#seriously why does tumblr punish you for using javascript
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perennialiris · 7 months ago
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A dark mode without JavaScript
I’ve by now been warned that the reason I had issue with a previous tumblr account may have been because I put some JavaScript onto my page. I knew Tumblr didn’t let us put JavaScript onto custom pages—I didn’t know why, but the alert came up if you tried—but there was no warning or anything when I added it to my main theme.
The JavaScript I added was just a function for a checkbox. It added a class to the body element, thus enabling some CSS for a ‘dark mode’ reader. But it doesn’t matter what the function did, you’re just not supposed to be using JavaScript at all. But Tumblr can’t just have a strict thing on their database that says “if page contains javascript, deny”, because there’s literally scripts in their own default theme. So I don’t know how this works. The detection must be less straightforward.
Weeks ago, not knowing why I couldn’t use messages and didn’t show up in search even for people following me, I made a new account, copied my custom theme onto it, started posting, and within a few hours I realized it was shadowbanned again, already. It’s possible I just instantly re-triggered whatever system they have in place by putting on the same script I was already using. It was only then I started trying to figure out what I did wrong, and after realizing it could’ve been the JavaScript the whole time, I made this account, did all the HTML and CSS changes I wanted, but haven’t added a line of JavaScript.
And so far, I’m good. This isn’t an airtight proof—it could still be a coincidence—but that does really make it seem like JavaScript was the issue. And if it was, then what the fuck? It’s effectively a secret rule, not indicated to me anywhere, and which punished me quietly without notifying me that was the issue? I know people make fun of this place for not being run well at times, but god damn.
It’s possible to implement a dark mode just using CSS. It just might not be as obvious how, and it’s a bit trickier because you need the element that triggers it to be in a specific spot in your DOM, i.e. next to an element that either is or contains everything you want to manipulate. Then you can use a sibling selector to apply rules only to things that appear next to the trigger (a checkbox is easiest).
Where that checkbox appears on-screen can then be manipulated by setting its position to absolute or fixed; it just needs to be a sibling of the container in the DOM structure.
So here’s what I did. Put a checkbox right before the “posts” container in your theme.
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Then that checkbox can be made invisible. Just give it display:none. The element still ‘exists’ in a magical sense, but it doesn’t get rendered in the document. Then put a label somewhere on the page that links to this checkbox. I put mine in my nav. Unlike the checkbox, the label can be anywhere.
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This isn’t a link, meaning it doesn’t highlight when you hover or click it, but you can just put it in an empty link element if you want it to look like one.
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Then you just make whatever changes you want this checkbox to be activating by applying it to the posts container after the checkbox when it has the :checked pseudo-class.
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