# Did we lose a Discourse theme? **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [March 23, 2021, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470 "2021-03-23T02:15:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/1 "2021-03-23T02:15:00Z")
When we first switched over to Discourse, I tried several of the different themes/interfaces, and settled on one that I liked, and have used it since. Sometime this afternoon, the look of the board suddenly changed for me. I tried all of the available themes, and none of them look like how it had looked for me before this afternoon. I don’t remember what the name of the theme was which I had been using, but it doesn’t seem to be on the list anymore. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/2 "2021-03-23T03:39:54Z")
Happened to me as well. I settled on Sam’s Simple as the best approximation of what I had prior to mid-afternoon but it will take some getting used to. Not as restful on these old eyes. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/3 "2021-03-23T03:53:11Z")
For what it’s worth, I was using Sam’s simple all along and my user interface is utterly different now _too_. It has become very blue. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/4 "2021-03-23T04:02:02Z")
Thanks. At least now I won’t take it personally. \*and not a restful blue at that. High contrast between colors is harder on the eye, so wish Discourse hadn’t done that. ---
**Author:** ![CorpusNeptune](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corpusneptune/32/17561_2.png) [@CorpusNeptune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CorpusNeptune)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/5 "2021-03-23T04:04:41Z")
My real question about this whole thing is…why? There was no need to change anything. The themes were fine as they were. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/6 "2021-03-23T04:07:53Z")
> [@CorpusNeptune](#): > > My real question about this whole thing is…why? There was no need to change anything. The themes were fine as they were Or at least give us a heads up so I don’t come back in the room and think my roommate has meddled with my iPad whenI wasn’t looking. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/7 "2021-03-23T04:30:11Z")
I admit I’m relieved that it wasn’t some weirdness after updating Chrome yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/8 "2021-03-23T04:34:03Z")
Another data point: I too had settled on Sam’s Simple, and was a bit freaked to see how everything suddenly changed. I blamed a random cat stroll across the keyboard, but am glad to have more clues. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/9 "2021-03-23T05:04:41Z")
I use the SD Light theme, which looks the same – but I notice that whereas before we only had a dropdown box for Categories at the top, and we now have one for Tags as well. On the Discourse Meta board It looks like [Discourse has just been updated](https://meta.discourse.org/c/releases/30) from version 2.7 to version 2.8, and that’s probably the cause. … but I wish there was a notification here of updates and their effects on this board. (@codinghorror will probably say that that’s up to the Mods.) ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/10 "2021-03-23T05:55:33Z")
Discourse also seems to be faster than it was before. (Not my internet connection, I checked.) ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/11 "2021-03-23T06:09:02Z")
No, every one of our hosted sites is always on current betas. So what’s the issue, exactly? Screenshots are helpful. I know, I know it’s more work here because of the “no images” rule, but go to [imgur.com](http://imgur.com), press “new post”, paste in the image, then press the copy link button (hover mouse over the image) and paste it into your post on a single line. like so [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/WxzsABb.png "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/WxzsABb) ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/12 "2021-03-23T06:35:37Z")
The themes have certainly changed: [![](https://i.ibb.co/DLF4vxc/discourse2.jpg) ](https://i.ibb.co/DLF4vxc/discourse2.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/13 "2021-03-23T06:50:05Z")
I still see Sam’s Simple Theme in my list of themes. So it seems like the theme didn’t get deleted; something changed to where it is no longer working correctly. I wish I could provide screenshots, but I only used that theme for a little bit, and thus can’t tell what changed. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/14 "2021-03-23T07:01:34Z")
Another data point. I was using Discourse - classic. It looks much different today than it did last night. It looks much more like the Straight Dope Light skin now. The colors are different. There are boxes around the hamburger, search and avatar icons that weren’t there before. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/15 "2021-03-23T07:30:18Z")
Yeah, I’m still on Sam’s Simple theme, but it’s kind of like coming home to a family member who has been eaten by a pod person. You know it’s different, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how, and taking a screenshot of the person won’t help. Definitely the colors have changed - the blue is much darker and the “white” background isn’t white anymore, it is light grey. I know this because my avatar used to appear without any evident background. Now I can see that it is inside a white box, because the white box is superimposed over the grey background. There is also something different about the blue stripe at the top besides the color. If memory serves, it was a rectangle, flush left and top, not a stripe. Now it goes all the way across the top of the page. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/16 "2021-03-23T07:57:49Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Now I can see that it is inside a white box, because the white box is superimposed over the grey background. Yes, I forgot to mention the gray background. Now it’s all gray on gray in the description part and hard to read on the main page. Since I was on Discourse - classic, it seems like the changes were for more than one theme. The pod person analogy was spot on. I know there were a bunch of changes. It looks really different, but I can’t pinpoint all of them. While I’m here and just looking at the new tags button that **GreenWyvern** noted, I’ll note that the tags are all for Cafe. I thought there was supposed to be a tag for the Coronavirus forum, but that one doesn’t exist. It was supposed to be for factual discussion only. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/17 "2021-03-23T09:00:26Z")
Oh, so it’s not just me! Yes, the theme I’ve been using is definitely bluer, except for where it is greyer. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/18 "2021-03-23T13:22:05Z")
I’m using Discourse Classic, and I _like_ the new look! The main difference within a thread is the dark blue banner across the top, with the gold SD on the left, and the thread title in big white letters with the forum name in smaller letters underneath. My biggest complaint about the Discourse version of the board has been the lack of internal geography - no sense of where you are. This now has a look that’s distinct from comments over at TPM - I know I’m _here_, rather than there - and I don’t have to put any effort into knowing **what thread and which forum I’m in** ; I just pick it up almost unconsciously. So AFAIAC, _YAAAAAAY!!!_ Big improvement, PTB!! (I can’t tell you how _good_ it feels to have something positive to say about the new board!) ETA: Obviously within-thread geography is still absent, but I’ll take what I can get! ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/19 "2021-03-23T18:29:33Z")
And, things have, just now, suddenly gone back to the way they looked before! (I have now also discovered that I was using the Discourse Classic theme previously.) ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470/20 "2021-03-23T21:06:24Z")
That’s… not a theme change. It’s a new feature in Discourse, where you can optionally filter a category by tag. Like “show me all the topics in the news category that are tagged ‘politics’” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-lose-a-discourse-theme/938470.md?page=2)