of folks have been trying to make, as well as patronizingly explaining that I need to give the feedback I already am giving. frankly, that post has nothing of value to add to the conversation and comes across as unnecessarily hostile.

Warm Toned Dark Theme (what I'm currently trying; I actually saw this when I peeked into the forums while seeing if the Simple Dark Redux helped me) | Forum Post for this theme

Simple Dark Redux For FR (found thanks to @archerbug-fr 's post; this one has multiple color options, so if you can safely do so, see if any help you!)

Legacy UI (also found via aforementioned post) | Forum thread for this theme | Currently the creator is on hiatus.

I can personally only use these themes at my desktop or laptop, sadly, however, so far, the Warmed Tone Dark Theme is a genuine massive help.

Note: There is still that occasional flicker between pages for me. So, please take caution if you're sensitive to flickers/flashes.

like. most UI updates get implemented without warning. most don't give users an idea of what's going to change. take the tumblr app, adding the tumblr tv menu and communities menu. every social media and virtual pet site since their conception do this. and like, for example, Gaia online has pages that have not been updated in appearance since 2004! it's last major UI update in my memory was like 2008 ish i think? around the time i made my account for that site and it's slowly rolling out UI updates.

Flight Rising has the uniqueness of a 2013 website design that lasted until 2026, with near zero UI updates in-between. a little function update here and there, an updated piece of art. but, it's also got a unique userbase that happens to have a lot of neurodivergent folks who have a hard time with change and folks who have accessibility requirements.

in hindsight, with these two traits in mind, it'd have been better for this to have had a public beta test, a toggle on-off switch and a forum thread for user feedback, ESPECIALLY since like barely half the site functions with the new UI, with how dark mode is going to flashbang users bc it's not everywhere. if we toss on that toggle rn, we can say that's what we're doing!

like my issues with it stem in design choices, i think a few design choices are ugly as sin, tacky as hell, baby's first web design course level stuff. i do think a seasoned tumblr theme maker could whip up a better looking appearance for the overall design.

i have no personal issue with reading things, just find certain aspects to be annoying (the k when your treasure gets too high) or obnoxious (the dragon hover tooltip is fugly. half the users make spreadsheets for fun, they design tables for readable aesthetically pleasing information. this is none of that)

What can we do? Well, if you're able to, I really suggest filing a ticket. I personally put mine under "Accessibility". But also, let's talk about just how bad this UI update is.

Users have reported...:

Eye strain; from mild discomfort to flat-out pain

Photosensitive disorders being triggered (this might be partially due to how the pages are loading between dark mode/slate and the unconverted pages)

Dizziness

Migraines

Motion sickness

... And more from the issues with the UI. They've already increased the text size in the forums and changed the font back--and that's a good start for correcting some of the issues that we're currently experiencing, but overall, a lot more work needs to be done to make things more accessible for players again. Many of us are unable to play for even a few minutes without a myriad of issues.

These issues are not a "cosmetic" issue that we can adjust to. They are literally an accessibility issue that we need accommodations for (sometimes in the form of external extensions/unofficial modifications/browser modes that are purely cosmetic and otherwise don't impact gameplay), or for the site itself to be modified.

When filing a ticket, I believe that it's best to point out some specific issues, such as...:

Contrast between backgrounds, text, and windows/boxes. This applies to all modes. The black text is too dark against the stark white background in "default"; the contrast between the text and the background in dark mode is also too bright.

There are gradients in many more places, which have been leading to more eyestrain and motion sickness.

Inconsistent text sizes across the site.

Edit 4/24/26: The "flashing" between pages. I believe this might be a bug, but it's worth noting.

I'm afraid that my brain is blanking right now, so if anyone has any suggestions on what to add to this list, please do feel free to drop them in my inbox or on this post.

If you want a quick example of what a ticket might look like, then I'll offer one below--I would personally advise against using this as a copy-and-paste for yourself, as I don't know if their ticket system flags messages that have the same exact text as spam or not (if someone does know, I would love to hear that--if it didn't and we could confirm this, I would genuinely have no qualm about someone using this as a basic message and editing it to suit their needs/editing other issues they might be having or that I've failed to mention).

I titled mine "Accessibility Issues In Responsive Layout Themes".

Hi! I wanted to discuss a few accessibility issues with the new "responsive layout" and its themes; many users are reporting nausea, dizziness, migraines, worsened eye strain, and more from using every single theme option currently available on the site.

Specific examples of what might be leading to this and causing problems for users are the high/low contrasts in each themes; the stark white background with dark text; the inverse in the dark theme; themes not being fully converted/available across the full site (the food bar and various other UI elements being red in the dark theme, for example, is very uncomfortable for many users to look at and read) as of right now, thinner/inconsistent font sizes, how these themes interact with bios [. . .]

I would like to see these worked on, as it is currently making the site genuinely unplayable for a portion of the userbase, and perhaps, in the future, seeing these themes tested by those who might be impacted by them/who they're meant to benefit before they're deployed to a wider public.

Thank you for your time.

Say hello to my babies! :D